Here at The Autopian, we like weird. From Jason’s Changli to Mercedes’ flock of smarts, we take the peculiar under our wing, and are proud to do so. However, a car doesn’t have to be innately strange to have weird things about it. Today we’re asking you about the weirdness within your car, whether overt or covert.
If you’ve been following along for a while, you’ll know that I have two cars. One is the stereotypical chariot of entry-level city professionals circa 2006, and one is the stereotypical chariot of thin Bay Street-based squash players circa 1999. We certainly aren’t talking Citroen SM levels of weird here, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t strange features on them. Unusually, both of my cars speak German through their climate control panels.
On my 325i, there’s a button marked “REST” for restwärme inside the right HVAC temperature knob. Press it, and hot coolant will be circulated through the heater core while the vehicle is parked. I’ve actually written a whole article on how this system works, so if you’re looking for some longer reading during your lunch break, I highly suggest checking it out.
On my Boxster, if for some reason I ever decide the set-and-forget approach of automatic climate control isn’t right for the situation, I can take over manual control of the HVAC system. If I do that, the word manuell lights up in the climate control display, indicating manual climate control operation in an exceptionally German manner. Of course, the photo above isn’t of my Boxster since it’s in storage, but you get the idea.
So, what’s the weirdest thing about your car? It could be an unusual feature, strange labeling, or perhaps you drive a Matra Murena, in which case, can we be friends? Celebrate your car’s weirdness in the comments below, and we’ll be sure to celebrate along with you.
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal, Cars & Bids/YouTube)
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1964 Corvair – rear alignment toe in/out set with shims between the transmission and the engine
1972 Fiat – manual choke and starter activated from levers on the floor between the seats
1964 Austin Healey 3000 – turn signal is a rotating ring in the center of the steering wheel
1917 Stephens – advance and retard the spark with a lever on the steering wheel. Throttle cruise control also a lever on steering wheel. Starter is a button on the floor behind your left foot.
1956 Lotus Eleven – swing arm front suspension changes camber in the turn. Rear bearings held in by the center wheel knockoff so bearings fall out when you remove the wire wheel.
A friend who had a ’73 Beetle drove my FIAT 500 once…apparently his Beetle had levers like that in the same position, but controlled the cabin heat? So it took a bit of explaining around how to properly start the car.
FYI, the cabin the heat in a FIAT 500 is controlled by lever right under the rear passenger seat.
I restored my Fiat so I figured out the heater. That little cup-shaped air diverter valve is clever. Even more clever is the way they used the engine cooling fan to create pressure to drive air up into the cabin. The thermostat on the engine shroud can vent the engine cooling air if the heater is closed off. When the heater is running, the thermostat closes and the hot air is directed into the cabin. Other air-cooled cars have an electric fan to blow air into the cabin.
Re the Stephens: was the starter standard in 1917?
you made me smile with the spark & throttle levers as it recalled my grandfather’s T’s
Starters were new tech in 1917, having debuted in 1912 on very expensive cars. It was unusual for a mid-level car like the Stephens (think Buick). It is original to the car and works very well. Of course the car also came with a hand crank just in case.
That’s why I asked. One of the first things my grandfather would do was take a good look at the starter as he said many aftermarket ones were never properly mounted
Weird/Unsafe. I am able to get out of my 2017 Volt and turn it off, while in gear.
First gen CR-V. Picnic table superiority
We also have bowl-holders instead of cupholders and an individual drive belt for each accessory.
The Buick LeSabre is an incredibly bland and corporate car, but it’s still got plenty of weird, thanks to the “experienced” nature of LeSabre buyers.
The IP fonts are huge. The numbers on the speedo and tach are about 1/2 inch tall!
If you leave the turn signal on, a chime sounds and a message appears “Turn Signal Still On?”, like “Hey, gramps, WTF are you doing?”
The serpentine belt tensioner has engine coolant flowing through it. For GM reasons.
And like many cars, there’s a button inside to open the trunk. But the LeSabre’s button has a keyhole, so you can lock it closed. Never seen that before or since.
By the way, stand clear of the trunk when I push that button. The lid rockets up with enough force to knock you on your ass! It can also be used as a water-balloon catapult.
A relative’s 2005 LeSabre had that lock. It was neat; it came with separate “valet keys” that worked in the doors and ignition, but not the trunk.
