Because engine immobilisers are a thing, that's also why car keys are so expensive. The engine won't start without the correct key so no need to worry about the wheel.
As for reflectors, the people that use them might just opt for ceramic window tints.
The engine won't start without correct key
Unless of course you drive certain models of Kia and Hyundai
Better not give Tom a ride, then. We've all seen how he gets when there's a lack of control..
Tinting your windshield is illegal, but I guess you could just use a super clear ceramic film... Except it's still super expensive and not as effective compared to a simple reflector.
Tinting your windshield is illegal
Actually, in most places there's a maximum opacity for safety reasons rather than an outright ban. Granted, some jurisdictions set the limit so low that it makes the whole thing pretty much pointless 🤷
I still see reflectors a lot, they're still a good and ecological way to keep your car cooler. But I guess they might not be so popular anymore because with today's ACs you can cool down your car in seconds, while with only ventilation cooling it took way more time.
This seems like the most satisfactory explanation. I totally forgot that not every car had AC when I grew up in the 90s and I'm pretty sure my mum's old car that she used to lock with a steering wheel lock and try to keep cool with a reflector didn't have AC now that you mention it.
Deterrent for when someone jams a flathead screwdriver in your ignition and starts the car you still can’t really drive anywhere because you can’t turn. Remember this was before expensive NFC or radio car keys.
In my area the wheel locks have come back a little. Not as ubiquitous as I remember in the 90s, but they are back here and there. The reflectors are quite common in Colorado though. See those constantly.
Are you kidding me? The steering wheel locks are flying off the shelves. Primarily Hyundai & Kia owners.
Man, I remember back when custom stereos were really popular. Almost everyone had some sort of variation of the detachable face stereos in their car.
Also, you forgot to add manually having to lock all the doors.
"Hey man, lock your door"
I still have to tell that to my friends when I drive them somewhere, they keep forgetting that I have such an old car. My girlfriend is the only person who locks her door every time. The moment I saw her doing that for the first time without me having to telling her even tho it was just the second time ever I drove her somewhere, I knew ... she is the one.
Also, you forgot to add manually having to lock all the doors.
All of this is still my reality. I got my first car a year ago for €100. It drives me to work every day. :) Love my baby, he is doing a good job even with no automatic windows, no AC, no remote key and all that stuff. My Custom radio has Bluetooth, what do you want more?
Also, you forgot to add manually having to lock all the doors.
I still do. Bought a heavily used base model piece of shit SUV for $12,000 couple years ago thanks to the shitty economy and its manual everything.
Yeah, back when factory stereos were utter garbage with no CD players, no mp3 support, no Bluetooth, and in my case, not even a fucking cassette player.
Or when you needed them for the preamp outs for the amp and custom speakers in your system
Windshield solar visors will be making a comeback (if they ever even fell out of fashion) with climate change heating things up. I drive a black car with a black leather interior and the thing makes a huge difference when it's sunny and 80+° F outside
I don't know anyone that doesn't cover their windshield when they leave in the summer.
In Arizona, we all do. We have to.
Wait... I was born after the 90s and got my first Car a year ago. It still has a Detachable Radio, No Automatic Windows and also ... is the last pic a trick against heat if you have no AC? Because I also have no AC and I always fucking die when I enter my Car after Work when the sun was blasting on it for some time. Are you telling me that I can just place that thing that is normally against ice in Winter in there and my Car stops overheating? I must be misunderstanding. This cant be so easy right?
It’s not. It’s designed to be inside as a sun reflector. People just use them to block ice formation too but they won’t last as long that way. They weren’t designed to be rained/snowed on and frozen…but they aren’t expensive so does it really matter?
It's a pop out windshield shade, yes. Put it in your windshield when you get out and it'll block the sun and keep your car cooler. They're incredibly common, can find a dozen options at any Target, Walmart, etc.
It's the same if it has this silvery surface which reflects radiation. Also don't expect miracles. If you park in the sun, the air inside will still be super hot. The actual advantage is that your dash, steering wheel and seats won't be lava when you get in the car.
