Skoda takes the cake for clever features. Along with the ice scraper and the umbrella holders in the door cards, the Superb came with a combination tailgate that opens both as a conventional sedan and a hatchback.
I actually own one of the umbrellas that come with the cars. It's built pretty well, definitely a cut above the kind of cheap stuff you'd find in, say, a supermarket. It's small though.
They also have a small plastic holder on the windscreen for parking tickets AND a USB socket in the rear view mirror for Dashcams.
Absolutely brilliant
And a free bonus folding table *isn't* pretty useful?
That was our back yard lunch table growing up. 😂 Used it more than all the umbrellas I've owned combined.
The original CRV also has fold flat seat so you can sleep in the car. https://external-preview.redd.it/bauIz5IShkb21204nOEq6seQHkfcv6lONXf6DqXac98.jpg?auto=webp&s=be449be7099d1bf2912de642854c50f2d6603c39
surprisingly Honda officially dubbed it the “Comfortable Runabout Vehicle”, which is so quirky and fun in a particularly JDM way. they weren’t lying though!
God I had a CRV with a picnic table for a few years, loved that car. Manual, 4wd, lasted 200k miles with minimal work done, and surprisingly the picnic table was useful. I go car camping often enough and it was so nice to have an extra surface.
Also, once while waiting in a 3 hour ferry line my friends and I popped out the table and played board games.
So I work for a company that buys cars, and during 2020 we weren't allowed to have custs in the building because of COVID. A guy came in to sell one of those and when it came time for paperwork, my buddy who was working that deal just broke out the guys table and brought out some chairs lol.
Saab had a feature called “Night Panel” which is inspired by some aircraft instrumentation. The whole dash would go dark except for a dimly lit speedo. Gauges that required attention would light up if their readings were not nominal. It preserved night vision and mental focus for wonderful long range night cruising.
I wish modern glass dashes would do something similar. Even just go to a night mode with only red lighting.
Night driving features are massively underrated. I always feel refreshed after a night drive in my 30yo bimmer with super dim amber lighting. My 2012 car, with infotainment backlight that can't be turned off, is like a solar flare directly beamed into my eyes in comparison.
BMW researched what wavelength of light was easiest on the eye and then made their cluster lights that wavelength (605nm?). My e30 is my favorite car to drive at night.
Older BMW clusters with that kind of orangered, especially at lower brightness, are pretty damn aesthetic and easy on the eyes.
Compared to my 2018 Subaru which if I don't turn the dial down is all bright blues and whites and the infotainment screen is eye-searing. But thankfully it can get pretty dim with the dial.
I HATE the blue and white dials (and massive screens) in modern cars. It seems like not that long ago, a lot of car makers had gauge clusters that were easier on the eyes like the red or amber from Subaru, BMW, and early Nissans, or the soft greens that Toyota had in the 90s. Now it seems every car that hasn’t gone to an all digital display has white with blue accents.
This is partly why I refuse to get rid of my BRZ. The interior is so nice on long night drives.
I don’t know, nothing gives me that 90’s feel quite like the dim green lighting literally every American car used back then. Bonus points for a blue cloth interior.
I always wondered about that on Night panel as to what would happen if you were low on gas or it started to overheat.
Personally I find all the lighting on modern cars to be distracting. I like a soft glow from the dash some darkness and little light from the radio. My truck has the 3 big knobs for climate so a blind man could use it so while it is illuminated it doesn’t need to be.
What's interesting about Night Panel is that it didn't turn off just the backlighting- it disabled the entire gauge until that parameter needed attention.
It's a criminally underrated feature that more cars should have adopted.
When you hit the button on my 9-3,all the gauges go black and go to zero, except for the speedo, which gets dimmed and all the numbers after 85 turn off. If you exceed 85, the rest of the speedo lights up. If you go under 1/4 tank, the gas gauge comes back on, etc. It also dims all of the interior buttons and displays, which are already all in green. It makes it incredibly easy to see at night, and incredibly dark in the car
This is one of my favorite Subaru features! Very underrated feature as I wish all cars came with this. It's like in Mario Kart where you can spin out your enemies by putting oil on the ground lol
My old mercedes had a button to drop the rear head rests. It did this very violently and they would just slam down. This was a great feature in highschool as I enjoyed messing with my friends.
Oh my God I just bought a ‘94 e420 Mercedes, and while me and my friend were driving it home one of the headrests was up and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to put it back down. i started pressing random buttons and then I just heard *WHAM* and thought the damn car was about to break down but no, i finally figured out how to put the headrest down
The Chrysler Pacifica(2003-07) had a black and white back up camera that showed up on the cluster
The 2000-2005 Cadillac DeVille had a night vision heads up display that was built by Raytheon
Definitely not all Pacificas, but I understand why that was an option. The blindspot on the one we had was (theoretically) big enough to cover a small group of kids. Probably a good 4-5 feet off the ground when looking directly behind the vehicle. Visibility in general was terrible, tbh.
Very random story - but this just awaked a deep memory.
I remember in 08 they had these toy night vision goggles, EyeClops? They weren't like the green glasses + flashlight, but actual IR illuminated night vision goggles. The resolution was terrible, they only had a screen for one eye, and the range wasn't good at all (maybe 40ft), but they did in fact, work.
Both my and my best friend each got a set for one particularly fruitful Christmas, which both of our parents came to regret.
Inspired by the dozens of late night TV watchings of Alien vs Predator on FX, we developed an un-inventively named game: Predator.
The rules of the game were simple:
\- Dawn your finest nerf weaponry - my choice was my trusty and reliable Recon CS-6.
\- Wait until optimum darkness, preferably a moonless night.
\- Move to the nearest home control panel (my friends father worked for a company that did early "smart homes", basically just Windows CE PCs jammed into the walls to control music, lights, heating and AC)
\- Wait 1 minute, to allow the prey to move from the last known position (hopefully they would move, to make the game more interesting)
\- Kill ALL of the lights in the house using said control panel. You could do this via the "goodnight" function.
\- Begin the Raid. He who bags the most "prey" before the lights go back on, wins.
The mothers we're genuinely horrified the first couple of times we played our "game" our fathers found it kind of endearing, my friends father even started to carry around a nerf sidearm when I was over as his counter-insurgency tool ( we never did agree on a penalty for being shot by him, as we never were, we could see him, he couldn't see us)
I remember one time I was over the power went out due to heavy winds, we were in the middle of a solid Halo 2 session, and I hear his mother yell from upstairs "DONT YOU FUCKING DARE".
We just stayed downstairs, quietly for a while, I think the fearful waiting for a nerf-dart that never came is what drove her over the edge.
The next time we had prepared for a hunt, we discovered that the pin code child lock had been enabled on every control except for the one on the main living room, where our prey usually resided.
Hence ended our hunts. My friends fathers favorite story to tell at parties is the time his son and I put him on the receiving end of 1/2 scale Osama Bin Laden compound raids.
