This could have saved the Dymaxion car!
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You can turn that off, or rather you can knock it down to a single beep. I did it in my PIP using a cheap ELM327 interface and a laptop.
If the bloody stickshift wasnât backwards youâd never make that mistake and wouldnât need the beeper, eh? Love the Prius, hate the cockpit⌠godawful ergonomics plus insanely bad design.
But donât worry, you canât really turn it off, all you can do is knock it down to a single beep. Youâll need an ODBC interface widget and terminal software - if you get a USB version of the ELM327 itâll cost you $35 or thereabouts on Amazon, if you get a bluetooth one itâll be a bit more difficult but roughly the same price and obviously wireless (some people seem to value that).
Incidentally, if your prius is new enough to have a reverse beeper, thereâs a good chance it also has an external noisemaker. Youâll have to roll down the window and listen closely to hear it, though. It sounds very eery and uncarlike.
One of the stated reasons for minimum volume levels is because of blind pedestrians.
Which is just ridiculous. I am sighted, and I have no trouble at all hearing both the high pitched whine of the motors as well as the tires on the asphalt.
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Whistletips save lives!
The AMC Pacer was awesome. No matter where you sat in it, it always felt like you were in the middle.
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Am I the only one who was immediately reminded of this?;
The McLaren F1 of its day?
Good point and you are right, though I refer the honorable gentleman back to my previous response (and admission of sociopathy)
And if thereâs, say, a semi truck coming from the other way, does it
interfere in your ability to hear the nearly silent whine of a Prius?
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That thing is truly wonderful, but man⌠did it have to be a crappy old Datsun? Iâd do that conversion in a heartbeat to my Cougar, silence be damned.
I saw that, and youâre not building up any karma points here. My Cougar has its limitations, but one thing it has never been is leaky! Your ignoble calumny will cost you dearly in future alliances when next the Badass fleet lifts!
I havenât seen one in a while, but back in the early 90s you could go to Pep Boys and get a backup light bulb (something akin to a Sylvania 1156 that would work in a great many models) with a built-in beeper, so you could sound just like a reversing garbage truck. I put one on my 1981 Honda Civic, and hilarity did ensue.
Those Lake pipes sound exactly like the beginning of âHot For Teacher.â
I got this from my father, and Iâm totally mounting it on my next hybrid or electric car:
Adds an element of Harpo Marx levity to any safety situation! Also much quieter than a modern car horn, but still louder than yelling.
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All that yâall need is this:
Edit: this exists:
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Most modern engines are pretty quiet when not accelerating. Theyâre certainly drowned out by a truck, so you have the same problem.
I think itâs because itâs a crappy old Datsun that makes it so great.
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I think that just makes it funnier. I love my Cougar for many more reasons than for how it sounds, and itâs not even particularly fast, but it has become somewhat irresponsible to drive since it gets only 18mpg and has no emissions controls to speak of. Converting to an electric drivetrain would make it much more environmentally sound, while still being as gloriously pleasant to drive in the way a 45-year-old American convertible can be, that a Japanese econobox simply cannot.
Somebody will shut up and take my money before the day is out. I will have one!
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To be honest, Iâm not sold on the environmental cost of electric cars. Batteries are deadly toxic, both in manufacture and disposal. The search for better batteries is the search for heavier and more noxious heavy-metals.
Roll on the consumer Hydrogen engine.
Iâll take whatever I can get thatâll keep my Cougar on the road and wonât wilt the daisies.
