[VeluM]

I got a car as a temporary replacement in 2008 for my Spark which was then being investigated for some weird sounds. The replacement was a top-spec limited edition 1.6 Aveo which had climate control.

Never having used climate control, I couldn't figure out how it worked. Pressed "Auto" and it started up with the fan at high speed, so I switched it off. My wife was the one who would use it for the two days we had it, so I didn't bother investigating further.

Figured it out later on TBHP, and that came in handy in my current car.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I'd hate to cut short the conversation, but there is an answer to all these things.

Clue: it's usually found in the glove compartment.

But hey, sometimes I go out without my reading glasses!

What does one do when the glove compartment is empty!

[HeisenBerg]

This happened to me in 2002. I was 17 years old and we had just taken delivery of a Maruti Zen. To see how the engine runs i started the car with the bonnet open and stepped outside. The moment i stepped outside the doors locked automatically and none of the windows were open. The Nippon Security system had an auto-lock which locks the door automatically after 20 seconds or something after Ignition.

I had no clue what to do. Dad went to a local mechanic to open the doors. Since it was a new car he was not able to figure out how to open the door locks from outside. I tried reaching the service center guys on phone, and they told me to disconnect the battery terminals, and connection to the alternator. Luckily the engine stopped after 90 minutes of idling and the doors unlocked.

These days the cars have speed sensitive locking, than a timer based one. Because of that one incident, I always make sure to keep the window open as soon as enter the car.

[mpksuhas]

1. First time I drove a Scorpio, reached a toll booth and I can not find the power window buttons. After few seconds of searching decided to open the door and pay the toll operator, later only I remembered seeing power window buttons near center console / gear lever.

Rest of the journey I was wondering if my 5 passengers who were photographers I was taking to some function, noticed this or not.

2. During a car photo-shoot, my friend who used to own a diesel Getz asks me to move his car a bit ahead to get a better angle. He hands over the keys to me since he is holding the camera. Friend is standing bit far off and I get in to car and tries to switch on the car in-vain multiple times. Walks back to friend and informs him that his car won't turn on. Both of us walk back and then he tries and it works fine, later make out that you need to depress clutch while turning on ignition.

3. One of my colleagues had taken a XUV from Zoom cars for a weekend. They start from Bangalore in morning and reach near Chikmagalur where they take a wrong turn. While taking U turn, they end up blocking the road and have to reverse the vehicle. Only problem, they are not able find reverse gear. So, while the road is blocked, they have no other option than to search on Google for XUV's reverse gear. Luckily they find a video on YouTube and is able to get out of the situation following the same. (XUV has a ring which has to be lifted up and gear know pushed towards 1st gear position to engage reverse gear).

[alexpaul]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

3. One of my colleagues had taken a XUV from Zoom cars for a weekend. They start from Bangalore in morning and reach near Chikmagalur where they take a wrong turn. While taking U turn, they end up blocking the road and have to reverse the vehicle. Only problem, they are not able find reverse gear. So, while the road is blocked, they have no other option than to search on Google for XUV's reverse gear. Luckily they find a video on YouTube and is able to get out of the situation following the same. (XUV has a ring which has to be lifted up and gear know pushed towards 1st gear position to engage reverse gear).

I once got into same situation while driving a rented Renault scenic MPV in Scotland. Created a minor block for first time in a foreign country, myself and colleague were like . Finally gathered courage and asked a fellow motorist(Biker), who guided us to pull the ring below the knob while putting in reverse gear.
Couldnt thank the biker as he had already sped away.

[Khushrav]

The amount of scares and confusion I had in the first few days of my owning the Mercedes C, was funny.

The COMAND knob can be twisted and also de-pressed. It can also be movedleft/ right or up/down. The thing was while setting up the telephony through bluetooth, I was not able to understand the manual diagram. Finally I got lucky by accident and gave it a firm tug and it worked. PHEW!!!

Similarly, it had an ECO engine start stop mode. But in the first few days, it stopped and started working intermittently. I thought it was mechanical failure and called the dealer while driving. He soothed my nerves by telling me that it works only when there is enough juice generated by braking and cruising mode.

SO DUH of me!!

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by Srikanthan

One of the wintery evenings of 1997, me and my friend decided to visit Ranjit Sagar Dam, near Jamnagar, Gujarat.

At that time, he owned a Kawasaki Bajaj Motorcycle, which was our mode of travel. After spending few hours in the twilight of that evening, we decided to leave back to our home.
:

Similar incident with my friend, back in 2005. One warm winter afternoon, a friend of mine borrowed my 1st-gen Bajaj Caliber for some work nearby while I was busy with a project with another friend. We were engrossed with our work and never missed the him. After about an hour or so later, done with our work, we started pondering as to why he was so late for a 15 min errand. We feared some mishap and decided to go looking for him. The moment we step out of the house, we see him all tired, drained and wet. He tells us that he has been kick starting the bike for past 1 hour without any success. That got me curious as it always fired up on the first kick. I decided to try myself. I check the key position, toggle the Start/Stop switch as per my regular habit and a half kick fired the engine.