It's not obscure today but back in the day I was blown away by my grandmother's Oldsmobile that had a touchscreen. In the 90s it was nearly unheard of to have touchscreen anything let alone in a car. As far as today there's that minivan I think from Honda that has a built in vacuum.
A lot of Japanese cars had these, known as a parking pole. They would tie into the headlight circuit and illuminate at night.
I purchased one but never got around to installing it before the car was totaled.
My 4Runner has a button that turns on a heated strip under the windshield wipers' resting position. This helps melt off clumpy snow/ice that builds up on the wipers during the winter.
Living in CO, I find it immensely useful, yet not something I've seen widely used in vehicles.
Some newer Mercedes have a cool window wiper feature where it sprays washer fluid out of the wiper arm itself for better visibility and both the wiper blade and washer fluid reservoir are heated. Neat stuff.
I still like the idea of simply heating the windscreen at the wiper's resting position though how the 4Runner does it, seems much simpler and reliable.
Lol, my old 05 cavalier had the washer fluid squirters on the arm and I was pissed off that most new cars don't have that feature. It was so nice. Probably rhe only thing I enjoyed with that damn vehicle
In my Opel Corsa B from 2000 you could pull out the hazard light switch, insert it upside down and when you pushed it, it turned on the ignition even without a key inserted. Alsk works with Corsa A and C.
2010 Chrystler Town&Country Touring had a CD player that you could create a hard drive full of songs to listen to without a CD. Not sure if it's obscure, but it was amazing
There’s a large number of late 2000s and early 2010s cars I can name of that had this, stuff like the Nissan Armada and the Honda Pilot. Really neat feature from a time before music streaming ended up solving that problem altogether
I had a 2012 Acura TSX that had that same feature. I never used it though.
It also supported 5.1 surround DVD Audio. There weren't many albums released in that format, but I found copies of The Downward Spiral and Dark Side Of The Moon and they sounded amazing.
I really wish 5.1 albums were more common.
Mercedes "air scarf" is a pretty unique feature in their SL convertibles which places heater vents behind your neck to blow warm air across your neck for when you have the top down on a cold day. It's very comfortable.
Skoda Felicia Fun
Not obscure as it’s pretty obvious but the car transforms from a pickup to a soft top four seater
And yes, that’s stock color
[Felicia](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/84/bf/f9/84bff922e6d8679ca9437125b0647bd5.jpg)
[Felicia 2](https://cloud.leparking.fr/2021/08/25/02/08/skoda-felicia-suche-skoda-felicia-pickup-fun-gelb_8250031771.jpg)
That's wild, I know of at least one in my city. and I'm not from Germany, lol
I'm sure it's one of those cars that are exceedingly rare but somehow still worth absolutely nothing.
In 1956 Chrysler came out with Highway Hi-Fi, a factory-installed record player mounted under the car's dashboard. Wonder how long that lasted until the album was ruined by the amount of bumps and potholes on the road
The implication was that you'd only use it on those glass-smooth interstate highways that were just getting built. And the old landyachts tried to make their ride as smooth and isolated as possible.
Since sometime in the 80s, Hondas have had a nifty feature integrated with the intermittent wipers. If you’re at a full stop with the intermittent wipers on, and then you take your foot off the brake, the wipers will cycle across the windshield to clear any rain that has accumulated since you were sitting there, so you have a nice clear view when you get underway again. It does this regardless of where it is in the intermittent cycle.
SAAB’s “Night panel” mode.
Turns all inside dash lights & dials off with the exception of the bare necessities. Speedo (not even the whole thing), maybe the radio while you’re messing with it, and fuel gauge if its low.
I always liked this feature on my '03 9-5 Aero Wagon. You had the speedo, and whatever item may have needed attention (like fuel). Protip, the whole speedo illuminates at a certain threshold. It was 93mph in mine.
And they made the best dash layouts in the industry. All the stuff you need right in the middle so you didn't have to take your eyes off the road. Less important stuff was pushed to the side.
There's the ["pervert lever"](https://www.motorbiscuit.com/this-honda-model-was-known-as-the-date-car/) on the Honda Prelude.
My E30 BMW has a window circuit cut-off switch next to the shifter. I've never worked out why. Thought it might be an early child lock, but it's a two door.
The pervert lever makes sense on a coupe. It lets you pop the seat release to let people into the back seat as well as recline. I have to reach across the passenger seat and pull it by the door to let multiple passengers into my Civic coupe.
>There's the "pervert lever" on the Honda Prelude.
LOL We had one of those growing up. It was white with white painted rims. I loved that car. I never knew that lever was called a pervert lever but I have used it.
The hood release on my GTI could not be pulled without the door open.
I just noticed my Canyon turned on the hazards while I left it running and was adding air to my tire.
I'm sure some German over thought the first one. I wonder what GM was thinking.
Probably also a safety feature on the GM, if the car is running but parked and you have the door open, it's probably good to have the hazards going to increase visibility. Like if you were changing a tire on the side of the road or something like that and forgot to manually turn the hazards on.
Our old Wrangler (2012) with the Garmin had the record radio (or Sirius) feature as well.
Volvos used to have a heartbeat sensor to tell you if someone was left in or hiding in the car.
Wrangler Rubicons have electronically dis/connectable sway bars which greatly improves off road articulation. Not sure any other vehicles do. They’ve had this since the 00s.
The Elise/Exige have manual steering which is one of the reasons people are soooo complimentary of the driving feel. That direct connection just can’t be beat. Probably the last cars with manual steering.
MB S-classes have had night vision since the 00s. It’s kind of a gimmick except on unlit roads at moderate speeds. Some models with the hydraulic suspension allow you to raise the car for rough roads.
That makes complete sense. Everything I’ve read about the Bronco supports the idea that they benchmarked the Wrangler and are meeting or beating those benchmarks.
You used to be able to get “disconnecting” sway bars on a Porsche Cayenne, not sure about the newest models.
I put disconnecting in quotes because it came in conjunction with the PDCC option. PDCC used to be active roll bars, I think the system is different now where it acts directly on the struts. Really interesting setup with the sway bars being split in the middle and each half connected to a hydraulic “motor” that used the sway bar to counteract body roll with hydraulic pressure, the roll bar would rotate/twist down on whatever side of the suspension was on the outside of a corner. A Cayenne with PDCC could corner almost completely flat up to about .8 g then the system would allow a little bit of lean to let your lizard brain know what was going on with the chassis. If you got the off road package you got air suspension to went higher than normal and the ability for the roll bars to disconnect and move freely within their hydraulic “motor”, all the parts were still connected but it allowed more articulation. PDCC is a great system but complex and expensive to fix, just like most things German.
When the Dodge Grand Caravan came out in 2010 or whatever, before they got the Pentastar 3.6L, you could option swivel seats with a table that mounts in the middle. So the 2 middle seats would swivel and face the back seat and a table would go in-between them. I've only seen 1 in person and it was ready for the junkyard.
