What are your 'must have' options / functionality?

[wingman]

A decent sound system is the highest priority for me.

Having grown up with old Land Rovers I kind of grew accustomed to sparse kit and consider central locking a pleasant addition.

It's all down to circumstance really. Cruise is good to have and I use it whenever I can, but I wouldn't consider it a necessity for my driving (but I can totally understand that it's high up on the lists of others).

Auto lights and wipers are helpful but not terribly important for me.

Two things I wish my car had are bluetooth and a decent in built satnav. My E46 came with bluetooth out of the factory but it is crap, it's too quiet and the connection is unreliable. Fitting a satnav is also something of a faff. For my next car I'd make sure they had both of these things.

Parking sensors are somewhat of a God send, too. Never cared for them before I had them, but now when I jump into my partners car, I am instantly aware I’ve got to be 100% switched on when reversing up to a wall because it’s not equipped with them.

Sunroof is also good for brightening up the interior!

 

[Howard]

Two things I wish my car had are bluetooth and a decent in built satnav. My E46 came with bluetooth out of the factory but it is crap, it's too quiet and the connection is unreliable. Fitting a satnav is also something of a faff. For my next car I'd make sure they had both of these things.

Have you looked into those Dynavin (or equivalent) units? They look like they offer nice up-to-date functionality for E46s and such.

Parking sensors are somewhat of a God send, too. Never cared for them before I had them, but now when I jump into my partners car, I am instantly aware I’ve got to be 100% switched on when reversing up to a wall because it’s not equipped with them.

Agreed, I'm already finding the front sensors very useful too.

 

[Jez]

Two things I wish my car had are bluetooth and a decent in built satnav. My E46 came with bluetooth out of the factory but it is crap, it's too quiet and the connection is unreliable. Fitting a satnav is also something of a faff. For my next car I'd make sure they had both of these things.

As mentioned a dynavin unit goes a very long way to addressing this issue. It brings the E46 bang up to date nav/infotainment wise. It also makes the dash look a lot less dated if you dont have the OEM system already.

 

[Gambisk]

* Functional USB integration that lets me stick a pen drive or hard drive loaded with music and play it, without needing to do any fancy formatting or file structures and skip/rewind tracks from the steering wheel. How can a £100 pioneer head unit that is 8 years old do this and manufacturers still can't get their act together.
* Heated leather seats.
* Climate Control
* Cruise control, nice to have for 10% of journeys but can live without it.

 

[Akagi]

Essential:

Electric windows
Air conditioning/Climate
Good sound system
USB & Aux

Preferred:

Parking sensors
Height adjustable seats
Sport seats (big side bolsters that grip you)
Good nav
Xenons
Cruise

Currently I have none of the above.

 

[Outcast]

Probably just Cruise Control and the door capability to upgrade speakers etc.

I hate having a sweaty arse so heated seats are out of the window.

Some trucks i drive have auto wipers and that really pees me off the same as that auto lights crap.

That's just pandering to the morons who don't put their lights on when they should. FINE EM !!

I used to drive a kingswood V8 (253) without power steering so it's not 100% needed although it is helpful when (tight) parking.

 

[wingman]

Have you looked into those Dynavin (or equivalent) units? They look like they offer nice up-to-date functionality for E46s and such.

As mentioned a dynavin unit goes a very long way to addressing this issue. It brings the E46 bang up to date nav/infotainment wise. It also makes the dash look a lot less dated if you dont have the OEM system already.

Much appreciated guys, didn't realise how easy it was to install the Dynavin unit and these look great once installed.

Will pursue this

 

[King4aDay]

Having now got used to it, I think 4 wheel steer. Which limits your options a bit!

 

[Jez]

Much appreciated guys, didn't realise how easy it was to install the Dynavin unit and these look great once installed.

Will pursue this

They are a bit quirky and chinesey in some ways, but they are without doubt the best option. A2DP, Divx, FLAC, touch screen navigation etc etc

 

[Freefaller]

Why do so many say them want air con and not Climate control.....

Air con is crap compared to Climate control...

Because generally if I had to compromise to get a car I wanted, vs having CC I'd ditch CC and be more than happy with A/C.

 

[Akagi]

Why do so many say them want air con and not Climate control.....

Air con is crap compared to Climate control...

What is err... What is the difference?

 

[rodenal]

AC blasts cold air at you.

Climate you tell it what temperature you want the cabin to be and it makes it so!

 

[Akagi]

AC blasts cold air at you.

Climate you tell it what temperature you want the cabin to be and it makes it so!

As long as the A/C cools down the cabin enough to stop me feeling uncomfortable and sweaty in the summer, then it will do me.

 

[Havana_UK]

Climate control, cruise control, sat nav, Xenons, in that order.

 

[Rich_L]

If buying new I would definitely look for adaptive cruise, had it on a Volvo estate hire car from Heathrow and it was brilliant, drove all the way to Cornwall and must have pressed the pedals half a dozen times at most

Made me sad that I drove so many miles in the US having to pay attention to cars in front when I could have had the car do it for me

 

[Howard]

As long as the A/C cools down the cabin enough to stop me feeling uncomfortable and sweaty in the summer, then it will do me.

Climate control is the business. Once you've had it you'll never want to fiddle around with manual HVAC controls ever again.

 

[Jez]

If buying new I would definitely look for adaptive cruise, had it on a Volvo estate hire car from Heathrow and it was brilliant, drove all the way to Cornwall and must have pressed the pedals half a dozen times at most

Made me sad that I drove so many miles in the US having to pay attention to cars in front when I could have had the car do it for me

Adaptive cruise is a really good feature, its just a shame that its available on so few cars (I have it on my Merc, but no others)

 

[Havana_UK]

Adaptive cruise is a really good feature, its just a shame that its available on so few cars (I have it on my Merc, but no others)

It's like all new (and initially expensive) technologies. They first appear on the top marques (typically Mercedes S-Class) and gradually proliferate down the chain.

Every time a new S-Class is launched it's reckoned that the new tech is the stuff you'll see on run-of-the-mill cars in 5 years' time.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

I think it first appeared on the Jaguar XK

 

[Jez]

It's like all new (and initially expensive) technologies. They first appear on the top marques (typically Mercedes S-Class) and gradually proliferate down the chain.

Every time a new S-Class is launched it's reckoned that the new tech is the stuff you'll see on run-of-the-mill cars in 5 years' time.

Even longer than that i would say, the S-Class had radar guided cruise in 1998