Car features

[Tamworthbay]

2 hours ago, Fumbler said:

My car has the following features:
Improved column stalks with rear foglights on the stalks and not on the centre console
Anti-roll bars
Driver's airbag
Radio
Rear demister and wiper
Manually adjusted steering column
16 valves!
and one for the moderns, an ignition barrel with no type of signal transmission from the key apart from an unpowered immobiliser chip.

Add on modern crash technology (because the modern cars are very safe), slightly nicer trim, air conditioning, cruise control, more power and perhaps taller gearing, and I'd be willing to buy the car if it was on the showroom floor.

The tech behind the powerless chips dates back to a Russian plaque donated to the US embassy. A signal from the clever Russkys caused it to transmit a signal and they listened in. It took years for the yanks to figure it out - they then displayed it at the UN.

[timolloyd]

I wouldn’t mind so much, if moderns allowed you to turn things off.

Pisses me off that on cars I’ve borrowed I can choose 18 colours for the interior lighting and the ferocity of crotch cooling, but annoying bongy things can’t be turned off entirely.

[GeordieInExile]

I loved my Saabs' Night Panel. Every car should have it.

[burraston2006]

I used to love an electric aerial. Just seemed classy to me. 

[sierraman]

I remember reading adverts where ‘5 speed gearbox’ or ‘colour coded bumpers’ were seen as a novelty.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I have one absolute rule when it comes to a daily car.  It has to have air conditioning.  This is because I'm a fat bastard and driving around in the summer without it is a miserable experience for me - particularly as I will have it on in my Golf when it's 15C outside.  I like it cold.  Really cold.  The other household car does not have air conditioning and over the summer, it has been driven twice in total, whereas the Golf has racked up a couple of thousand miles...

I've driven a couple of rental Ford vans lately (Transit Custom and a Courier) and neither had air conditioning, which even on a modern base-spec van is mingebaggery considering you get it on a Citroen C1...

[Amishtat]

My modern has power steering, electric front windows, electric mirrors and heated seats. Not too shabby for thirty years old and I genuinely don't need anything else. Pity the first owner didn't choose air con but it probably wouldn't work by now and I've never owned a car with it so don't really miss it. Doesn't have parking sensors either but bfo bumpers are a pretty good substitute. 

[MorrisItalSLX]

I’m very pro-air-conditioning, it is simply a necessity for the climate here, hence why all my cars have it.

I do like a proper clock too, whether this is a nice clean analog or an old school digital with bright green LCD digits.

[clayts450]

All these fripperies make my head spin. I just need a car to be a car, not a fucking  sauna/internet cafe/massage parlour/discotheque/automated idiot-proof machine.

If it has a steering wheel, a working gearbox/clutch, a half decent body, intact glass, seats  and four decent tyres I'm interested.

The rest of it is just fluff.

[Eyersey1234]

My Focus is about as well specced as I want in a car, all these toys on moderns are all very well but it's more to go wrong as the car gets older

[willswitchengage]

14 hours ago, Timewaster said:

I still maintain that this is down to the bloody stupid trend for the dash to be illuminated all the time instead of coming on with the lights. Relying instead on a poxy little green symbol on the dash. 

In town you can't really tell if the lights are on.

+1

The BX dash is always illuminated and I'll admit I've fallen for this before!

[Spiny Norman]

I think everyone has their own personal level of essential/desirable/unnecessary equipment in  a car and it probably varies depending how the car gets used.
I could happily put up with a manual choke, carb, points ignition engine in a fun car but it would probably piss me off in a daily driver nowadays since I've been used to ECU controlled fuel injection for 20 years.

In terms of equipment I like PAS for the higher gearing it usually provides meaning less twirling round town but I don't care if an old Micra or a Punto doesn't have it, beyond that I actively don't like aircon (never use it, even when it works), electric windows (my own body has equipment that does the job just fine) or any of the silly modern doo-dads like electric handbrakes, internets, motorised boot lids and all that jazz, it just adds weight and complexity.  My current ride has rear parking sensors which when I get a sunny day spare are getting de-activated. Who the fuck puts parking sensors on a bloody K11 Micra?

Comfy seats and a good driving position, a good heater, good stereo, good sound insulation and a good view out are all I really need.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

14 hours ago, stuboy said:

never owned a car with cruise control

Actually, you do have cruise control. 'tis your foot on the accelerator.

