Worst Automotive Components of All Time: GM’s Cadillac Interior Controls (1974-79)
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- čas přidán 13. 07. 2024
- Learn more about one of the worst components of all time used in 1974-79 Cadillacs: the horribly dinky wiper stalk control.
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I have another nominee and this applies to just about every car I've owned: a windshield washer fluid reservoir that holds almost-one-gallon. Every time you fill it completely, you end up with a gallon jug with about 10 ounces left over rolling around in the trunk.
Was a complaint of mine too, Ford F150s now hold over a gallon!
My previous car, a 97 Honda Accord only held about 3/4 gallon of washer fluid. My current 13 Toyota Camry holds about 1 and 1/4 gallon of fluid, much bigger. Also, when the low fluid light comes on it’ll take an entire gallon to fill it. But even when the light comes on, you’ll still have about a quarter gallon of fluid left to use just in case.
@@seanguy9720 I think my 2000 Camry holds a gallon, it has a low warning light .
I get what you're saying about that bothersome 15/16 gallon windshield washer fluid reservoir, but I like the funny way you expressed it --- that almost-empty gallon jug "rolling" around in the trunk. Rolling and rolling and rolling --- like a hyperactive baby or like a mental patient on illegal drugs.
The last car I had that didn't take a whole gallon, I just used to ask someone at the gas station if they needed any, and usually was able to make it disappear.
As a Cadillac owner in the 70's I must say you're spot on with this assessment. The wiper control was terrible in both it's tactile feel, but also it's operation. Overall my opinion of Cadillac during this period and later was not favorable. There just was a lot of cost cutting in their vehicle's that shouldn't have taken place in their price range. Cheap controls, cheap looking plastics, fit and finish issues, power train problems, and just an overall degradation of the brand. I knew a number of formally very loyal owners that bought new Cadillac's on a regular basis, but in every case that I remember, they moved on to other brands and never returned to Cadillac.
Our '74 Sedan d'Ville has held up really well, but the 'feel' of the plastics and the gaps between body parts....yes, a step down from my Uncle's '60s Caddy's, a dealer, he had a new one every year. Talking to him at his 100th birthday paty, he said their dealer 'prep' time on Cadillac doubled and doubled again from '71 on throughout the 1970s and he remembered and pointed out that he had said the '89 brougham d'Elegance was not going to be a good car.
Sadly, as much as I want to deny it, you are pretty correct, but the use of plastic spread throughout the industry. Even the supposedly "wonderful" Mercedes has plastic stuff in it. A luxury car should never have ANY plastic anywhere, but the Cad engine was superb until that V864, and then that little aluminum thing. They never should have down-sized the Cadillac, or the biggest Buick - the 4 holer - either.
Hi Adam, Great video! I remember that switch from former 77 and 78 Seville's that I had. It used to stick and drive me nuts. One automotive feature I always chuckled about was the "START" light on the 78-79 Oldsmobile diesels. Just having the "WAIT" lamp go out wasn't enough of a signal, so they had the "START" lamp - just in case? Eventually, by 1980, I guess they realized it wasn't necessary.
good old GM...
My Great Uncle was an attorney. And anytime we would visit him, he would have a current model Cadillac....until 1986....he bought a fully loaded Mercury Sable...which he really liked. Go figure.
Not relevant to a classic car channel, but I'd nominate the wholesale elimination of hard buttons in most new cars - and the multiple menus needed to activate/change settings. I want things at my fingertips where I don't have to look away from the road to adjust climate, tune a station, etc. And if you're giving me driving modes, same thing - not three screens in. There's too much customization that you don't need and not enough practical choices you can make instantly.
Too many designers and not enough engineers. Dummies all need to copy 'smart'phones with everything they build...
Blame BMW for leading that stupid idea.
When my grandfather died he left me
" the grandpalac" a 72 calis two door. Loved it , especially the little button that gave you one swipe of the wipers. And the 472 of course.
Nice Year Cadi 👍
I own a 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with this same set-up and yet, I don't have any problems with it. Although, it is very rare that I ever have to use my wipers because I generally don't bring the car out if I know it will rain. I have had to transition from the intermittent mode to high wipers and I didn't have any problems. When it's your own car, you become used to how the controls work. I suppose if you don't own one and had to use it, it may be confusing at first. I've had other Cadillacs with this too: a 1975 and '76 Coupe DeVille. It works fine for me. My biggest complaint with the Cadillacs from the early 1970s is that the front seats don't go back far enough. I'm 6 feet tall and I feel like I am always too close to the steering wheel. By the way, on average, Cadillac owners are better educated than are buyers of any other luxury car according to a study I read about 5 years ago.
I agree my parents car has a similar way the variable and low/high are separated and I actually wish my car had that. Outside of the notching if they all did do that it makes sense. Max delay goes towards minimum delay which off separates from low-mid-high. Parking wipers is rather an inconsistent thing on cars. Some park then when on in any speed or variable stay above park until off. Other cars will wipe all the way from the parked position below the cowl. Add together not being made for off road use and the ability for these cars to absorb road imperfections. It is doubtful it is something overlooked by engineers more along the lines of how often does this happen.
@@cardinaloflannagancr8929 Also, these cars ride so smoothly, I don't understand how it would be a problem on secondary roads.
My AMCs have something similar. If you don't have it, you'd assume it's a bad thing but it's just not. I've never had an issue with it.
@@waynejohnson1304 👍🏼👍🏼
Beautiful car!! I still currently own a 1975 Lincoln Continental Town Coupe’ with only 62,000 miles on it. What’s baffling is that it doesn’t even have a delay wiper setting. You would think a car this luxurious, a interment wiper would be standard.
I have owned many ‘74-‘76 Cadillacs with this setup. I never minded the wiper controls that much, though you make good points. I probably didn’t mind it because my first car was a ‘75 Eldorado and it set my expectation. However, I HATED (and continue to hate) the following wiper control design used from 1977-1992... not for the ergonomics, but for its failure rate! Even when the cars were just a few years old, they very often completely failed, leaving you in an extremely dangerous position of having no functioning wipers at all in a rainstorm! They sometimes failed from the plastic weld coming lose from the slider’s pressure against it and sometimes the contacts just wore down. Should have been a class action lawsuit over that abysmal design. The ‘74-‘76 design may not have been very well thought out, but I don’t remember ever having them fail.
That is crazy. Most GMs went to turn signal lever mounted wiper controls in 1984. Cadillac didn't switch until 1993!
