Favourite comforts/gizmos in a car?

[Soundwave]

It's fascinating, and in some ways mildly terrifying, to consider just how old some of the features we still think of as "modern" actually are.


So with that in mind, scratch the "modern" bit - let's just make it a 'favourite creature comforts in a car' thread.  

[NorfolkNWeigh]

5 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

My Allroad has a jukebox. I can plug in a USB device and upload music to the jukebox so the car stores it. I like it very much. That and heated seats. Mmmmmmm

 

i also like the auto boot opening function and button to close it. Means I can hit the button and walk away. Other people need to be educated on these, as they are likely to bugger it up when they try opening it conveniently. 

I once bought a BMW 5 Series with a similar music storage system, the guy I bought it off said he’d never added to it, it was the original owners music. I was going to delete it but never did , I liked pretty much all that was in there.  My daughter pointed out that BMW probably programmed it from the factory assuming all owners would be Middle aged, middle class, white men!

[NorfolkNWeigh]

4 hours ago, Cheggers said:

Not so much a new feature, but for me the greatest advance is in heating and ventilation. I can't remember the last time I had to wipe the inside of a window

Still haven’t bought that Range Rover, I see.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Decent seats.
Illuminated dashboard switches.
Cup holders

[MiniMinorMk3]

Heated front screen, it helps save wrecking your wipers as you do not have to pull them up to scrape the ice off.

Self levelling headlamps, so you don't get all on-comers flashing you when the car's loaded up at night.

ABS

Runflat tyres. Helps you get off the motorway and to the nearest tyre shop to get that puncture fixed/tyre replaced. Saves putting yourself at risk on the hard shoulder emptying the boot, searching for the locking wheel nut thingy, wrestling with those seized bolts, wondering whether the jack will hold the car up, and getting your hands and car mucky chucking the flattened tyre on the back seat when you've finished.

[Rust Collector]

Air conditioning = life support, if you’re a sweaty fat fuck like me. I find cars without it really hard to live with in the summer.

Other comforts that I really like but I can happily live without:

• Electric adjustable mirrors
• Electric windows
• Remote central locking
• Power steering
• Climate control
• Cruise control & speed limiter
• The type of full beam where you push the lever away from you to put the beams on, then pull it back to turn them off. The type that you  click back each time to either turn on/off are wank.
• Front fog lights
• 4wd or awd
• Automatic gearbox. Torque converter flavour for me please, I like slushing about.

Im sure there’s more, but my list is risking turning into an essay.

[iainrcz]

16 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I'm a dribbling, limp-armed pen pusher and  like cranking knobs

I see.

My favourite thing is cruise control. I use it a lot.

I'm  not so keen on passenger seats. It means people can come along and annoy me.

[Cheggers]

Still haven’t bought that Range Rover, I see.

Just the small matter of a wedding and honeymoon to get out of the way first. Narrowed down to either an L405 or L494, probably late April or early May depending on what's available.

[Datsuncog]

17 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Bulb failure warnings

A feature that is actually useful. Albeit I suppose it's been around for many years now, I'm still counting it as modern?

 

16 hours ago, Soundwave said:

It's been around for ages, but the more modern systems are definitely more useful since they actually tell you which bulb is out rather than just screaming "OMG A BULB IS OUT. Not telling you where though." at you, as some of the earlier systems did.

I had a 1985 Toyota Corona on which suddenly all the lights stopped working. Brake lights and all. Fuses fine, switches fine, bulbs all tested fine...

After a week of pissing about and mounting rage at being unable to use it, I dropped it off at a garage.

Turned out that the module which informed the car that a bulb had failed had gone screwy, and knocked all the lights out.

The garage simply chopped the module out and it was fine ever after.

[anonymous user]

Not many vehicles seem to come with a cut glass whisky decanter and goblets for the driver and passenger these days. 

[willswitchengage]

Cruise control (when it's easy to use)

The self-clearing windscreens that Ford makes

[crad]

cd player

ashtray

leccy windows are handy 

otherwise not that arsed

[Stanky]

Noticed this the other day, little tabs on the battery clamps on the Dacia so you can plug in a jump pack or trickle charger quickly and easily, without disconnecting anything. It seemed like a good idea to me, especially as the stop/start and smart charge gubbinz make the actual clamps pretty massive, so would be hard to get the jaws of my smart charger onto them otherwise.

[ETCHY]

On 3/6/2023 at 9:15 AM, Cheggers said:

Not so much a new feature, but for me the greatest advance is in heating and ventilation. I can't remember the last time I had to wipe the inside of a window

I agree with you that things like aircon have made it much easier to demist etc ( that's actually my favourite feature in a car). However i think heating & ventilation has gone backwards in moderns as most now are linked so you can't get cold out of dashboard vents whilst hot to the floor.  Just leads to stuffiness.

