# The most useless accessory in my car is now even more useless **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 3, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612 "2012-03-03T01:54:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/121 "2016-02-26T14:32:43Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Bumping this because the big day is coming up. You couldn’t have waited until the 28th, even? Now we have to spend days in anxious anticipation! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/122 "2016-02-26T15:12:45Z")
Yeah, I was going to bump this on Sunday with a “here we go…” ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/123 "2016-02-26T15:17:22Z")
If I didn’t already mention it earlier in the thread… I’ve had the Santa Fe since it was new (2003). I honestly don’t remember this happening in 2004 or 2008. So I’m very curious to see what happens this year. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/124 "2016-02-26T16:19:33Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > If I didn’t already mention it earlier in the thread… I’ve had the Santa Fe since it was new (2003). I honestly don’t remember this happening in 2004 or 2008. So I’m very curious to see what happens this year. So, as far as you can recall, it only happened in 2012? It certainly seems like you would notice something like this if it happened before that, since the date would be wrong from that point on. The service bulletin does say “_may_ not display correctly”, so maybe there has to be a confluence of more than one thing. Curiouser and curiouser. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/125 "2016-02-26T17:11:39Z")
The service note is from April of 2004 so it happened to some people at the first opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/126 "2016-02-26T17:31:03Z")
Oh man I forgot about this. Thanks for bumping. I’ll be tuning in. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/127 "2016-02-26T20:49:37Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > If I didn’t already mention it earlier in the thread… I’ve had the Santa Fe since it was new (2003). I honestly don’t remember this happening in 2004 or 2008. So I’m very curious to see what happens this year. Having read through the first part of thread before realizing it was started almost 4 years ago, you mention the same thing happened in 2004 and 2008 but you just reset it soon after. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/128 "2016-02-26T20:55:10Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > … I doubt I’ll still have this vehicle 4 years from now! It’s a 2003 Hyundai. That’s a give. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/129 "2016-02-26T21:01:01Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > If I didn’t already mention it earlier in the thread… I’ve had the Santa Fe since it was new (2003). I honestly don’t remember this happening in 2004 or 2008. So I’m very curious to see what happens this year. Having the advantage of just reading the whole thread for the first time, you said this in post #20: > [@Shoeless](#): > > It didn’t work in 2008 (or 2004) but I just reset it instead of waiting to see how far it would go. This time around I decided to have some fun with it. I doubt I’ll still have this vehicle 4 years from now! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/130 "2016-02-27T19:11:41Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > Having read through the first part of thread before realizing it was started almost 4 years ago, you mention the same thing happened in 2004 and 2008 but you just reset it soon after. Huh. Well, OK. Jeez, the memory is really starting to go… ☹ Good thing I have a paper trail. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/131 "2016-02-28T16:27:21Z")
Then it probably is just a code error after all. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/132 "2016-03-01T15:13:32Z")
Feb 30! ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/133 "2016-03-01T16:14:39Z")
YES! ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/134 "2016-03-01T19:41:22Z")
Okay. I think we’ve established that it’s a reproducible error that apparently occurs every time certain conditions are met (the end of Feb. on leap years) and that it’s a problem in more than one unit. In fact, it happens in enough units that there’s a service bulletin about it. So at this point it’s kind of uninteresting; unless we want to try to deduce the exact coding error, which is almost certainly impossible without access to the code. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/135 "2016-03-01T19:56:16Z")
Your OP is misnamed. The calendar has provided entertainment for 12 years now. What other part of your car has done so? ---
**Author:** ![heartsplayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d9b06d/32.png) [@heartsplayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heartsplayer)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/136 "2016-03-01T23:00:43Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Feb 30! Pahaha! 😃 I’d have thought that most devices that have a date display, would actually have it programmed so that the year could be inputted - and then the program/processor would actually realize just how many days are in each month - so you wouldn’t end up with nonsense such as Feb 30! 😉 😃 ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/137 "2016-03-03T16:16:21Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Your OP is misnamed. The calendar has provided entertainment for 12 years now. What other part of your car has done so? Indeed. It’s entertained a lot of us here. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/138 "2016-03-03T17:07:46Z")
Yeah, but only every four years. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Geneaholic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Geneaholic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geneaholic)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/139 "2016-04-21T13:30:39Z")
My 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe (bought new) had this same issue this year. As of this past Tuesday, it read Feb. 79, so that should make today Feb. 81. We, too, were wondering what would happen after it hit 99. My son thought it would turn to 00 and start over. I would imagine this would have happened each leap year prior except we changed the date before it got too far. It seems I have seen as late as Feb. 32 on it before, but didn’t think to let it run. I think it got much further this year because, the OP is right, it is a pretty useless feature and I didn’t even catch it that early this time. My husband works as a service advisor, though not for Hyundai, and no, this isn’t something we would take in to the dealer. Far easier just to change it manually, no? So, I just read through this entire thread, and what I gather from the OP is that I can expect after Feb. 99 it will turn to degree symbol 0 and then eventually up to degree symbol 9, then cycle regularly from degree symbol 0 to degree symbol 9 unless and until the battery is disabled and that resets the calendar? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612/140 "2016-04-21T13:51:07Z")
Another specimen to examine! Let’s see if the behavior is identical… ETA: Given Google’s love of this board, I suppose that it was inevitable that we’d eventually get someone else reporting the same behavior. Welcome **Geneaholic**. Stay with us, update us on your clock, and check out the rest of the board! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-useless-accessory-in-my-car-is-now-even-more-useless/614612.md?page=8)