[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by Sahil

While I know a lot of people will differ but I find cruise control feature in India completely useless. I have never used it and don't see myself ever doing so either.

Just came back from 800KM Bangalore-Hubli-Bangalore round trip this week. More than 400KMs were driven with Cruise control. Another 100-150KMs were driven without Cruise because I got bored and sleepy by maintaining the legal speeds on Cruise Control and needed some adrenaline rush. Only the remaining 200-250 KM were the only place were the traffic did allow Cruise Control usage. Not sure why people find it useless when we have GQs and other equally good highways.

[vikram_d]

Indicator stalks. Nobody uses them anyway.

[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Is it some sort of a Fiat or an older Ford? I also saw your signature.

This - that too from a(nother) Fiat owner - is atrocious...

I guess this is the first time my signature is being appreciated

You are right and thanks!

BTW, you have given me a great idea for a new signature :-)

[Amit_Kapoor4750]

My two cents-
Speed-Sensitive Volume Control - I have never used this feature of my car.

[batish]

Originally Posted by Amit_Kapoor4750

Speed-Sensitive Volume Control - I have never used this feature of my car.

It's not useless. It compensates for road and engine noise which increases/decreases with speed. So it's quite useful especially on highways.

[Nav-i-gator]

Seat-belt reminder light for Driver: I mean, I can't think of how anyone can "unknowingly" forget that he/she is not wearing a seat-belt - there is a full belt supposed to be going through your shoulder, down through your chest, around you belly and almost pinning you to the seat! One need to be full paralyzed failing to feel if it is not there.

And those who knowingly do not wear seat belt - warning light is anyways useless for them.

[capslock]

Originally Posted by GTO

...

Rear Foglamps

... What's worse, some of the German cars have such bright rear foglamps that they can seriously blind you at night !

I use Polo's rear fog lamp exactly for the same reason! To irritate person driving behind me with High Beams (Polo Rear fog lamp is not blinding good)

Features which I find useless on VW Polo GT:
1. Psudo-cornering lights (Fog lamps).
2. Mirrorlink
3. ESP (Electronic Stability Program) toggle button
4. Demister button (Never faced problem with foggy Windshield)

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by vigsom

With Google Maps now readily available on every smartphone, the inbuilt navigation maps are hardly used. Google Maps gives you real-time traffic updates too. Android Auto is becoming popular among the mass market cars, while Apple CarPlay will soon support Google Maps:

Car inbuilt navigation is pretty helpful in the following occasions:
1. When you don't have network.
2. When you forget to carry your phone.

[quadmaniac]

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

1. When you don't have network.
2. When you forget to carry your phone.

(2) is a valid reason (though extremely rare I'd say), and (1) is not a valid reason. With Google Maps, you can save a map offline, only GPS suffices. I do this for long trips.

In my case, the phone maps apps are far superior.

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by quadmaniac

(2) is a valid reason (though extremely rare I'd say), and (1) is not a valid reason. With Google Maps, you can save a map offline, only GPS suffices. I do this for long trips.

In my case, the phone maps apps are far superior.

If you are on a long drive in India, you may not be able to save all the Google maps offline.
Phone apps like sygic, OsM are pretty good and can be used offline as well.
However I still feel navigation is a useful tool.

[Amey Kulkarni]

One feature i can think of is the Rear Defogger. Probably the most underused out of the major listed feature in the feature list of a car brochure and debatable for its usage.

I can count my usage of it on fingers in two years.

Cheers,
Amey

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by Amey Kulkarni

One feature i can think of is the Rear Defogger. Probably the most underused out of the major listed feature in the feature list of a car brochure and debatable for its usage.

I can count my usage of it on fingers in two years.

Cheers,
Amey

I find it very useful, and use it quite a bit. Up north, during winters when you are using heater, or during rains, the rear windshield gets all foggy and seriously hinder rear-visibility. And I'm not one of those expert drivers who do not use IRVMs. Together with rear wiper, defogger is a must have feature for me (for hatchbacks and SUVs at least).

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

Seat-belt reminder light for Driver: I mean, I can't think of how anyone can "unknowingly" forget that he/she is not wearing a seat-belt - there is a full belt supposed to be going through your shoulder, down through your chest, around you belly and almost pinning you to the seat! One need to be full paralyzed failing to feel if it is not there.

And those who knowingly do not wear seat belt - warning light is anyways useless for them.

I hope you are joking. Humans are not machines! The warning is there to remind you of those rare occasions that you forget to belt up. I think (rather hope) this warning light is mandatory as per law.

One of my cars, in addition to the reminder light gives a buzzer warning for not wearing seat belts for both driver and passenger. Believe me, this ensures that even for the shortest of drives, both are belted up.

[RS90]

[quote=ChiragM;4452994]A few weeks back, we spoke about some of the cleverest and most innovative features in mainstream cars. Now, let us take a look at the opposite.

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:

My younger brother once asked me the use for the 'parking sensor-off button', the only reply I could give was for use in a towing-a-trailer situation when one has to reverse.

Not so much in India, but I have seen a lot of cars haul all kinds of trailers in Europe.

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

I hope you are joking. Humans are not machines! The warning is there to remind you of those rare occasions that you forget to belt up. I think (rather hope) this warning light is mandatory as per law.

One of my cars, in addition to the reminder light gives a buzzer warning for not wearing seat belts for both driver and passenger. Believe me, this ensures that even for the shortest of drives both are belted up.

Certainly not joking. Those who wear seatbelts, do it as a habit. My point is - if a driver (not passenger - who can be excused for forgetting as he/she is not involved in "driving" part) need to be reminded that he/she is not wearing seat-belt, he/she should get their MRI/CT scans done for possible memory loss/attention deficit.

Making seatbelt warning light mandatory by law would not change a zilch. Wearing a seatbelt is already mandatory by law, how many in India actually wear seat-belt? and guess what, we still need a reminder light?