Gauge Watching

[DAVID PATERSON]

Maisie, I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in Australia, it is actually a very popular theory that men look at gauges and women don't. The truth is however that most men don't and very few women do. I know more than one women who has cooked her engine by driving on with the temp gauge well in the red. Unfortunately, Ray doesn't know you well enough to know that you're in the small group of women who know and enjoy cars. Ray, i hope you were aware of the existence of this group. I also freely admit that when I'm driving i sometimes forget to check the gauges regularly, I'm particularly inclined to do this when I'm driving a new car, you're so insulated from everything around you that you lose touch.

OTOH when I see the young ********s cruising around in their Hyundais and Hondas with millions of gauges I can't help but laugh, probably half of them don't even work. I'm also puzzled why they need a tacho the size of a grandfather clock face, does a doosh doosh stereo with heaps of bass cause poor eyesight? Also, why on earth would you need a shift light in a street car? Please explain.

[Ray Bell]

David, I don't know if you read touringlegend's post, but if you do you'll see that it's not only me who feels I didn't make any statements about women... take careful note, in fact and you'll see that I have posed this as a question, I have taken no side on the issue at all, even including the statement that I don't look very often myself.

I noted last weekend, for instance, that at times I only checked the temperature every hundred kms or so... the gauge is difficult to see, mind you, and I know well I would be checking it much more frequently if it was in a line-of-sight position. This gauge, of course, is the most important of all.

I'm well aware that there are very mechanically-sympathetic women in the world... my wife, for instance, can pick tyre pressures very well when driving, though she doesn't understand them. And she watches the temp gauge too... but when it gets hot she just drives home so I can fix it... no matter how far it is!

BTW... before I get more PMs abusing me for saying this, it is true. She has twice cooked motors by driving home after noticing the gauge getting hot and I have begged her not to do this. Anyone who has any suggestion as to how I might be able to convince her to stop and phone is welcome to post that suggestion.

[Stephen Green]

Threaten to take the credit cards away?