Hooniverse Asks- What’s the Most Unsung Modern Car Feature?
John Z Delorean is credited with inventing the lane-change turn signal. Supposedly, he drove home from work one day, and – becoming increasingly frustrated at signaling lane changes but having to manually return the signal lever to the center-off position each time due to the insufficient arc of the wheel – came up with the brainstorm. Upon reaching home, instead of running inside for a double scotch and soda or quick romp with Mrs. Delorean (#2), he instead yanked the wheel off his Pontiac GTO and filed the ratcheting mechanism off inside the column, hence allowing for a two-stage application of the turn signal arm – half way and hold for a quick few flashes, all the way and sticking for those interminable left turn lanes.
That story may be more lore than factoid, but it still points to one of the unsung heroes of automotive engineering – and after all it’s the little things that matter the most, isn’t it? Other features you might not think about but probably are glad when you discover them are the little flip-down sun visors some cars have above their rear-view mirrors, or the mechanism that lets you hook your loose gas cap to the fuel filler door while getting raped by Exxon or whomever.
There are so many cool little features – many of them not ubiquitous – that make the driving experience so much more enjoyable. Sometimes, when weighing a purchase decision, it can even mean the choice between one car – which has a cool feature – and another that does not. You may have a favorite, and may not even know it – so mundane is its function but clearly missed it would be in its absence. What is your nomination for the most unsung car feature?
Image source: [Mustangmonthly.com]
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- Hooniverse Asks- What’s The Most Disused Modern Car Feature?
- Hooniverse Asks- What is the Best Automotive Engineering Feature Ever Introduced?
- Hooniverse Asks- What’s the Least-Used Feature of Your Car?
- Hooniverse Asks- What Excised Car Feature Do You Miss Most?
- Hooniverse Asks- What’s the Best Station Wagon Feature, Ever?
Windshield washer, because otherwise you just smear the glass.
<img src="http://wot.motortrend.com/files/2010/10/30749335-623×389.jpg" width="400">
<img src="http://priuschat.com/forums/attachments/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/22769d1271266156-extendable-sun-visor-lexus-is250h.jpg" width="400">
Sun visors that are extendable when you pivot them to the side window. Ever since having a vehicle with them, I find myself cursing when I don't have them.
Along those lines, I also loved my '91 Sable's dual visors. When you swung the big ones out to the side windows, there were little ones still there to come down to the windshield.
i agree with that… and one up on that– a secondary sun visor so that when you have the main one down and extended out to the side you don't smack yourself in the glasses as you go around a bend in the road and switch the visor back to the front–forgetting that it has the extenders out
I almost never use the visors in my Passat because they're so stinking tiny. The Grand Caravan has a long, tall visor with the extension. In the Passat, they're about the size of a gum wrapper.
(btw – you can extend them when they're in front, too, they just clip the corner of the rear view mirror. Not a major issue)
My Renault had a third, tiny visor just above the rear view mirror.
Cruise control, my good man.
I love cruise control dearly. It takes a lot of stress out of long stretches of interstate.
Set it, aaaaand forget it.
Cruise control is the first thing I think of when I heard "modern car feature." My F150 ain't got it, and long hauls just suck without it.
Seat heaters.
The car I just got doesn't have them. I may have to rectify that before winter.
I would frankly rather NOT have them built into the car. My wife bought me a heated seat cushion for the TC, and I love it. If it ever goes kaput, I don't have to crawl around in the car trying to fix it, or pay somebody to do it.
<img src="http://www.comfort-ease.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/f/i/file.jpg" width="360">
<img src="http://www.nftpr.com/images/keyless_entry.jpg" width="400">
Even though this isn't one of those little, almost unnoticed features, I thought that Ford's entry keypad was a silly gimmick…until we got our F150.
Since it's our "weekender," I don't keep the keys for it in my pocket on a regular basis. It's amazing how often I want to get into it to grab something, and thanks to the keypad I don't have to run back in the house and go upstairs to grab the keys. Since it's always in the driveway, I also use the truck as a spare set of house keys — keypad the door, press the integral garage door opener, and I'll never be locked out again.
I just like to walk by and hit the last two buttons for people that leave their car unlocked and the the keys in it.
What a jerky thing to do, locking some poor soul's keys in their car like that!
…oh, wait.