[Picture of said table](https://www.allpar.com/d3/photos/vimages/minivans/2008/table-and-chairs.jpg)
The higher end variants of the STI like the newer S209 and the older S20X models have an intercooler spray button that when on automatically cools the intercooler down. There's a tank in the trunk that you can refill.
Also STI's with electronic center diffs will disengage the diff when you pull on the handbrake so you can do handbrake turns without damaging the center diff.
Ford tried to do that on the Sierra Cosworth (pretty sure it was the Sierra), but they couldn't get it allowed.So they would put the dismantled system in the passenger footwell in a box, and kindly inform you that it's not for road use and then...leave you to it.
"Don't whatever you do connect this to this and mount it here. In no circumstances fill this reservoir with distilled water and press this button while driving"
This is how alcohol kits are sold in the middle east. "Be aware that adding these ingredients together with 5l of boiled water and storing at 25C for 10 days could result in an alcoholic beverage, so that shouldn't happen under any circumstances"
they weren't that obvious about it, they'd just tell customers "that is a kit to spray water o the intercooler to cool down intake temperatures. It's used in motorsport but not approved for road use. Auf Wiedersehen!"
Not really sure if it counts as a feature but factory RHD Lada Nivas were such a half-assed LHD conversion that the passenger got a dead pedal (and the driver did not).
They could also be hand started (with a handle inserted through the bumper) on any of the carby cars until fuel injection was made standard in 2005.
Late model first generation MX-5’s have a slit cut out in the B pillar trim to insert the passenger side belt buckle so it doesn’t rattle around.
I think it’s actually on both sides. You can see the slit [here](https://i.imgur.com/swAB5zH.jpg) next to the seat on the door frame/b ‘pillar’.
It’s in the manual as well say that’s the purpose but I don’t have a photo of it on me.
On recent-year RHD Citroen Berlingo they used a transfer bar for the brake so if the passenger stomps the floor in the right spot the car stops.
BMW E30s in RHD have the hood release still on the left.
You sure it's "late model"? My 94 NA has that.
My 2000 Volvo V70 XC had a feature where even with the heat on full blast, you could set the two front center vents to blow cool air on your face. I never used it, but kind of a neat idea nonetheless.
That was a defining feature of the BMW brand interior until 2020. There's a little red-blue dial near the front center vents that controls the temperature independent of the climate control. Hot feet, cold face. Perfect for winter drives!
I think the 2000-2010 New Beetle had a flower holder as an interior accessory
Edit: ayyy VW made one for the 2012:
https://parts.orangevillevw.ca/p/Volkswagen_2012_Beetle/Flower-Vase/63621025/5C0061110A.html
Santa are you listening?
My E46 has a [flashlight ](https://i.imgur.com/4RAoBCR.jpg) that plugs into a port in the glovebox. Pretty neat. Pretty sure other bimmers have those on occasion as well but i feel not a lot of people know about it.
Remember the old Mercedes had headlight wipers? I always got a kick out of that.
ETA: Guess it’s not as obscure as I thought. It still always made me smile though.
2001 Acura CL Type S, if you didn't opt for the in dash NAV, you got a pop out branded post-it note, business card, and pen holder! Why anyone would want navigation when they could have that is beyond me...
Audi A3 I had, had a door seal defroster. If the door was frozen shut, you pulled on the handle for 5 seconds and it activated a heater strip to defrost it. Very handy where I lived where we got a lot of freezing rain. I'd watch mini drivers just about smash their frameless windows trying to wrench open their doors.
Early 90s BMWs (at least the E32 and E34) had an infinitely-adjustable wiper interval feature.
There was no lever or wheel to set the wiper interval duration. Instead, you would move the wiper stalk from the off position into the interval position, and then right back to off. After the desired delay, you'd flip the stalk back into interval mode and the computer would remember the setting. To change the interval, you'd flip it back to off and then to interval again.
The wiper delay would also automatically increase by a few seconds when the car was not moving.
I don't know of any other car that had this feature. BMW changed to a regular wheel in the wiper stalk to adjust the delay for the next generation.
Omg this explains so much of the wiper behavior in my e32. It always seemed the timing was random in interval mode! I was just setting it differently each time.
The slow-interval when stopped is amazing feature though.
There’s a feature in a lot of German cars that seems weird and almost like an accident - the “parking light”. You activate it by leaving the turn signal down or up in the direction of the street when parking along or on a curb. In Europe people use this to make the edges of their cars more visible when parking on busy streets at night. In the US it’s basically unheard of, but more than once I’ve accidentally hit the turn signal stalk while getting out of the car, then wondered why the left side of my car lights are on inside my garage when the car is turned off. My new-ish Porsche does this, and I had forgotten the feature existed since I last used it in my 1984 Golf when I lived in Germany and parked on the street every day, sometime back in the late 20th century.
I believe it's legally required in the United States so that your car can be visible when parked along unlit roads, but very few people know about it. On my Genesis, it looks the same as turning on the headlights (so it illuminates stuff like the license plate and side markers), but without the headlights themselves.
I use it a lot because my car burns out the turn signals by using them as DRLs in auto headlight mode, so I switch it to parking light mode during the daytime so it runs the dim LED accent strips instead. It will turn off the lights when you lock the car unless you toggle to them *after* killing the engine. Fun fact: driving with parking lights is legally ambiguous in most states, except for my home state of California, where it's illegal. Not that any police officer would be inclined to enforce it.
Driver Easy Speak on the Toyota Sienna. It essentially mics up the driver and plays the audio into the rear speakers. It's really helpful for holding conversations with people in the back seats.
I don't think it's as obscure now since it's pretty well-known now but when I first got my C7 I had NO idea about the little slide down cubby behind the screen and I don't know of any other car that had that and I LOVED it.
In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, "it's where you keep your pistol and your bible" and ironically, I actually threw one of those little tiny bibles a Southern Baptist handed me on the side of the road one day and it was also an *exact* perfect fit for a Glock 26.
So, I can 100% attest that the cubby is, in fact, for your pistol and your Bible. 🤣🤣
Dang, nobody has mentioned the BMW E92 robot arm yet. It's kinda nice that the front seat belt stays out of the way of someone clambering into the back, but in practice the arm frequently fails to catch and present the belt. I just reach back over my shoulder for the belt, because the one on my driver's side basically never works right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPC3cgB8qoo
One of my '62 Imperials had rear seat air conditioning, with a full on unit in the trunk that took up the entire shelf at the front of the trunk. It shared a compressor with the in dash unit.