@@HighSierra1500 depending on the setup the wiper control could be on the passenger side or driver side
One must keep in mind that many of the innovative engineers GM employed during the 50's and 60's were reaching retirement age with many having retired by the early 70's. This was a time of transition for GM as company that was once run by engineers who had worked they through the ranks into upper management too a company that would eventually be run by bean counters. The cheap materials, poor fit and finish and the overall lack of quality that followed is just proof of that fact and GM has never recovered, eventually leading too bankruptcy. My personal eye opening moment came in 1982 when my neighbor purchased a new Toyota Corolla and I walked over and checked it out. I was most impressed with door, hood and trunk gaps....you could measure them with a Starrett Dial Caliper they were that even. Also every hose clamp on the engine was perfectly angled to reach with screw driver. And finally when you cranked the windows all the way up, the handle was at 12 o'clock and the same at 6 o'clock when fully lowered. I didn't need too be hit in the head with a hammer, I have never purchased a new domestic vehicle since and have never regretted it. I'm retired now, worked in industry all my life. I can say this, every time a new wave of new executives take power, the first thing on their agenda is cost reduction just like the countless previous regimes before them. What they don't understand is the countless cost reductions that have previously taken place prior too their arrival have taken effect and they are already making a piss poor product nobody wants!!!!!
You have a point, and it is a nation-wide problem, and has been since the 70s, not just a GM problem. Most corporations stopped being run by leaders and started being run by cost cutters, whose only goal is maximum possible profits by any means necessary, even to the point of killing the company. Also, other big reasons that GM went bankrupt was the fact that the Japanese subsidized their auto exports, (probably still do), and made it VERY difficult for their people to buy an American car. GM finally decided to go for broke and and tried, in vain it turned out, to match the Japanese on price, and was giving rebates as well. The Japanese just kept increasing their subsidies, so GM was selling cars at below cost. No private company can do that forever, unless the government is heavily subsidizing it. I don't understand why people just don't care about that.
I love caddy but Toyota Lexus is probably the best car brand in the world for price and reliability
Best explanation of what happened to American car makers! Thanks, Warren
@@warrenbrenner4972 But none of you are willing to say how the Japanese government subsidized, and probably still does, their auto exports. That makes it impossible for anybody else to compete against them, because the Japanese are the only ones who don't have to make a profit. Are you getting paid by them or something?
@@nickyj3571Compared to a REAL Cadillac or one of today's pretenders? PS: Make, not mere "brand".
Some engineer wasn't thinking
During two summers in the late 1970s, I parked cars for country club guests at a club in Minneapolis. So there was a ridiculous presence of massive new Cadillacs we had to tiller around the parking lot. Those wiper controls where the bane of our existence when the weather wasn't good.
The really fun part about heaving those massive beasts around was that we had to turn a sharp left at the end of the driveway to get to the parking lot. The power steering was so feel-free and overboosted, and the turning radius of these Caddies was so prodigious, you could blast down the driveway at like 25 or 30 mph and, instead of braking, you could just spin the wheel to the left and the car would slow down enough just by the front wheels turning sideways and skidding. No brakes needed. We got it down to a science.
My first car was a similar GM beast, and yes, you could steer with one fingernail on the wheel. Didn’t even need the whole finger - but if you poked your finger through one of the steering wheel spokes, you could spin it real fast. You definitely scrubbed a lot of speed before the car actually turned. You could get on the gas at corner entry as the lazy V8 wouldn’t even start pulling you through the corner until corner exit.
@@stephen3164 GM steering felt sporty compared to a Lincoln. Those had nonexistent steering feel and the handling was dangerous at any speed above what the yellow signs indicate.
The 1958 Edsel station wagons had "boomerang" shaped taillights that were shaped like arrow pointers. They were the rear turn-signal indicators, too. The trouble was, when the car was seen from behind in the dark, the LEFT turn-signal arrow pointed RIGHT, and the RIGHT turn-signal arrow pointed LEFT!
Just too funny!
The current Mini has this as well...
I remember that! Up close, no problem, but from a distance on a dark road, it really did look like that!
how is that relevant to this video?
He asked for other instances, John. Automotive history can be very interesting.
I had that system on my first new Cadillac back in the '70s. I thought it was just fine! I actually prefer it to the modern trend of having the wiper controls on a turn signal lever.
Now regarding the quality of the dashboard material, in retrospect it seems a little on the chincy side, but compared to other cars of the era, including Mercedes it was not. Only Rolls-Royce had absolute quality content back then. Interestingly that was my next car then. But a week doesn't go by even up until this day that I don't miss the wonderful ride & comfort and silence of the '70s Cadillacs! The engine was pure silky- smooth-silent-surge.
Greg in California
None of the car I’ve owned have had them on the turn signal lever, they’re usually on a lever dedicated solely to the wiper system
500 cubic inches. What a wonderful motor that was. Rod out the catalytic with a crow bar tho or your mileage will suck.
@@makaylaserniotti1474 Mercedes have them on the "knob" on the turn signal stalk, which you rotate to turn them on.
The more amazing thing is that Cadillac reused a LOT of the switchgear and interior components up until the 1990's resdesign of the RWD Fleetwood. The headlight switch and knobs, gear selector knob, cruise control lever switch, remote mirror joysticks, and the chromed dashboard vents were used in multiple models for decades. in retrospect, it is great for those doing restorations.
I love those chrome knobs with the embossed laurel leaf design. That is an attention to detail that you just don't get in today's luxury cars.
Adam, good choice for your best of/worst of series. I was remembering your video of the Continent Mark lll, and its infinitely variable wiper controls. No contest. As for the Cadillac instrument panel, the materials might have been cheap but the overall appearance was clean and elegant. Not so, the IP of the early '90s Fleetwood. Those controls, with their grey buttons and knobs remind one of clay, or a child's toy dashboard. They look pure Chevy Corsica!
Pretty sure Ford had a patent on that wiper control. I recall the engineer who invented it suing the company.
This Cadillac design reeks of something done to avoid a patent.
@@paulfrantizek102 Ford eventually lost in court, they had stolen the electronic design (a simple LC circuit, basically) from the man who invented it. Good movie about it.
I am a GM man (more Chevy than Cadillac after the '89 brougham d'Elegance and the Northstar) for many reasons, not least Ford's awful disregard for the people who do the hard work of engineering and assembling their cars.
I agree, GM cars in this era looked as though their buttons were designed by Fisher-Price for maximum rounded edges and safety.
@@paulfrantizek102 I remember that. Ford also sued, sued General Motors about that very same feature.
gm 1970-99 the red that ages to hot pink vary polarising as for me 🤮 i like some red options but the combos that happened aged poorly in my 2C
You should try driving a Tesla. Controls move with software updates, and many functions require you to take your eyes off the road. The best example is the window defroster. If the defroster was included as a voice command, it wouldn't be an issue, but it is not.
I concur! Prior to the Jan 31st 2021 update you could turn on the defrost with a single touch screen selection but now you have to search through 2 levels of selections. Super dangerous!
