Some car options are so important they end up becoming standard equipment. Past examples include the seat belt and the disc brake. Future examples include front-collision alert and backup cameras, which will be mandatory after 2018. Other pieces of technology may be nice to have, but not essential enough to be put into every car. We have compiled five really cool options that some people might call silly, that we absolutely love and would insist on any car offering them.
Advanced Seats A car's seats are something that people really don't think twice about, until they are seven hours into a long trip and realize how uncomfortable they are. We love sliding into an expensive luxury sedan's highly advanced seats with lots of functions. We're talking about features such as heating, ventilation, massage and high adjustability. Most of the cars that have seats like this are priced very high, with exceptions being the likes of the Lincoln Continental that boasts 30-way adjustable seats with all of the aforementioned features. Seats like this are nice to have, but are far from a necessity.
Adjustable Sports Exhaust We've said in the past that we wouldn't mind spending extra money on a sports exhaust with electronic control. The idea of having a car that is quiet most of the time, then loud when the mood strikes is a wonderful idea. The aftermarket has done this for a while, and carmakers are finally catching on. At the push a button, the car can open up baffles in the exhaust, increasing the decibels. This is a prevalent option on Porsche sports cars and the Jaguar F-Type (where the button goes from loud to louder). Some people would rather have a car that is loud all of the time, but we prefer having control over the volume.
Soft-Close Doors and Trunks Minivans were the first mainstream application of electrically-closing tailgates, and now the trend has spread to luxury cars. We especially love soft-close doors that shut when the door is placed close to the car. There are also fully-automatic doors like in the Tesla Model X and the Rolls Royce Wraith.
Handsfree Keyless Entry The Honda S2000 was one of the earliest cars to use a starter button. Unfortunately, it still needed a key before the button would actually work. Fast forward to today, and drivers don't even have to take their key out of their pocket to start the car. This is a huge convenience that we wish all cars had. The technology has crept its way downmarket, but many affordable cars still don't have it as a standard feature. We also admire Tesla's approach, which doesn't have a button. As soon as the driver touches the brake, the car simply turns on.
Manual Transmissions Our last pick is a bit of an obvious one if you are a fan of this site. We wish that more cars offered optional manual transmission. Yes, we know, that for around $1,000 less than the automatic, you're getting something that is now slower, less economical, less advanced and much more of a hassle. Despite all of these criticisms, we still love the manual and wish that they weren't disappearing so quickly.
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