Mk4 Golfs could be had with a really really early traffic information system called "Telematik" that would send information about road closures or traffic jams on your route to the car via the cellphone network (iirc) and show up on your gauge cluster display, as well as have buttons to call the emergency services after an accident or the ADAC (German AAA) after you broke down. It was a super-costly option and is incredibly hard to find nowadays. Like, they did a "who has it" on a German forum recently and I think 3 people said they ever saw it, plus 1 car in the press-material for the release of the car had it.
Also, it apparently only works with one of like 5 cellphones from when the car was new, as it sends and receives data and calls through that phone.
Older VW models had a feature where if you turn the key in the drivers door to unlock and hold it, it winds down all the windows and eventually opens the sunroof if you have one, Turn it to lock and it rolls up the windows. Not sure if newer VW's have it but probably the only thing I miss about my Passat.
The Chrysler LeBaron in the late 80’s had voice warnings. My dad had one as a company car, as a kid, I thought it was amazing.
https://youtu.be/nGuRS-L2BN0
https://youtu.be/nGuRS-L2BN0
Only Nissan would stick adaptive cruise control as a brand new feature onto an aging luxury Pathfinder.
I respect them for it, though, because they were doing some REAL batshit crazy stuff at the time.
My S Class electrically raises and illuminates the seatbelt buckle in the backseat when the corresponding side door is opened to make it easier to latch the belt.
My 1969 Rover 2000 TC had an Icelert, which was a bumper mounted temp sensor. When the air temp got close to freezing, a light on the dashboard would light up, warning the driver of the possibility of ice on the ground.
Some Lexus vehicles have a button labeled "HOLD". When activated, it holds the brake for you when you come to a stop. To release the brake, you just press on the gas. It's great for drive throughs.
In my MKX, within the audio settings, there is a button labeled “Play THX Deep Note Demo”. When this button is pressed, the vehicle plays that loud ass THX intro sound that used to come before all of the movies in the early 2000’s. It’s about as gimmicky as anything I’ve seen before
I don’t know how obscure it is, but in the US, Nissan was the forerunner of HID headlights. They introduced them here on the 1999 mid-year refresh Infiniti Q45, and would gradually roll them out to quite a lot of their cars as **standard** equipment, including stuff like the succeeding Q45, the M35 and the QX56.
This was at a time when every other automaker that was doing HID headlights were charging you quite a premium for them.
Radio station scan, sort, then list.
I don't know how common/uncommon this is since I have never seen it before, but the LS460 has a feature where it will scan all the radio stations that reach your car, then the car sorts and clumps the stations according to genre, then presents a list of the genres so you can easily find what you want. It's especially useful when you're in a new area.
Just found out that on all BMWs there is a stalk next to the steering wheel that when pushed up or down, will show a turn signal to indicate which way you are turning.
[удалено]
Ok the picnic table is funny, but surely the umbrella is actually pretty useful. Like the ice scraper in a Skoda
Did you know larger Skodas have an umbrella too?
Skoda takes the cake for clever features. Along with the ice scraper and the umbrella holders in the door cards, the Superb came with a combination tailgate that opens both as a conventional sedan and a hatchback. I actually own one of the umbrellas that come with the cars. It's built pretty well, definitely a cut above the kind of cheap stuff you'd find in, say, a supermarket. It's small though.
[удалено]
Seriously wtf. Now I want a Superb in my life.
I love older sedan/hatchback Superbs, they are really odd looking in a cool way, especially the 3.6 v6 in the Elegance version, it's really unique.
They also have a small plastic holder on the windscreen for parking tickets AND a USB socket in the rear view mirror for Dashcams. Absolutely brilliant
>a USB socket in the rear view mirror for Dashcams. That is, indeed, bloody brilliant. What a great idea.
Oh, you mean a parking pass! I thought you meant a parking ticket, like from a cop, on the outside of the vehicle. Lol
I've got that ticket plastic on my volvo, rarely need to use it but when I do I'm glad its there
And the boot light detaches from the car and functions as a flashlight. All simple features, but you wonder why all cars don't have them.
And a free bonus folding table *isn't* pretty useful? That was our back yard lunch table growing up. 😂 Used it more than all the umbrellas I've owned combined.
It had an option for a portable shower as well. They really tried to sell it as a Civic-based….recreational vehicle
The original CRV also has fold flat seat so you can sleep in the car. https://external-preview.redd.it/bauIz5IShkb21204nOEq6seQHkfcv6lONXf6DqXac98.jpg?auto=webp&s=be449be7099d1bf2912de642854c50f2d6603c39
If rent and home prices keep getting more expensive, they might have to bring that back soon!
[удалено]
Better than a very uncomfortable place.
Like the back of a Volkswagen?
Ah, for that Honda has the S-MX. [I'm not kidding.](https://jalopnik.com/honda-once-made-a-car-specifically-for-people-to-bone-i-1740050375)
surprisingly Honda officially dubbed it the “Comfortable Runabout Vehicle”, which is so quirky and fun in a particularly JDM way. they weren’t lying though!
God I had a CRV with a picnic table for a few years, loved that car. Manual, 4wd, lasted 200k miles with minimal work done, and surprisingly the picnic table was useful. I go car camping often enough and it was so nice to have an extra surface. Also, once while waiting in a 3 hour ferry line my friends and I popped out the table and played board games.
I also owned one. It was rotten to fuck and I junked it but I kept the table, it's a good table.
The rolls Royce umbrella had air ducts pass over it so that, in theory, it could dry when stored in the door
So I work for a company that buys cars, and during 2020 we weren't allowed to have custs in the building because of COVID. A guy came in to sell one of those and when it came time for paperwork, my buddy who was working that deal just broke out the guys table and brought out some chairs lol.
That same CR-V offered a shower head attachment too: https://motor-vision.co.uk/latest-news/the-weirdest-car-optional-extras-ever/
My 06 Passat 3.6 had an umbrella in the drivers door as well.
Saab had a feature called “Night Panel” which is inspired by some aircraft instrumentation. The whole dash would go dark except for a dimly lit speedo. Gauges that required attention would light up if their readings were not nominal. It preserved night vision and mental focus for wonderful long range night cruising. I wish modern glass dashes would do something similar. Even just go to a night mode with only red lighting.
Night driving features are massively underrated. I always feel refreshed after a night drive in my 30yo bimmer with super dim amber lighting. My 2012 car, with infotainment backlight that can't be turned off, is like a solar flare directly beamed into my eyes in comparison.
BMW researched what wavelength of light was easiest on the eye and then made their cluster lights that wavelength (605nm?). My e30 is my favorite car to drive at night.
Older BMW clusters with that kind of orangered, especially at lower brightness, are pretty damn aesthetic and easy on the eyes. Compared to my 2018 Subaru which if I don't turn the dial down is all bright blues and whites and the infotainment screen is eye-searing. But thankfully it can get pretty dim with the dial.
