DCI Vera Stanhope drives an old Land Rover Discovery . Under the windshields are two like vent things, look like little doors. What are they for ? I never saw them open.
They’re not just like vents; they are vents. You open them to improve the flow of fresh air through the cabin. There’s a mesh behind the openable cover to prevent insects, etc, being blown into the car.
Retro technology, but it works.
You never see them open in Vera because Vera is set in the English North East, where making the interior of your car colder is not often a pressing issue.
Thank you. Weird car.
…I went looking for a photo and it has its own wiki page! LOL.
[ETA] Lead me to a YouTube video!
You need a special license for a manual in the UK??
Thanks.
Well, what do you know - you do! It looks like it’s an add-on rather than a separate license. That’s a good idea, actually. I’d like to see the US (well, each state) require a separate endorsement for gigantic pickup trucks as well.
Land Rover’s whole schtick, for a long time, was that their vehicles were basic, but indestructible. They were reliable, and would last more or less for ever. The Land Rover was introduced in 1948, basically as a jeep for civilian use, and the company claimed in 1992 that 70% of all the vehicles they had ever produced were still operating.
The front vents were introduced in the 1950s, and are very much of a piece with this philosophy. They’re unpowered and have minimal moving parts and, therefore, there is not much to go wrong, and they ventilate the interior effectively — some would say too effectively, but nuance was not a feature of Land Rover design. I think they continued to feature until the mid-2000s, when a dashboard redesign meant they had to be replaced by a different ventilation system. However the ghost outlines of the vent covers were still pressed being into the bodywork panel for a number of years after that.
A friend of mine had one. The electric motors (yes, there were two) for the windshield wipers were mounted right below the windshield, just above the vents that prompted the OP. If the motor was broken, there was a small handle you could twist back and forth to move the wiper manually.
I don’t know If the Land Rover was all that reliable, but it was simple.
Why?
There’s nothing special about driving a pickup truck. Most are automatic these days. They don’t really drive any different than a car. They’re just bigger. But they still fit on the roads.
What do you think is so different about them as to require a separate endorsement?
They have a reputation for poor reliability. They rank consistently low in consumer reliability ratings, but I have also heard many people say that they’ve never had an issue with theirs. Whether or not that poor reputation is deserved, it does affect their resale value.
My Model T has a manually operated wiper. I wouldn’t expect a handle on anything more modern. 
I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Most of us in the UK learn to drive manual as standard (since manual cars are cheaper and more common), which qualifies us drive manual or automatic. We tend to see “automatic only” as a restricted licence.
I edited the title to be more descriptive
Don’t drive many British cars, do you? The vent on my Triumph TR 3 hopefully whips up with a pull of the dash knob. It directs outside air into the heater core and a waft of air makes its way to your right knee. Along with a spray of water if the drain hose is plugged. A common question on the Triumph forums is “How in the hell do I get my vent back together”? With the pull mechanism, the 1930s designed hinges and a spring it is not obvious.
I’m being a bit cranky, but even though the trucks should fit on the roads (and, specifically, in parking spaces), you wouldn’t know it by the way so many of their owners drive. Then again, I’d like to see every driver have to prove they can parallel park before being given a license in the US. It just seems like states here really don’t require anyone to demonstrate more than very minimal skill in driving in order to get out on the roads in any vehicle they want.
Ohh, yes!! And a two page justification for buying one, and no “small penis” doesnt count.
How many cars get 12 MPG? Or dont fit in a standard parking space?
That was part of the test when I got my license at age 16 in WV. Other states may vary, I suppose. We also had to do a 3 point turn.
We’re not all assholes.
I don’t remember MPG being any part of my driver’s test.
I have two pickup trucks (there’s a long story behind that, but it’s not at all interesting so I’m not going to bother).
And yes, my old beater truck does get about 12 MPG. Actually 13 the last time I measured it, but close enough. But it also has gotten me home through more than one blizzard, driving on back country roads that not only hadn’t been plowed but didn’t even have any other tire tracks on them. And I can put full 4x8 sheets of plywood or drywall in the bed. My Buick gets much better gas mileage, but it can’t drive through deep snow like a lifted truck with 36" tires can, and it can’t carry sheets of plywood or drywall or a ton of bricks (literally - a friend of mine ordered pavers and needed me to get them from Home Depot to her house, and when I calculated the weight it was almost exactly 1 ton). I can’t haul away couches and other bits of furniture that a previous tenant left in one of my apartments in my Buick. I can’t haul firewood in my Buick. I can’t throw the transmission from my son’s truck into the back of my Buick to take it to the shop to get rebuilt.
And my other truck is longer (full 8 foot bed and a crew cab) and it doesn’t quite fit into a standard Walmart parking space (it’s too long). So I park farther away in the parking lot and take up two spaces, or I park on the back side of the lot so that the back end of the truck can hang over the grass, then it fits into one space. I live in a small town, so I have no problem parallel parking the beast. It’s exactly the same as parallel parking a car, you just need a bit more space. The procedure is exactly the same.
I need a special license to people like you can bitch at me about how you just don’t like pickup trucks? I need my truck (well, one of them). A car can’t do things that a truck can do.
I guess I’m a bit cranky, too. But I do get tired of people who just assume that everyone who drives a large pickup is an asshole.
Ditto in Massachusetts, a state but known for great drivers. 
I actually don’t have a problem with people owning huge trucks! I’ve just seen too many people driving brand-new huge trucks without the necessary spatial awareness.
Come to think of it, we would probably all benefit from having to retake both the written and road tests periodically.
My problem with large trucks, and their drivers, is when I’m at an intersection and need to look to the left and right to see when it’s safe to pull forward. That’s when a truck will pull up right next to me and its hood is so high that it blocks my vision in that direction. I’m stuck at the intersection until the truck moves and I can see both ways again.
The thing is, I’m pretty sure the driver of that truck is sitting high enough that he can see over the roof of my car and doesn’t need to pull so far forward to see any crossing traffic.
I was just going to say this! Perhaps it’s becoming more popular, as it’s decades since I took my test, but it’s pretty unusual to pass a test to drive automatic only. In my day, I don’t recall it even being an option.
Parallel parking is one of three manoeuvres you could be asked to perform in a UK driving test (others being forward and reverse bay parking). Our tests are known for being quite demanding!