I learned to drive on my dad's '76 Eldorado (which is still sitting in his garage, though it hasn't started in 10 years). I remember that rinky dink control always felt like it could break if you weren't gentle enough with it. I got used to using it, though. Somehow it never did break, even though lots of other stuff in that car's interior broke all the time (I remember the digital clock was the first thing to go when the car was under warranty, and the dealership had to remove the entire dash to replace it, causing other problems. When it stopped working again a few months later my dad didn't bother to take it in).
My nominee for worst feature came from a 1992 Mercury Topaz with a 6-way power driver's seat. It had the traditional controls, with a joystick and two lever switches, which is fine by me. But for some inexplicable reason, they put said controls on the front of the seat cushion, right under the driver's knee, so that if you slid back into the seat, it started to move, sometimes crushing you as the car was underway. It seemed horribly unsafe and probably the only reason it didn't get much attention was that not too many Topaz cars were equipped with power seats. A recall would have been quite justified.
Give me a Tempo or Topaz to drive, and I will break the engine mounts in about two weeks...
They did that on the 80s-90s Mustangs too but I think it was because there wasn't much room between the door and the seat. I can't remember on the Tempo though it's been a while since I had mine, probably just good old 'parts binning'.
My aunt and uncle bought a 76 Fleetwood. It was she that had the trouble with the switch 1st, due to her long fingernails. But my uncle actually broke the silly little thing when wearing heavy gloves in the winter twice during the time he owned the car. Personally, i think the large rocker switches used on B and C body Chryslers for many yrs were the most clear, robust and no nonsense.
agreed !!!
Adam, Have you thought of starting a separate channel? Malaise Era Survivors' Guide & Group Therapy might be a possibility? 😉 I look forward to the 'winner' of the search for the
Malaziest Component of the Entire Malaise Era.
Chrysler lean burn? Variable Venturi carburetor? Early EGR systems?
I absolutely love these videos! Where else would you find content on such intricacies. Fantastic 😊.
I would like to point to younger viewers that park position is not what it is today
They parked below The hood line
My 78 Malibu classic with intermittent wipers had similar control without the L shape
Yes, that was a cool feature that I thought was unique to GM; the motor would reverse and the wipers would retract like a scared turtle's head. Maybe the annoyance it caused with switches like this was one reason they got rid of that design. It also made it harder to dig out the wipers in the snow, but it did keep them in the viewing area for more of each sweep cycle.
My sister bought a new '78 Ford Fairmont and I remember the horn being on the end of a stalk, not on the steering wheel. In a panic situation that was not the most intuitive place to look for the horn button. Another Ford better idea was offering the transmission push buttons in the center of the steering wheel on the '58 Edsel. Wonder how many transmission got torn up when someone unfamiliar with the car attempted to blow the horn.
My best friend had a Fairmont and I remember that horn switch. Stupid was what I called it lol
I had a 78 Fairmont also and the hood rod hole was in the middle of the hood and someone tried to close hood with rod in position and bent the hood at the rod.
My mom had an LTD Crown Victoria with horn on the turn signal stock too.
Who thought of this??
I Broke so many steering wheel covers on my dad's Fairmont that I used to but 6 at a time.easy to replace after All the Practice I had! Ford made money from me
@@arevireba how about rim blow horns, where you had to squeeze steering wheel rim to honk. Should maybe bring it back to shut up idiots who honk alot for no reason
Hi Adam, great videos as always. I just want to bring some inside, not to you as you are a GM guy. We bought our first coupé de ville in 1976 ( previously had a 1973 Grand Prix SJ, so quite a different car!). I was in my mid twenties and I actually thought it was a fantastic feature. Remember the majority of Cadillac buyers were not young, and they were not used to this new delayed wipe option. So you still had your regular settings and moving it side ways activated the delay. If I remember, the round switch had the knob that was turntable ( not a fix knob) so moving it in either of the two directions was comfortable holding the nob and moving it up ( it was an angled up), there was a movement. I know it’s difficult to describe.
It was a wonderful new feature ( bragging rights like the digital clock…lol). Of course compared to cars of now, that might have seemed antiquated, but it worked well.
I now have a S class coupé ( moved away from Cadillac in 1994) with rain sense wipers and laser edged wiper blades that have the waste jets in the blades, but if moving the switch into any of the 4 wiper speeds, it there is not enough moisture on the window, you can’t increase the cycle spread, so that old Cadillac system was better than all the German engineering in the flagship of their S class models…lol! Fred
Two things about Mercedes; 1), there is no filler panel in that opened end of the front fender, so the hinges and attaching bolts are exposed when you open the door, in contrast to older GM cars, which DO have a filler panel there, and in the 50s, Mercedes used an X member frame with no side rails, similar to GM in the late 50s-early 60s, yet the Ralph Nader types never issued a peep about that being unsafe.
awwww man love the ideas you have for talks! would have never thought to be soo specific but cool to know
Our current car’s turn signal stalk also has wiper controls (main and rear hatch) washer controls (main and rear) fog lights on/off (front and rear - we live in the Southern Hemisphere, so have rear light regulations). I would KILL to have a separate - albeit clunky - dash switch for about 300 of the current functions on the stalk!
I like my 1965 Corvair's wiper/washer control. Two speed, big knob. The fun part are the wipers. Even if off, you push the enter button on the knob, will turn on the wipers and washers. The best part is the washers are timed to miss the moving wiper arms. The washers also stop on their own after 6 or 8 squirts.
When GM is able to do some of the BEST design and innovation, it makes their failures even more spectacular. I hear you Adam about this washer control, and why did they keep using it when it was a big fail? I bought an 1986 Buick Skylark as my first car, 3.0 V6 and all the red you could fit into one interior. a very funky dash layout, EXCEPT the push button controls for the wipers and headlights... they all failed. GM actually did a recall of this crap replacing them with sliders for both controls. pretty scary when you are driving in the dark, on a first date, in the middle of no where, when your lights are turning on and off by themselves, no it couldn't be the wipers having a conniption, it had to be the lights. thanks Adam for that scary memory! keep up the good work
I know what you mean, I also had an 86 Skylark with digital dash, I liked it except for the weird stereo that sat separate from the dash on the console in front of the shifter 🙄😖
I myself being an American car loving guy have to shamefully admit them European and Japanese cars of that era (70s & 80s) did one up on GM products when it came to ergonomics and annoying glitches like those wiper controls acting up, which were rare in those smaller cars but where GM lacked in that type of reliability it certainly made up for in style and size.
Much of the problem is because of our corporate culture. Our corporations, by the 70s, were all being run by cost-cutters instead of industry leaders, and it got even worse in the 80s because Saint Ronnie actually championed that attitude - "maximum possible profits by any means necessary, even if you have to sell your own mother".
@@danielestrada1850 Except for the way Japanese cars had no way to increase or decrease the brightness of the dashboard lights, and that stupid little button you have to press to remove the key.
@@michaelbenardo5695 now I drive a 2003 JDM Subaru Forester XT, super car for a Canadian postal carrier, lovely handling and I love that turbo. EXCEPT no rheostat for the interior lights, so during the day you can't see your settings on the climate control. nothing is perfect it seems...