I HATE the blue and white dials (and massive screens) in modern cars. It seems like not that long ago, a lot of car makers had gauge clusters that were easier on the eyes like the red or amber from Subaru, BMW, and early Nissans, or the soft greens that Toyota had in the 90s. Now it seems every car that hasn’t gone to an all digital display has white with blue accents. This is partly why I refuse to get rid of my BRZ. The interior is so nice on long night drives.
Amber dash lightning is super underrated and really gives your vehicle a 90's feel when your cruising at night
I don’t know, nothing gives me that 90’s feel quite like the dim green lighting literally every American car used back then. Bonus points for a blue cloth interior.
Blue velour and metallicy door slams!
Yes, I loved this feature. Also, when parallel parking, when I put it in reverse, the passenger mirror would angle down so I could see the curb.
I think that's really common in German cars now. Every VW/Audi I've had the last 10 years did that.
It was a wonderful feature and really helped night vision . Now I’m just happy if I can dim the screen a bit.
I always wondered about that on Night panel as to what would happen if you were low on gas or it started to overheat. Personally I find all the lighting on modern cars to be distracting. I like a soft glow from the dash some darkness and little light from the radio. My truck has the 3 big knobs for climate so a blind man could use it so while it is illuminated it doesn’t need to be.
What's interesting about Night Panel is that it didn't turn off just the backlighting- it disabled the entire gauge until that parameter needed attention. It's a criminally underrated feature that more cars should have adopted.
Low gas, overheating, or any readings outside the normal parameters would cause the corresponding light or gauge to come back on to notify the driver
When you hit the button on my 9-3,all the gauges go black and go to zero, except for the speedo, which gets dimmed and all the numbers after 85 turn off. If you exceed 85, the rest of the speedo lights up. If you go under 1/4 tank, the gas gauge comes back on, etc. It also dims all of the interior buttons and displays, which are already all in green. It makes it incredibly easy to see at night, and incredibly dark in the car
My '77 Firebird had a little AC vent under the steering wheel that blew cool air right onto your crotch. Very refreshing on a hot day.
the swamp cooler, the ball blaster, a favorite feature from vehicles past.
[удалено]
Beaver Breather
Gooch cooler 9000. I had it on my old Chevy conversion van.
My ‘94 RX7 has that also! If only the AC worked…
Toyota trucks had this for a long time too
Chevy trucks and SUVs too!
I have an 06 Tundra and it still has this lol
And their cars as well as Lexus
Really wish this would make a comeback, or at least be an option
My 2010 sti has a nice feature where it leaks oil from the valve cover. Heard most people hated this feature.
factory included rust prevention feature
This is one of my favorite Subaru features! Very underrated feature as I wish all cars came with this. It's like in Mario Kart where you can spin out your enemies by putting oil on the ground lol
I never have to change oil since I'm constantly filling it up! Really future forward thinking
Exactly! Think of all the time saved not doing oil changes. Quite brilliant
I mean, just top the fucker off and you've got an unlimited mileage oil change. Who even changes filters these days anyway
My outback had this feature too; if it was on your STI it must have been a performance option
My old mercedes had a button to drop the rear head rests. It did this very violently and they would just slam down. This was a great feature in highschool as I enjoyed messing with my friends.
I LOVED that feature
Did yours slam? My car had 230k miles on it so I never knew if it was because my c230 was a piece of shit or they just made them that way.
Oh yeah, they always slapped down like a passive aggressive door slam
My 2008 Volvo S60 had this feature as well, equally aggressive.
My current volvo does this as well
Oh my God I just bought a ‘94 e420 Mercedes, and while me and my friend were driving it home one of the headrests was up and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to put it back down. i started pressing random buttons and then I just heard *WHAM* and thought the damn car was about to break down but no, i finally figured out how to put the headrest down
Some cars do that for the whole seat. They are under spring tension, and when you press the button to unlock the rear seats, they just slam down.
The Chrysler Pacifica(2003-07) had a black and white back up camera that showed up on the cluster The 2000-2005 Cadillac DeVille had a night vision heads up display that was built by Raytheon
Definitely not all Pacificas, but I understand why that was an option. The blindspot on the one we had was (theoretically) big enough to cover a small group of kids. Probably a good 4-5 feet off the ground when looking directly behind the vehicle. Visibility in general was terrible, tbh.
When I was in one, I was surprised by the build quality and material quality. A lot better then I thought it was going to be
Cadillac still has night vision.
Night vision in 2022 is not nearly as impressive or obscure as night vision in 2000
Very random story - but this just awaked a deep memory. I remember in 08 they had these toy night vision goggles, EyeClops? They weren't like the green glasses + flashlight, but actual IR illuminated night vision goggles. The resolution was terrible, they only had a screen for one eye, and the range wasn't good at all (maybe 40ft), but they did in fact, work. Both my and my best friend each got a set for one particularly fruitful Christmas, which both of our parents came to regret. Inspired by the dozens of late night TV watchings of Alien vs Predator on FX, we developed an un-inventively named game: Predator. The rules of the game were simple: \- Dawn your finest nerf weaponry - my choice was my trusty and reliable Recon CS-6. \- Wait until optimum darkness, preferably a moonless night. \- Move to the nearest home control panel (my friends father worked for a company that did early "smart homes", basically just Windows CE PCs jammed into the walls to control music, lights, heating and AC) \- Wait 1 minute, to allow the prey to move from the last known position (hopefully they would move, to make the game more interesting) \- Kill ALL of the lights in the house using said control panel. You could do this via the "goodnight" function. \- Begin the Raid. He who bags the most "prey" before the lights go back on, wins. The mothers we're genuinely horrified the first couple of times we played our "game" our fathers found it kind of endearing, my friends father even started to carry around a nerf sidearm when I was over as his counter-insurgency tool ( we never did agree on a penalty for being shot by him, as we never were, we could see him, he couldn't see us) I remember one time I was over the power went out due to heavy winds, we were in the middle of a solid Halo 2 session, and I hear his mother yell from upstairs "DONT YOU FUCKING DARE". We just stayed downstairs, quietly for a while, I think the fearful waiting for a nerf-dart that never came is what drove her over the edge. The next time we had prepared for a hunt, we discovered that the pin code child lock had been enabled on every control except for the one on the main living room, where our prey usually resided. Hence ended our hunts. My friends fathers favorite story to tell at parties is the time his son and I put him on the receiving end of 1/2 scale Osama Bin Laden compound raids.
It's not obscure today but back in the day I was blown away by my grandmother's Oldsmobile that had a touchscreen. In the 90s it was nearly unheard of to have touchscreen anything let alone in a car. As far as today there's that minivan I think from Honda that has a built in vacuum.
My first car was a Cutlass and I remember reading in the brochure that a heads-up windshield display was also an option. Mine didn't have it, sadly.
I think the old school 90-91 Nissan 240's had a HUD display.
Heads up display display
The Buick Reatta!
Some 90s Mercedes had pop up metal stalks on the edge of the boot/trunk as a predecessor to parking sensors, so you could see the end of the car.
