What feature in your car could you not live without?

[Derkoli]

Personally, I don't have anything I really require in a vehicle other than damn heaters and a somewhat decent sound system.

 

For my new vehicle that is replacing my Honda CRV, I'm absolutely wanting turning headlights. Some of the country lanes around me are so damn narrow it's near impossible to see around turns.

 

For anyone wondering, I've settled on a Porsche Panamera GTS with some optional extras, such a Burmester sound system and of course those bloody headlights.

 

 

I really love the "Metallic Amethyst" colour Porsche have going on with the Panamera's.

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, Derkoli said:

Personally, I don't have anything I really require in a vehicle other than damn heaters and a somewhat decent sound system.

 

For my new vehicle that is replacing my Honda CRV, I'm absolutely wanting turning headlights. Some of the country lanes around me are so damn narrow it's near impossible to see around turns.

 

For anyone wondering, I've settled on a Porsche Panamera GTS with some optional extras, such a Burmester sound system and of course those bloody headlights.

 

 

I really love the "Metallic Amethyst" colour Porsche have going on with the Panamera's.

Iirc Tucker did his car with turntable headlights

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker

[ausham]

3 peddles, crank windows, manual everything and stripped. I like it stupid simple small light econo cars that I can light up the tires and whip around in the corners.

 

[TVwazhere]

The Goddamn steering wheel

[Moonzy]

13 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

The Goddamn steering wheel

think again

 

[it_dont_work]

Low range 4wd 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Ahh I got one. Snow tires in winter. I have successfully driven in the snow with all seasons (even made it down a mountain during heavy snowfall in a Civic with all seasons without loosing control) but it's just not a fun experience I would want to repeat if possible. 

[Bombastinator]

9 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Ahh I got one. Snow tires in winter. I have successfully driven in the snow with all seasons (even made it down a mountain during heavy snowfall in a Civic with all seasons without loosing control) but it's just not a fun experience I would want to repeat if possible. 

Meh.  Front wheel drive doesn’t need snow tires.  Rear wheel drive does but front doesn’t. 4 wheel isnt any better than front wheel really.  It mostly makes it easier to get unstuck and easier to over accelerate.  That bit is bad enough that in my area during the first blizzard all the vehicles stuck in the ditch between the lanes are generally  4-wheel drive trucks.  A 4 wheel drive can accelerate twice as fast on ice but they don’t stop any better and they’re often poorly weighted.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

45 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Meh.  Front wheel drive doesn’t need snow tires.  Rear wheel drive does but front doesn’t. 4 wheel isnt any better than front wheel really.  It mostly makes it easier to get unstuck and easier to over accelerate.  That bit is bad enough that in my area during the first blizzard all the vehicles stuck in the ditch between the lanes are generally  4-wheel drive trucks.  A 4 wheel drive can accelerate twice as fast on ice but they don’t stop any better and they’re often poorly weighted.

It's more for braking. I live in an area in Vancouver where the roads are relatively flat, and even then there have been times where I had to run very late yellows because... well I had no brakes. ABS would try to keep the wheels from locking but there was nothing for the tires to grip onto. It's sort of worse here because once the snow hits the road, it turns into slush quickly because the temperature just sits above freezing. Sometimes we even have snow and rain mixed together. And overnight that stuff really freezes into a nice sheet of ice and it becomes a iteral ice rink. If it was a good solid layer of snow, you could probably power through it. But here, since it's essentially slush and ice, 4 wheel drive alone can't save you. 

 

At 0:40 who drove a bloody Corvette up Burnaby Mountain in snow... 

 

[Letgomyleghoe]

8 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

The Goddamn steering wheel

I have driven a car on relatively short drive without a steering wheel, and instead a pipe wrench, it was a fun ride, and makes me question my life choices when I think back on it.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

I have driven a car on relatively short drive without a steering wheel, and instead a pipe wrench, it was a fun ride, and makes me question my life choices when I think back on it.

I’ve seen vice grips used. It works, but...poorly. I recently watched a video of a Mercedes concept car with no steering wheel.  It had a sort of rocker on the center console.  There have been tiller bars used on antique electric cars.  Saw one of those on “Jay Leno’s Garage”. Detroit had a dual thumb thing they were testing in the 60’s.  The main thing about a steering wheel is it has a lot of leverage.  Older cars with no power steering before reciprocating ball steering had very large steering wheels. 

[Letgomyleghoe]

3 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I’ve seen vice grips used. It works, but...poorly

I would say the pipe wrench is probably easier, the only time I had issues was on the first corner when it fell off, I just got it back on super tight after that, probably easier to grip then vice grips.

