Ever found a cool feature on your car ?

[hot66]

So, had my daily driver now for almost 2 years and 20k miles and about to say bye to it ...... tonight for the 1st time I found an extra little button on the end of the lights stalk .

Turns out I've got active high beam assist . ( in other words, it does the full beam, dipped beam, full beam thing automatically)

So, maybe next time I'll read the manual

[Mick Cliff]

Many, many years ago I had a 425cc 2CV (it was old, even then!)
Two delightful features......
1 The wipers were mechanically driven off the back of the speedo so the faster you went the faster the wipers wiped ('fast' is subjective, max speed was about 45mph!!)
2 It had what I later knew as a 'trafficlutch'. Manual 'box, but at tick over in 1st gear you could release the clutch pedal, effectively making it an automatic for crawling along in congested traffic.

And of course you could carry a tray of eggs on the back seat whilst traversing a ploughed field

[cubist]

On my 3 series... Indicators. Don't think I'll ever need them though...

[964RS]

Took me 12 months of having my 540 before Ben (smallspeed) said do you like the motorsport in manual?

What?

Seems when you put it across to manual and knock it down it puts everything in motorsport option....and boy is it 10X faster!!! D'oh!

Not as bad as my mate though - he had an SLK for 3 years on lease, took it back and they told him the supercharger had never worked...he'd not even noticed!

[jamie]

Every day my shin finds the phallus-like tow bar on the back of my Passat and I am reminded what an absolute dick I am.

[jeremyg]

It's not particularly cool, but it is particularly useful (after 6 months of ownership) to have found the very small rocker switch "hidden"on the SC dashboard that redirects the electric mirror control.

Mind you, I had my old 993 8 years before I read somewhere that all 911's have an extra fast wiper mode. Now that IS cool. (But very stupid of me).

[Highfield]

Many years ago it took me two years to find out that you pulled the light switch to turn on the interior light. prior to that I had propped the door open a bit

[Jonny Hart]

My old Mercedes W107 had no tilt levers on the the front seats, yet they always tilted to let someone out of the back, and they were always locked in position whilst driving.

Took me a while to figure out how this works. Manifold pressure is used to pull in a locking 'claw' on each front seat. The pipework is routed via a pneumatic switch on each door, releasing the pressure when you open it. In addition, there is a manual release (another pneumatic switch) in each rear quarter panel so you can release the seat if sat in the back.

[hot66]

that is cool ..... but you do wonder wether it would just have been easier to have had a lever on the seat

My old Mercedes W107 had no tilt levers on the the front seats, yet they always tilted to let someone out of the back, and they were always locked in position whilst driving.

Took me a while to figure out how this works. Manifold pressure is used to pull in a locking 'claw' on each front seat. The pipework is routed via a pneumatic switch on each door, releasing the pressure when you open it. In addition, there is a manual release (another pneumatic switch) in each rear quarter panel so you can release the seat if sat in the back.

[mycar]

My old Mercedes W107 had no tilt levers on the the front seats, yet they always tilted to let someone out of the back, and they were always locked in position whilst driving.

Took me a while to figure out how this works. Manifold pressure is used to pull in a locking 'claw' on each front seat. The pipework is routed via a pneumatic switch on each door, releasing the pressure when you open it. In addition, there is a manual release (another pneumatic switch) in each rear quarter panel so you can release the seat if sat in the back.

SoundS like this was one of those Mercs you could break into with a tennis ball.

Regards, Mike.

[Mr Pharmacist]

Due to a very stiff dial that felt like it was going to break off when twisting it round, it took me over a year to find out a golf i once had, had the heated mirror option

[Mike]

Drove the 308 for 3 months before the first drive at night, that's when I saw the wonderful small light in the underside of the
handbrake arm which shines down to illuminate the switches and sliders between the seats. You can just see the small kink
in the arm where the light is. That early switchgear is one of the reasons I bought the car......

I don't have a picture of it lit up, but here's the view from the drivers seat.

[orkneydave]

Drove the 308 for 3 months before the first drive at night, that's when I saw the wonderful small light in the underside of the
handbrake arm which shines down to illuminate the switches and sliders between the seats. You can just see the small kink
in the arm where the light is. That early switchgear is one of the reasons I bought the car......

I don't have a picture of it lit up, but here's the view from the drivers seat.

My Landrover Discovery 3 has a similar light (blue led) mounted in the same housing as the front interior light that gently iluminates the centre console and gearlever at night. Not quite as cool as the handbrake light on the 308 though!

[911hillclimber]

308 is just SO Italian!
Cool as my young daughter would say, does not sound quite the same if I say it..
but very

[Mike]

very

thanks Graham, but as Ferris said: "A man with priorities so far out of whack doesn't deserve such a fine automobile"