Bottle-opener in the new Volkswagen Golf GTI 30

[BoyBach]

3,000 people are killed or seriously injured on our roads each year in drink drive related crashes and nearly one in six of all deaths on the road involve drivers who are over the legal limit.

- UK Department for Transport


I've just finished reading the 'Motoring' section in today's Independent, and in their 'The Verdict' review of the new Golf GTI Edition 30 one the reviewers wrote that it includes "a bottle-opener in the centre console..."

Given the number of deaths on the roads each year and 'boy racer' tag associated with the Golf GTI is this not irresponsible, leaning towards being offensive?

Or am I just sounding like an overreacting 'Daily Mail reader'?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

I suppose it could be argued that there are plenty of non-alcoholic drinks that require a bottle opener for you to get into them. I suppose that you could also argue that while a driver is concentrating on opening his beverage (non-alcoholic or otherwise) he isn't properly concentrating on the road.

Of course, it would be fine for a passenger to use it or for the driver to open a bottle of pop when parked. I'll stay off the righteous fury in this instance.

 

[nw43]

Or am I just sounding like an overreacting 'Daily Mail reader'?

Yep , but then the Independent is basically something of a left-wing Daily Mail (Typical Headline: Global Warming - We're all doomed!)

Actually, I bought it today also and read that article. But the bottle opener is nothing new - my parents have had a Golf Plus (hardly a boy racer's car) for a while and it also came with a bottle opener.

 

[Felldownthewell]

It is a gimicky thing, like the American Golfs which had a stereo system into which you could plug in a a guitar. It is just as dangerous to drive and play "Stairway to Heaven" as it is to drive and open a bottle, possibly as dangerous as it is to drink and drive.

Obviously, if you are stupid enough to drink and drive, not having a bottle opener in your dash will not stop you, and having it will make all of your passengers and root-beer drinking children quite happy.

 

[Chundles]

Well, the passengers could still drink beer. So long as the driver's not drink-driving it's OK.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Well, the passengers could still drink beer. So long as the driver's not drink-driving it's OK.

Not necessarily – in some places (including certain parts of the States, I believe) it is illegal for an open container of alcohol to be in a vehicle, whether the driver has drunk any of it or not.

 

[Chundles]

Not necessarily – in some places (including certain parts of the States, I believe) it is illegal for an open container of alcohol to be in a vehicle, whether the driver has drunk any of it or not.

Yeah but I'm not in any of those places so I don't care.

So long as the driver hasn't been drinking it doesn't matter what the passengers are drinking.

 

[devilot]

Not necessarily – in some places (including certain parts of the States, I believe) it is illegal for an open container of alcohol to be in a vehicle, whether the driver has drunk any of it or not.

I thought it was all throughout the US?

Yup, no open alcoholic beverage or container in the passenger areas (incld. driver), basically you could put it in the trunk I guess.

 

[Queso]

But isn't Babycham screw-top? I thought that's what all Golf owners drank

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Yeah but I'm not in any of those places so I don't care.

Of course – you're Australian. Don't bottle openers come as standard on Utes?

I thought it was all throughout the US?

You're probably right – it's just something I remember reading and I couldn't recall if it was a nationwide thing or not.

 

[panoz7]

I thought it was all throughout the US?

Yep, it's a federal law. Here's info from the NHSTA. Individual states can choose not to enforce it (I'm not sure if any do) at the cost of federal funding.

I have no problem with them including a bottle opener... I actually find it kind of cool.

 

[Abstract]

I suppose it could be argued that there are plenty of non-alcoholic drinks that require a bottle opener for you to get into them.

But I think that most of them are of the alcoholic variety.


I don't know. If I had one in my car, I wouldn't use it for beer, and so I'm hoping it would be the same for other people. I don't trust everyone elses judgement though, so for my own safety, I'd rather VW take it out.

 

[Sun Baked]

But I think that most of them are of the alcoholic variety.


I don't know. If I had one in my car, I wouldn't use it for beer, and so I'm hoping it would be the same for other people. I don't trust everyone elses judgement though, so for my own safety, I'd rather VW take it out.

Just replace it with something more useful, like a Trojan dispenser.