[Jazoli]

I always try to buy the highest spec level when getting a car, there might be more 'stuff to go wrong omg' but in reality it never actually does and adds so much to the overall driving experience like being able to join the motorway, set the cruise, have nice regulated air at 20 degrees directed to you whilst listening to a decent dab station or your own music via bluetooth, and arrive at your destination nice and relaxed, or you could sit in a stuffy steamed up car constantly fucking around with the heating controls, open your manual drivers window to try and get some air because you can't reach the others, get cramp in your ankle and piss other cars off around you who are using cruise because you can't maintain a constant speed, and have to fuck around changing tapes or cd's, how quaint

[SRi05]

I actually miss having parking sensors, 3 out of my last 4 cars have had them. The spaceship civic I now have could do with them, visibility is shit 

[Unclefester]

There may as well be no back window for all the use it is lol

[SRi05]

12 minutes ago, Unclefester said:

There may as well be no back window for all the use it is lol

Taking the headrests off the back seats helps a bit, mine came preuninstalled ?

[bunglebus]

21 hours ago, Joey spud said:

To be fair the Sprinters spec is the mutts nutts and will be a lovely thing to pilot 

 

The Sprinter I used with that steering wheel drove me insane, more so before I worked out the buttons are tiny touch pads. Still prefer the previous one.

[Rod/b]

19 hours ago, timolloyd said:

I wouldn’t mind so much, if moderns allowed you to turn things off.

Pisses me off that on cars I’ve borrowed I can choose 18 colours for the interior lighting and the ferocity of crotch cooling, but annoying bongy things can’t be turned off entirely.

That’s what I thought until I got hold of a copy of Forscan. 

[ETCHY]

Wow, this certainly struck a chord , some great responses on here.

For me I have no issues with sensible stuff, like say aircon, decent wiper systems & I like the safety stuff such as ABS as that may just save your life.

However I don't get big alloys & thin tyres (why have a crap ride?), I don't get auto wipers as oddly I just turn the bloody things on when it's raining. Likewise when it's dark I turn the lights on. Unless a car is a really awkward shape I don't need a reversing camera or sensors (you can get them on a bloody KIA Picanto, FFS !) I don't need mood lighting as I'm not trying to Roger someone in it & some Mercs even have a scent that gets pumped in . Touchscreens & menus to scroll through are just bloody dangerous as you have to look a them, if you can't use a 'phone on the move how are they legal?

The cynic in me also thinks that a lot of modern tech is put on cars so that they'll become obsolete quicker as a lot of people like the latest new gadget. Also if you have some touch screen controlling everything if it stops working or goes crap will you endure the world of pain & expense that is going to happen getting it fixed, or chuck the car away & buy/lease another ?

If I had to pick a good period for the right amount of kit generally being in cars, I'd go 1980s or 90's as the balance seemed about right to me.

 

[Yoss]

11 hours ago, sierraman said:

I remember reading adverts where ‘5 speed gearbox’ or ‘colour coded bumpers’ were seen as a novelty.

. 

[Bamboocarman]

Have always found simple cars to be focused and pure = more fun, in many ways.

[Sausage5000]

Agree with the simplicity thing, my current car is as simple as they come and it's great, but I miss things like cruise control, parking sensors, rain sensors, auto lights, satnav touch screen etc etc

The radar thing and lane assistance is just un-neccessary, as is an internet browser in the dashboard, and that Sprinter steering wheel scares me.

 

[Fumbler]

2 hours ago, ETCHY said:

However I don't get big alloys & thin tyres (why have a crap ride?)

Because fashion and it's what the market wants and it's a statement item. It's sort of primal of us fickle beings to show off how important we are (and therefore how much more desireable we are to others) so let's do it with the finer points of a car like big, loud, expensive alloys (with equally expensive tyres)

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Unless a car is a really awkward shape I don't need a reversing camera or sensors (you can get them on a bloody KIA Picanto, FFS !) I don't need mood lighting as I'm not trying to Roger someone in it & some Mercs even have a scent that gets pumped in . Touchscreens & menus to scroll through are just bloody dangerous as you have to look a them, if you can't use a 'phone on the move how are they legal?

The more tech you pump into a car the more desireable it will be. My father and I dislike the fussiness of everything in the new Jazz- it really isn't a utilitarian hatchback anymore. It's black and imposing on the inside, while being angular and Lunar Module like on the outside. The Lunar Module prize for me does go to the Toyota CH-R however. The thing is, though, the Japanese have been doing this highly packed tech vehicle thing for years! Just look at Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld when he looked at Japan. And besides, no-one's going to be able to use every single feature in their new Merc.

