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
We rented cars for decades as New Yorkers, and inevitably had to get out of the car on the way to the airport to see what side the gas cap was on.
Imagine the excitement at the revelation a few years ago that an arrow on the gas gauge pointed to the correct side!
I learned that about 15 years ago. I’m 70.
I rented a KIA and the arrow was pointing to the wrong side of the car.
Ha! The worst rental I ever had was a very early Kia…Sephia, perhaps. It refused to start if it spit outside, and I rented it in Florida. It was replaced by a reliable but absolutely dreadful Corsica. Runner up worst: Ion. I was happy it was rear ended on the second day.
Back before the little arrow was common, a lot of cars had a single tailpipe on the opposite side from the fuel filler neck (for packaging reasons) so you could guess if you saw the rear of the car.
I once pulled and reused a fuse from the fuse box labeled “spare” on the cover and my Airbag warning light came on. The dealership said it was intentionally labeled “spare” so people do not disable the airbag. it was a 2006 Jeep Commander.
Wh…why would you intentionally disable the airbag?! What is wrong with people?
Fear just like people feared seatbelts? or stealing them without setting them off.
Why did they think labeling it as “spare” would be good? If you’re hiding it, why not just couple it to something else important?
In the early days, airbags were dangerous to smaller people. By 2006, that wasn’t the case, but a lot of people learn a fact once and never revisit or reconsider it. This would also be inadvertently useful on cars that ended up with Takata air bags.
This doesn’t make sense. Isn’t it more likely that someone would use the spare fuse? What an idiotic thing to do if true, but then again, it’s a Jeep so I kinda believe it.
I did use it as a spare and that is how I found out it was the airbag fuse.
Both my 2016 X5 and my 2024 X3 have some kind of feature that will cause the car to parallel park itself. I only ever remember it has this feature when I’m parallel parking (which is about twice a month) and that has never seemed the right time to pull out the manual to figure out how to make it work. Besides, I generally can parallel park pretty well on my own.
Same feature in my Ford and my Mercedes, but I rarely use it. It moves frighteningly close to surrounding cars, which makes me tense. And I’m afraid it will get me into a spot that I can’t escape manually!
my GTI will park itself and it will also remove itself from a spot it has parked in, your cars likely do the same
It took me five years of ownership before I realized that my hatch had a second button to lock it. I thought there was only one button to unlock, and I’d use the remote whenever I had to lock the car. One day I was pushing a little off to the side of the hatch, and found a tiny nub. Lo and behold, a lock button!
That’s the only surprise I’ve had for my car. I was programming the lock button on our new ’21 Outback for the magic five-digit unlock code, and wondered whether our ’14 Mazda3 had one as well. Oh.
Apparently my 2014 Fiesta ST has a hood open sensor, but never knew until I upgraded from Sync 2 to Sync 3 and it told me I didn’t close the hood all the way after reconnecting the battery.
On an E46 BMW Convertible, if you lock the glove box, it disables the trunk release button (for top down security). Thought the interior trunk release button had broken, so wife had to manually unlock the trunk every time to stash stuff when parked in public with top down, which was a lot.
Only figured it out year later or so later after googling how to fix it.
WTH! They’re connected??? My interior trunk release button doesn’t work; I’ll have to give this a try. With everything else wrong with the car, I figured it was just another line item to fix. This would take my list back down to 1 issue to fix…CEL for the 48th time.
A report back to us after checking is needed….
I’ll do my best to remember. My CEL came on, and we’re not talking right now. It’s time for its emissions check, and I’m not happy with it…long story.
Another e46 vert one – if you twist the key to the lock position and hold it there, it will raise the windows if the top is up, or completely raise the top and then raise the windows if the top is down! I discovered this last year after a few years of ownership.
That is the most missed one…I’ve been in the BMW space for a while. I love this feature, but it works better when it’s remote-activated. My 2003 MINI remote worked while you walked up to it. My e46’s remote is so glitchy now that I only use it after shutting down the car, and I then decide to put the top up.
Years ago I was dating a girl who had an early ’00s Ford Focus. The first time I hopped in her car to drive I had to adjust the seat and steering wheel, and in the process of adjusting the steering wheel I pulled it closer to me using the telescoping feature. She thought I broke the car because she thought the wheel only tilted, not telescoped, but nope, she just didn’t know about it.
On a kinda similar note on one of my own cars, the A/C system on my 1985 Ford LTD that I rebuilt several years ago has always worked well, but TOO well. The evaporator would freeze up and I’d have to turn off the A/C for it to thaw out and restore airflow out of the vents. I’ve been dealing with this for like 5 years. One night out of the blue I had a bolt of inspiration to check something on the car. In a nutshell, the car has an LTD body harness and Mustang engine harness and there are two A/C cycling switch connectors, but only one is actually connected and functional. I looked and sure enough the correct functional was sitting unplugged with a paper clip jumping the two terminals, and the wrong connector plugged into the cycling switch. Either I or a shop I took the car to clearly forced the clutch to engage by jumpering the switch but then forgot to remove the jumper.
