Makers of wheeled conveyances have been steadily ramping up interior features ever since the first sore-bottomed cart driver realized some padding for the wooden bench would be nice. When wheeled travel went horseless and mass-production took full hold, interior innovation truly went into high gear. And why not—the inside of the car is where you touch everything and everything touches you, so all the better to make it comfortable, easy, and convenient. Window cranks? Bah. Let’s have a motor do the glass raising and lowering, please. Levers gave way to buttons, and now screens. Seats got softer and velour-ier or firmer and bucket-ier, depending on your sporting or luxury pretensions. Dual-zone climate control. Massagers. Cup holders. Cubbies. So much stuff, year after year, automakers keep giving—and occasionally taking away, see GM and Carplay. Why? But we digress …
OK, to the question: What Are The Car-Interior Features You Can’t Live Without? Seat-memory sure is nice if you’re sharing. Maybe you’re a big map-light geek. Gotta have substantial storage between the seats, perhaps? You tell us!
Oh, and attention wise guys who can’t wait to tell us you can’t live without a steering wheel: in 1958, GM said you can. So there.
Image: GM Heritage Archive
Top image: The Autopian
Leather / non-hard plastic steering wheel
After that, heated/cooled seats…though I wouldn’t say I couldn’t live without them.
Excellent answer. I remember the days when hard plastic/non-covered steering wheels were the norm, and it’s amazing the difference in feel that covering them in leather/suitable substitute makes. It’s the one thing you’re nearly in constant contact with in the vehicle.
Instinctive ergonomics for things like turn signals, wipers, high beams, cruise control, power windows and mirrors, door latches, seat controls… And actual buttons and knobs.
I was going to join Fjord in saying steering wheel, pedals, and speedo, but I think I agree with this stance more. I used to travel 80% of the year, each week in a different rental car, and I quickly found that poor ergonomics and controls can turn an otherwise fine car into a frustrating turd quickly.
There was a period I traveled frequently and it seemed like I always arrived after dark. I’d spend the first few minutes in the rental car lot trying to find the headlight switch.
I’m going with steering wheel, pedals, and a speedo. Everything else is negotiable.
Speedometer in my MGB destroyed itself. I just use my phone. I will eventually get a gps speedo for the dash. Fortuntely, it isn’t fast enough to get me in trouble.
front wing vent windows. My ’67 has them and I ADORE THEM!!!
Add me to the 3rd pedal club in an ICE but I think I could forego that in an EV.
I’ve also grown highly highly addicted to Android Auto (when it actually works) and bluetooth. I don’t think I could go back to a car without bluetooth.
Add me to the “gotta have a shift lever” camp. I rented a Ford Escape over the weekend with that rotary dial gear selector – HATED it. Especially when I tried to do a U-turn and discovered the turning circle was worse than I expected, then put the damn thing in Park instead of Reverse trying to correct. You have to be able to select gears by feel, whether there is a clutch pedal or not. Even an electric car should have a lever somewhere with clearly-defined detents that you can use without looking down.
In a manual – a hand-operated parking brake. Would prefer a manual parking brake regardless, but in a manual I’d rather not have an electric one and I’d rather keep my feet focused on the main 3 pedals.
If I’m going to have TPMS – a direct tire pressure readout.
Auto-up windows. I care about the up more than the down.
Auto-dimming rearview mirror – I feel like any car I’ve driven with a regular day/night mirror ends up too dark compared to an auto-dim mirror. Or I could just be getting older.
Not must haves, but a couple little things my Optima had that I appreciated: a mute button for the audio, and a screen-off button (pre-Carplay stereo).
Lighted map/overhead light switches. Seems silly but VW I guess thought otherwise in the Mk7.5 Golf line with 2 similar feeling buttons on either side of the overhead controls.
Not a feature but preferred placement for headlight controls: turn signal stalk, not the dash knob or the old-school Detroit pull lever. Even with auto lights (which I don’t care about). 80s/90s style pods would probably be fine to me, they were just before my time to have really used them – I just prefer having that function closer to my hands on the wheel.
I don’t know I could go back to non functioning AC. with the cars buffeting as badly as they do these days when the windows are down, AC is a must. I think GM failed when they did a way with the nut chiller vent though.
Also an actual Key that unlocks the door. Minimally in a pinch the drivers door with a hidden lock is fine, but if the car simply has Fobs and no way to access the interior, much less the offending battery, I am out. This goes for the fob as well. Had a fob battery go bad in the middle of winter in iow without any warning. that stupid VW would not open in any way to get in and drive to get a new coin battery. and it had an actual key slot and tumbler to start the damn thing, just could not open a door.
Right on. Keys are such a simple, elegant solution to a problem…it generally makes me sad when we choose more complicated solutions over simpler ones.
I’m on board with the original complaint about physical backups to get in if a fob battery fails, but keyless ignition is one of the best changes to happen to cars in recent years.
No more fumbling in pockets, walk up to the door, open it, get in and drive.
No more removing gloves on cold days.
No more bulky/sharp keys in pockets.
No more worrying about losing keys in purses (happened to my wife all the time)
No more worn out ignition switches.
