This is what I have to work with....

[d000hg]

After having a car (from new) for several years one day it stopped working all the electrics were dead: after a week in the garage it was discovered that someone at the factory had installed an immobiliser & the switch which was hidden under the dash had been knocked: no one knew about it, it was not in the manual & nor was the switch in the normal location!

We thought our electric windows had failed. It was less embarrassing than it might have been, since it took the mechanic a few minutes to realise we'd pressed the button (which we never knew existed) to disable them.

[DaveB]

Picked up a new car a few weeks back, courtesy of the redundancy payment from my Permie job. Spent half an hour looking for the CD platyer and auto loader and couldnt find it. Manual said it was in a box in the boot. No sign anywhere. Turns out the little black strip above the stereo that I though was a bit of trim was actually the CD player and you just fed it CD's to load it.

[stek]

I rented a house a big one, in Scotland when on contract, after a year or so when contract seemed to be going on forever we decided to buy it.

Landlord came around before we exchanged to ask if he could take his stuff away. I says what stuff and he says, in this room behind this door.

I said that's a false door, doesn't open. He put the door handle bar back in and opened the door - a new room I didn't know I had!

I never twigged why there was an extra window on the frontage and cos the house was so big I never actually counted the rooms. Six beds, 11 rooms altogether.

[zeitghost]

I had a rental Renault 5 for a short while.

Typical rental car I thought. Screen washers kaputt.

Then one day I was getting out of the car with a load of shopping and saw a squirt of water on the windscreen.

It was an economy model so was operated by a foot pump, not the wiper stalk.

I remember those, they were quite popular 50 odd years ago.

Alternatively there was the VW option that gave you a flat spare tyre if you used the washers too much.

[realityhack]

Had one of those moments on Sunday. Realised that if you hold the key in one direction or t'other for a wee while, you can either close all the windows of the car when locking up, or open them all upon opening the door. We never actually put the key in the lock anyway so not surprised we hadn't stumbled across that feature. Maybe I should actually RTFM.

[Doggy Styles]

We thought our electric windows had failed. It was less embarrassing than it might have been, since it took the mechanic a few minutes to realise we'd pressed the button (which we never knew existed) to disable them.

That happened to me too.

[thunderlizard]

I didn't realise that C# had goto for about that long.

[DimPrawn]

A car I had owned for 3 years I discovered a CD multi-changer behind a panel in the boot.

Which was nice.

[Sysman]

I remember those, they were quite popular 50 odd years ago.

Alternatively there was the VW option that gave you a flat spare tyre if you used the washers too much.

That Renault was rented in France. I think the export models had electric ones.

The really old Beetles didn't have a fuel gauge. When you ran out you flicked a switch with your foot and they went to a reserve tank. A lass at work has one (with split rear window as well).

Then there wer the Fords where the wipers were driven by the crankshaft. Change down a gear if they were too slow.

I preferred the Land Rover wipers. You could operate them by hand when the motor packed up (or get a passenger to do it).

The joys of motoring!

[russell]

Was in Rome recently and every single toilet I went to in cafes/bars etc had no knobs to turn the tap on for washing hands. I thought they were all automatic ones that just didn't work. Then I looked down in one of them and it had a pad you stood on which turned on the water. Very hygienic, they should have that everywhere.