[GrandTourer]

My list of useless features:

Electronic boot lid
I am talking specifically about the button to close the boot lid in some high end cars. Why do you need a button to close the boot if you have loaded your stuff into the boot? And when you're unloading stuff, if you can raise your hand to reach the button, you can very well close the boot with it. Having said that, I'm all for the leg swaying gesture to open the boot.

Heated seats
In India I don't think heated seats make a lot of sense; cooled seats, yes give me that please.

Electronic parking brake
I can't complain enough about this. Give me a good ol' mechanical handbrake.

Auto headlamps
If you can't see well out of your car, you know you need to throw a switch. You don't need a computer to tell you that.

Full touchscreen dash
Car manufacturers, please give me buttons and knobs. Do you know how difficult it is to operate a touchscreen while you are on the move? Knob for volume and aircon, buttons for AC mode, infotainment... This is accepted technology.

That's my 2 cents.

[arunramaswamy]

The first feature that find useless is touch screen infotainment, which I normally do not use while driving. Besides I find it irritating to take my eyes off the road to fiddle with it and I find it quite distracting in the night.

Secondly, I am not a fan of any feature that starts with "auto" including the transmission. I just don't want to trust any God damn sensor to do a job for me. Besides, manual operation gives me a sense of total control of my car.

My car basically needs to have a very strong mechanicals with a reliable manual Gearbox and a safe structure with safety features including rear wash and wipe. Rest are superficial for me.

[sureshkishore]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Switch off cabin lights when door is open

Seriously - why would you EVER want to switch off the cabin lights when opening the door? This is one of the most useless features found in every car. Other than mechanics who leave the door open & don't want to drain the battery, we can't think of anyone who'd want to turn the lights off

I beg to differ. This is indeed a very useful feature especially when:

1. Like others have shared, while you clean my Car, you need to keep the door open for quite long duration and you don't want to drain the battery.
2. When you want to open the door in the night,without disturbing the co-passengers who may be taking a nap.

One Feature that I really don't think is needed is Auto Wipers. I don't think any driver would need help in switching on his windshield wiper as and when it is required.

The Baleno Shows Power and Torque indication which I did not find useful. So is the driving time. May be I do not know how to use it.

I love hypermiling and the instantaneous FE indication is very useful to get unbelievably high 'indicated FE' on highway runs. Just my idea of fun

[veedub89]

The most useless feature ever, is the Auto Wiper Feature on my Volvo.

So get this, to turn on the feature you gotta press a button every time the car starts. And yes, obviously you don't do it everyday.
So now when it does rain, you have two options, either you press the button to switch on the Auto Wipers or use the same amount of energy to flick the wiper column to the desired frequency of wiper sweep. So pointless! Why have manual intervention for an automated process? You might argue that the Auto Wiper, when switched on, adjusts according to the rain, but no!
When you do switch on the Auto Wiper feature, the sensor seems to have a mind of it's own. At times I feel that it isn't keeping up with the downpour.

Easily the most useless feature I have come across.

[autobahnjpr]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

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.

Switch off cabin lights when door is open

Seriously - why would you EVER want to switch off the cabin lights when opening the door? This is one of the most useless features found in every car. Other than mechanics who leave the door open & don't want to drain the battery, we can't think of anyone who'd want to turn the lights off:

I had a similar opinion and when i found that one of my friend kept the cabin lights in switched off mode, i asked him why. He gave me a very practical reason.
The cabin light is switched off where you have lot of mosquitos and you are parking at the night. The moment you open the door and the light is on, they will swarm and it would be a task to get them out the next day.
Now, i have experienced the same situation and i generally switch if off if i am parking in a place which is full of mosquitos.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by KaranP

Also, auto windshield wipers!
Ok, I understand the need for auto headlamps, where someone might forget to switch them on, on well-lit roads at night.
But auto wipers?
In which scenario would you 'forget' to switch them on? If it's raining and your visibility is impaired even slightly, you'd turn them on.
Also, unless the calibration of the auto wipers is just right, it could cause an unwanted surprise by kicking in when not required, or maybe not activate at all, forcing you to take over manually.

I actually feel the opposite. Headlamps are a one time switch on and a one time off. Since most cars require you to manually switch it into auto - you anyways are doing that one step unless you keep it in Auto throughout. Auto headlamps don't decide whether its time for high beam / fog lights / parking lights - those also have to be done manually. All they do, is sense that it's dark and switch on the headlamps to low beam!

Auto wipers though - you turn them on, and many cars allow you to moderate the calibration / sensitivity (at least all VWAG cars do). It saves you a few sweeps and scratches on your windshield when the rain slows down, and saves you the effort of switching on the wiper when driving on a highway and you are totally blinded by a splash of muddy water by a passing car. I've actually gotten quite used to this feature and I did miss it when I was driving another car without this feature - because with our conditions where you're always trying to avoid other cars, potholes, changing gears, indicators - it's one less worry!

