Cars have changed a lot in my lifetime. Yours, too, I bet! Headlight dimmer switch on the floor, three-speed shifter on the steering wheel and the changing of keys, just to name a few.
How about starting the car with no ignition key? You also have to push the brake before you can start the car or put the car in gear. That can cause lots of problems for us geezers.
One friend of mine nearly tore the gearshift lever off of the steering wheel. He didn’t know that he had to have his foot on the brake. After he figured that out, he would leave his car running. His new car has a button for starting and stopping the engine. He has left his car running for eight hours while he was at work. He thinks cars should all have keys.
The keys are one of the big things now. At one time, cars had two different keys. One key would open the door and trunk of the car, and the other key would be used in the ignition. Who thought that up? You had to keep two keys around to lock and drive the car.
Now the big thing is RKE, or remote keyless entry. You have little battery powered remote key to lock and unlock your doors. Instead of having a key to start the ignition, you merely push a start button on the dashboard. With no keys for the ignition you have to have the RKE fob with you to start the car. That’s to keep thieves from just pushing the button and driving off in your car.
Learning to use this system can take some advanced learning. Horns sound and doors won’t lock to keep you from locking yourself out of your car. It’s a good idea, but people still lock themselves out of their cars.
You would think cars would be simple modes of transportation by now. They can still be rather complex and lead to problems.
How about mistaken identity? Ever drive a rental car? You go somewhere, and after your errand, you can’t find the car because you don’t remember what it looks like. I’ve walked up to my own car and tried to open the back door to get in to drive away. I’ve also tried to get into a truck that looked just like mine, too.
One of my friends had trouble unlocking her car with her key. The door finally opened, and she started driving away. Ten miles down the road she noticed strange things in the back seat. She turned around and discovered she had unlocked and driven away in someone else’s car.
The two cars looked identical.
Recently, two ladies went to lunch and went shopping. One of the ladies carried her dessert out of the restaurant. She got the remote key and went to put the food in the car.
She walked down the street to a car. She pushed the button, and when she pulled the door, it opened. She placed her food in the back seat. When she tried to lock the car, nothing happened. She opened the door again and locked the doors with the inside button.
After shopping, the two ladies returned to the car. The car owner walked down the street, and one lady stopped by what she thought was the car. The car owner said the car was further down the street. “No it’s not. Here’s my dessert.” The dessert was in the back seat of a locked car that was similar in color to the car they had ridden in.
The mystery was finally figured out. The lady had walked to a similar looking car. She hit the key fob, but the strange car was unlocked. The fob wouldn’t lock the car, so she locked it with a switch on the door.
Her dessert was in a strange car with no way of retrieving her dessert. They drove home with a good laugh and a good story. Even better was the stranger with a mysterious dessert locked in the car.
We probably should just go back to all cars just having keys.
