Whether it’s because you’re the second or third owner of a car acquired in a private sale, or the fault of an inadequately informed salesperson at the dealership, or you just didn’t read the manual, it’s not unusual any of us to be blissfully unaware of features and niceties built into our vehicles.
It’s usually the smaller things that elude detection or go unnoticed, but sometimes important – indeed, crucial – features may be completely unknown to some drivers. In college, a buddy of mine went a full month thinking his Ford LTD (pretty sure it was an LTD) simply did not have high beams. As you have probably already guessed, the car did have brights, but they were activated via a button on the floor, not a stalk control. “What does this even do,” he lamented, stomping the button on the way to lunch. “It’s the high-beam switch, dum-dum,” I replied helpfully. He had never tried the thing at night.
More recently (like, 30 years more recently), my Mom was shocked to discover the CD player in her 2008 RAV4 could actually hold six discs. Six! She was popping out Whitney Houston to put in Dionne Warwick, and I was like, “You know you can put both in there, right? Plus four more?” Sadly, she was doing this from the passenger seat because she no longer drives and missed out on a full decade of not having to swap discs, but at least we had a good laugh on the way to Dollar Tree. And then we got ice cream.
Small conveniences are often far more appreciated than expected when one has suffered long without them. When I showed my wife her rear seats could be folded down via remote latches in cargo area, she was thrilled not to have to open each rear door and walk around the car to flip the seats directly. The little holder-thing on the gas door, so the gas cap doesn’t just dangle against the paint? A revelation. And don’t get me started on how many people have been thrilled to discover there’s an arrow on the fuel gauge that points to the side of the car with the fuel door.
Your turn: What Feature Did You (or someone you know) Not Realize Your Car Had For Way Too Long?
Top graphic image: Toyota
I’m not sure.
I got my ’04 Volvo XC90 maybe 5 years ago, and it’s got a LOT of buttons. Like honestly: a LOT. There are probably several that I still have NO idea what they do… sometimes I push one and wait for any response, but nothing (that I can tell) happens.
There are also a few little buttons/switches in my otherwise-relatively-simple NA Miata that again, I’ve no idea what they do. I don’t think they’re factory (though the car is/was some kind of special edition: it came with BBS wheels, a Nardi shift knob, cruise control, etc…) …one is on the steering column and another one or two are in/near the center storage bin. Again, I have no idea what they do.
My most recent puchase, which is currently my daily driver, is an ’89 Volvo 240 wagon. It’s a DL model (though with power windows and locks, etc…) and it’s essentially almost the same as when this model came out in 1975, so it’s not exactly chock full of tech geegaws. What buttons/knobs it has are nice and chonky… the simplicity of the car is part of what makes it appealing. With this said, other than fan speed, I don’t think any of the HVAC controls do anything really: the aircon is always on low, and no fiddling with buttons or knobs seems to change that.
Of the three, the XC90 is most likely to have some features I don’t know about, but I’ll be damned if I know what they are.
God forbid I ever get a car with a screen in it: with features hidden away in menus/settings, I’ll never know about them at all.
Automated reverse parking in my 2017 i3.
I drove it for 2 years before watching Cars of the People with James May where he demonstrated this very feature. At first I assumed it was a newer model perk, but then remembered that the show is actually older than my specific car. So I had to try it. And sure enough it works and has been in there the whole time.
Fun fact: several years later I actually met May, at one of his Gin promo events and told him about this, we shared a brief laugh together.
Lola, my 2007 Hyundai Elantra, has a pretty basic radio/CD player. No touch screen or infotainment, but it does have an aux port. I bought her in 2018 and a couple months ago my son, 17, showed me that you can press FM, AM, or AUX to turn on those respective functions- you don’t have to press the Power button first. Efficiency!