I bought my LS400 used, and it only came with the valet key, which didn’t open the trunk. I drove it back home from Texas to Maryland without knowing what was in there.
And there was a surprise once I got a real key and looked – a full size spare on a matching rim! Never saw that before!
Whew, it could have been a severed leg!
Dad used to move cars between dealers in the 60s to get free road-trip cars. 5yo me said, ‘what’s this?’ as I pressed a button inside the glove compartment. Trunk release: luggage & clothes spread across 3 lanes @ 70mph just outside NYC. Been over 1/2 a century, and I still recall that incident all too clearly…
OMG that is effin’ hilarious. You’re the reason they had to build in interlocks!
‘At was me: the tow-headed devil!
The trunk button lock must be an old person car feature. My 97 Grand Marquis is the same way. I think that should be standard on trunk buttons, makes a smash and grab much more difficult.
Buick radios of that era had motorized volume knobs, linked to the steering wheel radio controls. Because they had a tick mark indicating its position (or loudness I guess), if you adjusted it on the wheel, you could watch the knob turn too, whether you held it or just single increments.
I think C/D remarked in a Regal review, you needed a pipe wrench to turn the knob because it was so stiff, but makes sense if it had a motor behind it too, and prevents accidentally turning it too loud on accident since it didn’t have ‘steps’ to it.
My steering wheel controls haven’t worked since I’ve owned the car. The “temp” one was stuck going up, so I removed it, pulled the plug, and stuck it back in there.
Oh, so one more unique feature- when in drive, the column shift is perfectly positioned to rest your wrist on as you work the radio and climate controls.
I don’t think this classifies as weird. But to my dad it was the coolest thing in the universe. My parents got me a 1990 Chevrolet Corsica for my first car. The FIRST thing my dad was excited to show me about it was the infinitely adjustable sliding scale for the windshield wipers. No little stalk with 4 or 5 presets for me, no sir! I had infinite possibilities and could deal with literally any weather scenario. During the 5 years I had that thing, he would tell people about it regularly.
Honestly, if that works as intended, it is pretty great. I’ve said that the most overrated addition they made to cars was the intermittent wiper, because it’s always too slow or too fast and never quite what I want. I’m invariably either hitting the single swipe when needed or bumping up to constant wipers instead of intermittent. More fine adjustment to wipers would be fantastic.
JC Whitney sold an infinitely adjustable add-on at least into the 90s
I never trusted the add-ons like that. Maybe that’s a me problem, but my experience is that most of that aftermarket stuff looks a lot better than it works.
True that. I never bit—but mostly because at I think 13.95 it cost almost 10% what I paid for my beater.
90s Ford pickups have like 20 settings for the intermittent wipers. They’re excellent.
they stole the idea and got sued and lost to the inventor. they told him there was no market for it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns#:~:text=9%20years%20later.-,Lawsuits,face%20another%20round%20of%20litigation.
Wait that’s not standard? My ’13 Acura has an intermittent setting with a little ring around the stalk to adjust the speed.
I’ve had cars with a lot of different intermittent settings, but none that had enough fine-tuning to make them usable for me. Maybe it’s me, rather than the settings. But, in my experience (not a 13 Acura or 90 Corsica, so I can’t speak to either of those), whatever amount of adjustment I have, be it 5 settings or a slider or whatever, intermittent is always a bit off from what I want, so I just tap the single swipe when I need. The ones I have driven have seemed to have specific intervals they function at, even when you have a slider or ring, so they don’t feel like they have the fine adjustment.
Again, maybe it’s me. Maybe there is no intermittent wiper that will satisfy me and I will forever be the guy who taps the wipers as needed. Which is fine. It’s not a tough thing to do.
Tbf I do that too. Maybe one day AI or a wireless brain-car interface will guess when we want the wiper to run. Or cars will be self-driving and we won’t care.
Usually I think the longest delay range seems to max out at like 10 seconds and with 3-5 speeds. I think the Pontiac I learned to drive on allowed as long as a 20 second delay, but that was close to 20 years ago (eesh) so I could be exaggerating. But it speaks to the range it had too.
What’s funny is Honda still sells base Civics and CR-Vs without variable intermittent settings, just one intermittent speed – and a CR-V starts over $30k.
