[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by NiInJa

Thats true, what I meant was the socket should be there, but the lighter in it is useless

My bad. I have used the one in mine only once - to see whether it is really working

Originally Posted by nishsingh

The only useless feature in my 11 year old car is the remote control for the car audio

Hmm... without this my daughter always keep fiddling with the buttons and I found it extremely annoying while driving. Now both of us are happy - she can use the remote even when sitting at the back!

Originally Posted by Mtv

Grab handles above the door are useful ....

.... But some cars have a handle above the driver’s door too

Am I dissenting too much today?

Because, I found the grab handle useful when getting down from tall SUVs, especially when you park on the shoulder which drops down into a ditch and need something to hold on to - using the door handle wasn't convenient, as I would have to lean out to reach for it. But yes, it is really required only for the passengers as opposed to the driver.

[virgopal]

Features which are considered mostly useless are discussed..We should talk more about features which SHOULD become standard/mandatory like in other countries for passenger safety like passenger airbags, ABS, Fog lights, etc.. for all variants of cars,hatchbacks included.
IMO the CD Player,Ash tray,Coin holder could be dispensed with

[abhinavsureka]

I differ on a few points :

1. Compass on a 2wd car. It is not as useless as many people might think. Even while driving on the road, it is just fun to know which direction you are headed in and someties it can actually help you navigate.

2. AM Radio : Live commentary of cricket matches can be listened to while on the move. I have actually used it when there have been some exciting matches going on.

3. On- board navigation : I use Idea and so many times i dont get 3G/4G speeds.

4. Sunroof : It is fun to open it and let the fresh air in. Sadly in India a lot of people use it make their kids stand up through it which is VERY dangerous.

5. AC airflow modes : come and live in a place where temperatures go to 45 degrees. you will want cool air on Every part of your body.

Some features that I find useless:
1. Cruise control.
2. Auto release bootlid like what they offer on the Verna. (the one where u wave your foot below the bumper is nice though)
3. Extra bright DRLs.
4. Heated steering wheel ( Volvo XC90)

[SCORPION]

Well, I don't find any feature in a car useless. I may not use them all the time, but I don't see any harm in having a feature rather than not having it. The only time a feature becomes useless to me is when it starts malfunctioning. Like an appendix in the human body. No harm done in it being there, but if it gets infected, you are in for trouble. When a feature you can do without starts malfunctioning and you need to take the car to a workshop, that's when you feel you could go back to basics and just not have that feature altogether.
Like a malfunctioning TPMS sensor for instance, giving unwanted beeps and warnings.

Wait! May be I can think of one useless feature in the Endeavour. The now notorious (for me) Bootlid button. Twice I managed to lock my keys inside the boot and was left stranded far away from home. The thing is, in the Endeavour, the boot unlock button on the key fob opens only the boot. The rest of the doors remain locked. So, once you have opened the boot, and you find you need both hands to arrange or remove stuff, you keep the key aside somewhere in the boot and now have both hands free. Once you are done, you use the conveniently placed button on the bootlid to shut it. And voila! You have successfully managed to lock your keys inside! Both the times I managed to do it, I suffered. I hated this feature and wished it wasn't there. But later, a fellow bhpian suggested disabling the bootlid button through an option in the menu screen. There! I had a work around, and I don't find that switch useless anymore. I can always enable it when I need it and disable it later.

