Features I never knew my car has

Guy:Incognito

colm_mcm wrote: »

6 speed gearboxes are becoming commonplace now, hence more lift up jobbies.

Once we start getting 7 speed boxes we'll be back to reverse where it should be

colm_mcm

What's funny, is when you drive a LHD car, like a VW, when the reverse is up the top left it's so handy.

(as in if you drive a LHD one, not a RHD)

macroman

Took me a while to figure out my new car had:

• Follow me home lights
• Automatically closing windows
• If radio is left on it goes off when doors are locked
• Little dots on mileage reading when ignition switched on indicates oil level
• Wipers slow down to lowest speed when at traffic lights
• Wipers come on when it starts raining...or in a car wash :rolleyes:

Voodoomelon

You can hold down the main interior light button in my car and that puts it in valet mode. Meaning you can clean the car, open and close the doors, boot etc non stop and the lights will stay off.

Mech1

Theres one thing that my present car doesnt have that i miss,

A chick magnet.

alexmcred

colm_mcm wrote: »

alexmcred wrote: »

Found out the other day accidentally that my car has a lighter socket under the dash on the passenger side giving me a total of four power points in the car.

Some sort of Renault?

Can't remember what you drive, thought it was a BM or something?

Edit, just saw you have a 118.

Yup think its a very odd place to have one and not exactly the easiest to find

colm_mcm

handy for a satnav or charging a phone though, cig lighter is such an onconvenient place to have a charger hanging out of.

mossy2390

wipers slow down when your driving slower, saves you from having to constantly adjust the speed

headlights turn off when the key is taken out of the ignition. this should be on all cars really you never have to worry about leaving your lights on and killing your battery.
if you want the lights to stay on when the key is out you just hit the switch again

Pkiernan

I never knew my Phantom had an umbrella in the door.
Needless to mention, one was quite annoyed with one's salesman.

colm_mcm

Meh, Skoda've been doing that for years...

Chris_Heilong

Discovered a small red thing clipped into a socet near the driverside door, turns out its a flare, apparantly all Japanese cars have these as a saftey feature incase they breakdown but they are illegal in Ireland.

found out the doors auto lock if car engine is off for more than 10 mins.

Also recently noticed a green light on my dash, worried at fist, but when I looked into it I found out it is the ECO button which lets you know when you are driving eco friendly, it is distrating and the previous owner had put black sellotape over it to hide it so thats why I never noticed before.

slimjimmc

mossy2390 wrote: »

wipers slow down when your driving slower, saves you from having to constantly adjust the speed

headlights turn off when the key is taken out of the ignition. this should be on all cars really you never have to worry about leaving your lights on and killing your battery.
if you want the lights to stay on when the key is out you just hit the switch again

Meganes have had that for years, lock the car and all the electrics shut off not just the headlights. You can turn the radio on without the ignition being on but it'll switch off after 30mins to avoid draining the battery.

Radio volume is also speed sensitive, wasn't until I eventually rtfm some weeks later that I discovered how to adjust the auto volume.

Unlocked the car one day but got distracted for a few minutes and could figure out why the doors were still locked. Turns out they'll automatically lock again within 2mins if one of them hasn't been opened. Handy if you unknowingly pressed the unlock button while indoors.

colm_mcm

First car I ever had with speed sensitive volume was my Fiat Brava. nifty enough for a car that was launched in 1995

spiggotpaddy

I did'nt find out for ages that the rear fogs flash yellow for ten seconds when the forward passenger WC is in use, and five seconds for the rear cabin.

vectra

colm_mcm wrote: »

Meh, Skoda've been doing that for years...

LOL

corktina

My friends BMW has two little white plastic things in the tray by the gear stick. I asked what they were and he says you put your balls on them before you drive.

BMW think of EVERYTHING!

coylemj

A lot of you Golf drivers may not be aware that there is a little storage unit by the driver's right knee, it's useful for coins for parking/tolls etc.