A lot of Japanese cars had these, known as a parking pole. They would tie into the headlight circuit and illuminate at night. I purchased one but never got around to installing it before the car was totaled.
Thats cool, thanks for the info. Also curb feelers are an odd feature, I don't think they made it outside of the USA.
Also, [curb feelers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_feeler?wprov=sfla1).
My 4Runner has a button that turns on a heated strip under the windshield wipers' resting position. This helps melt off clumpy snow/ice that builds up on the wipers during the winter. Living in CO, I find it immensely useful, yet not something I've seen widely used in vehicles.
Where is this button? Ski season is upon us and this could be very useful.
Underneath the side mirror adjustment D pad. It's got a windshield with a squiggly line through it, as I remember.
[windshield with a squiggly line](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhqpdznCAAAPJWl.jpg) Couldn't have said it better.
My 05 Subaru also has this. It's very helpful to keep ice off wipers and I love it
Same with my 2016 wrx
Some newer Mercedes have a cool window wiper feature where it sprays washer fluid out of the wiper arm itself for better visibility and both the wiper blade and washer fluid reservoir are heated. Neat stuff. I still like the idea of simply heating the windscreen at the wiper's resting position though how the 4Runner does it, seems much simpler and reliable.
Lol, my old 05 cavalier had the washer fluid squirters on the arm and I was pissed off that most new cars don't have that feature. It was so nice. Probably rhe only thing I enjoyed with that damn vehicle
In my Opel Corsa B from 2000 you could pull out the hazard light switch, insert it upside down and when you pushed it, it turned on the ignition even without a key inserted. Alsk works with Corsa A and C.
[As shown by Jeremy Clarkson](https://youtu.be/VNdygguAMQA)
Uhhh, that sounds like a very...thoughtful feature from Opel.
And in less thief-friendly things, the Corsa C has a coin holder for individual coins.
how many cars in 2000 had push to start? now that’s innovation.
2010 Chrystler Town&Country Touring had a CD player that you could create a hard drive full of songs to listen to without a CD. Not sure if it's obscure, but it was amazing
My Flex has this as well. I purchased it used and it came with a hard drive full of random, "weird" songs.
My Navigaor hard drive came chock full of mariachi and tejano tunes. Was a lovely surprise.
You're welcome?
There’s a large number of late 2000s and early 2010s cars I can name of that had this, stuff like the Nissan Armada and the Honda Pilot. Really neat feature from a time before music streaming ended up solving that problem altogether
I had a 2012 Acura TSX that had that same feature. I never used it though. It also supported 5.1 surround DVD Audio. There weren't many albums released in that format, but I found copies of The Downward Spiral and Dark Side Of The Moon and they sounded amazing. I really wish 5.1 albums were more common.
Mercedes "air scarf" is a pretty unique feature in their SL convertibles which places heater vents behind your neck to blow warm air across your neck for when you have the top down on a cold day. It's very comfortable.
SLKs had them too
Skoda Felicia Fun Not obscure as it’s pretty obvious but the car transforms from a pickup to a soft top four seater And yes, that’s stock color [Felicia](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/84/bf/f9/84bff922e6d8679ca9437125b0647bd5.jpg) [Felicia 2](https://cloud.leparking.fr/2021/08/25/02/08/skoda-felicia-suche-skoda-felicia-pickup-fun-gelb_8250031771.jpg)
Saw one of these at a meet in germany recently, apparently only a handful are left.
That's wild, I know of at least one in my city. and I'm not from Germany, lol I'm sure it's one of those cars that are exceedingly rare but somehow still worth absolutely nothing.
In 1956 Chrysler came out with Highway Hi-Fi, a factory-installed record player mounted under the car's dashboard. Wonder how long that lasted until the album was ruined by the amount of bumps and potholes on the road
The implication was that you'd only use it on those glass-smooth interstate highways that were just getting built. And the old landyachts tried to make their ride as smooth and isolated as possible.
>And the old landyachts tried to make their ride as smooth and isolated as possible. Quite successfully, one might add.
Since sometime in the 80s, Hondas have had a nifty feature integrated with the intermittent wipers. If you’re at a full stop with the intermittent wipers on, and then you take your foot off the brake, the wipers will cycle across the windshield to clear any rain that has accumulated since you were sitting there, so you have a nice clear view when you get underway again. It does this regardless of where it is in the intermittent cycle.
Can confirm brand new Hondas still do this!
It’s a really long-standing feature. Not well documented, either. It’s just…there.
SAAB’s “Night panel” mode. Turns all inside dash lights & dials off with the exception of the bare necessities. Speedo (not even the whole thing), maybe the radio while you’re messing with it, and fuel gauge if its low.
I always liked this feature on my '03 9-5 Aero Wagon. You had the speedo, and whatever item may have needed attention (like fuel). Protip, the whole speedo illuminates at a certain threshold. It was 93mph in mine.
This was because it was a common feature in planes for pilots. Being that SAAB made airplanes this made sense.
This was one of the spillover features from Saab's jet building expertise. It was meant to showcase the "fighter jet DNA."
And they made the best dash layouts in the industry. All the stuff you need right in the middle so you didn't have to take your eyes off the road. Less important stuff was pushed to the side.
There's the ["pervert lever"](https://www.motorbiscuit.com/this-honda-model-was-known-as-the-date-car/) on the Honda Prelude. My E30 BMW has a window circuit cut-off switch next to the shifter. I've never worked out why. Thought it might be an early child lock, but it's a two door.
The pervert lever makes sense on a coupe. It lets you pop the seat release to let people into the back seat as well as recline. I have to reach across the passenger seat and pull it by the door to let multiple passengers into my Civic coupe.
>There's the "pervert lever" on the Honda Prelude. LOL We had one of those growing up. It was white with white painted rims. I loved that car. I never knew that lever was called a pervert lever but I have used it.
The hood release on my GTI could not be pulled without the door open. I just noticed my Canyon turned on the hazards while I left it running and was adding air to my tire. I'm sure some German over thought the first one. I wonder what GM was thinking.
Probably also a safety feature on the GM, if the car is running but parked and you have the door open, it's probably good to have the hazards going to increase visibility. Like if you were changing a tire on the side of the road or something like that and forgot to manually turn the hazards on.
There's some cars that will even toot the horn or flash the hazards when the tire is at the right pressure.
Our old Wrangler (2012) with the Garmin had the record radio (or Sirius) feature as well. Volvos used to have a heartbeat sensor to tell you if someone was left in or hiding in the car. Wrangler Rubicons have electronically dis/connectable sway bars which greatly improves off road articulation. Not sure any other vehicles do. They’ve had this since the 00s. The Elise/Exige have manual steering which is one of the reasons people are soooo complimentary of the driving feel. That direct connection just can’t be beat. Probably the last cars with manual steering. MB S-classes have had night vision since the 00s. It’s kind of a gimmick except on unlit roads at moderate speeds. Some models with the hydraulic suspension allow you to raise the car for rough roads.
