Can't live, if living is without you.

[warren t claim]

I can cope without power steering, electric window and central locking but what I MUST have in a car is a working 12v power point/cigar lighter. I'm totally lost without one, quite literally 'cos I need it to power Garmin and phone.

 

What is your automobile essential item?

[retrogeezer]

I still remember those shenanigans at the Eastham Tap on your 205 trying to sort a ciggy lighter socket out! 

 

I like a decent/quick working heater for those cold early winter mornings..

[FredTransit]

WTFs going on with those tags!!! LMFAO!!!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

lol @ the tags.

 

I'm going to nominate central locking on 4 door cars, because having to unlock each door individually is a PITA. 

[Albert Ross]

Wheels are good.

[retrogeezer]

what tags?

[Rusty_Rocket]

I find an interior light pretty useful in the winter.. amazing the amount of cars I have to drive with no such working luxury 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Loving those tags. Essential item = windscreen

[FredTransit]

what tags?

look under the title at the top of the thread.........

[retrogeezer]

ah, I see what tags now.....new forum stuff!

[dieselnutjob]

automatic transmission

[dollywobbler]

12v outlet is a good one. Retro-fitted one to my 2CV and I now have to try and stop water getting into it because it leaks a lot. 

 

Visibility is my main must-have. Didn't like the Rover 75 because while it was good in many ways, it also felt a bit too much like a coffin with arrow slits. So, good mirrors and thin pillars thanks. The door glass on the Disco and BX is so enormous that I reckon I could recreate the Crystal Palace in my back garden.

[Doctormop]

Variable intermittent windscreen wipers,

[Jim Bell]

Demister and rear demister.

Never paid them any mind untill.......

Both packed up on a humid day during the worst storms/floods Newcastle has ever seen after I ran my old 309 through an intersection filled with water.

Had to then navigate the 12 miles home via a 36 mile route to avoid localised flash flooding, in thunderstorm monsoon downpours with limited front and rear visibility.

[rml2345]

After driving cms206s Maestro I'd probably say power steering is the one thing I can't do without. It's frigging ace. 

[Spiny Norman]

The most basic car I've driven regularly over the last few years was my '69 Amazon which had none of the modern accoutrements at all.

Its selling points were dual circuit brakes with a standard servo for '69 and the standard volcanic heater. The only thing I really missed in winter was a heated rear window and I guess some soundproofing might have helped me hear the stereo but other than that it was a perfectly useful car.

 

PAS is a necessity in moderns because they design them that way, but a lot of the cars I used to have didn't have it and none of them, with the possible exception of the Mk2 Cavvy which I always thought had very heavy steering for parking, really needed it. Power steering would have ruined a Fiat 128 or a Mk1 Golf, or most of the other little hatchbacks of the 89s & 90s.

 

Central locking's handy in a big 4 door but I don't really see the point on a diddy little 3 door hatch where you can easily reach the passenger door from the driver's seat. Remote locking is handy so long as it works remotely and you don't have to stand at the door waving the keyfob about like a nob to work the bloody thing, like I do in the Merc.

 

I'd actively like a car with manual windows again, I can't think of a single advantage electric winding brings to windows. Your arms are built for just such a task.

Cup holders, sat navs, radios with instruction books the thickness of a telephone directory that need a pair of tweezers to operate, and anything remotely to do with the operation of a mobile phone in a car can get to fuck, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[dollywobbler]

PAS isn't something I need, but 1980s and more recent cars without it always feel strange to me. Not sure if it's because I have an expectation that there should be assistance and sod all feedback, or if the variable-ratio racks a lot of manufacturers were using around then just feel a bit funny. The steering always seems to feel very different to say a 2CV, Morris Minor or BMC 1800.

 

An advantage to electric windows - if I've no passengers on board, I'll open any window but the driver's so I can have ventilation but not have wind noise in my ear. Also handy (if the door seals are up to it) for clearing excess rainwater/dew from the windows, though I find the spare wiper blade I have in the 2CV achieves this too for little more effort.

[Justin Case]

When using Mrs A's new Japanese Domestic Appliance, the 600 page (honestly ) handbook/ idiot guide

[autofive]

a V6

 

and (if you ask some people) flames

[vulgalour]

It's difficult to think of things that I don't already do without on the Princess.  I guess the heated rear screen is pretty vital as it helps clear the rain off the outside when the glass gets a little warmer than ambient temperature, really ought to have a rear wiper so I don't have to do that.  Power steering, electric windows, intermittent wipe, halogen lights, tape/cd/mp3 player, dipping/remote adjust side mirrors, central/remote locking... all these things I do without.  Maybe the only thing I'd be really uncomfortable not having is 3-point seatbelts.

[Wilko220]

I must admit to finding cup holders rather useful. Like a heated rear window too. Would happily do without most of the other stuff though.

[Junkman]

Remember the times when your cup holder sat next to you and wore a mini skirt?

Why was everything better and nicer in ye goode olde dayse...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'd actively like a car with manual windows again, I can't think of a single advantage electric winding brings to windows. 

 

I know I've beaten this drum before, but electric windows, electric mirrors and electric seats are all worse than their manual equivalents. 

They're slow as hell and if they need the ignition on, even worse. 

 

 

 

Maybe the only thing I'd be really uncomfortable not having is 3-point seatbelts.

 

Never mind three point belts, I just want inertias. Statics always find a way of migrating under the seat. 

[Hendry]

Comfy seats and a good seating position, I hate cars it's difficult to get comfortable in, those you don't feel fresh when you get out of at the end of a journey or those which give you back and leg pain, I also hate high seating positions or, particularly in the case of vans those you feel you are too close to the wheel and pedals in but move the seat any further back and you can reach them.

 

Current model 3 series BMWs, mk6 Astras are appalling. The worst modern cars I've driven are the Insignia (too many ways of being able to adjust the seat isn't good plus it feels like the lumbar support is always on even when you've pressed it in as far as it will go and digs into your back,) and the old model Kia Rio (11 plate type ones) you end every journey with a sore back, the seat is too low down and you are either at the right distance from the steering wheel but struggling to reach the pedals or the pedals are perfectly in reach and you feel like the steering wheel is in your stomach.

[Wilko220]

Remember the times when your cup holder sat next to you and wore a mini skirt?

...

As a man who spent most of his late teens and early twenties driving clapped out and deeply unfashionable Rovers, sadly I don't...

[eddyramrod]

the seat is too low down and you are either at the right distance from the steering wheel but struggling to reach the pedals or the pedals are perfectly in reach and you feel like the steering wheel is in your stomach.

 

All of which applies perfectly to the mk1 Granada.  I've had pre-and post-facelift, and put on a fair bit of weight in the 25 years between the two, but I couldn't find any difference in the lousy positioning.  So agreed, a comfy seat with good access to the controls is a must-have.

[Junkman]

An engine. A car without an engine must be roughly as useful as runway behind an aeroplane.

[Micrashed]

I have a truly fucked left arm - SRSLY I cant even lift a pint glass with it these days so PAS is a must for me.

[Swampy21]

A good radio/stereo........I can't drive in silence.

I'm one of those who find music to be therapeutic and a good radio programme/CD/Tape distracts me from what the other fcuktards on the road are doing!

[Partridge]

Somewhere to keep my mints close to hand, and an adjustable steering wheel. Oh and WD40.