'If cars were made by Micro$oft'

1. Everyone would have the same engine and a sticker on the side showing
where the maker got it.

2. The car would regularly stop for no reason when performing a common
maneuvre. When you restarted it, it would appear to work normally, but would
sometimes force you to restart your journey, and occasionally you would have
to strip the vehicle down and re-install all the parts.

3. If you fitted a new wing mirror, the car might not work any more.

4. In any case, as well as buying the mirror you would have to buy new
seats, tyres, and windscreen wipers to, because it would only be possible to
obtain spares in a bundle.

5. When you turned on the radio, the car might tell you the battery was low
and you must turn off another device (such as the headlights) if you wanted
to use the radio.

6. All the warning lights for oil, petrol, electricity, brakes, and airbags,
would be installed as a single message which would flase: "Something is
wrong, please stop the car." When you started up again, you wouldn't know if
there was still a fault.

7. When you called for help, you would have to ring a freephone helpline and
select the touchtone number for the repair you wished to have done. An
automated voice would walk you through repairing the car yourself , and when
that didn't work would referyou to the company that sold the petrol.

8. Every time you bought a new car, it would have a bigger engine and a
bigger boot, but would go no faster, use any less space and work no better.
It would also have extra features (like animated spark plug) that were of no
use whatever.

9. The re-sale value would drop 75% as soon as you drove out of the
showroom, and would be zero within two years.

10. Another manufacturer would make a car that came full of optional
equipment, powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as
easy to drive. But people wouldn't buy it because it's not 'the standard'.