Being able to leave a car running while taking the keys with you and locking the doors is an awesome feature in all kinds of situations.
I would honestly have a hard time buying a car that required a physical key to start ever again.
the problem with them is the distance it allows you to go before it shuts things down. I have left my wife’s fob on a roof and drove off, everything shut down when it flew off, but it was quite a ways from the key before it did this. It did warn us though, so I suppose not the worst deal, just wonder what happens if the fob battery dies while out in the country or something.
I also tend to lock keys in my older cars more now since I got used to leaving fobs in the pocket, that is a bit annoying and makes me feel dumber than I am I suppose.
Seriously? That’s just stupid. All of my passive entry cars have a physical key hidden in the fob that can be used to open the door and an NFC-like feature where if you touch the fob to the right place in the dash the car will start even if the battery is dead. I have used that too because when your battery starts to get low it always shows up first after you’ve been outside for a long time on a cold winter day (exactly the scenario where you do not want to be stranded).
literally every other fob connected car I have has the hidden tumbler in the door handle, VW was or is just weird. the whole 39 degree ice warning light was also unnecessary and somewhat comical.
Which VW? My GTI has a tumbler hidden under a cover, just no marking that it does.
Also the ice thing…it does seem extra, my family’s Saturn VUE with the auto-dim mirror with the temp/compass display would blink “ICE” at that temp, but didn’t have a chime to accompany the warning as in the Aura that followed it and my GTI now. Like…thank you for distracting me I guess?
Speaking of – there are Tiktoks or reels or something going around saying “fob battery dead? try this!” where someone pops off the start button on I think a Benz, to reveal a hidden key slot. I’ve had more than one person send to me and ask if it’s true and I sigh and say no, don’t do that, just hold the key close to the button or steering column usually and try.
I don’t even know if MB’s still have that, or if its just a holdout from the early days of passive entry where many cars had a slot to use or as a backup.
Yes, and I had to use it once. Worked a charm.
Guy I was working with only had one key for his Prius and it got damaged during the work day… He was pretty screwed
That vent was just a bonus. Yeah A/C has become a nonnegotiable requirement the last 40 years. I remember the 1960s. It was hot.
Tilt and telescope steering wheel adjustment. Heated seats and steering wheel. Numerical speedometer display front and center.
Heads Up Display (HUD)
Having to look down at speedo (etc) takes you eyes away from the road.
Looking through a projection of your speedo, however, means you may change the focal point your eyes are looking at, but behind that you still see the road.
A full (ish) gauge setup. Yeah, I know many of them are gauge-style idiot lights, but I do like to know what’s up with action-of-driving-critical systems.
My cars are pre-screen, so it was a bigger deal back when they were new, but I’ve noticed that many digital setups these days are cluttered with all sorts of information on stuff that doesn’t really deal with the immediate operation of the vehicle.
I guess this is the way of things, but it makes me feel one step further removed from being a driver of a vehicle and more of a glorified conductor of it.
I’d love if Android Auto would actually let Torque Pro run and display on the screen. So many gauges. I don’t need them all the time, but at least occasionally it would be nice to see.
A manual parking brake lever. Ventilated seats is a close second.
God I wish I had ventilated seats…
Physical knobs for the radio and HVAC.
I’m a big fan of the heated steering wheel.
For a long-distance or commuting car: noise abatement. A quiet, well-insulated cabin is a much more pleasant place to be.
For a hobby/toy car? Bring the noise. 🙂
Seconded on all points.
A good steering wheel that doesn’t fly off your hand while you’re driving
That is a good idea.
No space for mother-in-law?
A decent sound system. If it sounds like a dog farting in a paper bag, I’m out
Funny, for me the upgraded sound system in my truck is an anti-feature because the subwoofer takes up valuable storage space under the back seats.
Windows that go all the way down and no locks or controls that poke up, so I can comfortably rest my arm on the door.
This is a dealbreaker for me.
I never used to care about power seats until I made my most recent purchase. Being able to adjust the pitch of the seat cushion is really important for me to find a comfortable position. Typically manual seats don’t have this feature very often.
Reading that back to myself, I appear to have become old.
+1. I guess I was spoiled by most of my cars having an 8-way power seat until my GTI or took it for granted. I didn’t care about the power part, but really miss the pitch/angle adjustment – which even if I had the power seat, it was just 6-way and wouldn’t have mattered.
Im going to go a bit rogue here and say physical, mechanical shifters and parking brakes, particularly in automatic equipped cars. The modern rotary wheel, Braun mini shaver, button based, etc. stuff is complicating shit just for the sake of complicating it. If I get into a car that’s equipped with a damn auto and it takes any time at all to figure out how to put it in gear it’s a huge design failure.
I remember test driving a couple of modern Bimmers a while back and needing a second to figure out the stupid electronic gear selector. Both my parents drive cars with electronic shifters and they drive me absolutely bonkers because of how vague they are. I wind up putting the car in neutral half the time. In my car and my wife’s car I know one click down means reverse, two from reverse mean drive, and 3 from park mean drive.