I enjoy listening to your shows these all bring back fond memorys of being an apprentance mechanic in the 80s. By the time obd 2 came around i was in the hd diesel world. Now that im living in bush ak i still specialize in diesel but find my way around to working on obd 2 stuff just because there are few people out here that under stand it or have the electronic tools to service it. I still miss the days of carbs and points. My vintace snow cats still have them and all run like a swiss watch
Oh I love stuff like this! Please keep this 'Worst component ' section Adam! Swivel seats ? Great work, thanks.
Don't forget Chrysler's 'highway Hi-Fi' ! A RECORD PLAYER (vinyl) that was an option in late 50's Chrysler products.
I have had quite a few of these back when they were fairly new, and actually thought the wipers were pretty cool. Not many cars had intermittent wipers at that time. At least compared to wiper locations of various models thru the 60s I thought it wasn`t half bad. I do remember the intermittent function did not always work.
I had a 79 Sedan Deville for over 20 yrs and never had this problem.
If the automotive industry ever did finally create a perfect design -
it wouldn't matter because the idiots end up completely changing it every few years anyway just to be different.
Thank you for your content! Interesting video on a relatively ordinary topic!
Nomination for worst feature on 70’s gms has to go to the chrome seat belt couplers. Especially on a a hot day😂. Yeeeeeeouch!!!
Ohhh do I remember that ! lol
I've had 5 of these Caddy's and never had an issue or concern. It looks great and works as advertised. I suppose all the issues you state do exist, I'm from Los Angeles and well it doesn't rain that much, I mostly used the variable delay feature and never had a problem. I do love you videos and car collection, keep up the good work.
Of course. It was designed in the daytime under good weather conditions. Try turning somethin on when you want it on immediately. I don't like that way they've labeled maximum delay as MAX either. To me MAX means "turn something on and run it as fast as it will run." My Subaru has the same non-feature. Delay starts out with minimum delay and the delay gets longer as I turn the knob. It's bass-ackward from how it should work.
@@cousinfester4621 My '97 Corolla and 2005 Mustang GT both have the wiper switch as a column stalk. One of them has you move the stalk up, while the other has you move it down, for the different wiper speeds.
It really doesn’t work if you’re in a scenario where you’ve had the delay wipers on and encounter increasing rain. You have to pass the off position to turn the wipers on to continuous wipe. If you hang out in that position too long or try to execute this change when the wipers are at the bottom of their travel, the wipers go into the park mode. Then they have to exit park mode to restart. In other words, they stop wiping for 1-2 seconds just when you need them most.
I’ve probably owned 6-7 Cadillacs with this wiper control and always hated it when they were used as a daily driver.
@@RareClassicCarsfor all the safety crap the government mandates for cars, what didn't they standardize controls ,shift patterns park brakes etc.i I think easier is usually safer
I'd actually love to see a video of you going over the extremely rare air cushion air bag option that was available on the mid 1970s full size GM cars.
Wow. This brought back memories, Adam. I used to sell cars. In the mid-80’s we had several Cadillacs of this era in inventory. I remember how frustrating it was trying to demonstrate this used luxury car to a potential customer in the rain.
I’d love to see a video on the Doug Nash 4+3 found in the early to mid 80s Corvettes, it still boggles my mind how they engineered that. Thanks for the quality videos, love your channel!
It’s just an old external linkage 4 spd bolted to what looks like a powerglide trans minus the torque converter. I worked on my buddy’s 85 Corvette that had it. Needed transmission fluid in the powerglide and then it worked again. I’ll take an internal rail 5 spd any day over that.
My nomination for "interesting feature": The electroluminescent instrument lighting used on 1960-62 Chryslers and Imperials.
I thought the Cadillac interiors from 1971-73 were pretty bad, definitely mediocre compared to the Cadillac interiors of the previous years, the Cadillac interiors started to slip somewhat for the 1969-70 models but they were still good.
My older brother had a '72 Cadillac. The front leather seat was rock hard. After a half hour of sitting on them would give you some serious ass-burn...luxury?
I think by 1968 all car makers had to have collapsible steering columns and no un-padded surfaces in the car a passenger could hit in an accident. Padded dashboards were an option in some cars still. So Cadillac did the interior this way starting in 1969 and it may look cheap today but they were among the best interiors offered at the time. The second generation Corvair was unchanged throughout it's run but to meet these new safety standards they added rubber "bumpers" to the hard surfaces in 1968 and changed the door handle and armrest. So they were all done for upgraded safety standards.
You are SO CORRECT Adam. As a Multiple Cadillac owner and still an owner of a Beautiful 1990 Brougham....the Wiper Control was and is pathetic. A very small knob and a narrow track to move it located in a very small weird place on the dash. I mean for a $36,000 Luxury Car at the time, it should have had a way better Wiper Control. It is so hard and cumbersome to use, I noticed that many years ago. I absolutely think the car is one of the most Beautiful cars ever built, but the wiper control is right out of Remco. :(
Former owner of a 95 Olds Cutlass Supreme here. Evidently, GM's solution to this ergonomic conundrum was to integrate everything into the turn signal lever: cruise controls, wipers (speed and length of delay), windshield washer, brights and turn signals all loaded onto a single lever. Using the cruise control with the wipers on was especially awkward as to turn the wipers on, you had to rotate the cruise control switch away from you. GM held on to that design for a long time, basically until they finally let front bench seats and column shifters die in the late 90s/early 00s.
Yes Adam, those wiper controls are awkward at best!!! Thanks for sharing another informative video!!! 👍👍
Maybe cause I'm not handicapped...
This was a great video! I always thought that wiper control was peculiar at best lol.... I have another suggestion for "what were they thinking" - Ford's tilt steering wheel from 1979-early 90s.
Until 1979 Ford used a full tilt steering column similar to GM and Chrysler which made sense. Ford integrated the tilt lever adjustment lock into the turn signal stalk instead of giving the column it's own lever, but it still worked nicely. The entire column adjusted all the way up and down, just like you'd want and expect.
Then in 1979 they brought out this tilt wheel only, where the lever for the tilt was placed on the lower right side of the steering wheel and it operated literally the steering wheel only. Meaning the entire steering column was always in a fixed position, defeating the purpose of having tilt to begin with for people with long legs and high knees - they'd always be bumping into the column getting in and out of the car no matter how they repositioned the wheel.
Ford used this design all the way until their first airbag equipped cars came out in the early 90s, where by necessity they needed to redesign the entire steering column. At which time they made the entire column tilt as it should, with a separate lock lever on the left side behind the turn signal stalk as it should be.