On my '93 Geo Prizm (and several other vehicles with power locks), I could put the key in the lock and turn once to unlock the driver's door, and turn twice to unlock all the doors. That's a handy feature if you don't have a vehicle with one of those remote key fobs.
Off topic, but who the hell mixes scotch with soda?
If it's blended scotch (Dewar's and the like), I'll mix it. Single malt is for sipping.
Me, especially on a hot day.
Factory trailer packages – built in receiver hitch and preexisting trailer wiring.
Often extra cooling and different gearing, too.
On my Audi (and I think a lot of other VW products) you could turn the key and hold it, and all the windows would roll down. Nice if it wasn't a particularly hot day, but the sun had heated your interior.
also nice to be able to close the windows/sunroof if it's just starting to rain without having to jump in the car, fumble the key in to the ignition and then roll everything up
A friend of mine installed a similar feature to this onto his 1978 Holden HZ. He wired a small button under the dash which when held down, allowed the electric windows to be wound up/down without putting the keys back in the ignition.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/MHV_Holden_HZ_Kingswood_SL_1977-1980_01.jpg/800px-MHV_Holden_HZ_Kingswood_SL_1977-1980_01.jpg" width="400">
you can program your keyfob to do this (also does Sunroof)….contact ECSTuning
which year and model Audi do you have?
I had a 2001 A4. Loved it, but couldn't afford the payment and the maintenance bills, so we unloaded it about two years ago.
Oh well.. The B5 body is a sweet car
I would happily get another one once I've saved enough to buy it cash. Unfortunately, there are so many other cars I haven't tried yet that it may be a while before I work my way back to the Audi.
I LOOOVVE mine. 1.8T, bought 3 years ago with 50k miles for £1000. Now has 95k on it and has Never Let Me Down. Even though I do all my own spannering, including the cambelt. Poor car.
Holy cow. The used market really is softer in England, isn't it? I sold mine with just under 100k miles, and some issues, for $4800 – £2921 at today's rates. Book value (whatever that's worth) was over $7000, and you paid, essentially, $1600 for a 50k example? Why the difference?
<poof>
My dad and I discovered this on the BMW on accident. On the 7-series, you can hold down a button on the fob, and the windows will roll down, and the sunroof will roll back. It was amazing. And amazingly bad timing since it was drizzling and oh-so cold that day at Miller Motorsports.
A lowly '03 Accord EX has this too! I was surprised the first time I 'discovered' it but at the down action was actually controlled by how long you hold that unlock button down; you can have the windows opened just a crack if you wanted.
Yup, my '97 Maxima SE does the same. It's a pretty easy thing to program in, I'd guess.
Not sure what the different manufacturers call it but it's the relay that shuts off your headlights and the like when you accidentally leave your headlights on so that you don't end up with a dead battery.
Or just the automatic headlights. Those are really pretty cool, when you get right down to it. A couple of cars I have had had that as a choice on the headlight switch.
Seriously, this. Old Volvo 240/740s, mid-'80s on, are the ultimate stoner cars – you can't leave your headlights on, and can't lock your keys in the car unless you toss 'em in through a passenger door.
I'm not a huge fan of autmotive computerization but if we must have it, I really appreciate the ability to read error codes off the odometer.
My vote is for autodim rearview mirror
it s such a great feature that nobody ever expressly recognizes….people always extol the virtues of heated seats, steering wheels, handsfree blueteeth but not a sinlge person person ever praises the autodim mirror for its awesomess……especially when (in my old 2009 Civic Si) it had a compass built-in (:))
My mother bought a used Mercury (I think), she got it from the dealer and got an extended warranty. The autodim rearview mirror went out. the extended warranty didn't cover autodim mirrors, BUT the mirror had a compass built in and the extended warranty DID cover electronic compasses. She got it replaced under warranty.
Every auto dimming rear view mirror I've ever used was useless. Give me the old manual flip every time.
BMW and Honda ones are great
I use my electric trunk release quite a bit, can't remember the last time I stuck a key into the lock on the trunk lid.
I can. The PT Cruiser we are borrowing from the in-laws has no other release mechanism that we've been able to find. It's a pain. I will second your vote for remote trunk openers, be they on a key fob, on the floor, or in the glovebox.
I had a PT, and I can't figure out what you are talking about. What can't you do with the hatch? On my '03, the hatch locked & unlocked with the other doors, and opened by pulling the Chrysler badge.
