The extras that are worth getting with a new car

spurious

spurious wrote: »

Oh yes - not little holes down near the gear stick - proper window level ones. If there's one thing I miss from my old Micra it's the proper cup/bottle holder.

They would suffice for now in my MR2 :P

I saw a fix that I'm going to try out - any day now!

All of my other cars have or had funky cup holders, S60, 9-3, current E60 (except the button has fallen off and you need an engineering degree to open it).


Other than than, if I was buying a brand new car would have to have

Leather interior
Heated seats
Bluetooth
Steering wheel controls
Alloys
Probably Auto too

The Volvo had lumbar support, never realised how much I like that til it was gone! (wouldn't be a must have though, just be nice!)

dutopia

Brian Scan wrote: »

Yeah, the only way to deal with someone whose taste differs from yours.

You bought steel wheels, didn't you?

Marty McFly

Skylinehead wrote: »

Simple, alloy wheels. Anyone who buys a new car in this day and age with steelies should be thrown into the sea. And I see plenty of them too.

I like to try think all of these cars are fleet cars.

It's probably not though

Comhrá

A must:

Cruise control
alloys
Good hi-fi
bluetooth
aircon
rear sensors

desirable:

Metallic
trip computer
hill-hold
satnav
steering wheel radio controls
auto transmission

not fussy:

leather/alcantara
xenons/leds
centre armrest
sunroof
autowipers/lights
rear camera
drl

bazz26

Keyless start with comfort access,
Dynamic xenon or led headlights,
Infotainment wide touchscreen,
Auto dipping and dimming rear view exterior mirrors,
Electrically adjustable and heated seats with memory function,
Adaptive Cruise Control,
Rear privacy glass.

Brian Scan

dutopia wrote: »

You bought steel wheels, didn't you?

No, I don't like them.

Skylinehead

Marty McFly wrote: »

I like to try think all of these cars are fleet cars.

It's probably not though

Definitely not. Some people around here would buy a BMW 520d with steelies if it was an option.

Sure what does it matter how good it is, or how good it looks, it's a new beemer!

BohsCeltic

I have half of the stuff mentioned on here and my car is 15 years old.

I would like rear parking sensors and Xenons and maybe Satnav if i was updgrading

AMGer

........

AMGer

Caliden wrote: »

Leather or some sort of upgraded seat upholstery. I never understand why people spend north of 30k on a car and get the standard cloth seats. Cheapens the car in my opinion.

easy to say that but when Mercedes charge 4.5k (yes, that's 4500 euro) for Recaros it's a difficult box to tick!!

personally I'm a big fan of - privacy glass, Xenons, parking sensors

Eric Cartman

Xenons
Climate Control
Navigation / iPhone interface capable of displaying maps.
MFSW
Reversing camera or parking sensors.

Any new car no matter what size should come with these now.


Things I look for in a car that I can sort of understand not being stock :

Heated leather seats
Power seats
auto dimming mirror

barney 20v

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

These would be in my mind on any new car I would buy, the more the better...

• Auto dimming rear view mirror
• Auto folding door mirrors
• Auto lights
• Auto wipers
• Cruise control
• Dual climate
• Heated leather seats
• Remote boot release
• Steering wheel audio controls
• Xenon headlights

My 2005 Mondeo ST has all of those bar xenon headlights. heated recaros are the most comfy seats ever imho

Nichard Dixon

BMJD wrote: »

Electrically adjustable seats are great, only peasants do it the old fashioned way.

Only peasants share their car with someone else, so once the seat is set once there is no need to adjust it.

Cruise control and bluetooth are fairly common now.

If you've had a reversing camera once, it will seem good to have after that.

aaabbbb

Caliden wrote: »

Leather or some sort of upgraded seat upholstery. I never understand why people spend north of 30k on a car and get the standard cloth seats. Cheapens the car in my opinion.

Some people prefer not to have their arse stuck to the seat on a long drive

Eric Cartman

aaabbbb wrote: »

Some people prefer not to have their arse stuck to the seat on a long drive

the only downside of leather.

heated and vented seats solve that problem.

then theres the pro's - easy to clean, looks way better, far more luxurious, harder wearing.

MuppetCheck

aaabbbb wrote: »

Some people prefer not to have their arse stuck to the seat on a long drive

Main problem is very few cars have actual leather as an option. Personally I'm not the biggest fan but a lot of mainstream cars only offer artificial leather that leaves a lot to be desired.

kirving

Reversing Camera are being phased in in the US for all new cars, staring at 10% next year, up to 100% by 2018. EU won't be far behind.

Hopefully that means good ICE on all cars very shortly.

micks_address

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

These would be in my mind on any new car I would buy, the more the better...

