once desirable options... now mostly obsolete?
Discussion
I've been having a look around some cars in showrooms over the last week. I'm looking at some of the options that were specced by the new owners and the dealer is trying to sell them as a plus point, but I'm thinking these are crap really - completely worthless in this day and age.
TV screens in the back headrests in a range rover, hooked up to a dvd system - years ago this may have been a real nice plus point to keep the kids amused on a long road trip. I just checked their official site and today this is a £1500 option. But surely a pair of iPad minis at 1/3 the price would be significantly better? You then have no arguments over what they're watching as they can do their own thing... they can also play games, send emails, surf the internet, etc etc. And use them day to day when not even in the car. Its bizarre to me that anyone would spec this £1500 option.
Then we've got this in a Porsche -
Who the hell is going to dismantle their phone and put the sim card in the dash, then reverse the process when they arrive where they're going? What a complete and utter waste of time and money in comparison to handsfree or bluetooth surely?
Then I seen an x5 with a tv screen in the front - see points about iPad above.
Satnav is probably the biggest joke of all - 4 figure options in a new car... I've never seen a single one of them that out performed a £100 tom-tom. It seems like the manufacturers like to extort a bit of extra money out of you via fear on this one... "spec the satnav or you'll not be able to sell it 2nd hand".
Why are people bothering speccing any of the above, I don't get it...
TV screens in the back headrests in a range rover, hooked up to a dvd system - years ago this may have been a real nice plus point to keep the kids amused on a long road trip. I just checked their official site and today this is a £1500 option. But surely a pair of iPad minis at 1/3 the price would be significantly better? You then have no arguments over what they're watching as they can do their own thing... they can also play games, send emails, surf the internet, etc etc. And use them day to day when not even in the car. Its bizarre to me that anyone would spec this £1500 option.
Then we've got this in a Porsche -
Who the hell is going to dismantle their phone and put the sim card in the dash, then reverse the process when they arrive where they're going? What a complete and utter waste of time and money in comparison to handsfree or bluetooth surely?
Then I seen an x5 with a tv screen in the front - see points about iPad above.
Satnav is probably the biggest joke of all - 4 figure options in a new car... I've never seen a single one of them that out performed a £100 tom-tom. It seems like the manufacturers like to extort a bit of extra money out of you via fear on this one... "spec the satnav or you'll not be able to sell it 2nd hand".
Why are people bothering speccing any of the above, I don't get it...
Nav and big screens are my main issue with new cars. As the OP stated, stupidly expensive when new, but worth nowt when second hand,and having to spend £2 to 300 to update the maps every couple of years is a nonsense.You end up with a huge screen taking up half the dash just to change the station on the radio as you don't use the now defunct nav. Expensive wheel options are often not wanted on a used car as the tyres are expensive and ruin the ride.
Shurv said:
Nav and big screens are my main issue with new cars. As the OP stated, stupidly expensive when new, but worth nowt when second hand,and having to spend £2 to 300 to update the maps every couple of years is a nonsense.You end up with a huge screen taking up half the dash just to change the station on the radio as you don't use the now defunct nav. Expensive wheel options are often not wanted on a used car as the tyres are expensive and ruin the ride.
At least expensive wheels can be removed and sold on easily, or traded with someone who has standard wheels. Not much you can do with a lot of the other now worthless options. The map updates are ridiculous - Lambo wanted something like £600 for an update DVD for my Gallardo! I could have bought half a dozen tom toms for that
Trafficmaster was a good one, back in the day. A system that used, I think, ANPR and other traffic monitoring feeds to measure traffic flow around the country, which would feed back to your car and give you a heads up on congestion and stuff. Quite a clever idea, really. I believe the system is now defunct and I've never seen in it working in the cars I've looked at with the system (BMW E38's). It may have been subscription based, also.
The old Volvo (and possibly Lexus) sat nav system was interesting, and now long obsolete. You would have to ring through to a 'data centre' with the destination details which would then be streamed back to your car, as opposed to having a hard drive system updated with new discs every year.
The old Volvo (and possibly Lexus) sat nav system was interesting, and now long obsolete. You would have to ring through to a 'data centre' with the destination details which would then be streamed back to your car, as opposed to having a hard drive system updated with new discs every year.
Negative Creep said:
CD multichangers
CD players in general now. How about phone cradles, either the retro fit ones attached to they dash, or the ones secreted in the armrest, the problem with these is so many are brand and model specific that come phone upgrade time it generally rendered your cradle useless; now everything is Bluetooth and most cars have a USB slot so you can just plug your phone in to charge.
Baryonyx said:
Trafficmaster was a good one, back in the day. A system that used, I think, ANPR and other traffic monitoring feeds to measure traffic flow around the country, which would feed back to your car and give you a heads up on congestion and stuff. Quite a clever idea, really. I believe the system is now defunct and I've never seen in it working in the cars I've looked at with the system (BMW E38's). It may have been subscription based, also.
I've got Traffic Master in my car (2011 MG6) and it works very well - definitely not defunct. I've never had it before but it's actually very useful the few times it's gave me some info. If I'd been doing the amount of miles I used to (45k+ per year) I would have found it invaluable. The car has a lifetime subscription for the service so I definitely can't complain!CD multichanger is also my nomination. I remember paying £350 for a changer when I bought a brand new Cherokee in 2000. In the car I have now, I haven't actually ever used the CD player & just have a couple of 4Gb USB sticks. The idea of carrying CDs around in the car now seems ridiculous.
LuS1fer said:
Heading towards obsolescence but I don't have a mobile phone and don't like MP3 players.
So why do VW put their CD player in the glovebox? I suspect many older drivers, like me these days, would cross it off the list based on that alone.
Try getting a CD player on the new Clio; they don't come with one and they aren't available as an option either. So why do VW put their CD player in the glovebox? I suspect many older drivers, like me these days, would cross it off the list based on that alone.
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