What I do feel are useless features are the ones fitted in the factory (am not talking about after market add-ons), purely for aesthetics and have no functional purpose, like:
1. Fake bonnet air scoops - certain models of Scorpios for instance, had them.
2. Fake double exhausts where one is only for show.
3. Unnecessary plastic body claddings to make the car look beefier. Even if they come painted, paint doesn't stick to plastic like it does to metal, and keeps peeling off. Unpainted claddings wear out fast and give a faded look in a short time. Difficult to maintain.
4. Halogen bulbs in projectors. I personally feel projectors need a good pair of HIDs to make full use of them. Halogens are too weak inside projectors. My opinion.
5. White headlight beams, unless fitted on well designed headlamps. Color temperature exceeding say 4300k. They are blinding to other road users, are prone to scatter and are almost useless in rain.
6. DRLs and AHOs. Useless in India and often badly designed, blinding and misused.
7. Chrome - too much of it advertised as a feature. I find it useless and overdone sometimes.
8. Spoilers and wings on SUVs, regular hatches and sedans - they are useless on an SUV and for them to have any effect on cars, they should be traveling above a certain minimum speed - speeds which they may be incapable of achieving an totally illegal in India or for that matter anywhere in the world. Except may be the Autobahn.

Well, that's for us enthusiasts. If you take India, as a whole, and with the general Indian attitude, I can see a whole lot of useless features:
1. Seatbelts - who needs them! They are for cowards!
2. ABS/Airbags - what?! We don't need them. We drive and die like real men.
3. Indicators - what are they for, again? We only know to use hazard warning lights when they are least needed.
4. Headlight low beam switch - Nah! Never needed them. Never will use them. Didn't know such a feature exists in the first place. We only know to flash our headlights to indicate that we are in a perpetual hurry.
5. Parking lamps - never. Why waste our battery!
6. ORVMs: We will keep them folded. Why damage them. We can drive without them. Who cares about guys coming behind us. They better take care of themselves and keep clear.
7. Bumpers - no, they are useless. We will reinforce them with steel bull bars, not just in front, but the rear bumper too.
8. Hazard warning triangle - what is this contraption in the boot? We did rather use boulders and small trees instead. That way we can leave them in the middle of the road once we are done. This thing, this triangle, we have to take the trouble of dismantling and put it back in its pouch in the boot. Too much work. Useless thing.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by abhinavsureka

Some features that I find useless:
4. Heated steering wheel ( Volvo XC90)

While useless in most parts of India (and having its origins in cold cold Scandinavia), the presence of this feature is still a good indicator that a car has not been "Indianised" with features being stripped out for cost reasons. If the presence of a heated steering wheel means the car you get here is identical to that you'd get in Europe, that is a huge win and a big source of comfort for a buyer.

[swissknife]

The monograms, mfg logos, model names etc serve no useful purpose for the consumer. The car becomes an advertisement mode for the manufacturer.

[DBeast]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Car AC's air flow modes! Why would anybody want to "get cold feet"?

Attachment 1794821

Well I might disagree to this! I like the air on my feet especially when I am driving in my floaters and I have sweaty feet!

Originally Posted by VineetG

Great to see a thread like this started. Hope car makers also see this and stop putting in useless or outdated features with limited utility and charge a premium for those.

Personally, i would not like to pay for these features, many of which are touted as premium in cars.
- Touch Screen/Gesture Controls (Would pay extra for physical buttons). It's really a pain using these touch screens : Lack of response, finger prints, poor visibility in sunlight, and of course the safety aspect. One needs to look at the screen, instead of getting the tactile feel of a button without glancing off the road. I am sure touchscreens cost less than a panel of nice looking physical buttons, but car makers are touting them as premium

Adding to this list, is automatic wipers. May its me that I want to control whats happening in my car when I driving, so I am the best person to evaluate when should i start the wipers. May be I want to start the water jet first if its drizzling and there is dust on the wind shield.

[bharatbits]

Originally Posted by swissknife

The monograms, mfg logos, model names etc serve no useful purpose for the consumer. The car becomes an advertisement mode for the manufacturer.

Absolutely. The manufacturer must give me a discount or compensate me to become a moving billboard. I recently saw a BMW 3 with the manufacturer logos absent. Not sure if it was deliberate or stolen. But, good idea for someone who wants to keep a low profile. The logo on the steering wheel and the "Welcome to your Mahindra XUV" or whatever on the infotainment system everytime you turn on the car are equally irritating.

