james SEZ -
> My dad's Audi A4 has them, and I have always felt that they looked green
> when they dim. I have a four panel wink mirror in my V8 and like you said,
> I only notice it when I realize that I am not being blinded.
My evil dolphin-killing Trailblazer has them as well, and they
do turn slightly green when active, like a pair of sunglasses.
There is also a slight double image effect, so I assume the
dimming layer is somewhat separated from the reflective layer.
All this fancy-shmancy stuff on cars and trucks today makes me
wonder if any vehicle made in the last 20 or so years will ever
have any collector value. In a few decades all this stuff will
be obsolete or broken with replacement parts unavailable.
I have a hard time imagining, say, a 2003 Silverado ever becoming
someone's beloved old beater pickup truck like the trucks my
friends owned in their teens and twenties (and some even own now).
I really liked my 1995 Blazer, but I lost interest in it fast when
I learned that after 250,000 miles, it would need a $4000 engine
rebuild to combat *electrolysis* from some as-yet-unidentified
computer-comtrolled something with a bad ground under the hood
that had trashed two heater cores in three months.
It seemed like a yuppie Eldorado when I bought it, but the
new one has the computer tied into *everything*! It will even
turn off the dome light if you leave it on too long. IT has
two fuse/breaker blocks with dozens of fuses in each, and
even a mysterious cooling fan that runs inside one of the
door pillars for several minutes when the engine is shut off.
This ain't no shade-tree mechanic's vehicle, if such a car or
truck is even made today. When it starts to act up, it's off
to the crusher I'll bet.
In contrast, the primitive zero-electronic driving experience of
my MGA (as I remember it and hope to experience it again this
summer when it's back on the road) is refreshingly minimalist.
And I'm sure you'll still be able to buy the same U-joint that
fits any MG (through the MGB) made since 1928 in 2028, but the
self-dimming mirror for the Trailblazer will have been discontinued
long ago.
--
David Breneman | "Before there were CDs there were
Distributed Systems S/W Analyst | records, and before there were
Airborne Express, Inc. | records, there were 78s."
david.breneman@airborne.com | --- Seen on eBay
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