Cranked car windows are going, going…: This is interesting.
This year, Honda became the first of the largest automakers to banish the crank window, moving entirely to power windows as standard equipment.
“It’s not even so much a luxury touch any more. It’s an expectation,” says Honda’s Sage Marie. “That’s why you see it on everything from our least expensive model to the highest.”
In a related note, I pulled up next to a Ferrari Enzo in Sioux Falls last night (yeah, seriously). I rolled down my (power) window to ask the guy about it, but he had to lean over to the passenger side and crank his down. Not what you’d expect for $1.3 million, though I imagine the car has other…benefits.
You want the Enzo? Here it is.
the Enzo was never designed to be a ordinary car but a streat legal F1 car. Or something close, sorta like the F40.
If I recall correctly the Enzon doesn't have floor matts, a radio, normal seats etc etc.
But what it can do, as your link so correctly points out, is this:
The Enzo can accelerate to 100 km/h (62.5 mph) in 3.30 seconds and can reach 100 mph in 6.60 seconds. The ? mile (0.4 km) time is 10.8 seconds and the top speed is estimated at 217 mph + (348km/h). It is rated at 8 mpg (29.4 L/100 km) in the city and 12 mpg (19.6 L/100 km) on the highway.
this is not a car you slow down by adding needless weight with silly power windows. ;-)
this is not a car you slow down by adding needless weight with silly power windows. ;-)
The funny thing is that the designers at Ferrari obsessed over how much weight something like power windows adds to it, yet most people who will own/drive an Enzo could stand to lose an equal amount (or more) themselves. I used to sell & service bicycles, and always got a chuckle from the guys with love handles nitpicking over this component weighing 4oz more than that one. Silly.
And Deane: Thanks for confirming that I wasn't seeing things a few weeks back when I saw that Enzo rolling down North Kiwanis. Maybe I can cancel my optometrist appointment.
Should the title read, "Crank Windows: A Dying Breed", since it's not the power windows that are going away?
Thanks -- changed the title.
And, for the record, I wasn't putting down the Enzo. I just thought it was kind of ironic, given the context.
Personally, given the number of problems power windows have given me, crank windows are a luxury!
haha.... Haven't seen cranked windows in a long time here.. People in our car-buying culture like to get the most feature-packed vehicle per-dollar (things like sunroof, MP3/CD, HIDs come standard, per se), unlike the US where even power door locks are an option... ;-)
And yet car dealers are blamed for marking up retail prices compared to the US, when the cars are actually better-equipped. hehe.
One such example is that the most basic BMW 3 in Taiwan has the steptronic (?) automatic transmission, where this is an upscale option in the US (above regular auto transmission and stick shift)
Oh yeah? When I skid off the road, and I'm sinking in the icy lake and your eurocrap power windows have shorted out, leaving you banging on the windows like the pwned noobs you are, I'm hand-cranking my way to freedom , baby. And that's chevy nova hand-crank action, so show some respect.