Removed the jumper, plugged in the correct switch, and the A/C worked flawlessly all last weekend driving in 90F temps around Palm Springs. I can’t believe I’ve been living with it like this for 5 years. Even more ironically, I was the one who suggested Torch install a clutch cycling switch on the Nissan NYC taxi, when my own car had this exact problem lol.
Now I know next time I go to Palm Springs to look for the guy in the Fox LTD and say “Hi”.
I was just visiting. I live in San Diego.
That’s okay – I’d just be visiting too.
I test drove a Fiesta a few years ago and just couldn’t get used to how close the steering wheel was to my chest. It wasn’t until I was returning the car that I found the telescope lever and discovered it was all the way “out” and it was much better pushed all the way “in” towards the dash. Ford just hid the telescope lever a little too well I guess.
I can’t speak for the Fiesta but on the Focus, the tilt and telescoping lever are one in the same.
I didn’t realise for about a week of owning my first car – Citroen AX, that radio had a CD player – and earlier owner (old lady) never knew about it, because you had to flip open whole radio panel to insert CD.
With another car, or rather a van I found out after two months that it has working central locking doors, but was just missing a fuse. And after next half a year or so i discovered that rear door also has a servo for locking, but somebody dismantled it and hid it under car jack (but WHY?). When conneted again it worked perfectly.
Sometimes owning a shitbox brings a smile when it surprises you with unanticipated features.
My wife owned a car for many years and did not know it had a low fuel light until I told her it came on when I was driving it. She lived in rural North Dakota so never let her car get much below 1/2 tank because in the years before cell phones running out of gas in winter on some desolate ND road meant death.
I lived in ND for a few years and DAMN. You really have to adjust the fueling strategy when there are 100 miles between the stations! Even with cell phones, there’s no guarantee you’ve got a signal out there.
I never measured in ND buy I did drive 96 miles between stations in Wyoming once.
It took me two years of owning our Q7 before I found
Umbrella pockets in the door cards
The headrest not only goes up and down, but fore and aft
You can touch and hold the dome lights to dim them to your desired level
The door pocket lighting is motion activated. Stick your hand into the door pocket and the light goes on, then fades out after a few seconds when you take your hand away. Apparently this feature only made it onto the 2017MY before cost cutting killed it.
And I had read the whole owners manual in PDF format when we got it. I guess I just skimmed over these things.
Because user manuals include so many features specific to each available trim, it’s easy to miss something important or try to use a feature not available. I wish they’d just have different PDF files for each trim line. Hire and intern and it would cost them nearly nothing to do this!
There is a 110VAC inverter hidden in the rear center console on the Jetta Sportwagen. I had no idea it was there until I accidentally kicked the cover off one day while sliding across the back seats…
It is extremely handy for testing Craigslist electronics.
I just found out that the Kia Forte GT I’ve owned for 8 months has high-beam assist.
I never pushed the window down button hard enough to activate the one touch down until I had my JKU for 8 years. One day I accidentally pushed hard enough and left off and the window went all the way down. I still do not use that feature (hardly ever).
I have a 2023 VW Tiguan SE trim I purchased used in October 2024.
In April 2025, I accidentally pressed the little button on the driver’s door handle and realized it would unlock the car if I had the keyfob on me.
https://youtu.be/Be_9DGYAt0I?si=VvuOa2eaiaZ88Eer
When I was 16, I was driving my 1984 Subaru GL around and tugged back on the turn signal lever for no reason at all. I was shocked when the brights flashed. Teenage me, who was so fascinated with driving that I had already been doing it for a few years and learned manual transmission before I even got my license, had no idea pulling back on the turn signal stalk flashed your brights.
Mid-2010 VWs haev a handy feature that if you move the indicator stalk to just before they click into place and let go, then you get three flashes from the indicator. Handy for changing lanes, because you don’t have to remember to cancel the indicator. My parent’s Skoda also has this feature, but they’d never realised until I drove it last year.
Mid-2010 GMs have this feature, too.
There’s a button low down on the interior plastic of the B-pillar in the Pacifica/Voyager that automatically moves the front driver’s seat forward when you’re using the second row Stow N’ Go. I had no idea that button was there for the first 6 months or so that I owned the van. I happened on it while detailing the van, and would have never noticed it otherwise; it’s in a practical spot in theory, yet it’s completely impossible to see from just about any angle.
Unfortunately, it’s only for the driver seat, as the passenger seat is manual. But I’ll take what I can get.
That button is also really hilarious for messing with whoever is driving but hasn’t started moving as well. It does disable when the car is in gear
I’ve been guarding this secret from my children for a while now and I’m not going to be stoked when the lightbulb goes off.