Some other GM products had that at the time (trucks/SUVs i think). It’s a good idea!
My 87 Porsche 928 has that as well.
I had a 2001 A4 that had 6 different levels of seat heating. No button with 3 lights for me, I got a scroll wheel with 6 positions instead.
Rover had a system like that on the P5 back in the 60s / 70s. Always struck me as a great idea.
My entirely Japanese car is cosplaying as a sophisticated Swede. I drive a Saabaru. And its the best impreza they made that generation.
My car has a button so it can jump start itself.
Hyundai hybrids (at least the Tucsons/Santa Fe’s) don’t have a lead acid 12v battery, it has a separate (small) 12v lithium battery. If you drain the small 12v lithium battery somehow, you have to hold down a button on the dash so the larger hybrid battery can jump start the 12v smaller lithium battery… therefore allowing the whole vehicle to be operational.
On the flip side, I don’t think you can jump start someone else’s car with a Hyundai hybrid, but I could be wrong.
Also it’s a little weird that it has a “traditional” 6 speed auto but no torque converter.
That actually makes more sense to me. The fact that my Volt has a 12-volt battery that will wreak absolute CHAOS if it’s even a little under voltage just makes me want to slap my forehead.
Yeah, lead acid 12v batteries have been not great for EVs, so probably similar issues with hybrids too.
I’ve worked at multiple EV startups (commercial EVs, buses, trucks, vans. nothing sexy) and I cannot tell you how many fucking times we had lead acid batteries be the reason why the EV won’t turn on and operate. Not as much now, since we (and all our competitors) have figured out how to not have that happen as much.
It’s just a running theme on all the Volt forums. “Hey my car is being a total chaos gremlin.” “Did you check the 12v?”
haha yeah that makes sense.
Funny enough though, 12v batteries running down used to cause some very weird issues on cars when they first started putting computers in them to control body electronics, etc..
I remember certain old Crown Vics would randomly just turn the headlights on… killing the battery even faster.
Older Tauruses had an issue for a little bit where if the 12v was running low it would just turn on the radiator fans…
weird stuff.
What’s goofy is the EV1 had a button similar to the Hyundais and GM dropped that feature when they made the Volt, oh what could have been!
My LS400 has an aimable HVAC vent under the steering wheel column for cooling your crotch.
GM GMT400 trucks had those, at least after they redesigned the dash in 95! Companies need to bring back crotch vents!
BALLVAC
I’ve never understood why, but my ’95 moves very little if any air through that vent. Its very disappointing.
Ball freezers/coochie chillers!
1988 Corolla Alltrac has the same thing. Its awesome for when your wearing shorts in summer.
Mid-90s Camrys had this feature as well. Was essential for a blitz from Seattle to LA back when I was young enough to pull this off.
No a current car, but I had a Bonneville with pulls to open fresh-air vents at your ankles and rear windows that were designed to not roll down. Just tiny vent windows at the rearmost 1/4 of the back door.
Ooh! My first car in the US was a Dodge Diplomat with foot switch for the high beams, and my first ever car was a JDM Corona Mk II Grande with the fender-pod mirrors. They look weird, but there’s basically no blind spot with them.
The G-body wagons and sedans all did that, rear windows that didn’t roll down. They did have little vent windows that were electric (if optioned) in the rear doors.
It was one of the dumbest GM design decisions of the 1980s. I hated being a kid in the back of one of those fucking wagons…didn’t help that it smelled SO MUCH like cigarettes too… barf…
Dad bought a Ford Fairmont in ’81 specifically because the G bodies did not have roll down rear windows.
He made the right choice.
The Fox platform was better than the G body in almost every way except for the 86/87 Turbo Buicks which were coupes only anyways.
The ankle air vent was the weirder part to me. Thanks, too, for making me internally relive that smell. Mine didn’t have AC, and also smelled like cigarettes.
What were some of the last vehicles with high beam foot switches? I’ve heard of those, but I was born in the nineties so I’ve never personally experienced one.
No idea when they stopped doing it, but I love those. I have added a floor switch to one of my old cars.
Ford pickups had them for quite a while. I don’t know when they stopped though.
Edit: Google says 1991.
That Diplomat was a mid eighties model, it must have been close to the end. It’s only one I’ve had.
