What was your last car that had the dimmer switch on the floor?

[DURHAM D]

For me it was my 1973 Levi Gremlin.

Do you wish they would bring back the floor dimmer ?

[LuckyCharms]

1. 1972 Pontiac Catalina. n/t

[DURHAM D]

2. What percentage of DUers do you think even know what we are talking about? nt

[LuckyCharms]

10. I would say at least 75%!

[DURHAM D]

12. Really?

I had no idea.

[LuckyCharms]

14. Well, I'm 67 years old...

and I think a significant percentage of DUers are older than me.

I'm just guessing though.

[chicoescuela]

19. I am as well. My 80 CJ 5 had the dimmer switch on the floor.

I had others prior to Jeep also with floor dimmers
Another lost art

[LuckyCharms]

30. I miss it being on the floor.

Before the Pontiac, I had a '65 Chevy Impala and a '66 Ford Fairlane that both had floor switches.

I can't even figure out the lights on our 2 current cars.

[chicoescuela]

33. I do as well especially when driving a manual transmission.

Extra points for four points of contact and two feet.

[chicoescuela]

34. 65 Impalas were sweet. We had one when I was a kid.

Beautiful car

[hvn_nbr_2]

45. I had completely forgotten about that.

I'm 78 and I don't even remember when they changed it.

I do think it's a good idea not to put other controls close to the gas and brake pedals.

[Shellback Squid]

3. 85 CJ7

[Diamond_Dog]

4. It's been a long time!

My present car has the dimmer on a lever (my son says proper terminology is “stalk”) and since I use the one on the left so rarely I always forget which way to push it. It goes up, down, and towards me. I’d be happy if they put it back on the floor.

[Dave in VA]

5. 1972 Nova SS

instead of the little button it had a chrome piece that looked like a foot print! 👣

[DURHAM D]

9. Interesting - I have never seen one of those.

[Dave in VA]

13. It was something that we picked up at an auto parts store

It had a matching gas pedal, too!

edited to add link

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Barefoot-Gas-Accelerator-Pedal-Dimmer-Cover-Kit,340072.html?utm_medium=CSEGoogle&utm_source=CSE&utm_campaign=CSEGOOGLE&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23022589191&gbraid=0AAAAAD8-Mcl-iLWC6jV05TgwFTxUxKKzw&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwYrNBhDcARIsAGo3u30flJ0ZPWnAm4XmZjPJLZr2qv2PzvWhgiTeGiHwW_BqnJzFofcuvGkaAuKyEALw_wcB

[BigMin28]

6. 1973

Gold Plymouth Duster. It died in a flash flood on Halloween 1981. It was sad to see her go, but I made it.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

7. 1965 VW Beetle

This was in like 1985. The ragtop was duct-taped because the wood across the front had warped and because I lived in Iowa (heavy salt on the roads in the winter), the floorboards were rusted out and we could see the road whiz by our feet. Eventually, I had pressed the dimmer switch and it went straight through the floor.

Finally retired it. A guy from a monastery bought it off me for like $150 and they repurposed it into a garden tractor. Thought that was a pretty cool retirement!

[DURHAM D]

11. I had a '62 Beetle.

Eventually I could see the road under my feet. Loved that car.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

16. Seriously.

I learned to drive in a ’63. My dad parked us up a hill out in the country and made me switch seats and get us out of there. Quickly grew to love a stick and miss those cars a lot--though my Hyundai is a manual, too!

[Deuxcents]

36. My dad drove a red VW Beetle and I learned to drive when I was in high school..graduated in '65 so don't know what year

But the dimmer was on the floor, had a manual transmission and no gas gauge..it had a lever that was actually a reserve of fuel so when the car needed gas, ya just turned the lever and had plenty until ya filled up. Had to remember to turn the lever back so the whole tank got gas!

[love_katz]

47. My red 1964 VW bug had a gas gage.

The 1958 VW bug that was its replacement didn't have a gas gage ( it had the lever for the one gallon spare tank), and it also had the split rear window.
It was a fun car to drive. I learned to keep a notebook with records of fill-ups, number of gallons and gas mileage because the one gallon of spare gas was helpful, but you didn't want to push it too far.

[Onthefly]

8. 1969 Dodge Dart Sport

Convenient to use floor dimmer.