Just wonder if you know, why did Ford chose this steering column and tilt wheel system? And why did they keep it so long on all their cars? IIRC, they also had separate stalks for turn signal and wipers, and on some cars even the horn was located on one of the stalks instead of the center pad of the wheel. The 80s seemed to be pretty weird for Ford lol
I just hate the tilt steering wheel system introduced by Ford in 1980.
@@KoldingDenmark 1979. It came out on the first Fox and Panther platforms.
@@joe6096 OH you mean like the Grand Marquis? I forgot. Have actually driven that car, belonging to friends.
@@KoldingDenmark Yeah Fox and Panther pretty much covered all F/L/M cars beginning in 1979. LTD (pre-Crown Vic era), Mustang, Marquis (Pre-Grand Marquis), Grenada, Fairmont, Cougar, Lincoln Versailles and Mark VI Continental..... most Fords of the day. I think it was around '85-86 when they merged the Crown Vic name to the Panther LTD (not the Fox LTD) and added "Grand" to the Marquis name.
Adam can clarify and correct me if I'm not accurate here. He is very knowledgeable on this nomenclature.
@@joe6096
Thank you very much.
Never liked the first generation down-size Grand Marquis. It became nicer looking later, though.
Other than that, the 1980's is an era for FoMoCo I will rather forget - including the Lincoln models. Have driven them a lot. They are "boxes" on wheel.
As for Cadillac I am very fine with Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, as long as they are powered with nothing less than a 5,7 engine. I do have a full digital 1989 Sedan dé Ville - but that is a different story. 😉
To me Lincoln came back STRONG with the Town Car in 1990. Never liked the front wheel drive Continental.
I love the 1990-1992 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham cars - have driven them a lot - but the love died with the intro of the 1993 Fleetwood Brougham. It rides fine, but it is black plastic panel cheap inside. The rear looks like an inflated Opel Omega.
When I was much younger I bought the first year of the Plymouth Horizon. There were a bunch of bad things about this car. The ground for the alternator was through the tabs that held it to the engine. So during driving it would vibrate causing arcing and it would eat way the tab holding the alternator. By the time I discovered this most, but not all of the tab hold the alternator on was almost gone. The dealer added a a ribbon cable from the alternator to the engine block. If I turned on the rear window defroster it would break the alternator belt.
In winter, the carburetor would collect moisture while driving and then when parked the moisture would freeze locking the carb wide open and the car would not start. They issues a recall on this which I had done. At some point after the recall repair I looked under the hood.. The “fix” was placing a sheet of metal under the head casket and bending it over the carburetor, I suppose to retain the heat to keep the moisture from freezing. This caused it to leak oil. Eventually the transmission started to fail. Other then these things it was a fun car to drive, just don’t turn on the rear window defroster!😀
I agree with your assessment however as bad as these were it’s still better than the cars of today were they run the entire car from the turn signal stalk. Even worse every car built is different. Back in the day one could drive ANY car that they were unfamiliar with and successfully operate the controls without taking their eyes from the road. It’s almost impossible to adjust the HVAC on late model vehicles without having an accident.
I nominate what I call "the ultimate idiot light" found on 1980-84 Ford thunderbird/mercury cougar XR7 and 1983-1986 Ford midsize LTD/mercury marquis. I'm sure there's other Ford models of that Era that had a similar arrangement. It was nothing more than a red light with an engine icon. It didn't tell you what was going wrong, just that something has gone very bad in your engine and that you should pull over immediately
That was even worse than VW's combined L and R turn signal dashboard indicators. They must have used diodes (or maybe a double-pole relay) to make that work, all to save 4 feet of wire.
Ford had it for several years before 1980 (I don't know exactly when, but I've seen Mark IVs with the "engine" light). You'd think that such a pricy car would give you more. Chrysler did it in a bunch of different FWD cars from 1978 through 1985.
That was mandated by the EPA, not by Ford. ALL cars from the 80s on have that dumb light, not just Fords.
@@michaelbenardo5695 you're thinking of the "check engine" light. That's different. Those light up in amber instead of red. It was part of OBD1 mandate set in the mid-80s by the EPA as you said. The neat thing about that light is that you can use it to diagnose issues by counting how many times it flashes once you put it into test mode and all you need to do is short out two prongs on the cars diagnostic connector with usually a paperclip.
What I'm talking about is different. It predates OBD1 by a few years. It's just a red engine light that lights up whenever the engine loses oil pressure or overheats. But since it's just one red "engine light" you don't know what occurred. Just that something catastrophic has occurred to the engine
@@moelll I thought they were one and the same thing. My vehicles have real gauges. Much better.
And after all those years I thought the wiper delay was broken on my 75 Coupe de Ville. Thanks!
Congratulations on producing an 8+ minute video on the inadequacies of the late-1970s Cadillac windscreen wiper switch !
Seems popular!
I shudder to think of a world without the Cadillac. My name's Mike and you're welcome.
My 79 Olds Cutlass had wiper issues. Sometimes I couldn't turn them off, even after I turned the car off.
LOL! I had a 1970 Continental MK III and the wiper motors were driven hydraulically and somehow tied to the power steering pump. If there was a failure in the system, the wipers would just stay on all the time.
I had a '78 Cutlass. Never had a problem with the wipers but the dashboard lights were erratic. Found out GM used a flimsy printed circuit sheet that was affected by temperature changes. It got worse over time. Ended up taping a flashlight to the dashboard.
A more recent example could be the Honda radio disappearance of the volume/power knob. I had a 2017 Pilot. Honda wanted to save money and have a clean dash. So the knob had to go. They installed an electronic slider that you had to swipe with a finger. It was terrible. The reaction was so fierce they rushed to fix it in all their models. In fact some manufacturers at car shows even had signs that would tout they still had physical knobs. Undoubtedly the worst interior control in Honda’s history.
I HATE electronic volume controls!!!
Going through the park cycle during changes is “pretty Gosh darn inexcusable”…..Adam you are nicer than I am….😂
I was 18 years old in 1989 when I bought my first Cadillac, a '77 Coupe. It was a big step up from my '55 Chevy truck. Those wipers were a bug improvement from the truck's vacuum wipers, but I see your point.
Tell us about the evolution of Cadillac's "Dimming Sentinel" feature. My parents 1986 Coupe DeVille was equipped with that feature, but the option had been eliminated from Cadillac by 1991 when my folks ordered a '91 Sixty Special. Nowadays, auto-dimming headlights can be found as an option on all sorts of cars and trucks.
I never had it on any of mine. I've had 4 a 75 Sedan Deville a 79 coup Deville a 1998 Deville delegance and now a 2005 SRX
That automatic climate control system Cadillac had was also really finicky in that era. A lot of times it’d blow the relay after about a month of use. And I remember the only real way to “fix” it was to either replace the relay every time it went, or wire a separate switch for the fan speed.