Here are some from a couple of cars I used to own:
70 Volkswagen Beetle had two knobs on the dash ostensibly for “fresh air” – you could turn them left or right and never seemed to hit the end and never notice any changes. In the 20+ years that our family owned the car, I don’t believe anyone figured out their purpose or how to operate them.
59 Cadillac Series 62 had an analog clock on the dash that would self-wind using a solenoid; when the mechanism fully unwound, it would make contact and trigger the solenoid that would push a trigger-like mechanism and wind the clock. It used only a tiny flash of electricity to do this. Genius.
That is such a cool mechanism on the Cadillac. Mechanical timekeeping with an electric touch!
2017 Volt, the gas tank is pressurized and you have to press a button and wait a second before refueling for it to release the pressure. I think it’s to keep the gas from going bad as quickly, since there’s a good chance it will sit in the tank far longer than a normal ICE car.
It was built by people who are upside down right now!
More to the point, the engine and transmission were both manufactured in North America, shipped across the ocean to be installed in the car, which was then shipped back across to the US.
I’ll bite b/c I think I remember – SS, right?
Yes
Nailed it. Speaking of weird, does it have the picnic table + tree warning light that comes on after awhile to tell you take a driving break, like the Holden Pontiacs have?
If so, I’ve never seen it. My Sienna has a “Take a break?” message, but I’ve never owned anything else with that warning to my knowledge.
That’s odd, but didn’t Chrysler do the same thing (US-Italy round trip) with the Maserati collab in the 1980s?
Not my car, but a relative’s car of a higher trim of my exact car, a 2012 Prius v.
Until I pointed out its button, they didn’t know their car had a headlight sprayer function.
Is that something common or is that pretty rare, especially in 21st-century vehicles?
Traditionally, headlight sprayers and tiny wipers were a Mercedes/Volvo thing.
I’ve seen the tiny wipers–it didn’t have those, but even just the sprayers seemed like a unique feature, especially considering it’s a Prius, not a Lexus. Hell, I don’t even know if they were an option on the CT200h (Lexus with gen 3 Prius drivetrain)
Not uncommon on Euro makes, so the washers became a bit of a luxury car thing. Not sure if it’s as common now, seeing some mentions that it’s been getting cost cut at some brands.
Maybe the oddest vehicles to have it: some GMT360 SUVs like the GMC Envoy and Chevy TrailBlazer. And they had it years before the 9-7X so not like it was just a nod to the future Saab version.
For the wipers – MB moved away from it long before, but Volvo/Saab held on to the little wipers until some time in the early 2000s for just the headlight washers. Isuzu actually had headlight wipers on the 2nd gen Trooper in the early years too.
Big reason for that was the switch from glass to composite headlight lenses. Obviously a mini-wiper works great on glass but would scratch a plastic housing to high heaven. As such, Volvo’s P2 V70 facelift went from glass to composite and mini-wipers to sprayers. Honestly, I miss glass lenses. No UV clouding and mini-wipers!
That makes sense, I figured it was just damage liability/complexity, even if the nozzle is motorized it’s hidden out of the way of damage, nothing to get ripped off or the like. And if that hadn’t done it, pedestrian safety laws certainly would today!
I have four cars in the drive. One of them, a ‘24 Mitsubishi Mirage has a 3-stage electric heating element sandwiched in between the blower motor and the heater core and evaporator. When it’s below, I believe 60 F it will energize the first stage of heat to instantly begin to warm the interior. Depending on outside temps it will activate a second and third relay to provide max heat very quickly.
I am not living in the great white north but just East Tennessee but a few weeks ago we were in the 20’s and after sitting outside all night I cranked the engine and it was warm inside the cabin in about one minute.
This is the lowly MIRAGE 3-cylinder mind you.
This is a brilliant idea. Here I am starting my drive with the fan off and the temp set to cold, just to let the engine heat up faster. To get me my heat quicker. And a cheap Mitsu decides to forget heated seats and steering wheel, and solve the heat problem with an electric heating element in the HVAC system.
The Mirage also does offer heated seats on the SE model is standard but I got the LE which is just door panel trim and those seats deleted. But I have not heard of any other car that has this feature. I am sure somewhere it exists in another model, somewhere. But it does warm up fast in the cabin. Toasty!