[SheltieLover]

15. '69 Ford Galaxy

[indigoth]

17. '74 dart

Worst car I ever owned.

[ABC123Easy]

18. Still have this car!

1968 Ford Mustang

[SheltieLover]

27. My 1st car was a '68 Mustang.

Loved it!

Enjoy!

[ABC123Easy]

40. Cool!

My first car too!



6 cylinder 200 cubic inches. No power steering or brakes, haha. Those vent windows in the front took care of the "air"

[WmChris]

20. 1952 Chevrolet Bel Air

Which I currently have in the body shop for new paint.

[chicoescuela]

35. Sounds sweet

[IcyPeas]

21. What's that? My first car was 1991. I had to roll the windows down manually and

I didn't even have cupholders.

Never heard of this floor dimmer .

[FuzzyRabbit]

25. What are these cupholders of which you speak?

Does your car have ashtrays? How come cars don't have ashtrays anymore? They were a handy place to put candy wrappers.

And wing windows for ventilation. And bench seats. Dating was a lot more fun with bench seats where your girl friend could move over next to you.

[DURHAM D]

32. Your trip down memory lane makes me smile. nt

[gab13by13]

22. 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 - 292

Stick shift on the column.

[FuzzyRabbit]

23. 1981 Toyota pickup.

[Bavorskoami]

24. 1986 F150

1986 - Ford F150 Lariat

[FadedMullet]

26. 1970 C10 Chevy Suburban. I can see it from here in my driveway. School bus yellow. Thing of beauty.

[Permanut]

28. 1941 Chevy..

Dang, that was a long time ago.

[doc03]

29. I think a 1974 Ford Bronco. nt

[walkingman]

31. 55 chevy....57 Chevy....back when the US made good automobiles that you could work on

and weren't made out of plastic and who knows what....

[Eugene]

37. 1976 AMC Hornet

I haven't missed it.

[FoxNewsSucks]

38. 1980 Pontiac Indy Pace Car Trans-Am

That was such a fun car, until the turbo totally fucked up around 40k miles.

I'm used to it on the turn-signal stalk since then, so I probably wouldn't change it

[duckworth969]

39. 70's Chrysler Newport

Yeah, bring it back. Good with my feet.

[kacekwl]

41. 1970 Olds 442 W30.

and 73 Jeep Commando.

[Aristus]

42. The earliest car I ever owned was from 1976.

I don’t remember it having a floor dimmer switch. I’m old enough to know what they are, though. They used to make after-market novelty metal feet to put over the dimmer switch. Just a fun little add-on. My grandfather had one of those in his car.

[justaprogressive]

43. 1967 Jeep CJ6

[Niagara]

44. Not my car. My boyfriend at the time had a 74 or 75 Olds Cutlass Supreme

He let me drive his spare car all the time even though I had my own car. This cars interior had a permanent smell of coconuts. Even as I type this I got a whiff of the car while reminiscing about it. The last time it was operatable was in the fall of 1994 and an unfortunate tie rode incident happened. I don't remember what became of that car.


It looked like the one in this photo, only it wasn't a pristine cream puff.




In my older phase of life, I would prefer a dimmer control closer to my hand instead of my foot, especially my left foot. The car I have now has a Activsense HBC system setting for automatic dimmer/high beams but I turned that setting off because it was in fact high beaming other vehicles.


P.S. That now ex-boyfriends main car was Plymouth Duster and the interior didn't smell like coconuts.

[LogDog75]

46. 1976 AMC Pacer

Yeah, I had the Moon Mobile and regardless of anyone else's opinion, I enjoyed that car.

[hunter]

48. Some cars had the window washer squirter on the floor too.

The pedal was the pump, it was not electric, your foot provided the motive force.

I remember driving cars like that but I don't remember the models.

Volkswagens had a water tank with a tire valve on it. After you refilled the washer fluid you pressurized the tank with air. You could use a small bicycle pump (my dad kept one in his VW van) but mostly you used the handy water and air hoses that every gas station kept next to the pumps. You didn't have to drive to the corner of the lot and put a quarter in some machine to get air or water; machines that are often out of order.

Ha, ha. I've turned into my grandpa. Thankfully I didn't have to start my first car by turning a crank on the front, but I did have to push start my cars occasionally which is no longer an option with modern cars.

[DURHAM D]

49. I forgot all about being able to start a car

by pushing it. Thanks for the memory.