Car phone

Jeetesh

Member
When was the last time you saw a car phone, let alone one in an A2?

D002644B-CAEA-41F1-AA85-530CF57D8784.jpeg
 
The last time I had a car phone was in 28years ago...I was the king of the lads, we used to ring the pub to order our beers!!!!
Fully plumbed in to the car too, with a long flexi wire....happy days!
 
It was a very yuppie thing was a car phone and therefore aspirational probably 30 years ago. Considering the oldest A2’s are circa 20 years old, + 5 years for development puts it at 25 years so thereabouts on your timeline.

The thing I can’t get my head around is why 20 years ago it was an option when the world had moved on. It wasn’t socially acceptable to talk on a hand held phone whilst driving even 20 years ago........was it?
 
The last time I had a car phone was in 28years ago...I was the king of the lads, we used to ring the pub to order our beers!!!!
Fully plumbed in to the car too, with a long flexi wire....happy days!

You do know, if that long flexi wire went all the way back to the socket in your living room, that wasn't technically a car phone? :D
 
A quick google on it says that in 2003 it became illegal to use your phone whilst driving in the Uk, but fines were introduced as late as 2007! Strangely, when I was a sales rep, it was the done thing and having a car phone would speed things up because you could call the orders through on the way to your next garage!!!!! It was actually encouraged by the big bosses....how times have changed (for the better I must add)
 
A quick google on it says that in 2003 it became illegal to use your phone whilst driving in the Uk, but fines were introduced as late as 2007! Strangely, when I was a sales rep, it was the done thing and having a car phone would speed things up because you could call the orders through on the way to your next garage!!!!! It was actually encouraged by the big bosses....how times have changed (for the better I must add)

Funnily enough I did start to write a reply saying I thought attitudes only started to change around the mid noughties. Amazing looking back to think it was legal for so long. I guess the thinking was that it's perfectly legal to talk to someone in the car, so what's the harm in talking to that same person, just via a phone.

I'm old enough to remember the wearing of seat-belts become compulsory. As a kid, I remember my brother and I traveling in my uncle's Escort (MKII) van with the seat-belt around both of us sitting side by side. Also, lots of people would hold the seat-belt around them without engaging it 'we're only going down the road, I'll just hold it'. What was that all about?

Around the same time, drink driving was still seen as pretty much: Meh. Shouldn't really do it, but one for the road and all that.

Amazing how times change and how things appear when we look back.

I should point out that I'm not 94, but 49, so we're hardly talking 'that' long ago, the above would have been, what mid-late Seventies, very early '80's.

EDIT: Compulsory seat-belt wearing in front of the car? Not, 1970, 75 or 80 but last day of 1983 (A reg then?). Seems incredibly late to me.
 
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Funnily enough I did start to write a reply saying I thought attitudes only started to change around the mid noughties. Amazing looking back to think it was legal for so long. I guess the thinking was that it's perfectly legal to talk to someone in the car, so what's the harm in talking to that same person, just via a phone.

I'm old enough to remember the wearing of seat-belts become compulsory. As a kid, I remember my brother and I traveling in my uncle's Escort (MKII) van with the seat-belt around both of us sitting side by side. Also, lots of people would hold the seat-belt around them without engaging it 'we're only going down the road, I'll just hold it'. What was that all about?

Around the same time, drink driving was still seen as pretty much: Meh. Shouldn't really do it, but one for the road and all that.

Amazing how times change and how things appear when we look back.

I should point out that I'm not 94, but 49, so we're hardly talking 'that' long ago, the above would have been, what mid-late Seventies, very early '80's.

EDIT: Compulsory seat-belt wearing in front of the car? Not, 1970, 75 or 80 but last day of 1983 (A reg then?). Seems incredibly late to me.

Compulsory fitting was 1967 (front) 1987 (rear)


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Funnily enough I did start to write a reply saying I thought attitudes only started to change around the mid noughties. Amazing looking back to think it was legal for so long. I guess the thinking was that it's perfectly legal to talk to someone in the car, so what's the harm in talking to that same person, just via a phone.

I'm old enough to remember the wearing of seat-belts become compulsory. As a kid, I remember my brother and I traveling in my uncle's Escort (MKII) van with the seat-belt around both of us sitting side by side. Also, lots of people would hold the seat-belt around them without engaging it 'we're only going down the road, I'll just hold it'. What was that all about?

Around the same time, drink driving was still seen as pretty much: Meh. Shouldn't really do it, but one for the road and all that.

Amazing how times change and how things appear when we look back.

I should point out that I'm not 94, but 49, so we're hardly talking 'that' long ago, the above would have been, what mid-late Seventies, very early '80's.

EDIT: Compulsory seat-belt wearing in front of the car? Not, 1970, 75 or 80 but last day of 1983 (A reg then?). Seems incredibly late to me.
I’m 43 and remember all of those things and what seemed socially acceptable at the time. For that I’m glad things have changed.
 