Well I know the E39 had a little thermos under the hood to store hot coolant overnight to make sure the heater core would have something to start with on cold mornings. A heating element seems like the cheaper and easier way to do that, but BMW will BMW.
My Miata works.
Not weird for a 2018, but weird enough for one of my cars.
So I have a 2000 Ford Ranger EV(factory!), weirdest thing about it is that it’s a 2000 Ford Ranger EV so there’s that, it’s like the blandest thing mixed with randomly rare kind of thing.
For our 2017 Bolt, it’s actually fairly tame, the shifter is weird but not like Prius weird as it came out of a Buick, but the park is a button on the top, then to shift from park you have to hold a side button, and if you don’t the instrument cluster nags at you “hold the button to shift!”, like if you had to go so far as to put a warning in the cluster on how to shift, that is not a good design. Also reverse is up and to the left like it’s somehow a manual(it’s a weeble wobbly shifter that returns to center after ‘shifting’), and then NDL are regular middle line shifts. Better than the EUV where they went all buttons, not as nice as the Volt where it was a regular automatic shifter. I do like the manual style reverse option, but kind wish they went full manumatic with it and had like different regen levels in an H pattern.
Please tell me more about that Ranger EV! I’d love to know what it’s like living with the Avcon connector and all that.
The Avcon connector was the predecessor to J1772, so the guys that sold it to me sold a swap out kit and I got that on it, wires right in. I do kind of miss the old charger I got with it though, it talked as all things did in the future back then. But now it charges at my regular level 2 at home with my Bolt. But ONLY level 2 charging, 32A 230V, no level 1, definitely no fast charging. At some point I want to update the batteries and doing that I’ll have to update the BMS and charger so will at least get level 1 for it then too, maybe. I mean it runs great, it gets about 40 miles of backroad driving, maybe about 25 on the highway. It’s the NiMH model so original batteries and they still work, and I debate updating it or just keeping it as is for around town runabout and leave the longer commutes for my other cars.
But to the point of being bland, it had roll up windows, got a power window kit for those, still has the manual locks, I upgraded the stereo as it was a basic no tape deck am/fm model with 2 speakers. Vinyl floor, at least cloth bench seat. The dash is still analog but the gauges are adjusted, it has an ‘on/off’ indicator that was the oil temp, instead of a tach is the guessometer, and the regular speedometer only goes to 80 as top speed I think is 75 in D, only 65 in E(economy). Column shifter which I LOVE, how it should be in any truck with an automatic! Great little truck, life feels so simple when I’m driving it around town. 0-60 is whenever but 20-50’s pretty responsive, think that’s the motor’s sweet spot.
I do kind of miss the old charger I got with it though, it talked as all things did in the future back then.
Excellent turn of phrase! I heard this in Grandpa Simpson’s voice. Now where was I…oh yeah – the important thing was I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time…
Back in my day! I did bring the truck to Radwood NC last year(I got a sticker!) as it was within driving range, with the hood open folks would walk up surprised and I’d say, behold, the truck…of the future! You can go up to FORTY MILES on just 1 charge!
My mom had to write directions on a post-it for how to put her new Acura MDX into neutral for the car wash. It’s ridiculously complicated. Why can’t cars just have shifters anymore?
Right? Everybody’s outdoing themselves trying to find the ‘best’ design. Think we got pretty close with a big old stick you pull, it’s a large mechanical machine not an iphone.
I strongly think there are certain things that should need zero explanation from car-to-car and the shifter is one of them. Get in and go, no manual needed.
The trick, as I see it, is the potential for space-saving with smaller shifter designs. The shifter in my old E-series conceptually takes up a lot of space with the possible positions; on the other hand, my Prius knob always returns to a specific position after you move it into whichever gear. Just a separate park button.
The knob designs sound find to me so long as they’re visually distinguished and physically separated by a distance from any infotainment or climate control knob(s).
Knobs work space wise but the rentals I’ve had with them pulling out of parking spots got annoying fairly quick, think as I had to keep looking down to figure out what gear I was in. The Prius knob isn’t bad either as that’s close to a column shifter that I think is the real solution. Not sure if it’s a crash testing issue that they’re moving away from them. Like the F150 Lightning with it’s fancy fold down shifter, if they just put it on the console they wouldn’t need all that!
