Mr_Asa
UltimaDork
10/11/23 10:51 a.m.
Killing time while the VA fills a prescription.
Got a convertible top that never comes down? Never have someone in your passenger seat? Do the heated seats never get turned on?
Personally, sometimes I feel sad for my 5th gear (on a 6 speed) cause it virtually never gets used.
Trent
PowerDork
10/11/23 10:55 a.m.
Fog lights.
I have strong feelings about OEM fog lights. It kind of irks me that I have a car equipped with them.
Panoramic roof, rarely gets opened, kills MPG when I do. I wish I'd bought a slick top. Back seat, I bought a JSW thinking it would be a good dual purpose family car and long range commuter, but someone rarely rides with me.
I almost never use cruise control.
My new car has heads up display, and I pulled over to turn it off on the way home from the dealership. Very distracting. I move with the flow of traffic, so the number assigned to that pace is irrelevant to me.
j_tso
Dork
10/11/23 11:18 a.m.
Sunroof
In my early 1990s and older sedans, cruising with only the roof and vents open gave a pleasant breeze. On my 3rd gen LS400 it just makes annoying buffeting.
NOHOME
MegaDork
10/11/23 11:21 a.m.
pretty much anything to do with the TV screen stuck in the middle of the dash or any of the buttons on the steering wheel that are not normal cruise control.
+1 for sunroof, I basically never use it and would have bought the car without it had that been an available configuration.
NOHOME said:
pretty much anything to do with the TV screen stuck in the middle of the dash or any of the buttons on the steering wheel that are not normal cruise control.
steering-wheel mounted volume knobs and forward/backward track buttons are pretty useful, IMHO.
Additional seats, especially rear seats. 85% solo, 13% front seat passenger, 2% rear seats filled with people.
Sunroof, too. Lots of buffeting - modern cars don't seem to like windows open.
Toyman!
MegaDork
10/11/23 11:30 a.m.
The radio is the least used item in every vehicle I own. Cars make their own music. I have no need for any other noise.
DrBoost
MegaDork
10/11/23 11:32 a.m.
I rarely open the sunroof, only on the rare cool mornings in southwest FL. Being in Florida, the heated seat indicator light has never been on lol.
Oh, and all that "eye site" crap on our Outback. Everything that can be off is off. I can drive my car all by myself, thank you.
Chevrolet Silverado 2016
4WD - maybe 3/5x a winter? But nice to have when needed
110 volt receptacle - cool idea
rear bed LED lights - didn't know I had them
trailer brake thingie - not towing enough
2021 Mazda Miata
Lane departure warning - has been turned off since 1st week of ownership. Luckily Mazda made that easy to do with a single button, and it stays off forever.
Sirius/XM radio - nope, have AA for music apps
OEM navigation - same, have AA for map apps
Moonroof and heated seats
Mr_Asa
UltimaDork
10/11/23 12:03 p.m.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:
NOHOME said:
pretty much anything to do with the TV screen stuck in the middle of the dash or any of the buttons on the steering wheel that are not normal cruise control.
steering-wheel mounted volume knobs and forward/backward track buttons are pretty useful, IMHO.
I also like the "End Call" button. "Begin Call" never gets used
Another vote for sunroof on my wife's last 2 cars. On my old black on black, non air conditioned RX-7 I did use it for more airflow in the summer and would park with it cracked open to let some heat out
Most driver assistance features don't get used, like the lane holding, lane departure warning stuff. On my GR Corolla the cruise control would slow down for corners, kinda neat but it got turned off. The radar cruise is nice at times, but I usually turn it off when following someone, as it'll brake unnecessarily when the person in front slows down and can freak out when someone's turning off the road in a dedicated turn lane. I've also found at times that with the radar cruise I end up following someone at a slightly slower speed than I want and don't really notice right away, more so on road trips.
The airbag. (thank goodness)
Sunroof, although none of my current vehicles have one, but I basically never used them in the last 3 that did. Noise reasons others have stated.
My 2017 Grand Caravan GT has the most tech of any of my cars and I use most of it regularly. Cruise control, heated seats, heated steering wheel, motorized sliding door and hatch, Bluetooth connectivity between my phone and the radio, steering wheel audio controls, the OBC with MPG and Distance To Empty estimates. I use all of it and kinda miss it when it's not there in my other cars. The back up camera is nice, although I need to remember to use the mirrors more as those seem to work better to make me back into a parking spot straight.
The van has powered tilt-out rear side windows and with those open it really reduces the wind buffeting when I drive with the front windows down. My last minivan didn't have this feature (just manual tilt-out) and having it is really nice. I use it fairly often during the warmer months. It's something I wish the MINI had but the curved side glass design makes that feature impractical.
One built-in feature I never use in the van is the built-in navigation. Google Maps on my phone just works so much better and I can put the phone above the dashboard so I don't have to take my eyes off the road as much to see it.
Personally, I think this van has he right amount of tech. I don't know if I'd want any of the newer features many newer cars often have. It also has a CD player and that is something I use a lot during trips. I just don't like streaming music at all.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
CD player
I went three years with my GTI before I found the CD player in the glove box. I had just assumed it had been phased out. I continued to not care about it being there after I found it.
It took me about two years and some coaxing from my kids to start using the adaptive cruise control in the CX-9. Now, I'm a big fan, but this is mostly an around town car, so I still don't use it frequently. Works great, though.
Heated seats? I think my vehicle has heated seats. I've never used them. My wife likes them.
Some of the nannies I thought I would hate, I've gotten used to. Mostly leave them switched on.
Yeah, a CD player would be nice.
2023 Forte GT Manual
Lane Keeping assist. I turned it off long ago. I've used it once driving home from Mid-O late on a Sunday when I was exhausted. XM because I'm not paying a monthly fee.
My cars are really basic so I'll have to say back seats. I took them out the element and no one wants to sit in the back seat of the mirage. At least with the miata there isn't any so I don't have to worry about that.
Other than that, My mirage only has radio and AC so no issues there. The element adds cruise but I use that all of the time. Only thing I'm missing that I would like is heated seats. Those are nice.
I used almost everything on the AE92, and everything on the Samurai plus more, they didn't have much! Well maybe I didn't use many of the MS3's features on the AE92, or the RCP Mk1's custom programming options...never used the AE92's rear defroster due to tint but there's a good chance it was broken anyway
On the Toyobaru the rear defroster doesn't get used again due to tint, I should pull the fuse sometime and repurpose the switch for something fun...the traction control rarely gets used. I turn it to reduced (track mode) or sometimes full-off on the street, and almost always full-off on the track. Tried reduced mode once on a wet track day and it was still too intrusive so off it went. I would only consider full-on if I was driving it on a road covered in snow or ice which will hopefully never happen.
Lots of audio functions on the Toyobaru's headunit go unused, it has satellite radio and Spotify support, I don't use those. Supports some Apple stuff, I own no Apple things. It has some photo viewer and video playback functions I don't use. Music on USB storage is kind of obsolete when I can make a BT connection to my phone with playlist control.
Fun bonus: My MTB has a fancy GPS-enabled data-logging cycle computer. I've never used any of the data logging features and don't even have a heart rate monitoring sensor to connect to it. I just like the display info/layout, auto backlight, and the GPS-auto-syncing clock.