I never have to look at the shifters and that saves me time and frustration. Electronic parking brakes are the same way. If I have to look at it to determine I put the parking brake on it’s wasting my time. I know that I have the parking brake on in my car because I rip it every time I park. The electronic nonsense also adds an extra layer of complexity to something that dead simple solutions have worked for for decades at this point.
It’s a real pet peeve of mine and one of the countless examples of modern automotive engineers creating solutions to problems we never had. And before the snide responses roll in YESSSSSSS Autopian, I know! Hurrr durrrr MANUAL MASTER RACE etc. My wife can’t drive stick and my morning commute of 6-7 miles depending on route takes me between 45-60 minutes. I ain’t dealing with a clutch pedal through that nonsense.
I had a car with an electronic parking brake and a manual transmission. My battery died when I was parked at the top of an incline on a 100 degree day. I thought I could bump start it but nope. Dead battery means parking brake is stuck on.
I have a rotary shifter. Makes sense in a van? But it is a bit awkward, and it took me a couple of weeks to get used to it, where had they just put in a small version of your typical auto shift lever in it’s place I would have never had to think about it. Also, while it’s not the same size at the volume knob, it is directly next to it…
No better method for changing gears in an automatic has been devised than the column mounted PRNDL lever, now sadly only found in trucks, and disappearing even from them.
I daily’d a truck with a column shifter for years. It really is the most efficient way of doing things and it frees up your center console a ton.
Nothing like already turning your head to look over your shoulder before you even begin shifting into reverse and knowing you’ll find it exactly every time.
Three on the tree?
https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/classic-cars/a1882751/new-detroit-trucks-3-tree-column-shift-manuals-1986-yes/
I had a 1983 F150 with the 3-on-the-tree and the 300 straight six. Clutch was fully manual (no hydraulics) and the steering was pure manual. Simple and damn-near bulletproof. God, I wish they still made them that way.
I had a 1978 E150 with 3 on the tree and 351 Windsor that was the family vacation mobile growing up. The shift pattern is burned into my muscle memory for life!
When I see the new F-150’s shifter folding up to get out of the way so you can open the center console all the way it makes me want to drive up to Detroit and start beating Ford engineers over the head with a column shifter until they remember that the perfect solution to this problem already exists.
Not only does it still exist, but they sell it in their own Super Duty trucks, inside basically the same cab, attached to basically the same transmission.
Yeah, that’s such a stupidly complex, expensive, over-engineered solution to a simple problem that was already solved decades ago, it’s a wonder one of the German automakers didn’t think of it first
Oh don’t worry they have their own absurd solutions to this problem that no one has. Most VAG cars now have a shifter stub (which I refer to as the Braun shaver above), the BMW electronic shifter is ridiculously stupid (push a button on the shifter to put it in park!), etc. That being said there’s no doubt they look at the Ford contraption and turn green with envy.
Ah, for a second there I thought you were going to say the push-button selector like those in ’60s Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouths.
I commented the same thing based on a recent experience renting an X3. Everything about it is wrong and I did not get used to it at all over more than a week of driving it.
Separate button for park than the one to shift from N to D or R? Why? WHYYYYYY????
One thing they did NOT change was the positioning of R and D. In a traditional shifter it goes P – R – N – D. Fine. With BMW’s insane control design it would be more intuitive to, y’know, push the shifter forward to go forward and backward to go backward. Nope. It was a huge problem.
Shift lever, preferably on the center tunnel (I’ll take a column shift if that’s all that’s available). Switches and knobs to control essential functions. A nice, plain instrument panel devoid of screenage. Dials for basic info (speed, rpms, fuel, temp, oil pressure at least).
Ventilated or cooled seats. I live where it’s mudbutt season year-round. They are a must.
Ball Chillers/Coochie Coolers are indeed fantastic
In the NSane family we affectionately refer to them as ass conditioning
Sure you didn’t mean swamp-ass? What are you guys eating where you’re from?
Indeed. I suspect you would emphatically not want perforated seats if you have mud butt. You’re never getting them clean again.
I will say air conditioning. In the 90s in Western Washington, I drove all sorts of cars without air conditioning without worry. I’m now in a place with hot summers and couldn’t imagine going without it.
For what it’s worth, Western Washington has some pretty hot summers these days also!
I never knew it until I didn’t have it. My current car doesn’t have a center arm rest. Boy do I miss it. Yeah, not enough to sell it though. I sure know my next car will have one.
Such a good one and so under-appreciated! We absolutely underestimate the amount of time we spend more leisurely cruising vs. both arms out IndyCar racing things.
My wife’s ’98 Civic didn’t have that option box checked (used) and holy hell was it a pain in the ass trying to figure out where to put my gangly limbs in between shifting the 5 speed
Same here but with a 6 speed. So used to resting my arm and hand by the stick.
A lever or handle with a mechanical connection to the transmission, whether manual or automatic. If the latter, it should be on the column or dashboard.
This is probably my only Luddite tendency. Bring on the screens but get rid of the dials, mini stalk shifters, push buttons, and shift-by-wire.
Um, a steering wheel and a seat? Otherwise, I’m pretty flexible if I like the car itself