{"id":1548,"date":"2012-03-06T08:55:24","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T22:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=1548"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:49:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:49:43","slug":"what-does-this-button-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/what-does-this-button-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does This Button Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right.\u00a0 You\u2019ve read up all the reviews <\/a>to find out which set of wheels suits you best.\u00a0 And now you\u2019re down at the car yards and you\u2019re about to take the model you\u2019re interested in for a test drive.\u00a0 While the basics are the same in all cars \u2013 you have the steering wheel in front of you, the gear stick somewhere on your left (unless you\u2019re in a left-hand drive car imported from the US or Europe), the accelerator pedal by your right foot and the foot brake down by your left \u2013 the layout of the dashboard and the various controls available to the driver vary from car to car.\u00a0 One of the things that you\u2019ll be doing while you\u2019re doing that test drive \u2013 and in the first week or so of owning your new car \u2013 is finding out where all the controls are and what they do. And what do you do first?<\/p>\n

Firstly, how do you get into the car and how do you get started?\u00a0 A lot of new cars these days have Smartkey entry and\/or a quick-start function.\u00a0 Some don\u2019t.\u00a0 So this will be the first thing that you have to sort out.\u00a0 However, before you start the car, take a quick look around to see where the handbrake is and where the gear stick is \u2013 if you\u2019re test-driving an older car, especially one with a bench seat, you may find these in places you don\u2019t expect.\u00a0 Next, if you\u2019re driving a manual car, take a moment or two to check how many gears the car has \u2013 four, five or six \u2013 and where reverse is, as some cars want you to push the gearstick to the far left to get into reverse, while others have it on the far right.\u00a0 There has been a horror story about a car reviewer (not me!) test driving some very expensive Alfa Romeo<\/a> sports car and putting the car into reverse rather than sixth gear while at high speed.\u00a0 Ouch!<\/p>\n

OK, so you\u2019ve got started and you\u2019ve backed out successfully \u2013 possibly with the help of some rear sensors.\u00a0 Now to get onto the road.\u00a0 To get out of the car yard, you\u2019re going to have to use the indicators.\u00a0 This is where the fun really starts, as some cars have the controls for the lights on the left, while others have them on the right.\u00a0 Most of us put the windscreen wipers on by mistake at least once during that first test drive if our old car had the indicators on the other side.\u00a0 Test drives don\u2019t usually take place in the dark, but when you get your new car home and you want to take the family for a spin in the evening, you are you are going to have to find the lights, and you are going to have to work out where high beam is, and how to turn it on and off.<\/p>\n

These are the most important things to become familiar with in a new car \u2013 the gears, the brake, the indicators and the lights.\u00a0 But after that, you can start playing with the other odds and ends and finding out how they work.\u00a0 The last time this writer bought a car (a second-hand Honda Accord<\/a>), the stereo was high on the priority list for a \u201cwhat does this button do?\u201d session, closely followed by the climate control (I wanted the air con off to save petrol) , and figuring out how to adjust the seats and the steering wheel to suit, especially as I\u2019ve got a completely different driving position from my other half (a situation where a memory function really helps!).<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re taking a car for a test drive, you will be able to ask the salesperson for a bit of help, but it\u2019s once you own the car that you can really become familiar with all the bells and whistles and learn how to make them do what you want.\u00a0 Have fun while you\u2019re doing it \u2013 it\u2019s all part of the thrill of discovering just how good your new car is. http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/4slovo-bystrye-zaymi-online.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Right.\u00a0 You\u2019ve read up all the reviews to find out which set of wheels suits you best.\u00a0 And now you\u2019re down at the car yards and you\u2019re about to take the model you\u2019re interested in for a test drive.\u00a0 While the basics are the same in all cars \u2013 you have the steering wheel in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12369,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions\/12369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}