Who doesn’t love a decked-out, top-trim car? Every bell and whistle, every fancy headlight, the good engine with the good suspension and not a single penny pinched. But we can’t always afford such luxuries, and we’re often forced to pick a car that lacks a feature or two. Yesterday, we asked you for the features most notably absent in your own cars, so let’s see what de-contenting practices have really irked you all.
A drone or telescope that can pop out when I am stuck in a traffic jam and figure out how bad it is going to be.
A red line on Apple Maps is nice, but wouldn’t you rather have a bird’s-eye view of the traffic jam you’ve found yourself stuck in? Of course, you’d have to dodge everyone else’s car drones, but that’s a small price to pay.
OBD II, You can see the OBD I Port to the left of the Radiator Reservoir.
I’ve heard of people who hate OBD II, and refuse to own any car that has it. Having owned identical cars in both OBD I and OBD II guise, I do not understand these people. I love it when the car just tells me what’s wrong, and I fix it.
I opted out for the radar cruise in my car because it would have been an additional $2k. I recently had a loaner from the same dealer that had the radar cruise and after using it for 1 whole day, I really regret not building the car with that option. Makes freeway travel sooooo much less stressful.
Also, not really a feature but the dealer was offering the paint protection film (clear bra) as an add on at an extremely discounted rate and I should have gotten it done. The roads in Washington state are terrible and I have already gotten a few rock chips.
I used to make the 350-mile drive from my college to my parents’ house pretty regularly, and I would have loved radar cruise in my FR-S. I’d find myself disabling the traditional cruise control every time I hit a pocket of traffic, which was just needless frustration. I had podcasts to focus on, come on.
I want to be snarky and say something like V10 engines in everything, but the honest answer is wireless charging pads.
See, V10omous is following down an interesting alley here. They want a car feature that’s inherently inefficient, outputs stupid amounts of heat, and takes up an absurd amount of space in the car. The suggestion of V10s, though, is much better.
Air conditioning.
You want to talk about a miserable experience, no A/C is right up there. And ironically, the Charger had A/C when I bought it—worked well too. But when my brother and I yanked the 318 and plopped in a 360, the compressor and evaporator didn’t make the cut. And now with the 440 under the hood, the problem is worse than ever—especially when sitting on vinyl so the sweat pools around my balls.
Poor substitute in the meantime (which work better than you think): beaded car seat covers.
The Feels Like index in New York has routinely been in the triple digits recently. Yesterday, it got so bad that I even left my apartment in shorts. To lack AC in these conditions is just torture.
I would like a HUD on my Jeep. I have it in my Chevy SS and love it. They offer a HUD with the new Jeeps now, but to get it is $$$$$$$$$$.
I’ve tried some heads-up displays that were incredibly distracting and obtrusive, and others that were phenomenal — even bringing features to the table that many traditional screens lack. More good HUDs.
A sunroof. I was one model year too late to get manual and sunroof on the same car. To get one would mean going to a higher CVT-only trim level with a 25% price jump.
Listen, if you own a saw, you can own a sunroof. A little Lexan, a little seam sealer, and you’re off to the races. Just don’t try any touchless car washes.
There’s no reason any new vehicle sold these days should not have a front-facing and rear-facing dashcam (or at least the front). With all the sensors in new cars, half use cameras anyway and it would be a relatively easy integration consumers would likely shell out for. I think Ford/Toyota offer something OEM like this already.
If you don’t have a dashcam in your car, I highly recommend looking into getting one. I’ve had them in multiple cars, and they’ve even come in handy when proving fault in accidents. Think about it this way: Even a high-quality, 4K dashcam will cost a lot less than a new front end on your car.
A very good friend’s wife bought a BMW with a heated steering wheel. He said he never thought about it before but after driving it, not having it is a delimiter for future purchases. Based on his recommendation I ordered it on my next new vehicle. Yup, wouldn’t be without it - obviously only for cold climates.
Clear Bra or the like. Living on a gravel road makes it a requirement. Had it on a previously owned Volvo. Eight years and 88K miles, never a chip.
