where’s the ding?

around my place we have the fastest highway in the united states…

…and i’ve discussed that several times, so we won’t re-hash.

but the other day i followed a car on the stretch from US 183 to IH-35 (about eight miles) who had their left turn signal on the whole way. they were in the right lane, and NOT taking full advantage of the situation, barely going seventy-five (which is below the posted speed limit) but i was curious how LONG the signal would stay on and if they’d ever cross into my lane (the left lane) but they never did. they then got on i-35 around onion creek and continued north…blinking all the way!

it made me long for a feature in a car i had when i would never long for the car itself – my 1998 chevy malibu ls.

it was special in the sense that it was the first car i actually picked out. all the others before it i shared with mom (i say “others”, but there were only two – a chevy caprice classic from 1985 and a chevy cavalier from 1991) so this was the first one completely my doing. it definitely had some positives to it, but one little feature i’ve never had before or since – turn signal alerting.

i don’t know if that’s officially what it’s called, but it’s what it did and it was awesome. i don’t typically drive with my signal on, but we’ve all made a lane change or a turn that wasn’t so extreme it made it kick off, and we’ve had the music loud enough to not hear the ticking of the signal, so you keep going with it on without meaning to. the ‘bu would cut the stereo volume down 75% and start making the chime like you took off without putting your seat belt on until you turned off the signal. when you did the tone would stop and the radio would go back up.

where the fuck is that in newer cars? i tried googling it (the phrase is “turn signal reminder”, apparently) and it’s available as a diy aftermarket thing but doesn’t mention it being on cars from the jump. that’s a damn shame…