The top 10 features every car should have – according to you

We’re long past the days when a basic car came with nothing more than a speedometer, a driver’s seat and if you were lucky, a steering wheel. Nowadays even the cheapest cars likely have smartphone connectivity, climate control, heated seats and a raft of other features. But which ones are actually useful?

We asked the r/ukcarwow subreddit which features they thought were the most useful of all – the items on their cars’ kit lists that they wouldn’t give up in a hurry. These are the ten most popular.

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Adaptive cruise control

Radar-guided cruise control was introduced in the Mercedes S-Class in 1999, and nearly three decades on it’s filtered down into some of the cheapest cars on sale. It measures out the distance to the car in front and adjusts your speed automatically, making mincemeat out of long trips on the motorway. No wonder this was a popular answer.

Pre-heating and cooling

This is a feature common to most electric cars and plug-in hybrids – the ability to set the cabin temperature before you get in. On a cold day it’s fantastic, you can set the car to defrost before you’ve left the house, eliminating any awkward ice scraping. On a hot day it’s great too, as you don’t need to sweat for five minutes on a roasting-hot leather seat while the air-con gets the measure of the sweltering cabin.

Proper puddle lights

So called ‘puddle’ lights are small lamps fitted to the underside of a wing mirror. Initially they were introduced so you could see the ground by your door opening on a dark night – helping you avoid stepping in a puddle (or anything nastier). These days, lots of companies have adopted them as an excuse for extra branding – projecting a logo onto the pavement – but some, such as BMW and Volvo, still give you a wide and useful pool of light.

Traffic light cameras

This is a feature you’ll find on most Mercedes models, and it’s genius. Using the camera at the top of the windscreen, the car can detect when you’re stopped at a set of traffic lights, and will put a video feed of the lights on the centre display screen. This saves you craning your neck under the roof to see when it goes green. It’s a great idea, seamlessly executed.

Foot-operated electric tailgate

Electric tailgates are already an extra layer of convenience, but you still have to reach out to press a button to get them open – and if you’ve heavy bags in both hands, that’s a pain. But back in 2012, a brilliant feature was introduced on certain Ford models where you simply waved a foot underneath the bumper and the tailgate would open. Now, it’s common on a great many cars, and some (such as Audi) even project an arrow on the ground showing you exactly where you need to waggle your kicker.

Matrix headlights

Matrix LED headlights are the ultimate lazy hack. Too tired to reach your finger out to toggle your main beams on and off? Don’t worry – these lights dim for you, and they do it in stages so you avoid blinding oncoming traffic while still highly illuminating the rest of the road. First introduced on the 2013 Audi A8, it’s now available on lots of premium cars, with the poshest even able to project directions and lane markings on the road ahead.

Dog mode

You should never leave a dog unattended in a car on a hot day, as temperatures can quickly skyrocket inside, leaving your pooch dangerously overheated. But Tesla in 2019 introduced a feature called Dog mode, which left the air-conditioning on and de-activated the interior sensors, so your faithful canine could stay cool inside a locked car without setting off the alarm. Lots of other EVs have since followed suit.

USB-C ports near the rear-view mirror

Dashcams are very popular installations, especially for those who drive a lot. But often you have to trail a cable for miles and miles across the dashboard. First introduced by Skoda, it’s such a brilliantly simple idea you wonder why nobody else came up with it – just put a USB-C port up by the rear-view mirror, so you can use a short cable and plug your camera in directly.

Door edge protectors

Introduced on the Ford Focus back in 2012, door edge protectors do exactly what they say on the tin. As you open the door, they swing out and cushion the door’s edge against other cars or obstacles. Close the door, and they fold back away. Simple as you like, but worth their weight in gold if they stop you scratching somebody’s expensive paint job.

Heated seats and steering wheel

By a country mile the most popular answer was some form of cabin heating – the seats or the steering wheel. And it’s easy to see why. Heating can sometimes take a little while to blow warm, and many of us in the UK have short commutes on cold mornings. A heated seat and steering wheel brings comfort in just a few seconds, and can even soothe an achy back. Luckily they’re available on almost every new car from the smallest hatchback to the biggest people-carrier.

Seat ventilation – where a fan blows cool air through a perforated leather seat – was also a popular answer. It’s great on a hot day, as it prevents you from getting a sweaty back and sticking to the upholstery.

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