I think I have a serious transmission problem

Have you ever owned a '79-'95 Toyota Pickup, 1st gen Tacoma, '84-'02 4Runner?

 

LOL, I sympathize but I'll admit that I can't throw stones. Despite feeling that I'm a careful driver I guarantee in 30 years there's been times I have been distracted or not 100% in control. Anyone who says they are good drivers 24/7/365 aren't being honest.

With ya 100% otherwise, I wish we could put the genie back in the bottle and still buy new trucks like FJ40s and original Broncos.

 

We have self driving cars, they are called buses. Maybe the OP should take a bus. This thread makes me want to cry. "My truck rolls down hills in 3rd gear" yeah no shit Sherlock. Keep your rear drums adjusted and your parking brake will work. It has nothing to do with wheel cylinders. I can disconnect my wheel cylinders and the parking brake will work.

 

Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. There will always be things that we don't know and could learn. The difference is that some of us realize it

 

I mostly agree with this. But I think all of the nanny systems are part of the problem. They make people think they are invinceable and give them a false sense of security. The more systems like this that exist the less people pay attention. It's like people that think 4x4 means they can still drive the speed limit and be safe in a blizzard. The car manufacturers are enabling this stupidity.

 

I dunno, I feel like I have less control when the ABS kicks in.

 

I agree with you. But that's probably because you actually know how to drive unlike 90% of people that let the car drive them instead of the other way around.

 

I agree Zach, it's a revolving cycle. The fact is, when I started driving you HAD to have skills. Tires were not so good, cars not so reliable, no cell phones. I remember growing up in Tucson that every year there was death toll on the highway to LA/SD from people breaking down and dying! Now ignorance is enabled and even encouraged. Another thing.....when I was young, being stupid was not cool. Fail a grade, and you were labeled. Yea, sometimes it was tough, but people were encouraged to be better, not coddled and "accepted" as the dummies that they are. This whole subject and the effects on our society are above my pay grade, but I have lived to see it.

 

I learned to drive on a race track. My ABS is disabled.

 

Part of it is breaking my habit to pump the brakes. But even it works correctly I can't see how anyone who knows how a car should feel can think all the buzzing and whirling with zero pedal feel is better. You're not really driving anymore, you're just a passenger giving some suggests to the car.

I think I'm safe in saying the infotainment and "tech" are generally distracting, probably beyond even us old timers fumbling with CDs and cassettes. But I wonder if all the safety systems actually help. I mean, I guess it's hard to say this one thing does, that one thing doesn't. Highway fatalities are down relative to miles traveled, so obviously somewhere along the line cars did get safer. Seat belts, collapsible steering columns, airbags, tractional control, crumple zones. Hard to say generally they aren't helping.

I just wish it was my choice. Airbags in particular I wish were optional. Let it be just between me and my insurance and my family. I understand it's a risk, but a lot of things are risky, some I do, some I don't.

 

Seems like some stuff is put in for your own good. Putting your family in a car without airbags (by choice) would be plain stupid.

 

Just do this. Parking problem solved.


https://youtu.be/cnifqA_IBZg

 

I've thought of doing that but I worry about the liability. Meaning if in a wreck an insurance company or lawyer (damn lawyers) wanted to investigate and found ABS disabled how it would impact things.

I agree, it's between you and those important to you. I wouldn't personally blame someone for skipping it, though, since this has been a choice forever. My family had Type 3 VWs as a kid (man, wish I had the old man's squareback still) and I survived. Talk about lack of any safety features. Lots of free range kids grew up in micro buses, eating dirt, getting chickenpox and still managed to become successful and happy adults. Some didn't, but the sad reality is even now people will die. Life is funny that way, none of us make it out alive. So we can 'what-if' ourselves into an insulated, risk-free existence that is simultaneously devoid of any joy or curiosity. So it's a balance.

 

Yes some of it is good such as air bags and seat belts, but they don't take control of the vehicle out of your hands. Things like blind spot monitoring, automatic braking for obstacles etc. shouldn't be needed and wouldn't be if people actually used their brains instead of their cell phones while driving.

 

^^THIS^^
It's like popping the clutch to start the engine when you're battery dies, but rrrreeeaaalllyy slowly.

 

When I had an issue with my parking brake on my manual transmission truck, I always had a wheel chalk to ensure everyone was protected from my truck rolling, this was short lived with the annoyance of starting the truck moving it away from the parking position and grabbing the wheel chalk and getting back in and on my way.

 

I know off topic but that's how we started off. This was an option.
1974-1976 Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmobile
Air Cushion Restraint System (ACRS)
Took 20 yrs to become standard.

 

I agree to an extent. My fault driver has blind spot monitor, and it’s very handy. Sometimes when visibility is reduced (I.e. nighttime, raining, shit load of cars on the highway moving fast) it’s nice to not have to only rely on me seeing a car in my blind spot. The little light is there too to warn me of them.

As far as automatic braking, that’s also handy (it’s in my wife’s car). We humans can only react so fast, so having the computer there to react instantly can make all the difference needed. Luckily our car has never had to stop itself.

 

I have a particular dislike (or distrust I guess) of airbags. I had them go off in a fairly minor accident and break my nose and wrist. My truck ended up with a broken grill and dented hood, otherwise pretty minor. We were able to drive the truck home, which was mainly tough because the dash was destroyed and the windshield badly cracked by the airbags. But it was only a couple of blocks. I fixed the truck with junkyard parts, it really wasn't bad. My belief still is they made that outcome worse than it had to be.

Now that was in 1999 when airbags were just becoming widespread. But even modern designs I have my doubts that they are really always safer, e.g. the Takata shrapnel situation. If the situation is a 70 MPH head-on with a concrete truck, sure, I'll take my chances with airbags. I also had a family member get t-boned and in that case the side airbags probably saved even more serious injury (she broke a hip and shattered a pelvis) or death. So I'm not saying it's a black-or-white question.

Dunno about self braking cars (I am a luddite after all), but I'll say one things about blind spot monitoring. If they didn't make it so danged hard to see out of cars it wouldn't be necessary. And don't blame crumple zones, it's mostly style. Our 2017 Forester is presumably safe (it's a 5 star rated in fact) and it has excellent visibility, very large windows, low dash. So I don't miss not having all the optional Subaru safety stuff (it's the most base model) since looking over my shoulder still works fine.

 

Yeah those things are nice if used as a back-up like they were intended. The problem is that people rely on them too much.