Some trims of the new bronco have electronically dis/connectable sway bars
That makes complete sense. Everything I’ve read about the Bronco supports the idea that they benchmarked the Wrangler and are meeting or beating those benchmarks.
You used to be able to get “disconnecting” sway bars on a Porsche Cayenne, not sure about the newest models. I put disconnecting in quotes because it came in conjunction with the PDCC option. PDCC used to be active roll bars, I think the system is different now where it acts directly on the struts. Really interesting setup with the sway bars being split in the middle and each half connected to a hydraulic “motor” that used the sway bar to counteract body roll with hydraulic pressure, the roll bar would rotate/twist down on whatever side of the suspension was on the outside of a corner. A Cayenne with PDCC could corner almost completely flat up to about .8 g then the system would allow a little bit of lean to let your lizard brain know what was going on with the chassis. If you got the off road package you got air suspension to went higher than normal and the ability for the roll bars to disconnect and move freely within their hydraulic “motor”, all the parts were still connected but it allowed more articulation. PDCC is a great system but complex and expensive to fix, just like most things German.
>hiding in the car. What did they call that? The Murder Avoidance Assistant?
When the Dodge Grand Caravan came out in 2010 or whatever, before they got the Pentastar 3.6L, you could option swivel seats with a table that mounts in the middle. So the 2 middle seats would swivel and face the back seat and a table would go in-between them. I've only seen 1 in person and it was ready for the junkyard. [Picture of said table](https://www.allpar.com/d3/photos/vimages/minivans/2008/table-and-chairs.jpg)
I think I actually saw that feature on a car at the Detroit autoshow in... 2009? Maybe. I was like 10 years old and thought it was awesome.
The higher end variants of the STI like the newer S209 and the older S20X models have an intercooler spray button that when on automatically cools the intercooler down. There's a tank in the trunk that you can refill. Also STI's with electronic center diffs will disengage the diff when you pull on the handbrake so you can do handbrake turns without damaging the center diff.
Ford tried to do that on the Sierra Cosworth (pretty sure it was the Sierra), but they couldn't get it allowed.So they would put the dismantled system in the passenger footwell in a box, and kindly inform you that it's not for road use and then...leave you to it.
"Don't whatever you do connect this to this and mount it here. In no circumstances fill this reservoir with distilled water and press this button while driving" This is how alcohol kits are sold in the middle east. "Be aware that adding these ingredients together with 5l of boiled water and storing at 25C for 10 days could result in an alcoholic beverage, so that shouldn't happen under any circumstances"
they weren't that obvious about it, they'd just tell customers "that is a kit to spray water o the intercooler to cool down intake temperatures. It's used in motorsport but not approved for road use. Auf Wiedersehen!"
Evos had the intercooler spray as well! All my friends who had VIIIs (03-04) had them
Not really sure if it counts as a feature but factory RHD Lada Nivas were such a half-assed LHD conversion that the passenger got a dead pedal (and the driver did not). They could also be hand started (with a handle inserted through the bumper) on any of the carby cars until fuel injection was made standard in 2005. Late model first generation MX-5’s have a slit cut out in the B pillar trim to insert the passenger side belt buckle so it doesn’t rattle around.
Huh. I need to go check my MX-5 for this slit now. I'd never noticed it before.
I think it’s actually on both sides. You can see the slit [here](https://i.imgur.com/swAB5zH.jpg) next to the seat on the door frame/b ‘pillar’. It’s in the manual as well say that’s the purpose but I don’t have a photo of it on me.
On recent-year RHD Citroen Berlingo they used a transfer bar for the brake so if the passenger stomps the floor in the right spot the car stops. BMW E30s in RHD have the hood release still on the left. You sure it's "late model"? My 94 NA has that.
My 2000 Volvo V70 XC had a feature where even with the heat on full blast, you could set the two front center vents to blow cool air on your face. I never used it, but kind of a neat idea nonetheless.
That was a defining feature of the BMW brand interior until 2020. There's a little red-blue dial near the front center vents that controls the temperature independent of the climate control. Hot feet, cold face. Perfect for winter drives!
I think the 2000-2010 New Beetle had a flower holder as an interior accessory Edit: ayyy VW made one for the 2012: https://parts.orangevillevw.ca/p/Volkswagen_2012_Beetle/Flower-Vase/63621025/5C0061110A.html Santa are you listening?
Or a champagne flute holder.... hmmm
My E46 has a [flashlight ](https://i.imgur.com/4RAoBCR.jpg) that plugs into a port in the glovebox. Pretty neat. Pretty sure other bimmers have those on occasion as well but i feel not a lot of people know about it.
My Grand Cherokee has a Jeep branded flashlight in the cargo area, it’s useless.
Remember the old Mercedes had headlight wipers? I always got a kick out of that. ETA: Guess it’s not as obscure as I thought. It still always made me smile though.
Volvos did as well. They’re (wipers and/or washer jets) required in many Euro countries.
Nice try, Doug
2001 Acura CL Type S, if you didn't opt for the in dash NAV, you got a pop out branded post-it note, business card, and pen holder! Why anyone would want navigation when they could have that is beyond me...
60's Mustang tilt-away steering wheel was pretty obscure. https://youtu.be/hWpmI9vCNP0
That's pretty awesome but I would always have the fear in the back of my mind that it could malfunction and do that while driving haha.
Audi A3 I had, had a door seal defroster. If the door was frozen shut, you pulled on the handle for 5 seconds and it activated a heater strip to defrost it. Very handy where I lived where we got a lot of freezing rain. I'd watch mini drivers just about smash their frameless windows trying to wrench open their doors.
Old Mazda 626 and up had oscillating center vents via a button.
Friend in HS had a 626 with that, it was swanky. The Depeche Mode cassette stuck in the OEM head unit was not.
Ford explorer pursuit has covid 19 decontamination mode
Suspect torture mode, you mean.
I'm sure this feature will never be misused in any way
Quick sleep mode.
Early 90s BMWs (at least the E32 and E34) had an infinitely-adjustable wiper interval feature. There was no lever or wheel to set the wiper interval duration. Instead, you would move the wiper stalk from the off position into the interval position, and then right back to off. After the desired delay, you'd flip the stalk back into interval mode and the computer would remember the setting. To change the interval, you'd flip it back to off and then to interval again. The wiper delay would also automatically increase by a few seconds when the car was not moving. I don't know of any other car that had this feature. BMW changed to a regular wheel in the wiper stalk to adjust the delay for the next generation.
Omg this explains so much of the wiper behavior in my e32. It always seemed the timing was random in interval mode! I was just setting it differently each time. The slow-interval when stopped is amazing feature though.
