A Lesser-Used Vehicle Feature or Option You Most Cannot Live Without?

[thenetwork]

You are offered a brand new vehicle for free, but the catch is that you can only have one non-standard feature or option in it for the entire time you have the vehicle.

What feature or option is your must-have??

For me, I would have to say Cruise Control.  For all the driving I do along long, boring stretches of road, it's nice to set it and forget it.  An audio system would've also been a possible necessity until the advent of smartphone/bluetooth/unlimited data.

Yours?

[ozarkman417]

You are offered a brand new vehicle for free, but the catch is that you can only have one non-standard feature or option in it for the entire time you have the vehicle.

What feature or option is your must-have??
An audio system would've also been a possible necessity until the advent of smartphone/bluetooth/unlimited data.

I very much prefer to use my car's speakers to listen to music rather than having it play from my phone's speakers. Said phone is hooked up to the car either by aux cord, bluetooth or:
Because I drive a car that predates the smartphone era, I have this FM transmitter that accepts bluetooth signals from my phone and transmits is as an FM signal as to let me use my car's speakers.

Though if by audio system you are exclusively referring to a car's radio and CD capabilities, I could do without that.

[Max Rockatansky]

The ability to select low gear on an automatic transmission. 

[Rothman]

The ability to select low gear on an automatic transmission.

I have grown addicted to autostick.

Cruise control is pretty standard nowadays.

[Max Rockatansky]

The ability to select low gear on an automatic transmission.

I have grown addicted to autostick.

Cruise control is pretty standard nowadays.

It is pretty fantastic in my Challenger.  I make due with just a low gear selector on my CVT Impreza.

[oscar]

The ability to select low gear on an automatic transmission. 

The ability to select first gear (or its CVT equivalent) on an automatic transmission. I've driven a car where you couldn't select first gear, only second or higher. The transmission had a first gear, which would kick in for acceleration. But you couldn't get it to kick in for engine braking on a long and/or steep downhill.

[Max Rockatansky]

The ability to select low gear on an automatic transmission. 

The ability to select first gear (or its CVT equivalent) on an automatic transmission. I've driven a car where you couldn't select first gear, only second or higher. The transmission had a first gear, which would kick in for acceleration. But you couldn't get it to kick in for engine braking on a long and/or steep downhill.

To you point the CVT I'm referring to my Impreza generally does okay.  That said, if the road is something akin to Mineral King Road where the speed is often under 25 MPH it really struggles to provide the engine braking I need.  Fortunately the car also has four wheel disc which is way more than the typical compact segment rear drums.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Standard Transmission.
I guess I better not crash my current car.

[JoePCool14]

Volume and next/last song buttons on the steering wheel. I'm constantly moving the volume up and down and skipping songs I don't want to listen to, so being able to do all that without taking my hands off the wheel is an excellent feature. Highly underrated.

[wriddle082]

Assuming a lot of the options others have mentioned are standard equipment, my choice is going to be heated/cooled seats, but if I can only have one then make them cooled.  Living in the Southeast or Ohio Valley all my life, the summers can be downright unbearable and seem to last forever.  Not being sweaty underneath my clothes after driving for a couple of hours in July or August would be really nice.  Air conditioning can only go so far.  Heated seats do the trick just fine when I need them, but if I forget to turn them on I generally get warmed up quickly enough by the regular heater anyway.

[J N Winkler]

I would say that automatics with a L1 range (to prohibit upshifts out of first gear) are pretty much standard provision.  Of the eight cars with automatics that have been in the family fleet since 1980, only one--my current daily driver--has not had it.

Cruise control is pretty much the only accessory I've considered retrofitting to a car that didn't already have it.  I consider it indispensable for managing task load.  And while it is more or less standard provision now, I've encountered rentals as recently as 2004 and 2005 that didn't have it.

I am a huge fan of four-wheel disc brakes as well, and it bothers me that starter models in the US still come with rear drums.