The one we've got is an '05 with manual locks. The in-laws tell me that the only way to open it is to use the key in the hatch lock, and I haven't had the inclination to look for an alternate solution.
For some reason, Honda saw fit to give my car a remote trunk release in the interior, but not on the key fob, so i still end up using the key sometimes. Haven't used it to unlock the doors much though, now that I've got remote keyless entry.
1 more vote?
sure, why the balls not?
I'll say that pyrotechnic pretensioned belts are nice….in a crash, they tighten up the belt to minimize hip displacement…which is the single best safety feature in the event of a crash
nobody ever talks about them but they are key
<img src="http://dev.chrysler.ca/en/img/features/tc_feat_inn_mirror_major.jpg" width=500> Back when I was still hauling child safety seats around, a sunglass holder with convex mirror would have been nice, but they weren't available on any of our cars. The suction cup/clip on aftermarket ones were always falling off and offered a more limited view when they were in place.
Since I no longer have a real need for that first choice, my current pick would be multi-zone climate control. My wife's car has three different settings, and most of the time, they are set to three different temperatures.
<img src="http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/content/media_library/unitedkingdom/mpc_unitedkingdom/passenger_cars_ng/products/new_cars/M-Class/facelift/overview/comfort/automatic_climate_control.object-Single-MEDIA.tmp/automatic-climate-control.jpg" width=500>
Parking brake headlight disable.
Engaging the parking brake kills the automatic headlights. I don't need the headlights illuminating the home while warming up my vehicle with the remote start.
I think the warning decals on the sun visors really helpful.
<img src="http://ebay.skincovers.com/products/decal/Mustang%20airbag/Mustang%20airbag-1.jpg"width="500"/>
If I got into a friends car and they had that anywhere we would at the very least no longer be friends.
At the most I would stab him in the chest, dump him in the trunk and dump the car in the Delaware.
You fell for it too, didn't you?
I thought it was referring to Iron Man…
They never let me live it down.
Pull-to-flash high-beam, push-to-lock on.
So much easier than pull-a-little-to-flash, pull-more-to-lock on. 85% of the time it's pull-to-flash-dang-they're-locked-on-pull-again-to-turn-them-off-before-I'm-the-idiot-driving-toward-someone-with-my-high-beams-on!
I miss the foot button
Whoa if that GTO story is true, I am one of the a-holes who does not signal on lane changes. Now I'll have to see if the turn signals actually blink when I hold the lever down in my Volvo later today. I like two features a lot, so much so that they have had make or break effect on car purchase for me in the past: front seats that you can make go up and down and the little flippy thing on the rear view mirror. I know all cars have a mirror that dims somehow now-a-days, but I don't like the ones that dim automatically.
Huh. I've just finished reading all of the above comments and don't have any of that stuff in anything I own. Not even the blended scotch.
Except, I suppose, for Van Sarockin's mention of windshield washers. Three of my cars have those; they haven't worked in years. In the '67 SAABs the manually-operated, syringe-like pumps in the dash just dribble fluid onto one's left pant leg when filled. In the MG, well, it's an MG.
Yeah, I'm kinda out of this loop too.
I was gonna say centrifugal advance or electric starters. But really, electric wipers were a huge improvement over the vacuum operated units.
Oh, tell me about it. The vacuum wiper (yes, singular) in the '37 Plymouth stopped working a little over a week ago, which is awkward in the one part of the country that seems to be receiving rain these days. I tore it apart last weekend and found that the rivet holding one of the valve seals to the leather flap had split, so I replaced it with a small bolt. It worked for a while, but now it's failing to return at the end of its stroke unless I manually close the valve each time. I'll have to tear into it again tomorrow, I suppose, which itself is something of a pain, in that the motor is located above the windshield on the inside, on the "wrong" side of the headliner.
I'm with you on centrifugal advance. Electric starters are nice enough in their own way, too.
The question was about MODERN car features. I'm pretty sure they meant more modern than electric start.
Fair enough. Even by my lax standards, "modern" only encompasses the post-War era, so electric starters and centrifugal advances are out of bounds.
The automated oil change monitors. As an engineer it makes a lot more sense to me to measure total engine revolutions(and whatever else they use to determine it) between oil changes than just some arbitrary mileage number.
My Focus SVT had a remote volume control for the radio on the left side of the steering wheel. As minimal as that sounds, I used it without thinking for the most part.