I had a 1974 ELDO ,where the climate control; system would "HUNT" when it was getting near temperature setpoint, so I would regulate the temp. by over shooting the set point and then set it back when I got too cold/hot
Throughout the 60's and 70's GM built the washer pump into the wiper motor which when you hit wash there was a fairly loud snap followed by a lot of thunking, pumping and squirting action which could have been a more sensible design. In these years the GM attitude was that if there was a problem with the car it must be you because they couldn't do any wrong.
I had 1975 sedandeville a 1979 coup Deville a 1998 Deville delegance and now have a 2005 SRX and I've been very happy with all of the layouts and instrument placements. That one placement of the wipers switch was never a problem for me I usually used the delay(right to left) almost all the time. It was very rare I used the constant speeds. I will say I loved the upper tier of instrument lights instead of having them all spread out as mine are now in the SRX. I had a friend years ago that had the Eldorado that had the economy green yellow and red lights to show gas conservation! That was a cool 💡 idea!!
Oh yes. Think about the hazard-flashers-knob on the steering column from 70s and 80s GM Cars. Using it everytime felt like removing it. It was not enlightened and looks more like a bracket for something still to fix... (I have had it in a '83 Caprice and a '89 Sedan de Ville.)
Ford and Chrysler also had hazard light switches on the steering column.
Interesting design choice. I assume delay wipers were standard so every model had these. If it was optional what was the standard control like?
My ‘79 Ford Fairmont Futura had a very simple stalk for adjusting the wiper speed. Can’t remember if my ‘75 Mercury Monarch had delay wipers.
Delay wipers were optional.
My 1975 Mercury Montego had debat wipers, like my current 1975 Continental Mark IV. Never had a problem with that.
I missed having delay wipers in 1973 Cadillac Coupé de Ville. But loved the dash, though.
I enjoy your comments about late 60's thru 70's FoMoCo products. My father had to make a 100 mile round trip everyday to his clinic and bought a new Mark every year from '69 thru '86. I could go on forever about those. My mother liked Chryslers and Imperials. On the times he went and bought a "surprise" for her it was a Cadillac. We had a '73 Fleetwood. My mother told everybody it was "garage kept". The garage kept it all of the time! She kept driving her '69 NY and the Fleetwood was traded on a '75 Eldo. It was loaded. And slapped together. 7 shims on the RF fender and five on the left you could see when you opened the doors. The hood shimmed like a stripper on the smallest bump. Jennifer blue with blue Monticello dual comfort seats. And that crappy ws wiper switch among other flaws. My mother rode in it once as I recall. She HATED that thing! Guess who got it for their first car? Thank goodness we had a '76 F 250 with a 460 and 4 spd. That truck sucked as much gas as that blue powder puff but it did increase your cool factor way more than that Cadillac! Oh yeah, he bought her a '82 Fleetwood w/the HT4100. Another good story.
my first car was a 1974 CDV and the wiper controls was never an issue or problem
8:28 minutes complaining about a wiper switch...
100% spot on assessment here! LOL
I've own 5 continuous Cadillacs beginning in the 1980's. Even though the Windshield Wiper were in different positions, I fail to see any problems in the location of the wipers in the 1970's models. Personally, I actually like the position of them being on the left rather than being on the right in the dash and I find it looks simple to operate as well. You slide it sideways for the intermittent wiper and you slide it up and down for the continuous wiper so what's so difficult about that? It's no worse than the light switch where you have to pull the knob one notch for the parking lights and another notch for the headlights. Then if you want to brighten or dim the dash lights, you have to turn the knob either way and the headlight switch is on the left as well. To me, what you're describing is nothing but being nit-picking and has nothing to do with the functionality of what it's suppose to be doing. Just my opinion.
It’s a problem when you’re in increasing rain when you need to switch from delay to Low speed continuous wiping, for example. You must pass into the off position to do so. If you pass “Off” at the same time the wipers near their park position, they will go into Park mode, and require extra time to restart once you finally get the switch to off. This is highly inopportune if you’re entering heavy rain.
@@RareClassicCars - Well, it's a matter of opinion. To me it's not an issue.
I agree. Sounds like just plain whining to me.
@@RareClassicCars I never found anything wrong with it, but maybe the reason so many of you DON'T like it is because you are right-handed, and it is on the left. I am LEFT-handed. Sort of like the retrievers on the 1990s trolley buses I drove. You had to wind them up if your poles came off the wires, but you had to use your left hand. Trying to use your right hand was awkward, so most hated them, but for me, it was a breeze because I am left-handed.
My Uncle had a new triple black Fleetwood every four years from early 60's the last one was a 1977 (new trimmer body more parking garage friendly) that was his favorite all purchased from former Capitol Cadillac in Wash DC. I remember the rear footrests and abundant ashtrays and cigarette lighters! Capitol Cadillac moved from Wash DC to Greenbelt MD in 1979 and closed in November 2020. Property was sold to Rosenthal Auto Group College Park Honda is moving from current location on RT 1 when renovations are completed. The Cadillac franchise moved to Sport Chevrolet in Silver Spring MD. Have missed the Annual Corvette shows there since Pandemic hit.
I don't know if this applies to other GM brands, but my grandpa had a 1977 olds cutlass supreme, and the clock didn't work from the factory, and he always ignored it but wondered why. My dad took it apart one day to find it had no clock innards, just the face connected to nothing.
The clock was an option - in those years, possibly a stand alone option like most other options were. They might have had a couple different dash layouts, but most had a place for a clock - though without the option box checked, you got a blank clock shaped area (no hands). In some cars designed with two large circles for a speedometer and equally sized tach, if you didn’t opt for the tach you might get a really massive fuel gauge that you could actually see move when you opened up the secondaries on the 4bbl carb sitting on top the 400+ cubic inch V8 engine.
"Very hard to find and control especially when you're going over a bumpy surface" - Have you actually driven one of these cars? Best riding vehicle ever. Only time you knew you hit a pothole is because you heard it. You never felt it at all. You didn't feel bumps in these cars.
Got that right can't say it any better. He's probably a pinky pinky gen Z
@@GUIRADE95 nice insult, what's it mean?
The mid 70's to the early 80's were the worst years of quality in general.
I remember it well on the 1979 Seville that I used to own. I rarely drove that car in wet weather but it was definitely a most awkward and fiddly control.
I totally totally get what this guy is saying but it just strikes me and my personality... just talkin for myself...
I could get used to this very quickly.
The wiper control situation.
But this is my third video in a row having just discovered this channel today!!!
Keep up the good work.
Who in his right mind would drive a Cadillac in a storm to begin with? No one needs wipers on a Cadillac.
The best and safest place to be!
@@kenk7451 That's right!
These controls worked perfect for me. Cadillac owners were business men and mostly the successful types. Something the host doesn’t have.
Sure. Ok.
