Why did rover.....

W

Whitewash

Member
put the key on the wrong side of the steering column? every time i get into the car i try to jam the ignition key into the column adjust! :LOL:

im glad they gave the car such a sizeable steering wheel because otherwise the manouver of adjusting the choke whilst cranking would be impossible!

anyone else find this a struggle, or will i just get used to it? (kind of like the way ive been beeping at people rather than flashing my main beam!)
 
Whitewash said:
im glad they gave the car such a sizeable steering wheel because otherwise the manouver of adjusting the choke whilst cranking would be impossible!
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The choke should stay wherever you put it, so if everything is as it should be you shouldn't need to be doing that.
 
I feel for you, when I used the Rover as my main car it was not an issue after 6 months, but now that I use my Japanese work car far more often I feel like I should move the ignition switch over to the other side, so even after more than 24 years familiarity with my car the left hand rifght hand issue remains.


Graeme
 
As an S1 owner, i don't have the same problem - and Lucky is my daily driver so it's all the rest that are wrong!

Seriously though - can you think of any other cars that had a steering lock in 1968 - which is when the first P6 steering locks were fitted? Back then there wasn't a correct side to have it, so we're just unfortunate that the rest failed to copy the trendsetter precisely!

Chris
 
Brian-Northampton said:
The choke should stay wherever you put it
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Yep - with the compulsory accessory of the clothes peg - but it's gotta be a period wooden one! :D
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I remember my dad always used a 5p piece for the job, seemed to always be there in our rangie.

I love the dash ignition switch, it's these quirky bits that make a P6 so special.
 
I used to use a wooden clothes peg on the choke after the eccentric had worn off, but that was with the original 3.5 only. The 4.6 only ever needs the choke for a second or so and then it is pushed home, but in both cases I turn the key with my left hand and use the choke with my right.

I too love the location of the ignition key, so much nicer than having it in the side of the steering column.

Ron.
 
Yes, I really like it on the left as well. It just seems neater somehow! Also, when you think about it, the vast majority of ignition switches were on the left side of the wheel in the 50s & 60s. Not next to the wheel mind, but way out in the middle of the dash somewhere like on the S1, so I suppose moving it to a position right next to the column was 'progress' of some sort. That, and the steering lock system is very useful!

Michael
 
I quickly got used to the ignition switch being on the left. The one that still gets me sometimes is the indicator stalk being on the "wrong" side compared to most modern European cars. I suppose the other odd thing compared to most moderns is that the wiper switch is on the dash. As for chokes, most people under the age of thirty-something who have been in my car don't know what a choke is. If they look under the bonnet, they usually point to the carbs and ask what they are. To me a P6 still seems to be a reasonably modern car but when I stop to think that they all now about 40 years old, I can appreciate how truly groundbreaking they must have been in the 1960s.

I can understand why the P6 won the European Car of the Year in 1964. Mind you, as I reckon a nostalgia has a lot to do with classic cars, if I had been in my 40s in 1964, perhaps I might have been grumbling that the P6 wasn't a proper motor because it didn't have sidevalves, running boards and starting handle :?: :D .

Out of curiousity, I looked up the origin of the word nostalgia and found:-
nostalgia1770, "severe homesickness" (considered as a disease), Mod.L. (cf. Fr. nostalgie, 1802), coined 1668 by Johannes Hofer as a rendering of Ger. heimweh, from Gk. nostos "homecoming" + algos "pain, grief, distress" (see -algia).
 
I get the odd person in the street asking about my 820, "Don't see many of them any more" usual stuff, and I still think it's brand new :LOL:

Mind you according to 'how many left' there are only 12 of this model on the road.
 
chrisyork said:
Seriously though - can you think of any other cars that had a steering lock in 1968 - which is when the first P6 steering locks were fitted? Back then there wasn't a correct side to have it, so we're just unfortunate that the rest failed to copy the trendsetter precisely!

Chris
Click to expand...

Steering locks became compulsory in the US in about 1968/9 I think. Certainly VW Campers and Beetles from '68 onwards had steering column locks as standard. You could buy steering locks as an optional extra for a Beetle as early as the late 50s. :)

ECE regulations on anti-theft came into force in the early 70s, so most cars had steering column locks by then ;)

Jim.
 
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