Compulsory fitting was 1967 (front) 1987 (rear)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes, and think there was an element of retrospective fitting required for some cars as well.

Even so, it took, what, sixteen years before you 'had' to wear them in the front.

@Jeetesh Totally agree: there's an awful lot of things that are best left in the dustbin of time.
 
Yes, and think there was an element of retrospective fitting required for some cars as well.

Even so, it took, what, sixteen years before you 'had' to wear them in the front.

The law required seat belt anchorage points to be fitted to new cars from (I believe) 31 Jan 1965. However, that regulation didn't specify 3-point belts.

Three years later, 31st January 1968, was when having belts fitted to new cars became a requirement, and 3-point belts were specifically mandated. Cars that had 3-point anchorage fittings from 1965 forward were then required to get the belts fitted. However, this affected very few, as the vast majority of cars had been sold with 2-point fittings.

The only car I bought new in my entire life was a 1966 Saab Sport, and that came from new fitted with lap belts, which I certainly wouldn't have chosen. It was also the first car I had ever experienced with heated seats and mirrors; in that respect at least well ahead of its time.

In 1983 the wearing of front seat belts when fitted didn't distinguish between types, and I rather reluctantly started wearing the lap belt despite its very doubtful efficacy.
 
Lap belts, so your choices in a head on collision were:

No belt = dead
Lap belt = probably paralysed from the waist down.

Clearly you wouldn’t choose either, and off the somber part of the topic let’s get back to the car phone and ridiculing that!
 
The last time I had a car phone was in 28years ago...I was the king of the lads, we used to ring the pub to order our beers!!!!
Fully plumbed in to the car too, with a long flexi wire....happy days!
Funnily enough I did start to write a reply saying I thought attitudes only started to change around the mid noughties. Amazing looking back to think it was legal for so long. I guess the thinking was that it's perfectly legal to talk to someone in the car, so what's the harm in talking to that same person, just via a phone.

I'm old enough to remember the wearing of seat-belts become compulsory. As a kid, I remember my brother and I traveling in my uncle's Escort (MKII) van with the seat-belt around both of us sitting side by side. Also, lots of people would hold the seat-belt around them without engaging it 'we're only going down the road, I'll just hold it'. What was that all about?

Around the same time, drink driving was still seen as pretty much: Meh. Shouldn't really do it, but one for the road and all that.

Amazing how times change and how things appear when we look back.

I should point out that I'm not 94, but 49, so we're hardly talking 'that' long ago, the above would have been, what mid-late Seventies, very early '80's.

EDIT: Compulsory seat-belt wearing in front of the car? Not, 1970, 75 or 80 but last day of 1983 (A reg then?). Seems incredibly late to me.
As a former driving instructor and defensive (advanced) instructor, predominantly re-educating company car drivers, the argument re talking to passengers - v - talking on the phone whilst driving being the same was one I regularly faced. The fact that a passenger would understand why you had stopped speaking in more difficult road conditions, unfamiliar road layouts for example, or when another road user caused you to take evasive action, was my reply of choice.
On the other hand, having been on the road since 1963, first as a motorcyclist (without a helmet unless to keep dry and warm at times), but with cars since 1966, I well recall cars without safety related fittings. At the time that air bags were introduced, a fellow driving instructor made the point that, rather than an air bag popping out of the steering wheel in the event of a collision, a six inch nail permanently protruding from the hub would deter the driving behaviour that caused collisions in the first place.
I also recall a friend having a white jumper with a suitably placed diagonal black stripe knitted at the time seat belt wearing became compulsory so as to avoid having to fit belts in his old Land Rover.
 
When was the last time you saw a car phone, let alone one in an A2?

View attachment 64162
I've seen this optional extra fitted to loads of A2s when I've been working on A2s in Central Europe. They're actually really useful, because it's possible to get cradles for iPhones and such, meaning the feature isn't at all obsolete.

Cheers,

Tom
 
I've seen this optional extra fitted to loads of A2s when I've been working on A2s in Central Europe. They're actually really useful, because it's possible to get cradles for iPhones and such, meaning the feature isn't at all obsolete.

Cheers,

Tom
Have you seen/fitted any in UK cars? Is anyone out there willing to admit they have one?

What does the OEM Apple iPhone cradle look like? it’s potentially another place to mount my phone without using the vent mounted cradle I currently have.
 
I have never seen this option installed in a UK A2. I suspect that the parts were only ever manufactured for left-hand-drive cars, unfortunately.

What you're looking at in the photo in the original post is two parts; the dock, and the cradle. The dock is fitted to the car, and the cradle is fitted to the phone. Of course, with phones of old, the dock provided both power and all hands-free audio functionality. With the new iPhone cradles, the dock only provides power; all hands-free audio is handled via Bluetooth.

Cheers,

Tom
 
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