Something for him to keep an eye on!

[Valentinian]

Went on a test drive this weekend - my husband is looking at getting a shiny new car (woohoo!). And it's a very shiny nice car, but the wipers and indicators are reversed from what we're used to, so it's taking a little getting used to.

Hubby hit the wipers instead of the indicators on the way out of the dealership, corrected, and managed to do it right for a while, with the occasional hesitation as he reached for the wrong thing and realised his error halfway through the motion. Then I noticed...

Me: "Uh, hon? It looks like you're signalling right every time... even when we're going left."
Him: "I'm what?" *looks* "UM. Er. Okay."

If he ends up getting that car, he's going to have to be very verrrrry careful until he gets used to it!

[Seanette]

Which side of the road do Australians drive on?

[Valentinian]

We drive on the left, so at least when he was going to cross oncoming traffic he was signalling correctly. :P

I think the problem was that although he'd gotten 'indicators are now on the left' into his conscious brain, his unconscious brain was still saying 'stick on the left is for wipers and always gets pushed up' (instead of 'down for left, up for right').

[Orgaloth]

My wife has a VW and the wipers and indicators are reversed. So when I get in to drive if every blue moon, I do the same, but I do get the directions right though.

[notalwaysright]

So funny, I've been driving my current car for three years, and just today I was thinking that I still revert back to my old car, which I drove for 10 years. Not the blinker, though. The windshield wipers. On my old car if you wanted to just make them wipe one time, it was up. If you wanted to turn on them on intermittently, it was down. It's reversed on my newer car. Might not sound like a huge deal, but if you live here (rain!) and mess up and the wipers don't go, it might not be great as far as visibility.

[wolfie]

Occasionally, when I'm distracted, I'll shift into either 1st or 4th when I want reverse. Why those 2 gears? On my car, reverse is the right "gate" and pull back, 1st is the left "gate" and push forward. On my truck, reverse is the left "gate" and push forward, 4th is the right "gate" and pull back (so is 8th, but when I want reverse I'm always in low range).

[RealUnimportant]

I have two cars I swap between on the regular, sometimes even using both on the same day. They have opposing switchgear as well, and although the gearshift pattern uses the same locations, one requires I push down to engage reverse while the other needs pulling up... It's fun.

[raudf]

I kinda wish they'd make up their mind which side the gas cap is on and make it universal. I just went from a car that had it on the passenger side to one that has it on the driver side. Even though the gas pump symbol next to the fuel gauge has an arrow to let me know which side it's on, I still try pulling up to the wrong side...

[Ophbalance]

The history behind that is pretty nifty. The passenger side filling port is apparently from the way full service stations were set up. It's archaic and no longer matters so it makes you wonder why it's still sometimes in the passenger side. I think, may be wrong, that is only the occasional US domestic only platform that has this now.

[otakuneko]

My Subaru has it on the passenger side. I figure it's because it's Japanese, and it WOULD be the driver side...in Japan.

All my previous (American) cars had it on the driver side.

...I still mess up occasionally pulling into the gas station. >.<

[RealUnimportant]

There's really no rhyme or reason to it. All my cars have flaps on the right, and I'm in the UK, but one was made in Germany & all were sold on the foreign market so they'd all be on the wrong side there.

In addition to the two main cars, I have two other examples of one of them - they're old British Leyland cars, so cheap but rare. One of these extras is older than the one I use regularly & has the same switches; the other is younger, and has reversed switches because it was cheaper to make just the export version of the switchgear. That's the only one that catches me out...

[raudf]

I've had three Japanese make cars in a row. Two (Toyota Echo, Nissan Versa) had the tank on the passenger and the current (Nissan Maxima) is on the driver.

Really want to throw someone for a loop.. get one of those with the gas flap under the license plate on the back of the car! I watched a guy spend 30 minutes looking for his (I was waiting for my Dad to come look at my gigantic paper weight) before I clued him in on it. Only reason I knew where it was was because Mom and Dad would tell me stories about them. Until then, I'd never seen one with it there.

[dalesys]

...Really want to throw someone for a loop...

Try one with it hidden behind one of the taillights ... Or under the front bonnet (old Beetle).