On Friday, 19 October 2018 09:32:41 UTC+1, NY wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message
news

When have the French ever done things like the rest of the world? SECAM
television, non-self-cancelling indicators (Citroen), single-spoke steering
wheel, rubber pad for footbrake "pedal" (Citroen again!), "hockey-stick"
dashboard-mounted gear lever (Renault and Citroen).

There is a lot to be said for the world devising a common standard for
things like wheels and tyres, to reduce the variety of sizes that need to be
stocked.

And don't get me started on the pillock who invented the space-saving spare
wheel. If I was "king" I'd make it mandatory that every car had to be
designed to accommodate a spare wheel which was fully-interchangable with
the running wheels, with no speed or distance restrictions, to allow you to
take a flat tyre to the garage when *you* want, rather than being stranded
overnight because you are about to start a long journey (or are even
half-way through it) and you get a puncture late at night or on a Sunday.
And wheelbraces should be cranked, to make it easy to hold the opposite end
with your hand as you apply pressure with your foot on a wheelnut that
refuses to budge; the modern L-shaped ones pull off the wheelnut. And on my
old Peugeot, the long bolt that released the spare wheel from its cage under
the boot had a crude semi-circular notch nut in it, into which you put the
flattened end of the wheelbrace as a crude screwdriver. What a stupid
design - if the bolt jams, you can't apply enough force before the
"screwdriver" jumps out of the notch. How difficult would it have been for
them to put a hexagonal head on the bolt of the same size as the wheelnuts?
That would have been a proper solution.

The one rule about innovating and being different in the hope that people
will adopt your standard is that your non-standard solution must be *better*
than what's already there, not worse :-)


Your proposal would in reality make things worse. Progress depends on trying various changes, many of which don't turn out to be keepers, but some do. Stop that process & you hinder product improvement. Imagine if you'd insisted on a set of universal tyre sizes in 1910, people would have kept driving on 2" wide tyres for years longer than was appropriate. Or again in 1980, tyres have gotten fatter since then to reduce loss of grip incidents.

Re no spare tyre, that does suit some people, some it doesn't. I can't see a sound reason to prevent people making their own choice on whether they carry a spare and what type. AA/RAC/etc can alter their premiums based on spare ownership if they want, but I'm sure they're better off not doing.

Re standardising tyre sizes to less types, the result would be more rubber & cost used pointlessly.

Fwliw I've never liked self cancelling indicators, they always cancel at the wrong time. OTOH I did not like the manual reverse light.


NT