Maybe I’m becoming a bit senile, but the other day I couldn’t remember which way an electric window switch should function.
Is it push down or pull back to open?
It’s one of those muscle memory functions you take for granted but when faced with a new van that had the switches wired differently, it really stumped me. Was I losing my mind, or are all windows opened like this? I pushed down. I pulled back. I did it again. And again.
I still couldn’t figure it out. Then it dawned on me… It doesn’t matter. Both actions make sense, in a way.
Logically, pushing down should open a window. Push down, window goes down.
Equally, pull up and the window goes up.
But when you really think about it - and trust me, I’ve thought about this far too much - pulling up open also makes sense, like peeling a lid/window back, or conversely, pushing down to seal it shut. There’s a perverse logic to it however you look at it.
So why all this concern about windows?
Well, I’ve just encountered a new foe. A dual function window switch.
It was on a Volkswagen ID Buzz GTX, the posh 4x4 hot version of the ID Buzz Cargo passenger van. But it's on all manner of VW passenger cars and the joint-venture Ford models too.
Amazingly the rear sliding windows were electric - that’s probably a first for me - but more baffling were having just two window switches.
Two switches to control both the front and the rear windows!
Volkswagen’s obsession with touch functions (like the sliding heat and volume controls in the centre dash) now appears to extend to the windows. A touch on the word “rear” will provoke a fairly dim-witted swap to controlling the back windows, once the word is illuminated. Touch it again and it switches off and you're back to controlling the front windows.
It works, sort of. It removes some switch clutter too, and no doubt it saves a few Euro cents in costs. But it’s also really impractical.
You open windows in a rush (usually), to speak to someone, to get some fast needed fresh air, or to dish out some abusive gestures in the direction of another motorist. You don’t have time to toggle or untoggle an additional step with a sensitive haptic button that doesn't work very well.
So, while it’s perfectly acceptable to reverse wire a window switch, so up is down and down is up, adding an extra step to simply lowering a window is a step too far for me.
It’s over engineered and it’s annoying beyond belief.
