9 Car Features You Probably Didn’t Know About

When it comes to features, cars these days are loaded to the gills and manufacturers keep coming up with new ways to impress their buyers by introducing more features. Some of them are a necessity while some of them are luxury features. We understand that petrolheads are already up to speed with many of the features explained in this article but this is for those who want to know more about the features available in some of the cars available today. So here are 9 car features you probably didn’t know about.

1. Fuel Lid Locator
   

   

   We start off the list with a very simple and useful feature that lets you know which side of the car the fuel lid is on. Of course, it is your car and you will know where it is but with different manufacturers providing the fuel lid on different sides of the car, it sometimes becomes confusing when you drive your friend’s car or when you buy a new car itself. The small arrow next to the petrol pump sign shows the direction\side on which the fuel lid is present, so one look at your instrument cluster and you will know which side to stop at the fuel pump.

2. Up-Module function in Volkswagen

   

   In a Volkswagen key, even from a distance, when you touch and hold the “Lock” button for a few seconds, all the windows roll up and when you touch and hold the “Unlock” button for a few seconds, all the windows will roll down. This is a quirk that is useful when you have a relative or friend who never rolls up his\her window before getting down from the car or maybe open all the windows on a hot day before you get into it. Pretty neat. You might get this feature on a lot of other cars as well these days.

3. Smart Key FOB

   

   This is a feature seen on all top-end cars these days and it does make it easier to enter and exit the car. The key FOB works in tandem with the Start\Stop button as they will not have key inserts. The mechanism is very simple, with the keys in your pocket\purse once you come near your car’s sensor placed on the handle of the doors on the driver side as well as the front passenger side, the system will detect the presence of the key and prepare itself to unlock. But it will only unlock after you either touch the button on the door handle or in some cars there are sensors on the inside of the door handle. Once the car is unlocked, you can enter the car and start the car by pressing the brake lever and then pushing the start\stop button. Once you reach the destination, after you get out of the car, you can either press the same button on the handle again or once you move around 6 feet away from the car it will automatically lock itself. Now, we are still not sure if the automatic locking of the car when you walk away feature is enabled on all the cars but the other features are present.

4. Card Holders in Glovebox

   

   This might not be a very important feature but it adds some convenience. Some cars like the Tata Nexon and Hyundai Venue are equipped with cardholders in their glove box compartment which make it easier to keep your RC cards and driving licenses so that you don’t forget them in your purse which is at home while travelling.

5. Smart Key FOB from Hyundai

   

   Key FOBs in Hyundai cars have additional features like the Find My Car feature that lets you find your car in a parking lot, in case you have forgotten where it was parked. Once you press and hold the Horn symbol on your key it will sound the horn and turn ON the indicators to signal its presence. Also, if you’re a Hyundai owner, you will know the irritation of the sound that your car makes each time you lock\unlock the car. Now, this can be disabled by pressing both the lock and unlock buttons at the same time and hold for about 5 seconds. After this, the car will turn on the indicator 4 times to signal the disabling of the lock\unlock sounds. You’re welcome.

   Get your car serviced at GoMechanic
   

6. UV Tinted Window Glass

   

   The advantages of having a UV cut tinted glass is actually very much underrated. It not only looks cool but it helps your skin from getting burnt or getting skin cancer due to exposure to excessive UV rays. Also, the UV rays not only damage your skin but also the materials of your car interiors. Not to forget the lesser stress on the cooling of the AC since the cabin does not get warmed up fast and because of the lesser stress on the AC, you get increased fuel efficiency as well.

7. Kia’s welcome feature

   

   If you have bought the higher variants of both the Kia Sonet or Kia Seltos which come with keyless entry with start\stop button, then you will also get a welcome feature. This is also for the luxury quotient and what it does is when you are approaching your vehicle, the mirrors automatically fold out, welcoming you to your car. But keep in mind that this does not unlock the car though, so you will have to press the button on the handle to unlock the car and then enter it.

8. Emergency hazard light under hard braking
   

   

   When you’re on a highway munching miles at triple-digit speeds and suddenly something crosses on the road, while that something can be a biker, a car, an idiot crossing the road or even cattle, but your response will be the same which is to brake as hard as you can. This is all good for everything happening in front of your car, but behind your car, there is another driver who does not know what you just went through and only see your brake light and slows down just a little. Now, this might end up in him hitting you from the back as he is not necessarily seeing everything that you are, that’s the reason, most of the cars these days will turn on the emergency hazard lights in case it detects hard braking. This lets the cars behind you know that there is an emergency situation that you are going through and lets them slow down completely and assess their situation without any hassle.

    

9. Cylinder Deactivation Tech
   

   

   The Cylinder Deactivation Technology was only reserved for supercars initially and we believe it debuted in the Audi R8. But with advancements in technology, they have bought this technology to normal everyday cars which you can buy as well. In India, it is available with the Skoda Kushaq and might come in VW Taigun as well. What this does is, when driving on a light foot and not using much of the engine’s potential, it deactivates some of its cylinders and runs on 1 or 2 cylinders based on the requirements. This increases fuel efficiency as lesser fuel is burnt and when you put down your foot hard, it instantaneously fires up all the cylinders and goes all guns blazing. The stopping and starting of the cylinders happen automatically and you can never know that the cylinders are deactivated at any point in time.

You might know some of these features but we felt that they needed to be highlighted as these are hidden features that not many know about and is useful for their owners. We understand we missed out on a lot, so feel free to leave a comment on other hidden features that need to be highlighted.