AM Radio is a useless feature.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Another rarely-used feature. During its early days, voice command was a hit or miss. The systems have improved considerably over the past few years and they can now understand a variety of accents.

True.

I for one, loved voice control and it worked pretty well on my car from 2011.

This is a very car specific example. On my previous car, if I had to get music playing from MP3 storage, you had to do it via the steering mounted controls. There was no other way. Yes; that does sound weird and stupid in terms of implementation. To get music playing from the drive, all I had to do was press a button on the steering wheel and say "Play" and there was music in about a second. "Stop" would turn off the system too.

Calling someone. With buttons, you still need to navigate your way to who you want to call. That requires you to watch the MID for a second cause you don't want to call the wrong person. In most cases, it is a 2-3 button press effort. With voice control, you say "Call xxxx" and that's it. I used a system that was relatively old and clumsy yet it worked well for the most part. The system had the ability to voice over a folder name in your mp3 drive and jump straight into it. It did stumble for sure but versus fiddling with the steering buttons and navigating through an entire repository of music, the voice over was so much easier.

I am sure this has evolved and while buttons are the more natural choice, with a good voice over system, it sure can be easier.

[arpanguha]

As rightly said earlier in the thread,
"One man's poison is another mans's cake"
applies to this topic. Since mostly everyone is comparing what they personally do or do not find useful.
But one trend seems to emerge as to commonly reported useless features (feel free to add) :

• Rear air dams/spoilers in underpowered cars.
• Fake intake scoops, faux plastic bits and pieces replicating everything from carbon fibre to wood.
• Chrome plated trim as feature, especially the ones which flake of over time.
• IFE/IMI Instantaneous FE/Mileage Indicator.

And my personal rant...I hate electronic Parking brakes

[tweaker]

Two features that I find utterly useless in cars:

1. Sunglasses holder near the cabin lights.
2. Cruise control on a Manual Transmission car.

[indian21r]

Originally Posted by tweaker

Cruise control on a Manual Transmission car.

It is a super useful feature to have while cruising on highways. Surprised that you found it utterly useless.

[vivtho]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Compass in a 2WD car

Enough said

It's not much use in today's world of car and phone based navigation systems, but in the past this was very useful when you had to navigate city streets using a map.

Parking sensor "off" button

This one also leaves us scratching our heads. Why would anyone want to disable the parking sensors? Please note this is not to be confused with proximity sensors, which are a pain if left on in our traffic conditions:

I actually had the same question some time ago and looked it up. It's original purpose is to prevent the sensors from screeching continuously when you have a trailer hooked up behind you. Obviously, it's not of much use in India. What's not so obvious is why it's there on a Swift

[ashishmathur14]

Google Maps - Fantastic; would often take you to a no man’s land and say - You've reached your destination. Until, you have them downloaded offline, they are useless on terrains with no network. Built-in GPS; you can always relay on as it may not be updated but it will show you way without network connectivity and keep you on road.
I would prefer using a dedicated GPS device like Tom-Tom for navigation which would also keep me posted on speed limits.

AM RADIO: Masses may not be switching to AM Radio; but those can be useful to transmit radio messages over a larger distance and difficult terrains, since physical barriers do obstruct FM signals, AM signals may still go through; Now, Imagine if you are stuck in a difficult terrain where there is no FM, you can still receive AM where you may get important information broadcast. It is not always cars are made keeping the best infrastructure in mind.

Off button for Door Lights: What if the door lights go kaput and creates a short circuit? Would you prefer searching for fuse to disable it or simply put it off. Also, mechanics switch it off easily if doors are open for a longer duration.

The cars we drive are designed keeping in mind - a driver, a passenger, a mechanic and another road user. There may be many things a car user may find useless, but it cannot be justified useless, as billion $$ R&D and investment goes into designing a car.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Parking sensor "off" button

Try sitting in a Mercedes which has speed activated sensors in traffic at a crossing. The car keeps on peeping as people walk across, behind up close.