Don’t fall for these 5 pointless car extras

With countless optional extras available, it’s easy to get distracted. We tell you the car add-ons that look good on paper but aren’t worth your money, so you can focus on what really matters.

With so many optional extras, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most important. Some extra kit can be money well spent, improving the car and even boosting its resale value a few years down the line. Others promise a lot but don’t deliver.

These days, there are so many exciting things you can have installed in your car. With tech that was science fiction 20 years ago and luxury that would even make a billionaire feel at home, a high-spec modern car is a fantastic piece of kit. On the flip side, it’s easy to be tempted by features that make no sense.

There are fundamentally pointless cars, and there are good cars that can be equipped with pointless extras. Everything you order as an option for your car usually costs a lot of money. At first glance, some extras seem sensible – but in hindsight, you often learn better, and unfortunately, you don’t get your money back. To stop this from happening, we’ve compiled this list of the top five most pointless car extras.

1) Gesture control

Many manufacturers have now realised that gesture control isn’t the best way to operate their infotainment systems. Sometimes you can still order it – but you shouldn’t. Several car brands such as BMW, Volkswagen and Skoda, offer gesture control systems for controlling various car functions.

It’s the sort of feature that looks clever in the showroom, but which just doesn’t get used in practice. For one thing you have to remember which gestures trigger which functions, and then the difficulty of fine-tuning arises. For example, if you draw circles in the air with your fingers, the volume will increase or decrease. The question is, by how much? And the novelty of making rude gestures at the dashboard soon wears thin.

We find this type of control distracts from the road more than it helps. A well-designed regular touchscreen is easier to use, while decent voice control systems make gesture control redundant.

2) TV reception in the car

Really? Why they thought of this is beyond us. Watching TV while driving is obviously forbidden, and for that reason, in-car TV doesn’t work while you are on the move. Only when the engine is off and the car is stationary can you watch films and series on your car’s display. But why would you sit in a stationary car and watch TV? Maybe when you’re taking a break, but you’d be better off stretching your legs for a few minutes. Perhaps you can’t agree on what to watch at home, but what could be sadder than watching Bangers and Cash on the driveway because your other half is hogging the remote?

Overall, this feature makes no sense and you should save your money.

3) Fragrance systems

Carmakers would like you to believe that the good old air freshener is a thing of the past. Nowadays, your car must be scented using a special system. For example, Mercedes offers an in-car fragrance system called the ‘Air-Balance Package’ which is available on select models such as the S-Class and C-Class.

This raises the question of whether the fragrance smells good or bad. Even if you like the smell, these upmarket in-car scents cost significantly more than the run-of-the-mill air fresheners. If you want a different scent in your car, you’ll probably have to fumble around the glove compartment to change it.

Keep the car interior clean, and it shouldn’t smell much of anything. If you really must have a fragrant cabin, a regular air freshener is much cheaper than an overpriced and overly complex fragrance system.

4) Coloured belt edges

Especially on sporty models, you can sometimes order coloured belt edges as an optional extra, and usually come in a striking shade of red, blue or yellow. For example, you can get a BMW M Sport Stripe webbing for your seatbelt. This gives you a seatbelt that functions no better and no worse than any other, but you’ll sometimes pay over £1,000 to have the edge embroidered in colour.

Whether that’s really necessary is up to you. We think it’s pointless.

5) Display car key

The display car key rounds off our list of most pointless car extras. It’s huge, expensive, and offers no additional benefits. Everything shown on this key’s display – such as the range, whether your car is locked, or whether the auxiliary heating is running – can also be viewed via an app on your smartphone. From there, you can also lock and unlock the car, or adjust the climate control, if your car supports it.

So, there’s no reason for this key. It serves no purpose other than making an ugly bulge in your pocket. And you can guarantee that if you drop it, it’ll break immediately. Save your money and put it to better use elsewhere.

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