[1995hoo]

Something not previously mentioned in this thread that my Acura TL has and my wife's newer TLX does not, and that I often miss when I drive the TLX, is a button that toggles the dashboard lighting between the night setting with dimmed lights and the daytime setting where they're on full bright. In my TL, the dashboard is dark when the car is turned off, illuminates when you turn on the car, and then dims (to reduce glare at night) when you turn on the headlights. But sometimes you need the headlights during the day–rain or snow is the most common reason, and I use my headlights when I drive on two-lane roads that have passing zones. Turning on the headlights dims the dash lights too much for daytime driving, so there's a "MAX" button that kicks them up to full daytime brightness; pressing it again toggles them back to your preset night setting. The TLX doesn't have that; instead, it has a sunlight sensor and automatic wipers and it adjusts the dashboard lights based on what it thinks is appropriate for the outdoor lighting (I should add the car has DRLs, so the two-lane road issue doesn't apply). Problem is, the sensor is overly aggressive and dims the dashboard earlier in the evening than I would prefer, or sometimes it dims the lights in the rain when I think it's still fairly bright outside. There is no equivalent to my TL's "MAX" button to make it easy to override the sunlight sensor's logic (or lack thereof) and it always annoys the crap out of me when I'm driving her car and the lights adjust in a way I don't want.

One feature the TLX has that I do like a lot is a lane-change feature on the turn signals where you press the stalk slightly and it gives three blinks. I miss this feature a lot when I drive our other cars. (The three blinks is also just enough to release the lane-keeping assist. My wife is not especially diligent about using signals, and she complained once that the car seemed to fight her when she went to change lanes. I asked if she used her blinker and she said no; she did not seem to appreciate my reply that if she did what she was supposed to do, the car would not have fought her.)

Regarding other comments in this thread, I don't view cruise control as a "lesser-used feature"; i might have in the 1980s, but nowadays I think it's pretty standard. I like the adaptive cruise control in the TLX, but it's not a "must-have" because the conventional cruise control in my TL works quite well.

[JayhawkCO]

Auto dimming rear view mirror and heated steering wheel.

[Rothman]

Something not previously mentioned in this thread that my Acura TL has and my wife's newer TLX does not, and that I often miss when I drive the TLX, is a button that toggles the dashboard lighting between the night setting with dimmed lights and the daytime setting where they're on full bright. In my TL, the dashboard is dark when the car is turned off, illuminates when you turn on the car, and then dims (to reduce glare at night) when you turn on the headlights. But sometimes you need the headlights during the day–rain or snow is the most common reason, and I use my headlights when I drive on two-lane roads that have passing zones. Turning on the headlights dims the dash lights too much for daytime driving, so there's a "MAX" button that kicks them up to full daytime brightness; pressing it again toggles them back to your preset night setting. The TLX doesn't have that; instead, it has a sunlight sensor and automatic wipers and it adjusts the dashboard lights based on what it thinks is appropriate for the outdoor lighting (I should add the car has DRLs, so the two-lane road issue doesn't apply). Problem is, the sensor is overly aggressive and dims the dashboard earlier in the evening than I would prefer, or sometimes it dims the lights in the rain when I think it's still fairly bright outside. There is no equivalent to my TL's "MAX" button to make it easy to override the sunlight sensor's logic (or lack thereof) and it always annoys the crap out of me when I'm driving her car and the lights adjust in a way I don't want.

One feature the TLX has that I do like a lot is a lane-change feature on the turn signals where you press the stalk slightly and it gives three blinks. I miss this feature a lot when I drive our other cars. (The three blinks is also just enough to release the lane-keeping assist. My wife is not especially diligent about using signals, and she complained once that the car seemed to fight her when she went to change lanes. I asked if she used her blinker and she said no; she did not seem to appreciate my reply that if she did what she was supposed to do, the car would not have fought her.)

Regarding other comments in this thread, I don't view cruise control as a "lesser-used feature"; i might have in the 1980s, but nowadays I think it's pretty standard. I like the adaptive cruise control in the TLX, but it's not a "must-have" because the conventional cruise control in my TL works quite well.

Regarding the three blinks thing, I take it that's different than the standard lane change feature where a slight push just temporarily gets the blinker going?

[Rothman]

I would say that automatics with a L1 range (to prohibit upshifts out of first gear) are pretty much standard provision.  Of the eight cars with automatics that have been in the family fleet since 1980, only one--my current daily driver--has not had it.

Cruise control is pretty much the only accessory I've considered retrofitting to a car that didn't already have it.  I consider it indispensable for managing task load.  And while it is more or less standard provision now, I've encountered rentals as recently as 2004 and 2005 that didn't have it.