Some other incidents:

- Initial days of Tata Sumo launch and my uncle had borrowed his friend's Sumo for a family drive. He reached our place and tried to reverse but the vehicle kept going forward in the usual reverse gear position. He couldn't figure out the problem and decided to go up a steep slope and roll back in neutral. While trying to engage the first gear to climb the slope, he stumbled upon the reverse gear.

- Till date, my father struggles with the fuel filler cap switch in our wagonR, probably because he drives rarely (once in 3-4 months). The first time round I opened the boot when I wanted to open the bonnet.

- Even on this date, my friends are impressed by the theatre style diming and the lights going off automatically when I lock the car. And I fiddle around the wiper stalk to operate the rear wiper or the rear wash wipe as I keep forgetting them.

- My cousin had left behind his Scorpio at my place when he was travelling for a few days. That night, as I locked the car to go home, the headlights went on. I was surprised and thought it to be some electrical malfunction. To avoid battery drain I unlock the car, switch on and off the lights and they go off. I'm glad to have solved the problem, take note to show it to the dealer the next day and lock the car to retire. I see bright lights on my face, yet again. After lot of thinking, my bookish knowledge of Follow-Me-Home lamps in the new Scorpio fires up. I'd read about them and yet didn't know how to turn them off. While I was thinking, the lights went off automatically and then I remembered about the 30sec duration.

- Pulsar has an auto crank protection where it prevents continuous cranks. I once thought I had burnt the starter motor when it stopped cranking after a couple of cranks. It resumed after a few seconds and I felt relieved a lot. On another occasion I kept wondering why the indicator stopped working abruptly. After thoroughly reading the manual, I knew about auto cancellation indicators.

[nijelj]

Originally Posted by ashis89

- Initial days of Tata Sumo launch and my uncle had borrowed his friend's Sumo for a family drive. He reached our place and tried to reverse but the vehicle kept going forward in the usual reverse gear position. He couldn't figure out the problem..... While trying to engage the first gear to climb the slope, he stumbled upon the reverse gear.

Just for viewers who do not know how the reverse gear is engaged on the Older Tata Sumo/Estate/Sierra, you have to lift the gear lever and slot it into where the first gear is.

[aqualeo2040]

After taking the delivery of the first Punto on Bangalore roads, I tested the music system and B&M. Plugged in a Ipod and it worked like a dream.
Next, plugged in a USB and that works too. So, gave a A-OK sign and drove off.
For the next couple of days, I kept wondering why the same song would play over and over again unless being manually changed by the steering control button!
Called up the ever helpful SA who finally directed me to the menu to enable 'Shuffle' & 'Repeat'
Since these were early deliveries, I was yet to lay my hands on the manual (they came a week later! typical FIAT)

[nacd80]

Got one such moment right after got my first car. The little "Aliens" named children were not yet present in our family. In the very first week, the back doors just rejected to open from Inside. Had no clue what-so-ever of what is happening. Got the car back to dealer. And there I had my interaction with terms around the little "aliens". Child Lock it was!

The SA gave me a wink and said, you will need it at some point of time. And yes, using it full time on my both cars. Believe me those locks are blessings!

[ssambyal1980]

Thanks for initiating this wonderfully informative thread. Would like to share some related observations:

1. When the Mpfi engined cars came into the Indian market, it was quite common to see people revving up the engines after the first start in the morning. Although it was clearly mentioned by the manufacturers that mpfi engines should be started without pressing the accelerator pedal and shouldn't be unnecessarily revved up. Old timers who were used to carburettor engined vehicles, took some time to leave this habit of revving up the engines at start up.

2. When the new swift dzire was launched in 2012, it came with certain new features. One of them was fog lamps (two in front and one in rear). Operating the front lamps was not a challenge, as a separate switch is provided on the right hand bottom of the dashboard but regarding the rear lamp, there was some serious investigation required to locate the switch itself. The switch (nob type) was found mounted on the turn indicator/headlamps switch liver, then came the issue of how to operate it. Finally it was found that it can be operated by turning, only when parking/tail lights are lights switched on.

3. Although this one might not be a technological issue but still deserves to be mentioned here. Have come across some motorists (especially women) who don't have an idea how to initiate a push start. The usual procedure is to turn on the ignition, press the clutch pedal, engage the gear lever into 2nd gear and finally when the sufficient speed is gained by pushing, release the clutch. Instead of following this procedure, some are seen turning the self (starter) after the push.

4. With most of the cars now coming equipped with keyless entry, one doesn't need to turn the key on the door key hole, as the security system will treat it as illegal entry, but as old habits die hard, its been quite common to observe motorists using the key instead of remote to unlock the car and in the process activating the theft alarm. It is after this virtual theft of one's own car by oneself, that one learns what exactly the keyless entry is.

5. Had come across an elderly gentleman arguing with the service advisor during first service of the car, regarding the low mileage which his new car gave despite the instrument panel indicating higher average per litre than he actually got. It was after lot of persuasion, that he agreed to the fact that the mileage displayed on the instrument panel is for indicative purpose only, and the exact mileage can only be known by dividing the distance covered between tank full to tank full. Wonder why the manufacturers have added this mileage per litre indication on the instrument panel.

