It’s human nature for people to take good things for granted. Here’s 10 examples of that in the car world.
10.) Traction Control Systems
People can complain all they want about electronic nannies in modern road cars, but those people sure as hell won’t be saying anything when it keeps them out of a ditch. Well, unless they’re an extreme asshat. Then they’ll probably just say something like “man, I wish my car didn’t kick in and ruin my sweet drift, bro.”
Suggested By: As Du Volant, Photo Credit: BMW USA via YouTube
9.) Catalytic Converters
When catalytic converters were first put to use in production cars, they were exhaust chambers of performance death that sucked away precious horsepower. That reality has changed. Today’s cats do the environment a huge favor by filtering out harmful exhaust pollutants while keeping the engine running at its utmost potential. This means maybe your first mod shouldn’t be to straight-pipe your brand new off the lot car! Stick to a catback.
Suggested By: crowmolly, Photo Credit: Frank Derks via Flickr
8.) Seat Belts
Many of us might not even think twice about clicking in the seat belt before setting out for a drive, but some other people outright refuse to touch that hellish strap. Reader Daryl can share a story.
I know, nowadays, this sounds stupid, but this mainly applies to people like me that were born before the ‘80s (I was born in 1978).
When I was little, you didn’t even have to have seat belts in a car, much less wear them. Then, when I turned about 7, you had to have a child under the age of 12 in a seat belt unless they were in the back seat (we didn’t have any “car seat laws” back then). When I turned 12, you had to have a seat belt on no matter where you were, unless you were over the age of 16. When I turned 16, they said “Everyone in the front seat has to wear a seatbelt.” Then here a few years ago, it became “Everyone has to wear a seatbelt.”
They save lives. I believe in them. I make people wear them when riding with me. But the younger version of me hated them.
Suggested By: Daryl, Photo Credit: Drew Howell via Flickr
7.) Infotainment Screens
There’s nothing wrong with isolating all of the radio, air conditioning, bluetooth, and navigation controls into one screen. It can just take a while to memorize the user-interface and get the system perfectly setup.
Suggested By: xenocyclus, Photo Credit: Jalopnik
6.) Keys
Keyless entry and start systems are all well and good until someone realizes they left the key fob sitting in plain sight in the cupholders inside the car. This is a problem that owners of key-entry cars don’t have to deal with! Unless they’re completely senile and they leave their keys in the ignition. That can happen.
Suggested By: Mike (Redacted), Photo Credit: Getty Images
5.) Steel Wheels
Because of their low cost, steelies can commonly be found hidden by plastic wheel covers on cheaper economy cars. And, they’re also often used on police cars and taxi cabs. Is the hate really called for? They’re cheap to replace and some might even say they look pretty good too.
Suggested By: alan, Photo Credit: Charlie via Flickr
4.) Triple-Blink Blinkers
Many cars on the market today are equipped with triple-blink blinkers. When being used on the first couple of times, it might seem a little tricky and it might take a while to get the correct steering wheel to blinker stalk hand movement down, but when you do, it is oh so worth it. Triple-blink blinkers are nearly perfect for lane changes, which is probably over half of what blinkers are used for anyways.
Suggested By: Ash78
3.) 2+2 Backseats
Sure it might just add unnecessary weight if gone unused, but from experience I can tell you it is much better to have the backseat there than not. Even if it’s an extremely cramped 2+2 backseat that only a booster could seat could fit in. Sometimes when your friends are desperate enough to go for a ride, they don’t care what you have.
Suggested By: My bird IS the word, Photo Credit: Nissan via netcarshow
2.) Front-Wheel Drive
It’s no secret that it’s often cheaper and more space-efficient to just power the wheels directly under the motor and parallel to the transmission than it is to send power all the way to the opposite wheels or to completely design new rear-wheel drive platforms. This leads to the massive popularity of low-cost front-wheel drive cars that car buyers can happily acquire. Except for when you’re an enthusiast snob and you’re stuck in the “rear-wheel drive or no-wheel drive” mindset.
Pucker up, pal. There are tons of fun driving experiences to be had in front-wheel drive cars.
Suggested By: Doctor-G-and-the-wagen, Photo Credit: Ford via netcarshow
1.) Automatic Transmissions
Manual transmissions might offer more engaging driving experiences but that doesn’t mean all other clutch pedal-less transmissions are complete garbage and must be treated as such. Dual-clutch transmissions and even normal simple automatics can still help deliver simple but pleasurable driving experiences. Hell, they might even be quicker and/or more fuel efficient too.
Suggested By: sm70, Photo Credit: Jalopnik
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day’s Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It’s by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
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