Who still uses old driving methods?

[Deleted member 10041]

Which is a little weird as it seems to me the MG4 design is intended to appeal to the UK market.

But I guess the Chinese market will always be bigger.

And Europe, who get all the bells and whistles, options of different upholstery, heat pumps ...

 

[Kithmo]

I tried using auto hold when I first got the car because it seemed like the perfect system - I soon got sick of the jerky starts every time I moved off though.

I left auto hold turned off on my 4 as I had a similar experience to you with it on the ZS, TBH I haven't actually tried it yet on the 4. I use the little square parking button if I'm stood a while, it lets itself off when you press the accelerator same as auto hold does, no perceivable jerk as it comes off.

 

[Abe]

Well if the UK is anything like here in Australia, as long as it looks good and “goes like a shower of shit” as we say, we’re pretty well happy.

Perhaps the Europeans and Chinese want a few more bells and whistles.

 

[Rolfe]

In a manual car, to change gear, it's (1) foot down (clutch), (2) hand on the gear lever, (3) foot up.

I tried to ride a motorbike but the clutch is operated by the hand, the gear selector by the foot.

I kept (1) kicking the gear selector, THEN (2) pulling the clutch lever with my hand, then (3) kicking the gear selector again. Ie still doing foot / hand / foot.

I couldn't override the car gear change muscle-memory.

Obviously many people can including @Rolfe but my brain was too hard-wired.

I learned to drive a car first and passed my test not long after my 18th birthday. But when I was about 24 and starting my PhD I was fed up with train delays and having to borrow my dad's car if I wanted a night out. I decided a small motorbike was the answer. I bought a Yamaha 125cc (which was a lemon I later replaced with a very reliable Honda), had about half an hour's instruction in the dealer's car park, tied on a couple of L plates and drove off.

I was still living at home and I know my mother worried but to her eternal credit she didn't try to stop me. I think my father insisted that I was sensible, was a good car driver and cyclist, and (probably most importantly) not a young man. I never had any trouble with the controls, it was just a different skill.

One of the technicians in the lab where I worked was a keen motorcyclist and she put me on to an RAC/ACU course that started in January so I did that once a week during the worst of the winter weather. I passed that test before I got the date for my DoT test, so I sailed through the latter. I never moved up to a bigger bike though, although some years later one of my students who had a one-litre BMW dared me to ride it on the straight section of the old A1 where the Met trains its police motorcyclists, so obviously I did that.

I was nearly 32 and had been a University lecturer for almost five years before I decided I could probably afford a car, a Fiesta 1.1L called Miranda. I was basically sick of frying in motorcycle overalls in the summer in SE England, where I was by then. I kept the bike as a second vehicle for quite a while though, and never had any trouble switching from one to the other.

 

[Rolfe]

Never had this, the only occasions I sometimes get confused on a bike is if I’ve forgotten to tell the mechanic on a race bike I prefer road pattern (up for up and down for down)
If it’s still in a race pattern it can lead to some embarrassing moments, but only the once….

Sounds like the time I went on a cycle excursion from a cruise ship. The bike had a handlebar twist gear shift. So had my own bike. But the twists were in the opposite direction. I kept finding myself stationary at the bottoms of hills, in top gear. Embarrassing.

 

[Rolfe]

The auto-hold moves off as smooth as silk, what are you guys on about?

 

[OriginalBigAl]

This works the opposite way around also, had the MG for a couple of weeks, fantastic, got in the Peugeot Boxer to shift some stuff and stayed in 3rd gear for a lot longer than strictly necessary.

 

[Kithmo]

The auto-hold moves off as smooth as silk, what are you guys on about?

I'll have to try it on the 4, it was not good on the ZS.

 

[siteguru]

If there's any jerkiness or a "thunk" as you move off from auto-hold (or from handbrake) then that might point to the brake calliper sliders lacking lubrication.

 

[Deleted member 14300]

Ain't just me then wishing it had a forward/backwards lever. It's weird what you get used to over the years. We need an engineer to change rotary to fore / aft motion.

 

[MoDolph]

I'll have to try it on the 4, it was not good on the ZS.

It's much better than the zs as it uses the regular brakes instead of the handbrake. When we test drove the zs I had to turn it off straight away as it was so annoying.

 

[bowfer]

Ain't just me then wishing it had a forward/backwards lever. It's weird what you get used to over the years. We need an engineer to change rotary to fore / aft motion.

The rocker switch on the dash like VW and the BMW i3 is much better.
Frees up space and has a more natural forward/backward motion.

 

[PeteC]

The rocker switch on the dash like VW and the BMW i3 is much better.
Frees up space and has a more natural forward/backward motion.

View attachment 20048

Yes! I loved the selector on my i3. It's such a convenient place to reach and totally logical.

 

[tsedge]

The rocker switch on the dash like VW and the BMW i3 is much better.
Frees up space and has a more natural forward/backward motion.

View attachment 20048

That is the right way around at least.

 

[Brettus]

The new Lotus Emeya. ??‍

 

[tsedge]

The new Lotus Emeya. ??‍

Oh dear, they got it back to front!

 

[Brian wright]

I've had my Pauper spec car since just before May, and I still can't grasp the rotary dial. I had an auto 13 years and I think muscle memory wants to shift gears moving the changer up like you did.
Anyone else find this funny?
Personally, if Ali express did a kit to convert it to auto gearstick I'd buy it.

I think a switch u flick forward or backwards makes mores sense. Like in the Berlingo e.

 

[MoDolph]

Oh dear, they got it back to front!

For some reason I think this is the correct way round but don't quite know why.

Maybe it is because every manual car I have owned had reverse on the far left and forward. Maybe it is the way you are pushed when accelerating in that direction.

I think lots of automatic cars have had it this way for years.

 

[mg4mc]

The BMW iX series have a forward/back rocker switch and reserve the rotary knob for infotainment control.

 

[Martinonline]

Shades of Independence Day alien craft control. Will Smith has to reverse the instructions.