Please report back when it does.
You could always use it against your partner if they’re ever driving
I’m typically the drive in most cases, especially with the van. She hates driving the van (too large).
I had a 89 740 volvo wagon. It was so cool. My parents got it for me to go to university with. And my mom first noticed that the dash lights were not working. No worries I just taped a small flash light up there and it was good enough. Fast forward a couple years and wouldn’t you know it, there was a little knob on the dash to twist for the dimmer function. One of those things that just blends in with the black dash and the shadows we didn’t even notice it. This was also before everything was available on the internet and the car had lost its user manual.
Got a brand new work car in 2020 (Nissan Rogue). Plugged in my phone and Carplay didn’t come up. Thought the car came without. Took me 3(!) years to realize that it had to be enabled in a submenu. Silly design.
I was thinking my CarPlay was busted via wired connection before realizing you have to unlock the phone!
Car Play is subscription-based on my SUV…cowards. I know it’s available, but I’m not paying each year.
For about 9 years I had no idea it was possible to close the trunk of a 2015 BMW X5 from inside the car. I would always have to get out and close it from the back if it was left open. I always felt it was a stupid oversight. The button to release the trunk operates instantly when pressed downwards. The button to close said trunk takes about a 10 second pull upwards. It was certainly a little embarrassing when I realized that.
I had the same revelation on my 2016 X5, somewhere around year 3 of the 5+ years I owned it. Was annoyed to discover the 2024 X3 that replaced it does NOT seem to have the same function.
Welcome to the club – mine likes to act all weird, sometimes it works perfectly, others times it will decide if it wants to work right.
My Mini has a button on each exterior door handle that allows you to lock/unlock all the doors as long as the fob is within ~3 ft of the handle. This I learned very soon after buying the car. My Volvo doesn’t have an equivalent button, but each door handle has a ~1/2 in sq. indent. Turns out it is a touch-sensitive button for doing the same thing. I had the car about 3 yrs before figuring this out.
I found out by accident that I can pop the frunk on my Mach-E from the door keypad after a couple of months of ownership.
Volkswagens have a whole host of hidden functions buried into a myriad of convoluted combinations such as turning the ignition & holding the left turn signal and holding for 5 seconds.
And then there are the functions from VCDS that you can program.
I actually saw someone using VW’s parking lights while street parked last week. I knew they had them, but I’d guess nearly all owners outside of Germany don’t know the feature exists.
They all exist, such as auto-up windows from the remote which aren’t permitted in America, but often just need to be unlocked through VCDS (aka VAG-COM).
I believe the one I noted above enables or disables the DRL, but it’s been a while.
Auto Up windows aren’t permitted? My 08 Avalon and 98 Z3M both have them as standard features and will happily cut your fingers off if you do something dumb.
I owned my current Honda Fit for over a month before realizing it has a hill-holder. You have to give the service brake a good push, or be holding the car on it when stopped to set it and I usually use the parking brake for that. The salesman sold so few manuals he didn’t think to show it.
I had had cars with a little flap that slid out to extend the visor, so having a visor that extended on it’s arm was a shocking surprise after owning a car for 5 years.
I just swapped the visors in my 2017 Bolt to a newer model year version that has the telescoping arm, and it’s a game changer. Really easy to swap too, since it’s a factory part and fits perfectly. Every sun visor in every car should do this, as a tall guy, I believe it’s a crime that some sun visors don’t have this function!
I can lower the windows on my CX-5 from the remote, which I hadn’t learned until more than a year owning it because Youtube served up a short from a random California Mazda dealer showing how to do so (press the unlock button 3 times, and then hold it to roll the windows down).
I found this out on my Civic as well. I believe a lot of cars do can do this actually (I think there was an article here a while ago about it?). What my Civic doesn’t do is roll the windows up from the remote in a rainstorm after the button accidentally gets held down in your pocket. For example.
I think you can put the windows back up using the actual key in the fob. It works on our ’17 CRV, ’20 Civic, ’25 Pilot.:)
The programming for remote roll-up does exist in a lot of cars but I think it has to be disabled for US regulations. It’s considered a risk for injury from windows rolling up with nobody around, actually physically holding a control. Similarly – rain sensors that will close open windows when it detects moisture.
This is spot on, my former Mk7.5 Golf Wagon allowed neither up nor down from factory, but with an OBDEleven tool to do some coding, you could enable both up and down from the key fob with little work. It was basically finding the very long German word for window up/down and changing it from disabled to enabled.
I had always found it odd that remote rolldown wasn’t factory enabled on my Mk7.5, given VW was an early adopter of the feature. I think VW and Nissan were some of the earliest with some kind of remote operation, my ’97 Maxima did the front windows.
I did appreciate being able to close windows by holding the lock button on the handle at least. Better than nothing and better than having to get in and cycle through the power modes to do it.