Manual throttles can stick to! Any part of the linkage is subject to freezing up, especially if not cared for at all. The issue here isn't a mechanical throttle - the issue is people either not having a way to shut the car down - or they do not think of a way to shut the car down.

Hey, wait a minute. I didn't elect them. YOU did! :p

Dear god you people over-react. Just push the 'off' button. Any remotely sporty car will have one (or even several modes in between)

That doesn't work. (which is part of the problem)

Sure, it works when the car is stopped. But when the car is moving a simple push won't shut it down --needs to be a push and . . . .H O L D . . . . F O R . . . T H R E E . . .S E C O N D S (which is still longer than it took you to read that)

:rolleyes:

He means push the off button for the traction control.


At least one person in this automotive forum seems to understand the whys of drive by wire. Yes, it flies in the face of any gearhead car, but we're not talking gearhead cars. The only way that you can get 30+ mpg from a 3400 pound car at 70mph with the AC blowing and the awful drag characteristics they have, all while having nav systems, bluetooth, airbags, heated seats, power everything is to have a computer spend lots of time calculating the exact engine management parameters. You couldn't get that kind of performance and economy out of a throttle cable anymore.

But, hey, lets be classic PPOTers and take something like "the computer does some throttle management independent of the pedal position" and turn it into "oh my freaking god you have no control of the car anymore and the government owns your thoughts and Toyota wants us all to die because they hate America!@!!111!!!"

Come on. Our Mazda is drive by wire, and anything it might do to the engine is so inconspicuous that it's all but absent, except that I know that it's giving me an extra 20 horsies and 5mpg. Damn that computer, damned it all to hell.

Ah, of course. Thanks.

Now you're talking!

Well said.

One big thing that bugs me is people blaming the government for this. Well, I dunno if that's such a reasonable target (trust me, they wear that bullseye for enough other things). The blame is for the stupid fat lazy drivers who need more and more crap in their cars, all while driving faster and farther, and wrecking more because they're stupid lazy and fat. People moving out to distant suburbs, driving 2 hours each way in absolute chaos, all while sitting in these overdone cocoons...and they still wanna do it at 80mph. Well, the automakers have to do something to give them these cars, and that's what they've done. If people went back to driving lighter cars with fewer pieces of flair and lower speeds and living within 5 miles of work, like we did in the 70s and 80s, then we could all get by with the old cars, which got 40mpg using a throttle cable and no computers.

Blame the people driving around you, don't blame the government (for this, everything else they do is fair game...) and don't blame the automakers (they're being good capitalists).

I don't forsee most cars having an off switch for that in the future.

Every car I know of with traction control now has one. Why would that change?

Every car i used to know had a throttle cable.
And a key to manually and instantly shut the car down.

Why would that change?

Should I mention the irony in you saying that on a forum that is predominately populated by cars that do NOT have throttle cables? ;)

I really do not think that is the case amigo.

Every car's brakes used to just plain work on demand.
Every car used to be able to just be put into N at any time.

"Progress."

It's the govt's mandate. Who said they provide "off" buttons? Heck, who said that anytime in the near future, there will even be sporty cars, let alone a place to drive them other than the race track.

Stupid, lazy, fat suburbanite hater. SmileWavy

There is an alternative -- kit cars (FWIW).

I disagree. In drivers' ed, the instructor had a brake pedal. If the student mashed the gas and the instructor mashed the brake, the instructor could accomplish no more than to restrict the speed of the collision. He told us on the first day that if the engine and brakes competed, the engine would win.

DBW has been standard for at least 10 years. It's not anyone else's fault that you drive clunkers.

You lectured me earlier about debating skills, and now you resort to the ad hominem?

LOL...douche.