Over-engineering / "Surprise and delight" in your car

Mr_Sukebe

Mr_Sukebe

Mr_Sukebe

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Man of Honour
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Clearly, when you buy a car, you get to feel how it drives, play with the toys and check the specs.

What we don't get to really understand are some of the design elements that we can't instantly touch/see/feel. Some of those might be say the use of aluminium in suspension. Clearly there's plenty of others.

I know that some people complain about over-engineering in some German cars, but for all that, we had three with our now fairly ancient 10 year old 3 series this week:
1. Missus clipped the door mirror on a Polo hard enough to knock the mirror out of the Polo's hosing. Our mirror...just folder back against the door. Pushed back out again and works fine. Absolutely no sign of an issue
2. Missus comes home on Friday, saying a car's warning of a flat. Doesn't look flat and I hadn't even realised our car had a low pressure tyre sensor. Took it to our local tyre place and sure enough, big screw in the tyre
3. Couple of weeks ago, we get a warning about a blow brake light bulb. Check the rear, both seem to be working. Take it to our indy to reset the message and he says that the "primary" bulb has gone, but that it has a spare. I didn't even know the car had a spare.

I kind of get the tyre pressure meter, but the other two parts, why is it that the Germans seem to do a better job of thinking of this stuff than other countries.
Somehow, I struggle to believe that say Kia will ever do this kind of stuff.

What about yourselves, any hidden "surprise and delight" from your car?
 
When I had a mk3 Mondeo Zetec I bought for £1500 I read online that some Mondeo mk3 facelifts have the wiring loom for footwell lights as standard but no bulbs and it's a super easy retrofit.

£2 of bulbs later and I had footwell lights. A small thing but nice to have. :)
 
Folding mirrors, tyre pressure monitors and spare bulbs are hardly the exclusive pinnacle of automotive engineering. I'm fairly sure Kia have all of those covered.
 
The saab has quite a few nifty little features. The AC is dual zone but rather than having a button to turn dual zone on or off, it works as single zone when there's no passengers present. It also can be set to detect when you're in traffic by looking at the speed profile and turn on recirculation. Oh and it's impossible to drain your battery by leaving the interior light on - even if you put them on manually, they turn off after an hour or so.
 
One thing I liked in my first-gen Mazda3 was that with the windows closed, it'd only drop the window about half an inch on the first press of the switch and then stop, unless you pressed the switch further to the next position.

The SEAT is full of clever stuff but I guess none of it counts as over-engineering or hidden features as they're all mentioned somewhere. The rear window wipe when putting into reverse was something I only noticed last night though.
 
I was surprised my 1989 Golf has side parking lights, as in, you have the lights on, indicate (and park up) then turn the car off whilst still indicating and on the indicating side the side lights stay on. I know it's a common thing on more modern cars but it just surprised me that something so basic and old has that.

Another which I knew about but many didn't is that the fuel cap has two notches in it, so you can hook it onto the filler flap whilst filling the car up, no need to hold the cap / place it on the bodywork.

I was impressed when I had an E30 and it had a full bulb check system too, again, on such an old car it's simple and really quite useful. :cool:

TheVoice said:
The rear window wipe when putting into reverse was something I only noticed last night though.
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Quite a lot of modern cars do this and it's easy to not realise as you're used to the clear front screen so when you're reversing and look through the rear it's also clear, but it's a great feature.
 
The mk4 Mondeo has a great feature whereby if you open the boot after it has been raining, the contents of your boot are washed. It keeps them nice and clean. :)


On a more serious note, I'm not really sure I could accuse a great deal of my car of being over-engineered, but I do like the keyless entry system and how it seems very idiot-proof. For example, if the car is locked and you open the boot (either from the fob or just by using the exterior boot handle), and then close the boot with the keys in the boot, it'll pop open again. I'd expect most systems work in the same way, but I still think it's a clever and interesting system, particularly with the use of very close-proximity antennas.

Also, the Ford Easy-Fuel system is a nice little extra which means you don't have a filler cap, just the actual flap.
 
InvaderGIR said:
I was surprised my 1989 Golf has side parking lights, as in, you have the lights on, indicate (and park up) then turn the car off whilst still indicating and on the indicating side the side lights stay on. I know it's a common thing on more modern cars but it just surprised me that something so basic and old has that.
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You're required to use them if parking at night on a road with a limit higher than 30 I think, I'd have thought most cars would have that function, even at that age.
 
Kenai said:
You're required to use them if parking at night on a road with a limit higher than 30 I think, I'd have thought most cars would have that function, even at that age.
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Requirement and use of them are two hugely different things. I've only ever seen cars with hazards on or no lights on. :p

iirc the E30 didn't have the ability to do it, neither have various other newer cars I've owned, generally they just leave both sides on as per parking up without indicating, not the one side.
 
InvaderGIR said:
Requirement and use of them are two hugely different things. I've only ever seen cars with hazards on or no lights on. :p

iirc the E30 didn't have the ability to do it, neither have various other newer cars I've owned, generally they just leave both sides on as per parking up without indicating, not the one side.
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I don't think I've ever seen them used but still, it would surprise me if that many cars didn't have the ability to do it if it's written in the highway code.
 
InvaderGIR said:
Quite a lot of modern cars do this and it's easy to not realise as you're used to the clear front screen so when you're reversing and look through the rear it's also clear, but it's a great feature.
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Even my wife's 2002 Clio does this. I like that Range Rovers lower the NS wing mirror angle as well so you can see you're not kerbing your alloys.

Kenai said:
I don't think I've ever seen them used but still, it would surprise me if that many cars didn't have the ability to do it if it's written in the highway code.
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Pretty sure all cars have parking lights. My 1995 FIAT had them. I think the point was that they were more automagically in their operation.
 
GeX said:
I like that Range Rovers lower the NS wing mirror angle as well so you can see you're not kerbing your alloys.
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My Leon says it can do this but it doesn't for some reason. The option is ticked in the menu. Need to investigate further.
 
My saab does it too but you have to press a little button after you go into reverse, means you've got the choice. If it's not working it's probably not been set, you normally have to enable it then adjust the mirror to the position you want manually after going into reverse
 
tummelv said:
When I had a mk3 Mondeo Zetec I bought for £1500 I read online that some Mondeo mk3 facelifts have the wiring loom for footwell lights as standard but no bulbs and it's a super easy retrofit.

£2 of bulbs later and I had footwell lights. A small thing but nice to have. :)
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From 2003 to about 2005 I think they had the wiring looms fitted for quite a bit even in the boggo LX.

So things like Folding Mirrors, Front Fogs, Rear Electric Windows, Heated & Cooled Seats, Footwell lights & Climate Control is all already wired up.

All of the above is basically plug & play :)

Even things like the factory fitted nav system, voice control, xenon headlights & the Bluetooth phone interface are pretty easy to retrofit but do require a you to make adaptors or alter the wiring slightly.
 
Before I replaced the ageing battery in the MINI, it wouldn't allow the car to stand for long times with the ignition or radio running and would keep turning itself off. It would also disable stop/start to keep the engine running.
 
Iamzod said:
From 2003 to about 2005 I think they had the wiring looms fitted for quite a bit even in the boggo LX.

So things like Folding Mirrors, Front Fogs, Rear Electric Windows, Heated & Cooled Seats, Footwell lights & Climate Control is all already wired up.

All of the above is basically plug & play :)
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Ford.have been very good in using pretty much same look across all trim levels except when for example I the case of any/Bluetooth it needs totally different to what's already there. If it just an extra couple of plugs the likelihood is that they'll be there
 
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