Once upon a time ... the dummy switch
07/30/2022
A modern car hardly has a "real" switch anymore. Even vital functions are operated via computer displays or programmable buttons. This has great advantages for the manufacturer, as there are fewer "mechanical" differences between individual examples of a model type, the individual functions can be programmed and possibly even sold at a later date. Brave new world!
It used to be different. The user interfaces of a car had to be designed for maximum equipment diversity. However, anyone buying a new car did not necessarily want full equipment and so the switches provided remained unused. Depending on the car, there were simply placeholders or covers, but some cars also had real "dummy switches" with no function. You could press it, but it didn't work.
If you bought a leanly equipped vehicle, you had a lot of dummy switches or covers and only very few were able to enjoy the maximum possible switches and functions.
But, as I said, that's a thing of the past. Blind switches no longer exist in modern vehicles. And that also means you miss out on the pleasure of guessing what certain switches would have been used for if they had been there ...
P.S. The two examples are from an Alfa Romeo GTV6 and a BMW 520/6 , both from the 1980s.