• Auto dimming rear view mirror
• Auto folding door mirrors
• Auto lights
• Auto wipers
• Cruise control
• Dual climate
• Heated leather seats
• Remote boot release
• Steering wheel audio controls
• Xenon headlights

That pretty close to my list.. Apart from xenon lights i only have lowly halogens on my car.. My only upgrade left to do is replacing standard radio with android double din unit...

Henry Ford III

Decent projector lights are plenty good enough. There's some wicked car snobbery going on here.

micks_address

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Decent projector lights are plenty good enough. There's some wicked car snobbery going on here.

I upgraded my halogens to Philips night vision 130s... They are a lot better than a lot of cars I meet with only one Light... Not such a huge issue if you driving in heavy traffic most of time anyway

Eric Cartman

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Reversing Camera are being phased in in the US for all new cars, staring at 10% next year, up to 100% by 2018. EU won't be far behind.

Hopefully that means good ICE on all cars very shortly.

hopefully but no dice. ford, land rover, lexus and others seem absolutely compelled that giving you a 7" touchscreen would kill them , so they decide that either the rear-view mirror deserves a 2" screen or the 2.5" job in the middle of the dash that lets you just about see radio station names will do.

bazz26

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Decent projector lights are plenty good enough. There's some wicked car snobbery going on here.

I used to think the same until driving my current car with xenon headlights. They are far superior to projector/reflector halogen headlights especially on dark roads.

kirving

Eric Cartman wrote: »

hopefully but no dice. ford, land rover, lexus and others seem absolutely compelled that giving you a 7" touchscreen would kill them , so they decide that either the rear-view mirror deserves a 2" screen or the 2.5" job in the middle of the dash that lets you just about see radio station names will do.

Agreed. You'd think Ford would be embarrassed by the state of some of the screens on their new cars. That said, the BMW F10 with small screen has an equally terrible looking surround.

Eric Cartman

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Agreed. You'd think Ford would be embarrassed by the state of some of the screens on their new cars. That said, the BMW F10 with small screen has an equally terrible looking surround.

+1 . Screens are cheap , every manufacturer should just fit a 6-10" display in the middle of the dash / console and give you the basic features (OBC/iPod/usb/FM/cd/aux/R.Cam) and then make nav/tv/dvd/internet/DAB/surround cams optional extras. None of this stupid craic of different screen sizes and tiny lcd's filling massive gaps.

BoJack Horseman

- Heated windscreen
- Parking senors

once you have them, you will never go back to being without them.

Sh1tbag OToole

I must be the only one who doesn't give two sh1tes about extras. Used to like having air conditioning on a damp day but sure I can easily live without that.

Sh1tbag OToole

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Automatic gear box is a must in certain types of car especially in the premium market. A 5series or Audi A6 it should be standard, ruins the car with a stick. Think Audi drivers are more guilty of going for the stick.

Nothing wrong with a 5 series manual, hate them PRNDL yokes

CIP4

must haves:

Arm rest
A/c
Trip computer
Electric Windows front and rear
Cruise control

Like to haves:
Auto dimming rear view mirror
Auto lights + wipers
Climate control
Parking sensors
Bluetooth

Things I don't care about:
Alloys
Leather seats
Metallic paint
Heated seats

So going by my wish list it's not too bad compared to some although I think my next car will be something high spec with more of my likes to haves on it.

Hachiko

My Lexus has most of anything you could want (bar a V8), the small things help like a very clever keyless entry system (cant lock the key inside) and as well as electrochromatic the side mirrors dip when you reverse. Once you get used to these features you won't settle for less.

HID lights are a must for me, they make a massive difference, mine are adaptive too so they react to steering movements. This is not anything new but its a nice thing to have for sure. Heated seats are a godsend for winter and I have just started using mine lately. Reverse camera with park assist is also pretty essential, especially in England with increasingly smaller and smaller parking spaces.

Eoin

Skylinehead wrote: »

Simple, alloy wheels. Anyone who buys a new car in this day and age with steelies should be thrown into the sea. And I see plenty of them too.

But that is probably the easiest thing to change at any stage you want. Most of the stuff that's actually useful day-to-day is probably either a PITA or not possible to retrofit. To me, alloys are the most sensible thing to skimp on.

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

These would be in my mind on any new car I would buy, the more the better...

• Auto dimming rear view mirror
• Auto folding door mirrors
• Auto lights
• Auto wipers
• Cruise control
• Dual climate
• Heated leather seats
• Remote boot release
• Steering wheel audio controls
• Xenon headlights

I've all these, bar the auto-fold mirrors (there's a button for them, but they don't fold when you lock the car), and I think missing climate control out of that list would bug the most.

Actually, what I don't have, that is really annoying me, is being able to either plug in my phone to an AUX input or stream music using A2DP.