Good Ideas / Uncommon Features

[The Don of Croy]

I've often wondered why Mercedes moved away from the asymmetrical door mirrors they used in the nineties (W124?), when they were still tops in design and production etc, plus the clever single wipers they had as well. Was it replacement costs?

The extremely useful Volvo windscreen clip is now spreading - slowly - but should be on every car.

What other features have you seen or liked which should be on all cars (powered ashtrays being the most obvious one)?

[Gizmoish]

Heated windscreen. Should be compulsory in all new cars.

[GlenMH]

Gizmoish said:

Heated windscreen. Should be compulsory in all new cars.

Bit of a shame that Ford have the patent on it....

[djt100]

Old SAAB 9000 I had many years ago had demister fans in the rear doors, Fantastic idea. Never seen it on any other car.

[krisdelta]

LED's for finding door handles in the dark. On some exec cars, cheap and extremely useful.

[FoundOnRoadside]

GlenMH said:

Bit of a shame that Ford have the patent on it....

They don't actually, the patent expired years ago. That's why you can get them in some Renaults and Citroens.

[Kozy]

More cars should have heated steering wheels. Everything else is heated but this is the only bit I have to hold on to constantly with bare skin, why the hell isn't it warmed?

[Asterix]

Kozy said:

More cars should have heated steering wheels. Everything else is heated but this is the only bit I have to hold on to constantly with bare skin, why the hell isn't it warmed?

Alternatively, why don't we have liquid cooled steering wheels and gearknobs here in Dubai - you can't touch them during the summer months.

[Asterix]

Hey, I didn't say it would be easy

[pilchardthecat]

doogz said:

Asterix said:

Alternatively, why don't we have liquid cooled steering wheels and gearknobs here in Dubai - you can't touch them during the summer months.

Connecting a hose to the steering wheel might be problematic, since you turn it a lot. Or was the steering wheel going to be full of water, with it's own refridgeration unit housed inside the wheel?

Never heard of a Peltier for thermo-electric cooling then?

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

(Yes you still have to get the heat out from the hot side, but heat pipes to the air-con unit would be easy enough.... condensation is the slightly more tricky bit)

[George H]

Asterix said:

Alternatively, why don't we have liquid cooled steering wheels and gearknobs here in Dubai - you can't touch them during the summer months.

Might be able to get air con ones with perfereted leather. I had air con seats in my old SL, they were great on hot days

[pilchardthecat]

doogz said:

No, I haven't? Is that a liquid cooling system?

It's thermoelectric, solid-state heat pump. Been around for some years now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_coolin...

[CampDavid]

Cruise control. Everything has an ECU now - it's not like it's hard to fit and it's certainly not something that people complain about having.

Intensive windscreen cleaner. One resovoir for normo spec cleaner, another for intensive stuff for getting mud and grime off at a moments notice

[DoctorX]

krisdelta said:

LED's for finding door handles in the dark. On some exec cars, cheap and extremely useful.

Have you ever managed not to find them? how dark does it have to be before they're invisible? Quite cool though.

[Kozy]

Puddle lights under the doors are quite handy.

[McHaggis]

Centre console ignition - many Saabs - feels safer for some reason.

Also - Saabs that wouldn't let you remove the ignition key unless it was in gear.

Also - Saab panel - switched off all dashboard lights except speedo and any key warning lights. Great for night driving.

[k15tox]

Liked the way some BMW's mirror's automatically dipped down when reversing, so you could see the kerb.

Think it was on a mates e46 330ci.

[Decky_Q]

air con powered wine cooler in 206cc, and under seat storage were 2 that were quite useful imo.

[okie592]

Coming home lights, look cool and very functional

[monthefish]

The Don of Croy said:

The extremely useful Volvo windscreen clip