I am a huge fan of four-wheel disc brakes as well, and it bothers me that starter models in the US still come with rear drums.

2005 was 17 years ago...

[1995hoo]

....

One feature the TLX has that I do like a lot is a lane-change feature on the turn signals where you press the stalk slightly and it gives three blinks. I miss this feature a lot when I drive our other cars. (The three blinks is also just enough to release the lane-keeping assist. My wife is not especially diligent about using signals, and she complained once that the car seemed to fight her when she went to change lanes. I asked if she used her blinker and she said no; she did not seem to appreciate my reply that if she did what she was supposed to do, the car would not have fought her.)

....

Regarding the three blinks thing, I take it that's different than the standard lane change feature where a slight push just temporarily gets the blinker going?

In every car (other than the TLX) that I've ever driven, the "slight push" requires that you hold down the stalk to keep the blinker on. That is, in our other cars if I just flick the stalk and release, I might or might not get a single blink of the indicator (depends on whether I flick the stalk for long enough for it to register). In the TLX, if I flick the stalk for a minimal amount of time by pressing it enough that it hits, but does not pass, the detent, the indicator automatically blinks three times even if I immediately release the stalk. Our other cars don't do that. I find it to be very convenient for lane changes.

Of course you can still push the stalk all the way down to put the blinker on continuously, which is what I do when I'm preparing to turn or when I approach my exit on the highway (but I do not keep the blinker on the whole time I'm sitting at a red light unless I'm either first or last on line). I just find the other feature very convenient for lane changes, especially on rural highways when there's not a lot of other traffic around.

[kphoger]

If it's an automatic transmission, then count me as another who really hates not being able to downshift into 1st gear.  It's not just for steep hills, but I use it most often in snowy/icy driving.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet is an oil pressure gauge, not just a warning light.

Cruise control I can easily do without.  In fact, I pretty much never used it for the first 20+ years of my driving life–being of the mind that its use tended to lull me into a state of reduced alertness.  It's only within the last three years or so that I've begun using it.

[Rothman]

Oh, I got another one:  A temp gauge!  I have been in too many recent compact or subcompact cars that don't have one due to manufacturers saving space on the dash.  Very annoying come winter.

[kphoger]

Oh, I got another one:  A temp gauge!  I have been in too many recent compact or subcompact cars that don't have one due to manufacturers saving space on the dash.  Very annoying come winter.

You mean engine coolant temp?  OMG, yeah, I couldn't do without that!

[Henry]

Tape and CD players. I could play tapes in my Calais and Explorer, and CDs in my Tahoe and Equinox.

[Rothman]

Tape and CD players. I could play tapes in my Calais and Explorer, and CDs in my Tahoe and Equinox.

Wow.  I didn't know anyone who still listens to cassettes.  You'd think they'd be so worn out by now that the audio quality would be nil.

[SP Cook]

SXM radio.  I assume that the service will die out, as the cost of replacing the satellites will be greater than the return.  As long as you stick to places with good cell service, and mostly I do, you can get the same with car play/auto but I just like the simplicity of the SXM.

[JayhawkCO]

SXM radio.  I assume that the service will die out, as the cost of replacing the satellites will be greater than the return.  As long as you stick to places with good cell service, and mostly I do, you can get the same with car play/auto but I just like the simplicity of the SXM.

I also love it. Driving in the mountains, there are lots of times where there's no data, and sometimes I forget to download stuff to my phone before I leave.

[Max Rockatansky]

Oh, I got another one:  A temp gauge!  I have been in too many recent compact or subcompact cars that don't have one due to manufacturers saving space on the dash.  Very annoying come winter.

You mean engine coolant temp?  OMG, yeah, I couldn't do without that!

All you get at best usually in the compact segment is what Motorweek used to refer to as an "Idiot Light."   I always thought it was odd to call it that when that's the only instrument you had on the car. 

[ZLoth]

I would say Bluetooth integration because I want to listen to music and audiobooks from my smartphone while I'm driving, and skip the terrestrial stations, but Bluetooth is practically a standard feature in cars manufactured in the last 12 years. I don't even touch the CD player in my car.

However, one feature which will be a "must have" when I purchase a new vehicle (probably 2027) is Android Auto integration, and if I had a iPhone, it would be Carplay.