[Rust Collector]

1 hour ago, Stanky said:

Noticed this the other day, little tabs on the battery clamps on the Dacia so you can plug in a jump pack or trickle charger quickly and easily, without disconnecting anything. It seemed like a good idea to me, especially as the stop/start and smart charge gubbinz make the actual clamps pretty massive, so would be hard to get the jaws of my smart charger onto them otherwise.

Our 2008 Clio has those too, I’m assuming because they use a sealed* battery box in the engine bay on that model.

Similarly, a lot of mercs have a positive post in the engine bay so that you don’t have to faff around in the boot/under the back seat to jump them which is rather useful.

[MiniMinorMk3]

My old e46 had something similar, as I expect most cars that do not have their battery under the bonnet.

There is a positive connection (yellow ring) to make connecting jump packs and the like easier to connect. For the negative side just use any bit of bare metal. I used to use the strut top mountings.

 

Another thing on the E46, and other Tourings, is the opening rear window, great for when you can not be arsed to lift the tailgate.

Cruise was easy to use, as all the switching was on the wheel

and the climate control was excellent. The only timed I'd ever change the settings were to push the demist button on a cold morning to help demist the screen. Once warm press the button agin and everything went back to it's original settings. I had the temp set a 19, even in the summer.

 

[maxxo]

pretty much most the stuff my C5 has

auto dim mirror is excellent

dual zone automatic climate control works really well, so well in fact i very rarely take it off auto

auto lights work very well too, not too sensitive

 

but automatic climate control is my favourite, it just works

[Rustybullethole]

Bluetooth radio and hands free. 
Never had a motor new enough to have it built in though aftermarket head unit for wireless tunes and chatting shit is a godsend.

After being a nay sayer for years am fully sold on my crash hat Bluetooth system for my bike. Mainly for music though great in group rides for pointing out things of beauty and hazards on the road. First person on the overtake can give the clear signal back down the line being just one of the useful things. Many eyes better than two. Might of missed a tidy bit of skirt if not pointed out. Always thought I liked the solitude of being on a bike and with mates always feeling the same though I find it just adds to the experience. Can always mute them and just listen to music too. 

[DVee8]

An electric handbrake.

DAB radio

A glass roof with electric  sunroof

[vonmon]

Adaptive Cruise Control 

[High Jetter]

20 minutes ago, vonmon said:

Adaptive Cruise Control 

AKA the right foot. Rarely fails.

[Metal Guru]

I quite like having a huge exhaust . ( not a euphemism) .

Childish I know .

[New POD]

6 hours ago, High Jetter said:

AKA the right foot. Rarely fails.

Gets tired though. 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I've driven one car with adaptive cruise control, from Washington DC back to JFK and it was an absolute revelation.  Loved it.  Would probably use it here in the UK as well even though our network isn't quite as suited.

Plus one for air conditioning, heated mirrors and auto-dimming mirrors.  They're great.

And one other person has mentioned it but it bears repeating.  Galvanised body.

[Rustybullethole]

11 hours ago, vonmon said:

Adaptive Cruise Control 

What’s that then?

[iainrcz]

7 minutes ago, Rustybullethole said:

What’s that then?

You can follow a vehicle at a set distance and match its speed.

[grogee]

Auxiliary heater. I don't have one, never have, but those tricksy Scandiwiegans tend to favour those fuel-fired heaters that warm the cabin up nice and quick. 

Alternatively one of those block heaters that plugs into the mains. 

Took the boy to school this morning (10 mile round trip) in a diesel Espace that was just about warmed up by the time I got home.

[Rustybullethole]

15 minutes ago, iainrcz said:

You can follow a vehicle at a set distance and match its speed.

Handy with a police car I guess. Have overtaken a fair few with a line of cars behind going under the legal limit I guess that explains it. Thank you. 

[Muniphobia]

One thing I found with adaptive cruise is people who overtake you and pull in front of you too soon make it think it's too close and it brakes to compensate.  I know you can set the distance on VW's and I suspect they use the same system on Audi's but instead of setting the distance in feet the gap is between the car in front with Audi I expect it works in inches

[Conan]

My Volvo 850 got automatically height adjustable front seat belt. It's done  extremely simply that it's a wonder why no other manufacturer adopt this system more. (Maybe some did that I don't know?)

They made the reel itself wider than the belt, so when it winds back up (after getting unwind to put on), it goes back in at exactly the height it needs to be. No need to faff about with pushing buttons to move it up and down. What I find amazing is I've owned the car for more than 2 years and never notice that the belt is always in the right place, which is exactly the goal of Volvo engineers that designed this system. It's not meant to be noticed. I only learnt of this while reading a book on the model's development and the mind's definitely blown.

I do like cars with this sort of attention to details. Especially when it's functional.