Key word “were”
great video! 🏆clearly Cadillac had no intention of their cars being driven in inclement weather! 😊
i was a caddy kid thats all my pops drove i came home from the hospital in 67 in a 67 coupe de ville in the 70's he had a 73 75 77 and 1980 coupe de viile i dont remember this being a problem for him i owned a 73 fleetwood back in 92 and now i have a 79 fleetwood d elegance love my cadillacs also great channel
I never thought of the wipers in my '75 SeVille until you made this video and I have to agree 100%
When I saw the title my first thoughts were he must be planning to explain the lamp monitor feature that was popular on GM luxury cars. My 67’ Marquis has the interval wiper option which is vacuum controlled and speed sensitive. Enjoy your videos.
Adam, the '78 Pontiac Firebird had a similar slider control on the dash for the wiper. It's hard to believe what we lived with back then on those vehicles. My car of today is a '12 Chrysler 200 Touring convertible with the wiper control on a stalk off the right side of the steering wheel. It just took me a while to get used to it on the right side whereas it was on the left on a later GM vehicle that I once owned.
My mom had a Rambler station wagon which used vacuum powered wipers that would stop working in the middle of a downpour. I can still remember the horror of her quickly pulling the car to the side of the road and her coaxing the wipers to go whilst getting soaked and teaching us new four letter words!
Before they went electric most old cars were vacuum,. & Probably didn't seal well going uphill you had to get off the gas & let the wipers do a swipe so you could see again. You had to choose one either power or wipers, wouldn't do both at same time
I thought of a unique feature on a 70 toronado,gt i think.it was water injection to the carb this is the oniy time i ever saw this.Great video Adam thank you for sharing your knowledge!
The 1961 Olds 'F-85" V8 with Turbo Charger (NOT a typo), REQUIRED 'turbo-fuel' (probably water-alcohol mix) to be added to gallon container mounted UNDER the hood! I am not sure which 'service stations' (FULL SERVICE.. back then) carried this mix, probably had to go to your local Oldsmobile Dealer!
In the name of God, this video and this channel is the BEST at details, especially this. I had this car, it was a nightmare to operate that tiny, I mean TINY wiper stalk and have the wipers park themselves and conceal under the hood, when the rain just starts getting nasty! It was a nightmare. I've been waiting for a channel like this my whole life. The weird "americana" from the era just needed to be highlighted.
Thank you. Please tell all of the commenters below who think this control was just fine ;)
@@RareClassicCars haha
I had a 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with the delay wipers and I remember it being a up and down switch with the delay function in the the middle I always liked it. And I think it must have been a rare option as I don’t think I saw it much and I had that car from the Summer of 1994 to about 1999. I inherited it from my grandma’s estate damn I love that car thanks for the awesome videos and keep them coming
My parents had a 1974 deVille. It developed a problem that the windshield wipers once activated would not turn off. I don't recall if we had to turn off the car to deactivate them or open the hood and unplug something to make them stop. I think we did the car turn off at first and finally it broke in the always on setting and then the wiper motor had to be unplugged to stop it from running all the time.
I remember the park problem too. Very annoying.
Had a ‘79 Pontiac sedan with just one switch: off/low/high. Push to wash. Problem was it was tough to move the switch up to one of the on positions without accidentally pushing it in a bit. That Caddy control looks a lot nicer than my old Pontiac’s!
...totally agreed, Adam, regarding this bizarrely engineered early interval wiper control...in its inimitable fashion, many GM innovations seem to have been either completely untested before approving it for production...the typical notion of allowing the unsuspecting customer to do the testing for them...
...I really DO like the "idiot lights moved away from the speedo, though...a friend had a '75 Imperial with all the idiot lights arranged in banks on either side of the speedo giving the dash the look like a video arcad...
I don't like idiot lights at all. I want GAUGES. Ford offered optional gauges on the Lincoln and for the Merc for most of the 70s, but not for the Ford, and Chrysler products always had gauges.
It's an odd control but you get used to it quick and never really think about it. I've driven this era Cadillac for a lot of years, the worst interior detail was the insistence on making a provision in the front seat for a 6th passenger. It was impractical in every way. They figured out how to put a nice center console in the Talisman, and should have put that package in all the models. Then make the 6th seat an option you can order.
It's me again, Nathan King. Okay, now that you're mentioning windshield wiper controls, let's talk about THAT now. I have quite a lot to say about that too. I can see how this windshield wiper control on the Cadillac was clumsy with its L-shaped configuration --- but I would argue that that's hardly any more inconvenient than the windshield wiper controls on my 2006 Toyota Sienna LE. For I HATE my windshield wiper controls --- but I grudgingly put up with them in exchange for so much more that my van gives me that I have always wanted in a vehicle --- including cargo transport, sleeping, and EVEN running lights. But, as I said, I hate my windshield wiper controls because I have to operate the high speed, the low speed, and the variable speed control --- and on top of that the rear windshield wiper --- all on one lever. I hate it. Then, on that one lever, there is also the windshield washer control for both the front and the back windshield. Consequently I am always fumbling around with the windshield wiper controls, often getting the wrong one. Sometimes I am trying to start or change the speed of the front windshield wipers, only to find that I have accidentally started up not only the back windshield wiper but that I have also just as accidentally operated the windshield washer as well. The headlight lever and control apparatus is also hard to operate because, just like the windshield wiper controls, the headlight controls are also jammed into just one control lever. Consequently it is so easy to mix up high beam and low beam in particular. I just hate all this cramming of dashboard controls into a control lever sticking out of the right side of the steering column and another control lever sticking out of the left side of the steering column. How about doing a video presentation on THAT --- the modern vehicle design trend of cramming too many controls too close together.
I remember this switch perfectly from my dad’s ‘75 Coupe DeVille. I too hated it for the same reason you mentioned and that tiny stalk broke twice on my dad. He always hated it. The other downfall of that car was that to mount the body side moldings, they drilled holes through the body panels. That was the first place the car started rusting after only a few years. Loved the 500 c.i. engine though.
I do currently own a 1978 Cadillac Eldorado with the same wiper controls. I have to agree with size and placement not being easily accessible compared to a lot of other cars. But I have not had any real trouble during random rain encounters. And the delay function is something I really wish my newer cars had as they are equipped with auto mode witch either goes too fast or slow.
Anyways, great vid mate! 👍👍
Adam your right on the window wiper button. You have to wonder if the engineer of this switch knew how the delay worked with the wipers.
The Mercury turn signal/tilt steering was super weird, you had to shove the turn signal stalk towards the dash to allow for the tilt wheel feature. It always felt like it was going to break
My LTD Convertible was a 72 and had that. I set it once and forgot it.
Interesting comments, Adam. You are in a very unique position to comment on these sort of things, since you have experience with such a variety of 60's and 70's vintage cars. At first I thought your complaint was niggling, then I thought of how many times I had to pull off the road in a rental car to figure out how to turn on or off the wipers. If you are looking for another topic, how about pushbutton transmissions? I had one on my '63 Polara, I thought it very unique and cool. As I recall, they were common on many Chrysler and some Ford products, then disappeared in the middle 1960's. Might be a fun topic for people like me that drove them, or some younger people who perhaps never heard of them.