[King_pin09]

In my opinion, the most useless 'Features' on a car are;

1. Tons of Chrome.
2. Plastic wheel caps.
3. Fixed head rests.
4. Auto head lamps/ wipers.

They serve no purpose but are present merely for looks and bling factor.

[bhp_maniac]

There are a couple of them in the list which I still use profusely.

1) Cabin light switch
2) AM radio - I still love listening to good old AIR. Also, as some of the fellow members already mentioned, their range is quite longer than FM.


While my ride doesn't have an in built navigation system, I think it would still be a usable feature, owing to their off line nature and a strong GPS antenna.

[thedragonreborn]

Originally Posted by veedub89

The most useless feature ever, is the Auto Wiper Feature on my Volvo.

So get this, to turn on the feature you gotta press a button every time the car starts. And yes, obviously you don't do it everyday.
So now when it does rain, you have two options, either you press the button to switch on the Auto Wipers or use the same amount of energy to flick the wiper column to the desired frequency of wiper sweep. So pointless! Why have manual intervention for an automated process? You might argue that the Auto Wiper, when switched on, adjusts according to the rain, but no!
When you do switch on the Auto Wiper feature, the sensor seems to have a mind of it's own. At times I feel that it isn't keeping up with the downpour.

Easily the most useless feature I have come across.

This is perhaps the most idiotic feature that I have come across and all for the same reason, in my Hexa.

I use my sunglasses holder to carry small items and slips of paper. Thoroughly useless otherwise.

[Hells Bells]

I am not sure why is Auto headlamp being considered a useless feature. This gives you an option to select one setting for the the first time and then it works flawlessly based on the sensor. In my experience, this is a convenient feature and to an extent, saves me a possible inconvenient action especially when taking a turn into a dark parking lot from a sunny set up.

Else, if the argument of "give me a manual any day" is a fair play then people might as well forego digital instrument panel and be happy with manual temp/fuel indicator.

Features like Auto wiper/auto headlamps auto enable a safety feature than leaving it at the discretion of the driver. Why would that be a useless thing?

The stuff truly useless is the sticker job which is shown as a "feature" in the limited variants that Indian auto companies keep launching.

[satishv1987]

Originally Posted by smartcat

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

Attachment 1794821

Actually, this is a very handy feature during winters. It feels really cosy when the heater is turned on & the air flow is directed towards your feet. I've used it multiple time during early morning drives in the winter months.

[NPV]

I guess I'm very much old school when it comes to newer cars and more "features"
We currently use a decade old Swift Dzire and a 2 year old WagonR and still don't have most of the most of the features listed here!

We have just 3 of features listed in the opening post:
-Cabin light switch off feature:find this useful when doors are kept open for longer periods like when cleaning the interiors and when using the 12v socket for the tyre inflator or vacuum cleaner

-AM Radio:hardly ever used, can live without this

-CD player:this is still very important in the Dzire since the infotainment unit doesn't have a USB input! Without this, would become difficult to drive this car on longer journeys

Amongst the other features that folks have mentioned, I don't see much use for the Sunroof and Cruise Control in India. In fact, the sunroof can end up being a safety hazard when misused by children if not guided/controlled properly, heck even adults don't know when/where to use it!

[PrideRed]

Going by the thread, many features which are useless to one appears to be very useful to another. With so many features being offered, its more of a preference than thumb rule. I would not be surprised if someone here comes and says those extra horses under the hood are absolutely useless as I don't have roads to utilize them!.

[dhanushs]

Atleast for me, its a little weird going through replies in this thread. Some of the features you guys have listed as useless is very useful for me, but then I realised everyone is not really agreeing on everything.

So, let me just list a useless feature (or nearly) instead of arguing how some features others have listed are useful. (Like the cabin lights, parking sensors turned off, or cold air to feet.)

In some vehicles, I've found the headlight leveller pretty useless. I always tend to keep it in the longest or highest throw.




Another useless feature is the rear fog lamp. Supposed to be a safety feature, but, turns out to be a nuisance if used at the wrong time.



Again, IMO, in India cars are already "underfeatured" , so wont be fair in listing out the 'precious' .

[av8er]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Going by the thread, many features which are useless to one appears to be very useful to another. With so many features being offered, its more of a preference than thumb rule. I would not be surprised if someone here comes and says those extra horses under the hood are absolutely useless as I don't have roads to utilize them!.

That Cracked me up. Frankly I have felt the 90 horses on my Linea are quite sufficient for Indian roads.

I completely agree with you, that what is useless to someone is useful to another.

Useful -

1. Auto Headlamps - I love them because when I go through tunnels or underpasses it lights up.

2. DRLS - It makes me more visible to others (That was the whole point of DRLS. Safety study done in Canada and its a norm there).

3. I love the memory seats and steering as I dont have to fiddle with it everytime I get in after someone else drives it.

4. Light off when doors open for the same reason of cleaning and not wanting them during daytime.