As cars gain more and more features, it seems there are endless opportunities to experience new-fangled conveniences and niceties for new-car buyers – if you’re willing to pay for the appropriate option packages or trim level or (ugh) subscription. Most of have to decide what we can live without, feature-wise, in the name of a more handle-able monthly payment. “Do I really need the new-fangled thing? I’ve been pretty content with the standard fangle level, maybe I can skip that.”
I will confess, I have come late to a lot of luxury and convenience features. Air conditioning? Not until 1991 – in a 1980 Honda Accord I got for $500. I bought it because it had air conditioning. It was a revelation. Bluetooth? Never had it until my wife got her 2015 RAV4, and boy, that would have been nice to have sooner. Aux cable? What am I, a neanderthal? I’m still waiting for heated and cooled seats, those sound nice. And massaging, hoo boy. Maybe next time. Let’s see where the gang lands on the “luxuries they wish they’d sprung for earlier” question, as clearly I’m still way too far behind in car tech:
Mark Tucker
Memory settings for power seats. My wife and I are both a little territorial about our cars, and when we do have to borrow each other’s cars, we both get annoyed by the seat/steering wheel/mirrors being out of position afterward. For the entire time she owned her Explorer, I drove it scrunched up too close to the steering wheel, because the one time I adjusted the seat for me, it took her a week to find that magic spot again. Now, we just have to hit our own button, and presto, everything is back to normal – in the Chrysler, at least. I still put up with her seating position in the Yukon, because it doesn’t have memory settings.
Stephen Walter Gossin
Keyless entry. You don’t realize how much more efficient/time-saving and convenient it is until you’re manually fishing for a key in your pocket to try and insert into a frozen lock in the dark, in a snowstorm, in a sketchy part of town, while running late, with your hands full.
Laurence Rogers
Can I go the other way? I’ve had heaps of 70s cars, but until I got my ute I hadn’t owned a car with vent windows. What a great thing, you can use them to de-fog the windscreen and get some nice directional air at speed!
Thomas Hundal
When I bought my Infiniti G35 soon after arriving at college, I was thrilled to have a car with an auto-dimming rearview mirror. It made a world of difference, but it was merely the opening to the rabbit hole. My 3 Series doesn’t just have an auto-dimming rearview mirror, it also has auto-dimming exterior mirrors, and they are the absolute shit when you’re in the right lane with the cruise control on just trying to drive economically through a monotonous superhighway hellscape and some poorly modified crapcan with LED bulbs in reflector housings comes screaming up behind you at Mach Jesus with the high-beams on. As far as I’m concerned, auto-dimming exterior mirrors are relatively cheap safety features that ought to be standard on every car, because the first line of defense is always the driver’s vision.
OK, we’ve weighed in – now it’s your turn! What luxury and/or convenience features do you wish you sprang for earlier?
360 surround view camera. I’m competent using my mirrors, but the 360 camera makes things that much easier when maneuvering in/through tight spaces.
I can be totally content in a car with very luxuries, such as 1985 w123 300D. It has power windows and locks. That’s about it. I really appreciate the rain sensing wipers in my 100 series LX. And mildly tinted windshield with ceramic film.
Beyond that, I’m good with anything that adds convenience without impacting the driving experience. Give me heated/ cooled seats, auto dimming mirrors, memory seat settings, STANDARD cruise control (specifically not a smart system), power sunshades, Bluetooth connectivity (NOT the “Auto” version on a dashboard screen), maybe even blind spot monitoring (NOT lane keeping assist).
I’m good with things that make my life better without giving the vehicle dominion over itself or me. Or has a chime/ sound associated.
I’ve found the opposite, it just doesn’t take much to make a car functional and good. In 2020, when many people were working from home, I chose to commit to daily driving my 62 Austin Healey Sprite. It thought me that it was a perfectly functional car with no frills that you don’t need. The turn signals don’t self cancel, the brakes aren’t power assisted, everything is as basic as it gets. It was refreshing. The only modern convenience was a 1980s cassette radio for entertainment.
I do fully appreciate heated seats for winter driving as a modern luxury and have paid significant sums to get broken heated seats fixed.