[Bombastinator]

Just now, Letgomyleghoe said:

I would say the pipe wrench is probably easier, the only time I had issues was on the first corner when it fell off, I just got it back on super tight after that, probably easier to grip then vice grips.

Longer would be helpful.  A steering wheel is basically a lever.

[dalekphalm]

On 10/14/2020 at 10:57 PM, Letgomyleghoe said:

I won’t drive an automatic lol, something about automatics is frustrating, it pisses me off when can’t get my engine to rev up before it switches gears. Being able to pop the car in second and tear out is so nice idk why.

This is literally a non-issue in almost all modern automatics. Even my mid-level Jetta from 2014 has a 6-speed automatic w/ Tiptronic - meaning I can switch it into manual mode and independently choose which gears to drive in.

 

Or just put pretty much any Automatic car into whatever "sport mode" is included, and it'll let the engine rev up quite a bit before switching gears.

 

Manuals can definitely be more fun - but realistically modern automatics simply smoke all but the very best manual transmissions, and most of them now have some kind of manual mode anyway.

[dalekphalm]

11 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Meh.  Front wheel drive doesn’t need snow tires.  Rear wheel drive does but front doesn’t. 4 wheel isnt any better than front wheel really.  It mostly makes it easier to get unstuck and easier to over accelerate.  That bit is bad enough that in my area during the first blizzard all the vehicles stuck in the ditch between the lanes are generally  4-wheel drive trucks.  A 4 wheel drive can accelerate twice as fast on ice but they don’t stop any better and they’re often poorly weighted.

100% absolutely, if you live in a climate that regularly snows in the winter, you need winter tires. You might not think you need them, but every other driver on the road disagrees.

 

Snow tires add a significant amount of traction and (more importantly) stopping power over all seasons (or the winter-rated multi-season tires - which are at least better than all seasons).

 

Regardless of whether it's FWD/RWD/AWD - winter tires make a significant difference.

[sub68]

people say you need a key for the ignition

I have a friend where his old van would start by turn the ignition with a flathead screw driver  

umm a feature would be fold down seats to fit big stuff

19 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

The Goddamn steering wheel

R U sure

https://www.legendaryspeed.com/rally-driver-drives-rally-car-without-steering-wheel/

[TVwazhere]

1 hour ago, sub68 said:

R U sure

https://www.legendaryspeed.com/rally-driver-drives-rally-car-without-steering-wheel/

Yes.

[sub68]

5 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Yes.

ok its a nice to have but you can improvise at worst times

[Bombastinator]

It becomes a question of the definition of feature. The most basic requirement could for example be wheels.  I took it to mean a thing that is added on.  Air con used to be an add on but isn’t anymore for my area.

[Letgomyleghoe]

2 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

This is literally a non-issue in almost all modern automatics. Even my mid-level Jetta from 2014 has a 6-speed automatic w/ Tiptronic - meaning I can switch it into manual mode and independently choose which gears to drive in.

 

Or just put pretty much any Automatic car into whatever "sport mode" is included, and it'll let the engine rev up quite a bit before switching gears.

 

Manuals can definitely be more fun - but realistically modern automatics simply smoke all but the very best manual transmissions, and most of them now have some kind of manual mode anyway.

Ive never heard of this tiptronic lol that’s cool asf. I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car that had both modes, But I haven’t really driven to many cars in the 2000-2020 range

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

Ive never heard of this tiptronic lol that’s cool asf. I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car that had both modes, But I haven’t really driven to many cars in the 2000-2020 range

I'm not sure how long they've been around for - but at least 10-15 years now if not longer.

[GDRRiley]

On 10/14/2020 at 7:57 PM, Letgomyleghoe said:

I won’t drive an automatic lol, something about automatics is frustrating, it pisses me off when can’t get my engine to rev up before it switches gears. Being able to pop the car in second and tear out is so nice idk why.

usually the answer is step on it, my 2000 civic will happy run it out to redline before shifting

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

usually the answer is step on it, my 2000 civic will happy run it out to redline before shifting

Indeed - in fact, how aggressive you accelerate almost always decides how quickly a car will shift.

 

If you accelerate slowly, the car will usually shift sooner at a lower RPM. If you floor it, it's likely going to push the RPM's quite high before changing gears.

[GDRRiley]

24 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

If you accelerate slowly, the car will usually shift sooner at a lower RPM.

yep which isn't always great. I love all these new 6+ speed automatics, most totally don't have long term issues.

[dalekphalm]

5 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

yep which isn't always great. I love all these new 6+ speed automatics, most totally don't have long term issues.

Mine has been super reliable so far (150,000 km and counting). I can switch into manual mode and baby the transmission if I want to accelerate and switch gears in a precise manner.