Hidden Features Inside Cars You’ve Probably Overlooked
You don’t have to be a mechanic to know your way around a car engine. Many modern cars have color-coded engines to make it super simple to know what you should keep an eye on between services, such as the dipstick, oil cap, coolant, brake fluid and washer fluid. That way, you know you can pretty much leave all the black and gray stuff to the experts. Although the color-coded bits tend to be yellow or blue on many cars, some engines have red and green parts too.
Okay, this one is just for fun. Lots of car manufacturers hide “Easter Eggs” around their models — most of which serve no real purpose other than aesthetics. Vauxhall, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Chrysler are some of the manufacturers that have put hidden messages in their models, which they don’t advertise. Jeep is especially well known for slipping well-hidden etchings into its vehicles.
Car and Driver found 30 Easter Eggs in the Jeep Renegade, several of which pay tribute to the company’s original iconic model, the 1945 Willys Jeep. If you drive a Jeep, take a close look and see if you can find an outline of this classic ride hiding somewhere.
Perhaps in a nod to the car’s “flower power” heyday, for many years the Volkswagen Beetle came from the factory with a tiny, partially hidden flower vase, known as a “blumenvasen,” attached to its dashboard. If you weren’t a flower fan, it was a handy place to store pens, toothpicks, lipstick or anything else that could fit in the small space.
“Though we’re sad that the little flower vase is no longer available for the Beetle, it doesn’t mean that the iconic model doesn’t still retain elements of its past. Though the flower vase made way, extra storage has been made available with the Kaferfach glovebox, another nod to the past,” wrote a Volkswagen dealership in Santa Monica when the vase was discontinued.
Lots of economy cars are small, but many models have hidden load space. For instance, the Honda Civic and Jazz boast a “Magic Seat” system, which lets you fold up the back seat bases to increase load space. This lets you transport anything from beach chairs to a large potted plant, as demonstrated on the Meridian Honda website. The 2018 Honda Fit, shown here, made it possible to sit in the back seat and have maximum legroom, thanks to the Magic Seats in front folding down.
Car designers are constantly trying to find new ways to improve a car’s performance and safety. To improve braking performance in wet weather, BMW came up with the Brake Drying system, which is activated by the windshield wiper‘s rain sensor. It moves the brake pads closer to the rotors to keep them dry and improve stopping power in wet weather conditions. You might not even realize your “bimmer” (yes, this is the correct nickname for a BMW automobile) has such a nifty feature included.
Having the correct tire pressure improves your vehicle’s performance but it can also save you money on gas. Yet many drivers probably don’t even realize that their car is fitted with a tire pressure monitoring system, which has actually been a legal requirement on all cars since 2008.
Every manufacturer has its own system and Nissan’s Easy-Fill Tire Alert is particularly cool. You simply start adding air and when the tire reaches the ideal pressure, the vehicle’s horn goes off. And if you over-inflate a tire, the hazard lights will flash three times to let you know you need to release some air.
Heated seats are a well-known feature of lots of modern cars, but some manufacturers take their commitment to driver and passenger comfort even further. Several BMW models, such as the 4 Series Convertible, offer neck warmers, which are available with different heat settings and integrated, independently-controlled air outputs. Mercedes-Benz also offers neck-warming via its Airscarf system, which the company says is “designed to extend the so-called ‘convertible season’ beyond the summer months.”
For the more impatient drivers out there, waiting for a traffic signal to change can feel like forever. But Subaru came up with a neat solution. The automaker’s EyeSight Driver Assist Technology uses a small beeping sound to tell the driver when traffic starts moving again. It also automatically adjusts your speed to maintain a pre-selected distance between you and the car in front, and detects objects in front of the vehicle that you are likely to hit — a feature that more and more modern carmakers are starting to integrate.
Even if you take regular breaks and have a steady supply of coffee on the go, you can still struggle to keep your eyes open during a long drive. That’s fine if you’re a passenger, but a drowsy driver is a very dangerous person. Several car companies, including Nissan, Honda, Mercedes, Toyota and Volvo, have developed their own drowsiness detection systems to detect the onset of sleep. For instance, the Mercedes Attention Assist system vibrates the steering wheel when it senses the driver is swerving and guides the vehicle back into its lane.
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