Features on cars that never took hold….

For obvious reasons, disc changers or even CD players now seem to have gone.

Full spare wheel

A exhaust note!

As above most Skoda's do have a umbrella (mines in the door) and we have actually used it a few times mostly on the school run when you have to wait in the yard for them to be set free no matter the weather.. it's a god send!
 
Mysterae_ said:
The large satnav screen on my BMW was always a bit too bright on night journeys even on its dimmest setting. You could switch it off or dim it with the i-drive but it was a bit convoluted and you had to change it again in daytime. Then I worked out how to program the ability to turn it off to one of the configurable buttons; press it once and darkness, perfect.

As for a feature that's missing from modern cars that older cars had? Road feel, going by some of the modern cars I've driven.
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I find on a lot of modern cars the interior LEDs are too bright. They shouldn't be using white either, it makes a big difference to visibility at night.

And yep feel through the steering wheel is really lacking now, mostly after they stopped using hydraulic steering. Some of the electronic steering is awful and it feels disconnected. It's funny how old versions of the same car often feel much better to drive.

Generally I think a lot less thought is put in to car design now with the small details which make cars great glossed over. They just jam a fancy iPad style head unit in it and people lap it up.
 
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My 3008 has a setting for the digital dashboard to only display the speed.

However there's no physical controls for the climate control, it's all integrated in to the infotainment screen, yes it keeps the centre dashboard "clean" but it's nowhere as easy to use as knobs and switches.
 
I prefer knobs. I reckon my G05 BMW x5 got it spot on. All the climate controls and heated seats etc are all buttons and then I have a big touch screen for everything else.
 
ZG002 said:
For obvious reasons, disc changers or even CD players now seem to have gone.

Full spare wheel

A exhaust note!

As above most Skoda's do have a umbrella (mines in the door) and we have actually used it a few times mostly on the school run when you have to wait in the yard for them to be set free no matter the weather.. it's a god send!
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The puncture repair kits many car manufacturers provide are rubbish!

Did have a spare wheel in previous car (Hyundai Getz) which was a space saving wheel. Only allowed to drive 50mph max and drive 100 miles. Basically designed to drive to a tyre place or go home and drive to tyre place the following day, if tyre places are shut at the time of puncture.
 
cheesefest said:
The puncture repair kits many car manufacturers provide are rubbish!

Did have a spare wheel in previous car (Hyundai Getz) which was a space saving wheel. Only allowed to drive 50mph max and drive 100 miles. Basically designed to drive to a tyre place or go home and drive to tyre place the following day, if tyre places are shut at the time of puncture.
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Touch wood I've never had to use one, but on a related note I gpy 2 new tyres recently and I was tempted by the acoustic foam ones. I then read that due to the foam they can be repaired if there's a puncture which seems like a large oversight.
 
Probably the most quirky never caught on feature I can remember is the “bright” button on Subarus. All it did was make the LED clock brighter if it was on and normal if it was off. Only the intercooler water spray button that sprayed water onto the intercooler thus increasing air density and therefore air going into the turbo came close
 
Uther said:
My VW will basically park itself if I press a button, a function I tried once just to see what it was like and have never bothered with again.
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My sister has on-street parking on a busy road which has high curbs, and she uses this feature on her A3 all the time, now says that she won’t buy a car without it!
 
There’s a feature that seems to be fitted to a few cars now (no specific model it seems) where it programs the brain into thinking a red traffic light means ‘just 3 more cars’ and not ‘stop’.

It’s starting to gain traction this feature I think, but I’m hoping it won’t catch on.
 
Scania said:
Driving my Scania recently, it occurred to me that it has a feature from its SAAB DNA that you don’t see on other cars (or trucks for that matter) namely the ability to disable all the dashboard lights other than the speedometer (and, in the trucks case, the outside temperature) at night, I find this feature very helpful as it removes so many other unnecessary distractions from the dashboard and leaves you far more focused on the road ahead…

I just wonder why this feature isn’t more common on other platforms?

I use it all the time and like it….

Thoughts?

Dashboard on.



Dashboard off.

Apologies for the iPotato picture quality!
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talking of distractions, i regularly see trucks up and down the motorway here where they've got, eg, a huge LED light NUFC crest in the back of the cab; how is that legal, surely it must cause some horrible reflections on the windshield?
 
nst68 said:
My 3008 has a setting for the digital dashboard to only display the speed.

However there's no physical controls for the climate control, it's all integrated in to the infotainment screen, yes it keeps the centre dashboard "clean" but it's nowhere as easy to use as knobs and switches.
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One of the reason I'm not a fan of driving my wife's 2008, even as a passenger it's a pain to hit the right bit of the screen while moving around.
 
NasherUK said:
The magnetic suspension used only on the Lexus LS400. Probably the smoothest ride ever.
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Never made it to production Lexus cars. It was a testbed for development.
Several new cars have magnetic springs now. Mustangs, Audi R8 come to mind.
 
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