Bannasidhe

spiggotpaddy wrote: »

I did'nt find out for ages that the rear fogs flash yellow for ten seconds when the forward passenger WC is in use, and five seconds for the rear cabin.

Your car has a toilet for the passengers?????? WOW.

ZV Yoda

Pkiernan wrote: »

I never knew my Phantom had an umbrella in the door.
Needless to mention, one was quite annoyed with one's salesman.

I thought that was a light sabre...

For Forks Sake

coylemj wrote: »

A lot of you Golf drivers may not be aware that there is a little storage unit by the driver's right knee, it's useful for coins for parking/tolls etc.

I'm well aware of it, I've kneecapped myself off the damn thing on numerous occasions where it's fallen/been left open...

milltown

Amazed that we're four pages in and there hasn't been any wise cracks about Merc/BMW/Audi having a lever on the left side of the steering wheel but nobody knows what it does because nobody has ever tried it.

OK, now there has :P

C Eng

milltown wrote: »

Amazed that we're four pages in and there hasn't been any wise cracks about Merc/BMW/Audi having a lever on the left side of the steering wheel but nobody knows what it does because nobody has ever tried it.

OK, now there has :P

I know the one your on about, It's for cruise control isn't it?

eringobragh

C Eng wrote: »

I know the one your on about, It's for cruise control isn't it?

For your sake I hope this is sarcasm.. :eek:

Guy:Incognito

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

Discovered a small red thing clipped into a socet near the driverside door, turns out its a flare, apparantly all Japanese cars have these as a saftey feature incase they breakdown
.

Incase your car breaks down at sea?

Tropheus

I had a '94 Punto for year until I realised that if I turned on the front foglights with the parking lights that it looked like an F18.

Elessar

My new Golf moves the wipers up a notch every few times I switch off the engine. Thought there was an electrical problem until I googled it and it turns out it does this to prevent premature wear of the wiper rubbers by bending them in the opposite direction!

Also it will give the steering wheel a nudge in the correct direction in event of a slippage, while never taking over full control. Neat.

Another one, it will light up the foglight at low speed if you're turning, on that side.

dgt

Until recently, I never knew my E34 had sealed beams for full beams. Annoying to change :mad::mad::mad: when I first got the car I found out the hard way that the key doesn't open the doors when the battery is dead

The ICS in the Alfa has kept me entertained for the past few weeks and I'm finding more stuff as I go along

Gary ITR

Not long after I put an aftermarket ECU into my Integra I was getting an engine check light up around 8000RPM, I scamper back to my tuner all worried.... turns out he'd set it up as a shift light

dr.fuzzenstein

Maybe I'm weird, but the first thing I do with any car I'm driving (replacements, rentals, friends cars, etc...) is have a good look around to see what it does and what it has.
Sadly any of the rentals or friends cars I ever drove never have any good toys in it.
Never had that problem in her MX5, it hasn't got a single toy in it, no wait, it has an electric areal that comes up when the radio is switched on, but all the fun on that is delivered via the engine and RWD.
The only gadget I could never figure out was the automatic climate control on one or two Opels, it just does what it wants, regardless of what buttons are pressed, or what settings are selected, fan, AC and heater seem to be wired into either a supercomputer that is far better at making decisions about the climate in the cabin, or they are just wired into a random number generator that just switches things on and off governed by chaos theory.
Maybe it's controlled by a Schroedinger box!

Nissan doctor

My uncle bought a new corsa B in 2000 and it was 4 years before he realised that you turned on the interior light by pulling the headlight switch out....he though you just had to open the door:rolleyes:

I was showing a customer something in his w211 E-class and while chatting I pressed the little silver button which opens up the facia to reveal the CD changer saying it was a nice little touch.....he looked in amazement and said he has the car over a year and didn't know there was a changer in there.

Had another customer look on in amazement as I opened the whole tailgate on their Hyundai Santa fe..they thought only the rear window glass opened(there are two buttons on the tailgate one for just the window and one for the whole tailgate)!