This is my pet peeve. Heated seats. All cars get hot. Cars in Canada get hot in the summer; cars in Texas and CA get hot year round. You know what they don’t get- Cold enough for- seat heaters. It has always boggled my mind how “Climate” packages or Luxury packages include seat heaters. Cars will always get hot, most cars will never get cold enough for seat heaters or steering wheel heaters. WHY are seat heaters a default added when you upgrade from the base model. I would so love to not have to pay for seat heaters. The default should be seat coolers (AC) which makes infinitely more sense. Even if you live someplace cold you’ll use them after your cars been sitting for an hour in the sun. If you live someplace hot- you’ll never use seat heaters. I have had five cars with seat heaters and used them a grand total of 4 times in my life- and those times I would have been fine without them (but I have accidentally used them dozens of times and only noticed when I was dealing with a even more hot seat than usual. Stop with the mandatory seat heaters….. I just bought a new car in Texas…. and guess what every single one of them had once you got above the base model- GD heated seats and steering wheels. Guess what was only available on the very top of the line ovepriced with every option I’ve never wanted model… Coolers. BS<>
Rain sensing wipers! It doesn’t rain all that often where I live but when it does rain, it’s inconsistent as hell. With non rain sensing wipers I’m constantly adjusting the wiper speed from low, to intermittent 3, high, int 5, off, low, hyperspeed, etc every minute or two. Even rain sensing wipers aren’t perfect but at least I’m down to adjusting between a couple of sensitivity levels just a couple of times per drive.
I’ll second this one. Never imagined how great they are until I got my ’08 Saab 9-3SC. Fantastic in those conditions where the road is wet but it’s not actually raining anymore, so you are going in and out of spray all the time.
Though perfection is the rare cars that let you CHOOSE between rain-sensing and fixed-interval intermittent, as rain-sensing can really suck in some conditions – like light snow. Audi does this very well (shame about most other things about Audis).
It would have been nice to have an auxiliary input for my cars. First car was AM/FM only. Second car added a tape deck, which eventually broke. Third (present) car came with a six-CD changer, which also broke (recovered my CDs., though). For all of these, adding an aftermarket whatever would have been great.
Third car now has a USB port for my iPod. Deck also has Pandora and Sirius, should I ever choose to rent those apps. I know what I want to listen to, though, and the iPod has it.
I’d spend a lot more for a new car that had no screen at all. Just a slightly larger screen (say three inches instead of one inch high) for entertainment and nothing more.
The rest of the shit I have no use for. I don’t need some engineers helping me drive in real time. That’s what my wife is for. Zing!
Power seats. The ability to really fine tune and dial position is such a boon.
That reminds me of one I’ve gotten too used to for it to come to mind for this: Automatic memory for seats/mirrors/etc. My wife and I both drive her X3 regularly so being able to simply unlock it while carrying my key after she drove it last and having it adjust the seat, mirrors, climate control, and infotainment all back to how I had it is hugely convenient.
I own three cars: One from 1966, another from 1998, and my everyday driver is a 2023 with tons of tech and features. There are many things about the ’23 that I love and appreciate every time I drive it. That said, the one feature I benefit from the most is steering-adaptive LED headlights. I can see so much better at night than with my older cars. They only came equipped on the top trim level of my car, and they’re one of the reasons why I ponied up the bucks to get it. Love them.
Radar adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring, they’re both edging towards mainstream features these days but driving my first car with both was a revelation. It makes being stuck in heavy traffic so much less stressful.
Just picked up a 2018 Sienna and I love these two features (and the cross traffic alert when backing up)
My wife’s 2016 SRX had a hidden compartment behind the hvac controls that would swing open. SOOOO cool and definitely something I would happily pay more for in a future car. Also had AC routed to the glovebox to cool it, lit sill plates and…wait for it…A CD PLAYER! In addition to that, I would gladly pay for physical controls (hvac, starter button, headlamps, interior lights). The last 3 are nonexistent on on her new Blazer EV and I hate it. The part about it being an EV is fine; I just hate all the other changes GM made.
I’d also love it if they brought back leg vents. My ’93 D250 had those and boy, was it the bee’s (cooled) knees.
Backup cameras making hooking up a trailer so much easier. Don’t know if we would consider that a convenience feature.
Other than that, I agree with SWG. Keyless entry is wonderful. Just grab the door handle, hop in and push a button and you’re off.
I own both an old barebones economy car and a fully loaded new rav4. Keyless entry? Meh, I guess it’s kinda cool. Heated seats? Not my thing, unless it’s well below 0F. Auto-dimming mirrors? Radar cruise? Nah.
The new features are fine and I don’t mind using them. If they’re your thing, cool, enjoy! But there’s not a single one that I miss when going back to my old hatchback.
Except maybe the memory settings on the power seats. If my wife actually drove my old hatchback, I’d definitely miss the memory settings.