Car Features You Thought were Useless but are Actually Quite Useful

By Auto Parts Warehouse on February 8, 2015

Car feature lists now are much longer than ever before. There seems to be an unending quest for carmakers to put anything and everything in their vehicles. Of course, one can argue that some of these so-callled features are nothing but gimmicks or tech demonstrations, things that allow carmakers to show off how much they have spent on research and development.

Here, we list down some car features that seemed super gimmicky at first but are actually quite useful:

Heads-up Display

Source: Wikipedia

Heads-up displays (HUDs) are transparent displays that present data right in a driver’s line of sight. The technology was first used in fighter planes but has since made its way to more and more cars. The most basic auto HUD allows you to see how fast the car is moving without having to look down on the speedometer. Other systems also display engine revs and navigation information.

Bluetooth Connectivity

Source: Gotta Be Mobile

A bluetooth-enabled car entertainment system together with your smartphone will allow you to take phone calls hands-free and play music from your phone wirelessly. What’s not to like?

Heated/Cooled seats

Source: Wikimedia

How did we ever make it through long winter drives without these seats? They keep your backside warm when it’s cold and keep it cool when it’s hot. Why didn’t we think of these sooner?

Blind-spot monitoring systems

Source: Wikipedia

Blind spots are pretty much inherent in any vehicle. Proper positioning of the side mirrors goes a long way towards eliminating blind spots, but sometimes even that is not enough. This is where the Blind Spot Monitoring System comes in handy. It detects vehicles and other obstacles that you otherwise would have known about, helping you avoid collisions and accidents.

Backup camera

Source: Wikipedia

There are some who would argue that backup cameras are unnecessary and say that the only things you need when backing up a car are a good mirror and some skills. They’d be wrong. There are certain things, a toddler for instance, that a driver may not see when driving in reverse. A backup camera will make sure that everything is all clear behind your car before you move an inch.

And there you have it. Like we said earlier, these features may seem gimmicky and unnecessary at first, but they are in fact very helpful. Are there any other car features that you could think of that could be added to this list? Do tell us in the comments!

About Auto Parts Warehouse

Auto Parts Warehouse is one of the top online retailers of auto parts and accessories in the United States today, with over 550,000 products in our comprehensive catalog, with a lot of them available at exclusive warehouse prices.