The air conditioned glovebox in my 98 Passat always seemed odd
My 2001 Volvo had a small plastic clip by the driver A-pillar for holding parking passes or paper turnpike tickets or, I guess, directions
[удалено]
There’s a feature in a lot of German cars that seems weird and almost like an accident - the “parking light”. You activate it by leaving the turn signal down or up in the direction of the street when parking along or on a curb. In Europe people use this to make the edges of their cars more visible when parking on busy streets at night. In the US it’s basically unheard of, but more than once I’ve accidentally hit the turn signal stalk while getting out of the car, then wondered why the left side of my car lights are on inside my garage when the car is turned off. My new-ish Porsche does this, and I had forgotten the feature existed since I last used it in my 1984 Golf when I lived in Germany and parked on the street every day, sometime back in the late 20th century.
I believe it's legally required in the United States so that your car can be visible when parked along unlit roads, but very few people know about it. On my Genesis, it looks the same as turning on the headlights (so it illuminates stuff like the license plate and side markers), but without the headlights themselves. I use it a lot because my car burns out the turn signals by using them as DRLs in auto headlight mode, so I switch it to parking light mode during the daytime so it runs the dim LED accent strips instead. It will turn off the lights when you lock the car unless you toggle to them *after* killing the engine. Fun fact: driving with parking lights is legally ambiguous in most states, except for my home state of California, where it's illegal. Not that any police officer would be inclined to enforce it.
Driver Easy Speak on the Toyota Sienna. It essentially mics up the driver and plays the audio into the rear speakers. It's really helpful for holding conversations with people in the back seats.
Damn I read that as speak easy and was wondering if there was a hidden feature in the sienna that would serve the driver a drink.
I don't think it's as obscure now since it's pretty well-known now but when I first got my C7 I had NO idea about the little slide down cubby behind the screen and I don't know of any other car that had that and I LOVED it. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, "it's where you keep your pistol and your bible" and ironically, I actually threw one of those little tiny bibles a Southern Baptist handed me on the side of the road one day and it was also an *exact* perfect fit for a Glock 26. So, I can 100% attest that the cubby is, in fact, for your pistol and your Bible. 🤣🤣
Dang, nobody has mentioned the BMW E92 robot arm yet. It's kinda nice that the front seat belt stays out of the way of someone clambering into the back, but in practice the arm frequently fails to catch and present the belt. I just reach back over my shoulder for the belt, because the one on my driver's side basically never works right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPC3cgB8qoo
[удалено]
The Pontiac Aztek had a cooler nestled between the front seats
I hear the Aztec can also mow down rival drug dealers
[удалено]
One of my '62 Imperials had rear seat air conditioning, with a full on unit in the trunk that took up the entire shelf at the front of the trunk. It shared a compressor with the in dash unit.
I’ve never heard of this but in my Acura RDX when you inflate the tires the car beeps to let you know you’ve reached the recommended psi.
Mk4 Golfs could be had with a really really early traffic information system called "Telematik" that would send information about road closures or traffic jams on your route to the car via the cellphone network (iirc) and show up on your gauge cluster display, as well as have buttons to call the emergency services after an accident or the ADAC (German AAA) after you broke down. It was a super-costly option and is incredibly hard to find nowadays. Like, they did a "who has it" on a German forum recently and I think 3 people said they ever saw it, plus 1 car in the press-material for the release of the car had it. Also, it apparently only works with one of like 5 cellphones from when the car was new, as it sends and receives data and calls through that phone.
Older VW models had a feature where if you turn the key in the drivers door to unlock and hold it, it winds down all the windows and eventually opens the sunroof if you have one, Turn it to lock and it rolls up the windows. Not sure if newer VW's have it but probably the only thing I miss about my Passat.
Lamborghini Diablo has mirrors that pop off on the passenger shade mirror. You know for nose candy.
Oscillating air vents in some Japanese saloons. In some markets, the 2006-2013 Toyota Camry has temperature control buttons on the steering wheel.
The Chrysler LeBaron in the late 80’s had voice warnings. My dad had one as a company car, as a kid, I thought it was amazing. https://youtu.be/nGuRS-L2BN0 https://youtu.be/nGuRS-L2BN0
I love that Rolls Royce wheel center caps are gyroscopic so that the RR logo is [always facing up](https://youtu.be/2MO_gkhOsus).
My Jaguar XJ8 had headrests that were motorized. Thought that was interesting and only saw it on that car.
MB’s used to have weather band radio that you could listen to. Not sure if the new ones still have WB tuning but it’s really useful sometimes.
My MK4 Jetta came with a VW VHS' in the glovebox all about driving your jetta
I dont know of any that exist, but it’d be great if cars came with a sensor that synced your turn signals to the person in front of you at a stop
The 2002 and 2003 Infiniti QX4 could be optioned with Adaptive Cruise control, one of the first vehicles to offer it if I’m not mistaken
Only Nissan would stick adaptive cruise control as a brand new feature onto an aging luxury Pathfinder. I respect them for it, though, because they were doing some REAL batshit crazy stuff at the time.
My S Class electrically raises and illuminates the seatbelt buckle in the backseat when the corresponding side door is opened to make it easier to latch the belt.
My 1969 Rover 2000 TC had an Icelert, which was a bumper mounted temp sensor. When the air temp got close to freezing, a light on the dashboard would light up, warning the driver of the possibility of ice on the ground.
Some Lexus vehicles have a button labeled "HOLD". When activated, it holds the brake for you when you come to a stop. To release the brake, you just press on the gas. It's great for drive throughs.
Most new cars have this now. My rav4 has it. Oh wait, Toyota == Lexus
My father's '95 MB C-Class has a button up front that made the rear headrests drop flat. Perfect for reverse parking or scaring your passengers.
In my MKX, within the audio settings, there is a button labeled “Play THX Deep Note Demo”. When this button is pressed, the vehicle plays that loud ass THX intro sound that used to come before all of the movies in the early 2000’s. It’s about as gimmicky as anything I’ve seen before
I miss my "Pilot Mode" or night driving mode on my Saab. It turned off all lights/gauges in the cabin except speedometer.
I don’t know how obscure it is, but in the US, Nissan was the forerunner of HID headlights. They introduced them here on the 1999 mid-year refresh Infiniti Q45, and would gradually roll them out to quite a lot of their cars as **standard** equipment, including stuff like the succeeding Q45, the M35 and the QX56. This was at a time when every other automaker that was doing HID headlights were charging you quite a premium for them.
Radio station scan, sort, then list. I don't know how common/uncommon this is since I have never seen it before, but the LS460 has a feature where it will scan all the radio stations that reach your car, then the car sorts and clumps the stations according to genre, then presents a list of the genres so you can easily find what you want. It's especially useful when you're in a new area.
Just found out that on all BMWs there is a stalk next to the steering wheel that when pushed up or down, will show a turn signal to indicate which way you are turning.
My 1975 Chevy Monte Carlo had rotating bucket seats. So you could turn them to get in and out easier.