Yes. Thx!
Well, it becomes a challenge when you’re in a situation with increasing rain and you need to move from delay to continuous wiping. If you do it as the wipers enter the bottom of their travel, they will head for the park position just as you need them most. You can’t hang out in the off area long.
Ralph Nader's fault.
Adam - I agree with you. I’ve experienced these rain conditions while driving in florida. One minute sun is shining then you drive into a heavy rain down pour then back to a shower.
These type of wiper controls are a receipe for disaster.
You know back in '76, my mom came into a beautiful, '72 Cadillac Coupe De Ville, it was dark Forrest Green with a White Vinyl top, and a Forrest green cloth interior. The car was just soooooo BEAUTIFUL! I miss it so much! The wiper switch was indeed part of the drivers door. Of course it had the 472 cu. in. and when tuned up proper, it would get 21 mpg Hwy, and 16 City.. (remember: 55mph). My mom asked me ......" Marcel, I've promised you the car when you became of age, would you like it"? Well, at that time, I was 17, just before 18 yrs old, I thought,,,,,,,,,,wow, and L78/15 Tire is now about 41$. Gas was up to : .65 cents per gallon. (it had a 27 gallon tank!). So, I thought, and told my mom,,,,,,Sorry mom, no, I won't be able to afford the car now. > She traded it in on a '81 Pontiac Firebird Esprit, with a V-6..............
I've been driving 1976 Cadillac of some kind since 1982. I still have some of them and yes that switch in the downpour they go into part mode you can't see anything for a couple of seconds in the instinct is to sling it up onto the high setting to restore wiping as quickly as possible. I've yet to see someone do a custom replacement to put a different switch control in as long as the same number of wires match up and a location to install it a modification maybe a shorter air vent and a custom-made bracket or relocate it completely. My 1974 Peugeot had a two-speed wiper switch control on the dash and I found a way to put in the stock control or later model and wired it all up that's what controls the windshield wipers and the last setting which would be for delay that the car doesn't have now operates the rear window wiper. And did away with the dash control completely. With that car I was having to replace every single wiring coupler that is the plastic was disintegrating in each one of them had to be replaced and new wire terminals put on every Junction for the entire wire harness of the car but it did work.
I've actually had two cars that had that control system. Both 1974 DeVille's and yeah they were pretty fidgety.
I had learned from my grandfather who would own one of them before me that when switching from the horizontal access to the vertical axis as rain got heavier you just had to be fast and not let them park. In that case precision wasn't really necessary as you were trying to increase the speed anyway so if you overshot to high you were still okay. You are absolutely right about the notches or indents along the stock's pathway. They were really little more than just soft clicks rather than any kind of hard indent. That being said I do miss having a medium setting for the windshield wipers. Sometimes medium is what you need.
I've got a 2018 Lincoln MKC now and it has a right hand stock for control of the windshield wipers. On the end of that stock is a tiny little rocker switch for the rear window wiper. It is frustratingly easy to bump that rocker and not even know you have done it.
Especially since you have to reach right past it to press the gear select buttons on the dash.
If you need to do anything with the front windshield wipers It is very easy to brush against the rocker and activate the rear windshield wiper even if it's not needed.
My 1975 Cadillac has a control that looks like this but serves a different function. When you push it to the right, it sprays the windshield with washer fluid and then springs back when you let go. It's almost identical to the wash button (I think one of them allows you to hold the control for continuous spray instead of squirts timed with the wipers), which makes it feel a bit pointless.
The best delayed wiper control I've ever seen was in my 1980 Buick Riviera. It was a vertical slider, first position was intermittent, and the intermittent delay was controlled by twisting the lever which was also a dial. Easy to use, and it remembers your intermittent setting since it's controlled by the dial and not the lever position.
I never had a '70s or '80s Ford with intermittent wipers, but my 1990 Crown Vic and my 2002 Lincoln have what I consider to be very annoying intermittent controls. As you turn the wiper stalk, it has like ten individual positions that are all different intermittent settings, and you must pass through all of them to get to the normal settings. It works, and the intermittent settings are artificial analog controls (meaning the clicks are softer than the other positions so they feel smoother), but I always found it incredibly annoying.
When I started reading the title my first thought was headlight switch gear on Cadillacs (high end GM cars in general) from the 1970s to early 90s. Those pull and twist switches were from the cheapest supplier around. Every time I pulled on one I hoped the thing did not breaks. The windshield washer switch was terrible as well.
I don't remember having either a good or bad impression of those pull switches, but I do remember GM's "multi-function" stalks from the introduction of the X-cars until well into the 1990s feeling as if one were breaking a chopstick every time the turn signals were activated. I don't think they were really that prone to breaking, but they engaged with such a crunch you almost wanted to avoid signalling.
@@pcno2832 terrible tactile feedback. The multi -function part was also a confusing mess with too many controls in one small(ish) stalk blob.
The Ford Mark II Zephyr had the DG (Detroit Gear) column shift automatic with Reverse and Low next to each other. (In Oz, the rear pump which prevented accidental selection of Reverse while on the move - above about 3 mph - was removed, as they were known to disintegrate and churn aluminium pieces throughout the transmission).
While this arrangement prevented the other 60s Ford bugbear of jumping out of Park into Reverse with the choke out against a crappy handbrake, when worn and climbing a steep hill in Low, the gearlever could jump into Reverse while moving at say 20 mph. Because the protection had been removed, this brought proceedings to a frighteningly quick halt with the rear wheels being locked.
This video has me thinking - I learned to drive in 1970 in my mom's 1969 Fleetwood and I could have sworn that the windshield wiper control was adjustable. I remember where it was located and it just seems that it was like a rheostat switch. But I looked up a picture and you are right of course. It is a lo - med - hi thing -- but it did slide like a rheostat. That being said - that was the only Cadillac I ever drove and having learned to drive in that car - I thought everything was perfect from a design perspective with respect to the controls. I recall the controls as being logical - well placed - easy to use - Very sorry to hear that Cadillac lost its design mojo in the 70s
I had a 76 Coupe de Ville years ago and I never noticed an issue. I liked the idea that it did have a delay wiper setting which I used often. I now have a 76 Eldorado convertible where I do not think I will ever use the wipers as the car will never see a raindrop. I have had many Cadillacs over the years before going to Lincoln in 1996 and I still think the dash they used in 74-78 was the nicest looking futuristic for the time that I have ever seen. Extremely classy and elegant.
I can remember my grandmother had an early 80's caddy brougham with a factory CB👍🏿
Adam - I have a good one ! A really bad design feature found on the 1967 and 1968 Cadillac is the cruise control switch, with the huge round dial that you had to take your eyes off the road to use. I think a video on this control would be very interesting.