You can use the same Windshield in winter and summer (I did many years). When it is used from outside, it helps even more against the temperature.
It is a bit more fun though, to use one with big eyes to be positioned inside and make your car look like from Cars movie. Example on Pinterest
We have the red version (strangely ours was much cheaper here in Germany than what I just found on Walmart website) in our little red Toyota and aside from keeping the car cooler it is looking really cute.
I hate to break it to you but your car is a piece of shit
That thing does indeed keep the car cooler.
It helps but it’ll still be hot as crap inside. You just won’t need your oven mitts to grab the wheel.
The detachable radio too ?
Afrique du Sud?
Floridian here - why is there no general solution for keeping interior temperature close to exterior temperature? It's dissipating a potential difference. No added energy is required.
I'm not expecting the car to be frosty after six hours of subtropical sunlight, but could it please be closer to when I leave a window cracked? Ideally without having to worry about draining the footwell if it pours for five minutes?
Using a solar panel to run the ventilation system seems like a good solution. This was an option on the Prius, so I'm not sure why it's not more common. Maybe Toyota has patents that haven't expired yet?
Also kia had the same thing got the optima
Same reason why the global temperature is rising, the greenhouse effect.
Again: cracked window gets the job done. Letting hot air out is not witchcraft. The issue is the part where water also goes in.
And in places where winter exists, keeping the let-heat-out mechanism shut when the car is in use.
There's those side window rain guards, but they make it much easier to steal the vehicle.
Was thinking of getting these for my car, can you explain how they make it easier to steal?
Yeah I'm either a fully open or fully closed kinda guy.
This. If they made a kind of toggle switch, think like an analog stick on a controller or like the dimmer adjuster that you roll. Something like that would be nice so you could just get that exact spot you want.
The electric ones could match it, but the designers choose not to give you a "slow mode" button, or any other number of ways to do it. I'm sure it has been suggested and shoot down by someone deeply concerned with costs and overcomplication.
Maybe I live around people who prefer old cars, but I feel like crank windows are still used quite a lot.
In addition to the precision some other lemming mentioned, they are more reliable, because a lot of stuff can go wrong in electrical systems and button windows rely on those being in working order (I also imagine that less people would know how to repair the electrics).
My dad used to put a brake pedal lock on his crappy Isuzu Panther. Such a pain to put on and remove. I don't think anyone would even steal it.
Amateur, my ignition lock didn't work and I'd disconnect my battery to shut the car off. I was the only one that knew the magic tricks to crank it back up. I dunno, my key got stuck in the ignition, so I just left it there. Like, who thinks to jam a flat screwdriver into the steering column tilt hinge to crank a car up?
Car thieves?
Nobody could steal that car even if they wanted to, unless they knew the internal mechanical structure of the steering column. When I used the screwdriver method, the screwdriver did not go into the ignition or any other intuitive location you might be thinking of.
The key that was stuck in the ignition wouldn't turn to the start position, nor would it turn back to the off position to remove it. So it was a combination of connecting the battery then using the screwdriver as a lever in just the right spot in the steering column tilt hinge gap area to start it, and disconnecting the battery to shut it down.
I had never let anyone see exactly how I used the screwdriver on that car. Besides, it was such a rusted out beater, I could have parked it in a back alley in the Bronx and most likely nobody would have wanted to touch it, except maybe to steal the gas out of it LOL!
Surely it's basically exactly the same now still? Take the radio faceplate so it can't be nicked, lock the wheel, make sure the windows are rolled up and if you live somewhere hot, use a reflector to help keep the heat away.
Probably, but there was a time when you could easily make your old car feel new just by adding an aftermarket stereo with bluetooth (and mic compatibility) and a USB port and an aux-in port.
My car's 6-cd changer (which could play MP3 CD's) broke so I replaced it with one of a new one with all those features and it almost felt brand new. I could connect my phone to it, take calls via bluetooth, change all sorts of settings including balance and equalization, it was actually a revelation.
