[AK79]

Originally Posted by SDP

When you get a new car, you are super excited about all the features and would experiment with them. Soon the excitement dies down and then lot of features remain unused for years to come.

2. Video playing capability of the infotainment screen. While driving I don't want to watch anything on the screen. If not driving, I don't want to be inside the car anyways

3. Cruise control - no highways where it can be used . Have tried it on Mumbai Pune expressway, but most of the times the traffic is fairly thick

Ditto for all of the above. In addition, the traction control modes too are pointless unless indulging in some off-road driving. In fact being a sedate driver, I never use the sports mode too (nor the ECO mode btw).

[2000rpm]

In my polo, I think AC vent adjustment is a feature I forbid people to use. I adjust the same for them. They are so fragile, that anyone without a delicate touch will break them and they are a pain to replace.

I use everything else I think, except mirror link, because none of the new phones have this feature.

[libranof1987]

On my cars:

1) Sunglass holder: don't prefer this as I keep my glasses in the holder to prevent scratches + carry them with me when not travelling in the car.

2) Instant FE: that manufacturers list this as a feature and go to the extent of providing it only in the top trims on some cars is laughable

3) Height adjustable seat-belts: maybe because I'm not very tall/short to find it useful

4) Rear-seat folding: never used any of our cars to haul luggage more than what would fit in the boot.

5) Speech controls: maybe because they are very primitive and barely cover any action I'd actually use it for.

6) The AM

7) Glovebox cooling: seriously, has anyone actually benefited from it?

A little concerned that people have listed rear seatbelts. If no one sits at the rear, that's a different story but if they are used but the seatbelts are not just because it's the rear seat, that habit might need a change.

Originally Posted by rachitarora1985

+1 I wonder if someone has even tried to search for AM channels in the recent times!

I did, for the first time, this past Sat. I had to step out for some work and given how poorly India was batting, wanted to follow the game. Someone mentioned that there was earlier live commentary on AM so tried searching but only got static.

[Shamegz]

One of the least used/unused feature I find are the strings; which are attached to rear parcel tray and hatch and makes the tray open and close action when you lift the hatch.


additionally these Headlight leveler switch never observed any difference with this switch !

[Jeroen]

My Jaguar comes with a whole host of features rarely used, if ever. Some of them are actually hidden. You won’t find them in the driver manual. Jaguar used to provide special CD/DVD to show you all the details and hidden features.

1) Opening/Closing doors, windows and sunroof
Insert the key into the driver lock, turn it and hold: All windows will close, all doors and boot will lock and sunroof will close. Or vice versa it will open them all

2) Casette eject
You can set the cassette to eject automatically when you switch of the stereo

3) Cassette clean
You can set a reminder to clean the cassette deck

4) Telescopic filler neck
The coolant reservoir comes with a telescopic filler neck you can pull out, so it becomes easier to fill up with coolant liquid. Most Jaguar mechanics are not aware of this one.

5) Valet button
This one is not hidden but is a button on the dash. Push it and the trunk and glove compartment can not be opened anymore.

How many of you have figured out how to change the language setting on the dash for the various messages? On most cars it can be done, but usually hurried very deep in some menu, or will require a mystic, secret sequence of pushing buttons, pulling levers.

Jeroen

Jeroen

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by SDP

10. AM channels on radio - are there really any AM channels?

All AIR channels are AM. 2 decades back, there were a host of AM channels that we could tune from Madras and 1 FM channel (even that was controlled by AIR). As we go further south of Trichy, we even used to get Radio Ceylon.

I've never used radio on any of the cars I brought, only on our Ambassador that was with us till 2005.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

2) Casette eject
3) Cassette clean

I thought the CD player in my former Corolla was from stone age.

How many of you have figured out how to change the language setting on the dash for the various messages? On most cars it can be done, but usually hurried very deep in some menu, or will require a mystic, secret sequence of pushing buttons, pulling levers.

Not very secret It's on the manual and went through the entire array of options and changed a few when fiddling on the car on initial days.

Am sure outside the community, the car manual would be among the rarely used 'features'

[Nalin1]

1. Roof rails? I clean it regularly. The only time I touch it!

2. Reverse parking sensor enable/disable switch. No idea why this is provided.

3. Seat belts height adjust. Zero times used.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Am sure outside the community, the car manual would be among the rarely used 'features'

You would think so on a car forum, but you would be wrong:

We have a few thread on reading owner manuals, the vast majority of our esteemed members do not!

Jeroen

[Simhi]

On my Yaris V CVT,

1. Cruise control
2. Fog lamps
3. Split rear seats
4. Auto mode of automatic climate control
5. Rear glass defogger
6. CD Player
7. Manual modes of CVT transmission

[anb]

If spare wheels and toe hooks can be counted as features, I have never used them.

[Carpainter]

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

In my polo, I think AC vent adjustment is a feature I forbid people to use. I adjust the same for them. They are so fragile, that anyone without a delicate touch will break them and they are a pain to replace..

Ah this reminds me of my time with Polo. Two AC vents got broken within 4 years of ownership. It was easy to pull them out and repair them manually but they wouldn't last long. Didn't bother to change them as they used to cost a lot and eventually I sold the car off.

[saisree]

Originally Posted by Shamegz

additionally these Headlight leveler switch never observed any difference with this switch !

These headlight levelers are useful when you have occupants in the rear bench and some extra luggage. Try it once, you will know the difference.

[scarezebra]

For my i20, these were the features I never bothered with:

Auto rain sensing wipers: It is a good feature to have but for some reason in my case keeping it on always lead to wiper starting up for a single wipe whenever I started the car even if it was sunny and dry. I wanted to avoid long term damage to the wiper blades and so just disabled it.

Automatic headlamps: For some reason the brightness level at which they turn on was never really dark for me and adjusting the sensitivity of this feature was not a user accessible setting so never bothered to keep it on. Also in cases like entering a tunnel where it would have been helpful the 2-3 second delay to turn it on was too bothersome and made the feature almost useless. So I just switched it to manual after that.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by saisree

These headlight levelers are useful when you have occupants in the rear bench and some extra luggage. Try it once, you will know the difference.

I believe we are getting confused here about the point of this thread - What are the most rarely used features in your car.

A feature can be rarely used because the member has rarely encountered the scenario in which the feature needs to be used and NOT necessarily because he/she is unware of how the feature works.

E.g. I am fully aware of how Hill Descent Control in my car works. Just that over the last 8 years, I have hardly encountered any slopes which needed using that feature.

Similar situation with the Headlight Leveller. Pretty sure the OP knows what it is for and when to use it.

[GTO]

The rear entertainment screens - they only look good, but are useless, especially in this age of smartphones & tablets.

Cruise control is another feature I find useless for India.

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

Believe it or not, in my car, its the cup holder

I can never do a long drive / test-drive without my black coffee. First one from home, second from McDs. If you get a good coffee mug, you can easily sip and drive on the worst of roads.

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

The one thing I’ve never used is the Coat hanger hook provided at the top of the rear seat windows.

Man, I find those super useful to hang bags from.

Originally Posted by tushky

The most rarely used feature in my tiago is Insta FE. I really don't know how it is useful. Why would anyone keep tracking Insta FE instead of concentrating on driving.

well said!