Wife’s new Escape has a HUD - never use it. Has the wrong info. I know how fast I’m going and the speed limit. Would be more useful if the info was selectable. For example, lights/arrows for blind spot info, malfunction warnings, turn signal arrows, etc.
Screen controls for HVAC/Audio are cheaper, I get that, but some things just shouldn’t be done using a screen, and they are the HVAC/Audio controls.
I’ve always considered heated steering wheels a “nice to have” rather than a dealbreaker. Whenever someone introduces a cooled steering wheel, however, I will never buy anything else again.
Memory seat for at least the drivers seat. Going from a almost totally loaded used Lexus ES330 to a new Kia K5 GT-Line (AWD was more important) I miss the memory seats the most. The Kia is our most efficient car so my wife drives it more now (more than double her Jeeps MPG) and she’s almost a foot shorter than I am. Nothing like trying to get into a car previously driven by a shorty!
I know myself, and even if I had the perfect seat position saved I would always fiddle with it after another driver got behind the wheel. Memory isn’t enough, there’s only one perfect solution: Hard mount your seat to the floor.
Multi-driver memory. I think this every time I get in my car after my wife was driving and get stuck between the seat back and steering wheel before I get sat down. There is absolutely no reason every car with electric do-dads and key fobs shouldn’t have the seat, mirror, radio, etc, etc settings linked to the key fob so that when each driver unlocks the car with their fob their settings are restored. It would be so stupid cheap and simple to implement that nearly everyone would pay the few dollars extra it cost the manufacturer if it were an option, so might as well make it standard and add it to the msrp. No one would bat an eye.
But, if screwing a seat straight to your floor and ensuring no other driver will ever be comfortable isn’t your ideal solution, maybe just look into multi-driver memory. You and your other main driver can each have a your ideal position, something previously available only in the most nepotistic of corporations.
Factory heated seats. I got aftermarket heaters for my ‘17 Volt LT but they don’t come on when I’m preconditioning the car, so when I get into the car, sure the heat’s been on but I’d rather do it with the seat than cabin air because cabin heating is hell on the battery charge. We can add a heated steering wheel to that, was part of the same package.
If we’re going with options that weren’t available on the car from the factory, I don’t know, ventilated seats?Or maybe scrub all of that and give me double the range on my battery. It’s not quite enough for my drive when the winter weather sets in, and even on longer trips I’d be using a lot less gas.
Personally, I’d rank heated seats below cooled ones. Think about it this way: If it’s cold out, you can always add more layers. If it’s hot, you can only get so naked in polite company.
CarPlay. My 15 golf Sportwagen didn’t get it. It was introduced in 2016 with the MIB2 system. I can’t just throw a head unit in there, and Converting it is kind of expensive and kind of a pain.
Edit - oh yeah, and a sunroof that doesn’t leak.
Owning a car that came out just before CarPlay is kind of like owning one from the post-cassette, pre-aux mid-two-thousands. The old world (Bluetooth) is dying, and the new world (proper cell phone integration) struggles to be born. It’s truly the time of monsters.
Physical HVAC controls.
I actually really like the minimalistic design of the Model3. However, I do think the car could have simple controls below the screen to control HVAC. Something like the controls in the R8. Physical HVAC controls should be mandatory for all cars.
I miss having a sunroof I can open, but I just drive the Miata on nice days more.
Do you ever miss knobs and buttons? I miss knobs and buttons all the time. I don’t need them for every little thing, lest we all end up with the atrocity that is the Buick Cascada’s center console, but physical controls for the most-used HVAC features would be great.
Limited Slip Differential - particularly in my MR2
Was not a factory option until 2 years later.
Now, it is one of those things that I won’t address until the stock open diff fails (similar). Just expensive enough to not performance-parts chase on a 22 year old car.
If you’re stuck with an open differential, only one of your wheels will spin when you attempt to do a smoky burnout. How can we live, laugh, love under these conditions?