I then spent the next 2 years looking for it in Audi that replaced it.
Yup, I love mine and every time I get in my fiancee's car, my fingers are instinctually trying to find them.
Express down driver's windows. So long as there are plenty of times one needs to roll the window down, a one touch setup is crazy nice. I wish mine also had express up, but what can you do?
Yeah, I'd like the auto up as well. Kinda sucks too that in my car you can only do the windows with the car in "on" not in accessory. So you end up sitting there with the engine running as you roll up the windows.
On mine the power windows are active after you turn them off until you open the door. Fantastic, except I have this weird tendency to forget my windows are open until I open said door.
Annoying, isn't that? It is however quite common. Solution: kill the motor, wait 2-3 seconds, then turn the key back to 'on'. The engine won't actually start as long as you wait a sec.
Some people even modify the wiring so the windows are in the ACC loop.
Agreed.
Seems better than speeding tickets.
<img src="http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezwebin_site/storage/images/import_problems/comparison_tests_subpages/2006_bmw_z4_m_coupe_vs_2006_porsche_cayman_s/2006_bmw_z4_m_coupe_vs_2006_porsche_cayman_s_comparison_test_review/2006_bmw_z4_m_coupe_vs_2006_porsche_cayman_s_comparison_test_review_2006_porsche_cayman_s_cruise_control_stalk_image_001/453175-1-eng-US/2006_bmw_z4_m_coupe_vs_2006_porsche_cayman_s_comparison_test_review_2006_porsche_cayman_s_cruise_control_stalk_image_0011_cd_gallery.jpg">
Interestingly, nobody's mentioned syncromesh gears yet.
I've never owned a car with an automatic, but nobody's been able to coherently describe double-clutching to me (my dad tries every so often, but the only crashbox vehicles he's ever had were a Mack and a Kenworth, so that doesn't quite apply; don't even get me started on clutch-brakes).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcxHi6FlGLo&NR…
I'm not sure if the "let the clutch out while in neutral, before you rev-match" thing is still required, as it is on un-syncro'd transmissions.
I don't think it's required, but it does make it smoother. I *think* it has to do with when you rev in neutral, the layshaft is engaged so you are also bring that up to speed, while if you rev in gear this doesn't happen. Something like that. It's early. It does make it smoother, but is it necessary or required? Not at all. 90% of the world doesn't revmatch at all, so none of it is really required.
Tubeless tires, and radial tires.
Fuel injection is really nice when you are in a hurry. No need for a warmup – Just get in, start the car, and go.
The modern engine as a whole is a marvel- very powerful, very reliable, and efficient.
When was the last time you had to tune a carb, set the valve lash or pull the heads to remove carbon?
Yea, some of you did that yesterday… but as a modern appliance, it's remarkable.
I think that those little lights that illuminate the curb when you turn on your turn signal are quite understated. You don't really realize how nifty they are until after you own a car that has them, and then revert back to a vehicle that doesn't have them. The aftermarket world is really missing the boat on this one. I would buy a kit for every vehicle I own…if offered for them. On second thought, I'll bet a fella could fab in something that hides in the fender-well, or something. I gotta go to the auto parts store…
led taillights!! installed them on my 67 mustang! great safety feature & bright & less worry about them burning out or not lighting up bright enough!
Except I have to disagree when it comes to regular replacement LED bulbs that fit in place of incandescents. Because their light is much more focused and less dispersed, they rarely fill the reflector with light very well and end up being only half as bright as a standard bulb, except in one focused dot in the middle. I HATE them,
sit, post, sit.
yeah the bulbs can be a little shoddy, but there are good led panels that work very well and not just concentrated towards the middle or center…
One that is very specific in usage is my car has a storage compartment that is the exact size and shape of a bottle of Tide. Fan-bloody-tastic when you've got to use a laundromat. Suddenly unused when you buy a house and have your own washing machine.
Intermittent wipers. The Frontier I have did not come with them and so I drove without them for 13 years. When I got my 1991 Geo Metro I was quite pleased that it was a standard feature as I was annoyed with having to turn the switch on and off on the truck whenever there was a light drizzle. I still find it funny that a car that did not have A/C when it left the factory came with intermittent wipers. It's one of those luxury items like cruise control, power windows and air conditioning that are not really necessary but are oh so nice to have when the car comes equipped with them.