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The cynic in me also thinks that a lot of modern tech is put on cars so that they'll become obsolete quicker as a lot of people like the latest new gadget. Also if you have some touch screen controlling everything if it stops working or goes crap will you endure the world of pain & expense that is going to happen getting it fixed, or chuck the car away & buy/lease another ?

Planned obselecence is a wonderful marketing thing which nearly every product sector does now. It goes from outdoor warning sirens which save lives repeatedly (which are now engineered to break) to your iPhone when they slow down your device to "conserve the [already throttled and dying] battery". The reason why it works is that people like their things and their brands, so much so that they decide to buy again when the product reaches (or is forced to be at) the end of its life, thereby making the product more disposable. It also gives the company making the product more money.

[Sir Snipes]

I love cruise. Use it all the time. Would like Aircon again. My last car with working AC was a 15 year old Escort LX. The rear chassis and sills rotted out but the AC still worked! 

[Spottedlaurel]

I can go from one extreme to the other, in driving the Datsun 1200 one day then my Lexus RX the next. Even by the standards of the time the Datsun is very basic and was sold as such at the time, with no clock, radio, cigarette lighter, carpets, HRW or passenger sun visor. I like it for it's stripped-out charm in the same way I enjoy the decadence of the RX. I could do without the keyless entry, start/stop button and the auto wipers but otherwise the luxury of the Lexus is a major part of its appeal.

On my work commute they both do the same job, getting me from A-B, and it's amusing to see just how much I can do without, although I think trying to use the 1200 as my only car throughout the year would be a bit of a chore.

The Camry's probably the ideal halfway house, with PAS, ABS, EW, CL and injection but not much else other than a general level of high build quality that it makes it very useable* all year round after 25+ years (*this is assuming it passes its MoT this autumn).

[clayts450]

Here's my favourite and rarely seen badge on a Rover. Like. Wow

[xtriple]

My car has:

Adaptive cruise control.

Lane departure warning.

Sat Nav/Radio/CD.

Parkng sensors wth their own screens front and back that show how close to disaster you are with warning lights along the bottom that come on in stages and change from green, to orange, to red.

A roof that closes wth a solid push on the cars remote from 30 feet away.

Clmate control.

Electric height adjustable memory seats.

Airscarves.

Heated front and rear screens.

Flappy paddle 7 speed gearbox.

Bult in telephone (needs a SIM).

Many buttons on the steering wheel some of which scroll through a whole variety of menus that are in the middle of the dash between speedo and rev counter. I can even get it to display the cars temperature as it doesn't have a bloody gauge. But it took me an hour to set the clock and I HAD to read the manual and then follow it step by step before I could actually do it.

And many more (I dare say, can't remember/haven't read the book thoroughly yet and probably never will).

In fact, more toys than you can shake a shitty stick at and so far, I LOVE them all! Apart from the phone thing, With the amount of tech on the car, it makes me wonder how the fuck we ever survived when we were just glad to be staying dry in the pissing rain and room inside to get 'fruity' with the current squeeze.

Thought of a few more:

PAS. ABS. Traction control. Brake assist (really?). Adjustable steering column. Switchable gearbox (Comfort, sport, manual) self opening bootlid. Windows that do silly things when you open a door (drop an inch then go back up when you shut it)

[sierraman]

22 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

I have one absolute rule when it comes to a daily car.  It has to have air conditioning.  This is because I'm a fat bastard and driving around in the summer without it is a miserable experience for me - particularly as I will have it on in my Golf when it's 15C outside.  I like it cold.  Really cold.  The other household car does not have air conditioning and over the summer, it has been driven twice in total, whereas the Golf has racked up a couple of thousand miles...

I've driven a couple of rental Ford vans lately (Transit Custom and a Courier) and neither had air conditioning, which even on a modern base-spec van is mingebaggery considering you get it on a Citroen C1...

I’m about to take a non air con car 600 miles in what probably will be baking August heat. Sounds like your idea of hell! ?

[Kiltox]

23 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

I have one absolute rule when it comes to a daily car.  It has to have air conditioning.  This is because I'm a fat bastard and driving around in the summer without it is a miserable experience for me - particularly as I will have it on in my Golf when it's 15C outside.  I like it cold.  Really cold.  The other household car does not have air conditioning and over the summer, it has been driven twice in total, whereas the Golf has racked up a couple of thousand miles...

I've driven a couple of rental Ford vans lately (Transit Custom and a Courier) and neither had air conditioning, which even on a modern base-spec van is mingebaggery considering you get it on a Citroen C1...

One day I will buy a van that hasn’t first been owned by some tight bastard of a fleet manager. That van will have air conditioning.