My Camaro will display a warning message if you leave your foot on the clutch pedal for too long while driving. Same for leaving the turn signal on too long while not stopped.
Lancia Fulvia – It has a V4 (with a single head for both banks).
Unusual for its time – my 2002 Mustang has the way old-school pull-out headlight switch.
I think the SN95 may have been the last car sold in the U.S. with this type of switch. I love it.
I never liked that style of switch. Always felt like breaking it was a possibility.
I had a ’97 Econoline with the same. They might’ve had them up until the interior refresh after 2008, when they got the usual dials. But of course, van, not a car.
I had a 2002 Buick Century that had the same thing. Quick google says that generation went out of production a few months after the Mustang so looks like they may be 1-2 in last with the pull out lights.
That a Buick is number one here makes me happy. Seems so very appropriate.
Maybe not completely, my 2005 Impala had the pull out headlight switch. It also had automatic headlights that neither the car nor the manual made mention of.
You’re both right, they made both the Impala and the Century into the 2005 model year.
My Buick had the auto lights too although it didn’t come with the manual.
It and the impala were all 2nd gen W platform vehicles. Maybe we can generalize it to the 2nd gen W platform vehicles were the last to have pull out light switches.
Not unusual for the time. Most Fords had that in 02.
No, most Fords had the dash mounted dial* by the late 90s, not the pull-out knob style. Even the Crown Vic had the dial, switching from the pull-out knob at some point in the 90s with the interior update.
Those that still had the knob into the 2000s like the Mustang and the Econoline mostly had dashboards from their introductions in the first half of the 90s and just never got updated.
*An exception – the Escape had the turn signal stalk mount switch, from the Mazda parts bin. But that too switched to the dial in the 2008 redesign.
That’s weird, my 1990 and 1992 Mustangs had push switches on the left side of the instrument cluster. Not sure why they would go back to a pull-out switch:
https://ad4062394301f5213879-385273f35a1492ed75ad0e23ea945a34.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/1990-93-mustang-instrument-cluster-bezel_01c4d73d.jpg
Wild. One of my favorite charms of the New Edge SN95 is how it has some intentional retro design cues, sure, but also plenty of unintentional ones like this, the ride and build quality…
3rd gen tacoma- to adjust the instrument panel brightness, you twist the odo trip reset button. Maybe this is common but it’s certainly the first I’ve encountered it.
That’s what it is on my dad’s 2014 Sienna, too. I assume it’s common for Toyota, if I had to guess.
That’s an old Toyota thing, going back to the first digital odos.
My MB has something vaguely similar, in that there are two identical, unlabeled buttons near the speedo, one for the trip reset, the other for brightness.
For my 1990 Miata, it would have to be one thing not often discussed which is the PPF, or Power Plant Frame, which physically connects the front and rear subframes together, so even though it’s a Unibody car, the body can be lifted off the drivetrain like a good old body on frame truck. Engineers did it to add stiffness to the chassis with the least amount of weight possible, which is hilarious since my NA has the torsional rigidity of overcooked spaghetti
My big Bentley is all sorts of weird but a standout oddity is a beautifully crafted and very well engineered chromed brass lever for opening and closing the radiator shutters. There are and have never been any such shutters.
My Countryman has a “Country Timer”. I’ve got no idea what it means other than it somehow changes the silly little graphic depending on how much you drive on vs off road.
The graphic is kinda cute though (this is as I was driving through Monument Valley):
https://i.imgur.com/0XcdcLK.png
My 2019 Atlas has a functional music CD player, but the slot to insert CD’s is hidden in the glove compartment as if you’d be embarrassed about it. (There are also SD card slots in there for music.. that’s cool.)
My grandma’s old Lexus SUV had something similar.
Ferrari has a button on the centre console to open the glovebox, a fly off hand brake between the driver’s seat and the door, and a dog leg first so you’re cosplaying as 1984 Michele Alboreto on his weekend off. Oh and METRIC FUCKING TYRES.
The e-brake is the biggest trip; the guy who delivered my car just assumed the floppy thing didn’t work. I bet plenty of flat-landers don’t even know the damn thing’s there!
> METRIC FUCKING TYRES
*Laughs in civilized measurement system*