I am not sure what it is call, technically, but my friend had a 2008 Civic Si, and the radio volume adjusted relative to the speed of the car. It was amazing, but also very subtle.
Suprisingly common feature. Our '98 Lumina hire-car had that, as did my Dads '96 Mondeo and my '98 A4. It's brilliant, I agree.
I may be wrong about this, but I believe the first vehicle to have that feature was some high-end version of the Honda Gold WIng 1200, LTD or SE or the like, in um, 1986 or thereabouts. I'm going off the top of my head here, and not bothering to do any research to back this up, but I have a semi-more-than-vague recollection of that.
2 seat t-birds had it in the 50's. Probably done with mirrors and string
Disc brakes. Or diagonal split brake systems. One of my oddly perpetual nightmares is pressing my brake pedal to the floor and not slowing down. Thanks to the former, the concept of brakes fading to the point of being unable to stop is no longer an issue. Thanks to the latter, at least two should always work…unless someone cut the lines. I'm walking home today.
I know on some older Volvos they used two or four piston calipers. Each piston or set of pistons was fed from a different half of the dual master cylinder. Made for more brake lines, but an added level of safety.
I used to have the same dream. Then I realized it's because I don't sense any acceleration when asleep. Without the expected response, every driving dream ended quickly with a crash from unresponsive brakes and catastrophic understeer. Weirdly, once my waking self figured this out, my subconscious stepped up the realism a notch, and now I can usually drive in dreams.
I know a couple roads where, coming down, discs will fade to the point of being useless.
It's quite terrifying when you're coming up on a >90* corner with a 30' drop for a run-off.
Variable-delay windshield wipers, especially here in Florida. It's nice to be able to set a wipe at every 5 or 10 seconds for those drizzles or spattering showers in which regular "slow" wiper speed is still too annoyingly fast.
My '88 Lincoln Continental had a variable intermittent wiper function, which I found very handy. The fine German engineers of my '97 E320 saw fit to provide a single-detent for intermittent wipes, and it is usually too infrequent. I work-around this by using the push-stalk-for-a-single-wipe with my left hand as necessary.
Electronic fuel injection. Regardless of weather, just get in the car, turn the key, let the computer worry about the mixture vs. "pump pump (unless it's cold), crank, let it run on fast idle until it sounds just right, feather the gas to bring it down to slow idle, wait some more, then go, but if you went too soon it'll stall".
"pump pump… feather the gas to bring it down…."
Oh, sure, if you've got one of those newfangled automatic chokes, that method works fine.
The one thing I don't miss about my old Civic – manual choke in -30. Sitting in the cold fiddling with your knob isn't the best way to begin your morning.
in my case: pump, crankcrankcraaaaaaaankcrank crank *pump again crankcrank vroooom on fast idle for a half a minute , stab the the throttle, kickdown, lublublublublubBLULblublbub *when she hasn't been cranked in a week
Pre-'90 Rover 800's (or Sterlings, if you're in the Colonies) had steering column stalks that were lit by fibre-optics. At night the controls for the wipers, flashers, dip-beam etc were all subtly illuminated. I've never seen it in a car since.
More generically; leather steering wheels. This is probably really weird of me, but whenever I drive a car with a plastic wheel rim it makes me retch slightly.
I passed on a California Special Mustang because it had a plastic wheel instead of leather. Felt like a cheap video game. Hell, my base Ranger XLT has a leather wheel.
Bluetooth for the phone: Incoming call, satnav moves on the side of the screen, caller displays on the centre, radio cuts off, press on button and you pick up the call. All that on a cheap 1200cc Clio. Wouldn't go back in time for anything, for my daily city commute.
I think the integrated tool kit in the trunk lid of BMWs is really neat…
gas strut hood props AND lights under the hood
I havent seen lights under the hood of a car since my dads 80s Impala wagon
All of my modern Nissans that I have owned require you to have a flashlight on you to see whats under the hood at night
the light comes in handy when you need a jump on a dark night from a friend
Also those hood props are so much safer than that thin piece metal that folds into that little hole on one contact point on your hood.
If you dont appreciate it your head and fingers will
AUTO function on windows. I like being able to press hard once and have the window go all the way down.
What I don't get is why it's usually only AUTO down, and only on one window. I want all the switches to be AUTO, and I want all of them to do it both up and down. It can't be that much more expensive to arrange that.
Or I dunno, maybe that's changed more recently.