Figuring Out the Explorer

Being the simpleton that I am, I find certain cars, mainly newer American cars, have way too much automation that takes responsibility out of your own hands, whether it's automatically locking your doors or turning on the lights for you. They remove the need to think and allow you to go through life like a mindless robot, and in the end, I just get overwhelmed and end up using a fraction of them. Case in point, my Mentor's Explorer.

Mind you, I'm not complaining, I love that car. As a matter of fact, being in possession of only one car, I love any car that runs and gets us from point A to B, but how many settings do you really need for the windshield wipers? There must be at least 15 speeds, and I find myself getting all OCD over finding just the right speed. In a way, too many choices simply bog you down.

Another problem I have been having is with the darn headlights. One thing I've never really been a big fan of are lights on cars that you cannot turn off. Another thing I find disconcerting is when the lights don't turn off after you've killed the ignition. I assumed you could adjust these issues, but never knew how. Until now, that is.

I just learned that the adjustment for the lights is in, of all places, the rear-view mirror. Go figure. Now, not only are the lights under manual control, but they no longer stay on after I turn the car off. The funny thing is, as disparaging as you can be about automation, you get used to it and find that, at least at first, you kind of miss it. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Sasan Saidi for the pick.