It was so good that I had my sister get the same thing, because while her radio worked, her CD player did not, and it was also very useful for her as well.
I actually got the idea because of all the features that my mother's (then new) 2013 Kia Soul had with its bluetooth and mic equipped stereo. Nowadays I think most new cars have a pretty decent entertainment setup with an integrated back up camera, so it's no longer necessary to get something aftermarket.
That said, there was a time where aftermarket was remarkably better than factory stock.
Backup cameras became required by law in 2016, so that is probably one of the reasons we don’t see a lot of aftermarket stuff now. Plus, there just isn’t a quality gap anymore. Want premium sound, pay $1,000 off top for Harmon Kardon.
I remember installing my alpine cd player and infinity 6x9’s in my 96 lumina. Man what a quality difference!
My new car has Harmon Kardon speakers and a massage function. It's like a mobile pleasure pod.
Backup cameras became required by law in 2016
That must be local to you, my 2019 car doesn't have one and in my (European) country this is not mandatory.
They're less prevalent because it's more expensive to do really well now, at least with modern cars. You'll really only see it in dedicated communities. I can't say if they rely on faceplate removal as a security measure though. Security measures have gotten much better since then.
Every car in the USA made since 2018 is required to have backup camera from the factory.
So since every car has to have a screen for the camera, auto makers figured they may as well use for the stereo system.
This isn't entirely true. I have a backup camera and the audio system is still separate. Screens aren't all those giant dashboard ones. Some are small ones used to display simple data. Not even touchscreen.
I bought a new car earlier this year and I don’t think I could replace the stereo even if I wanted to. It’s built into the dashboard. It’s like a touchscreen control panel that also has the heat settings and everything else in it. I love it and hate it at the same time.
I haven't been in a car that isn't a decade old, so this is normal
Northern California is exactly like this. I saw someone with the wheel jack thing just the other day and was like what the hell is that.
They tell visitors here in CA to leave cars unlocked and take your belongings so at least the windows don't get broken into when the burglars break into your rental vehicle.
Theft is that rampant there?
No, but Republicans want you to think that it is.
There's a lot of irrational fear mongering around crime in California that doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
In the big cities, like other big cities.
Only in San Francisco and LA. My small town neighborhood has most of the cars parked on the street with doors unlocked because nobody steals shit here.
Yeah it is. There was a guy trying to break into the cars when my mother in law came out to visit and we took her out for pasta - cop car literally casing the lot where we were, then her and my family went to SF for a visit and she had to call the police because there was a guy actively casing cars.
Got our bikes stolen after leaving them out in silicon valley too inside of a very upscale walled off apartment complex. Took me by surprise because we live in a nice area.
I've had a lot of different first hand experiences that have made me extremely weary.
I might be a bit dumb here, but I never got the detachable radio idea/need?
The radio interfaces were not exchangeable between different brands, right? Or was there an universal interface that I am unaware of?
Wouldn't a bad actor need to dismantle the entire radio head as well, for the interface part to be of any good use?
It wasn't so much to not steal the interface, it was to not steal the whole unit from the car.
If the front was left attached, a thief would break in and steal the whole radio.
With the front off, it's basically useless to steal the in car part.
Thieves would also steal the entire stereo head unit -- so many had an additional anti-theft feature.
If you wanted to remove the head unit you had to enter a code using the front plate buttons before you uninstalled it. If you didn't it would "brick" itself to discourage theft.
Took off the head and hid it under the seat. Like 90% of the people did in the late 90s early 00s. Lol.
Actually I believe it does from memory. Never gave that a thought. Did cars around in the 90s not commonly do this?
I still use the rotater for door glass
thanks for using Leebra!
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Why do steering wheel locks seem so much less popular now? Same with the reflectors. Nothing's changed about the best way to keep the car cool while you're not in it but I almost never see them anymore and I'm in Australia of all places. Those things and to a lesser extent the steering wheel locks were everywhere in the 90s.
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