There are number of instances wherein the motorists can been seen fiddling with the new technological add ups in the new generation of cars. It takes time to get used to new things. Some times one learns from own mistakes and sometimes from other's mistakes. In the end everyone gets equipped with the experience, which never lets one forget what he/she has learned. There is a phrase which aptly describes the learning behaviour, it goes like this:
Tell me and I forget,
Teach me and I remember,
Involve me and I learn.

Happy Motoring!!!

[jayakumarkp]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

Had a similar experience with a rental car (VW Golf) at UK. Went searching around the car to find the fuel lid opening lever and after some 10 minutes of search and a couple of phone calls we managed to understand the 'Push to Open' lid. Though I had driven several VWs in past, never got a chance to open the fuel lid.

This one issue seems to be a favourite here. I had once faced the same problem as well.
Me and few colleagues had rented out an Opel (MPV sort )vehichle from Vienna. At the petrol station, all of us were dumb founded as to how to get the lid open. Searched the whole cabin, dashboard, below the dashboard, passenger side, even opened up Manual in desperation(which was in German ofcourse :P) etc. Few minutes of searching and the petrol station attended comes over, looks at us pathetically ( we were four guys, by this time all the doors were open and franetically searching) and just pushes the lid to pop it open.
Man that felt embarassing and a big dent to the car enthusiast in me,

[raguprasad]

Car Techs, gave nervous moments when it was new and its funny now recollecting the experience.



1) When newly installed car security system on my then 6 months old Swift Vxi (2006 make), locked all the doors with me outside to open the gate to get my car inside, blocking the road (as the car was parked across to enter), dumbstruck for 10 mins in middle of Chennai afternoon heat just after of 20km A/C drive was making me think crazy. Was about to break the glass, just then, next door uncle asked me to get the spare key, Thankfully i had the keys of my home with me as parents were out of station and I wanted them to surprise with new audio & security system in the car. But the tech surprised me.

2) This was during my deputation to US, where in I rented a car with onstar facility, don’t exactly remember the make and model, the previous weekend car rented was kia optima, which had the auto dimming IVRM and a button to enable, disable it. Was surprised to hear a sweet lady voice and literally we were searching in and around the car for some prank. Took some time to realize and apologized to her saying it was a mistake.

3) Booked for a mid-size in Enterprise car rental but were offered some luxury car (don’t remember make and model) at the same price which can operate the power windows, start the engine with the remote fob, but rejected it mainly not to be embarrassed with car-tech similar to previous weekend onstar experience. Reason quoted : “No USB port” after googling it back @ hotel, it is supposed to be in the storage area of the lumbar support and the rental guy didn’t bother to let us know gave us a corolla.

4) During a long weekend, had a good bath in Long Beach LA, and en-route to LV, engaged the cruise control @ 65mph in a rented Chevy Impala and I-15 was free with no visible vehicles front and behind me. All 3 passengers including navigator was snoring, for the first time during my drive music wasn’t helping me, started to play around the MID, to keep myself active. With constant monitoring for vehicles at front, both ORVMs, IVRMs to make sure am not me(i)ssing the drive. Actually messed up something only to see my speedo displaying 100 plus, slowed down to 65 and there was a warning in GPS which was showing am doing 40 mph. Amidst these confusion, I was followed by a COP , literally pulled over only to realize that it was a Hummer with some roof lights when it sped past me. Still passengers were snoring, Impala was solid and so was its ride quality combined with I-15 freeway. Took some time to realize that I had changed the speedo from mph to kmph.

Mod Note : Please do NOT cut-copy-paste text from word processors (MS Word etc.). That results in a formatting error on our forum.

Click here to know how to remove FONT Tags from your post.

Going forward, do keep in mind that it's best to type directly into Team-BHP.

Thanks

[SachinMK]

After petrol theft in our society, I had to switch my bikes normal petrol knob to a lock type knob, which is controlled by a key. I used to keep the knob in always reserve mode, on first day itself, i took the bike outside rode for few kilometers after that, bike came to an halt, i tried all my luck to start the bike again, but i couldn't (I forgot to put the key in petrol lock & change it from OFF to RESERVE). I wasted almost 10-15 minutes, I tried switching ignition ON/OFF, then i realized there is an additional key hanging in key chain. Then i realized how stupid i was

[Sachin4920]

I have had my share of fumbling with automotive technology as well, though few, mostly because I don't get to drive around in different cars. But the one I remember the most is trying to figure out the head light controls of my wife's cousins Ford Figo TDCi.

This happened about four years back on the very next day of my marriage when we were heading out to Vagamon, Kerala in the wee hours of the morning. I tried every single switch I could see in there in the hope of switching on the head lamp but to no avail. It took me a good fifteen minutes or more to into the ride to find it out. Thanks for the street lamps that small leg of the journey had nothing in it in terms of causalities to write home about.

[GTO]

Just remembered one technologically-challenged idiot which was probably the most publicised such case.

Terrorist Ismail didn't know how to drive the DSG. Good for us, good riddance.

Scene from 26/11:

Source