Choosing which car features you want fitted is one of the most funs parts of ordering a new car. Customising it to make it exactly how you want it, personal to you. Whether it’s extra in-car technology, a sunroof, different wheels or a particular colour, there can be dozens, hundreds, even thousands of possibilities.
While most cars come pretty generously equipped these days, there are still many options available. Most car manufacturers group options into themed packs. The names of those packs vary but there’s generally at least one technology, comfort, entertainment, driver assistance and convenience pack to choose from. Plus, assorted body and interior colour and trim schemes, wheel designs and accessories.
With so many options available, it’s easy to go overboard. It’s not uncommon to see something like a BMW 3 Series with £20,000 of options on it. Most options don’t really add anything to a car’s residual value, so that’s £20,000 the car’s original buyer won’t get back. It can also be better value to simply buy a higher-grade model than spec up a lower-grade one.
But what options are actually worth having? Well, that partly depends on what you want but there are some options that are generally liked and can make a car easier to sell when the time comes to move it on. There are some things that are genuinely really useful and others that are just nice to have. Here are Parkers’ must-have car features.
360-degree surround-view camera
Reversing cameras have been mandatory in all cars sold in the UK since July 2022. While they’re a big help used in conjunction with the mirrors, sometimes extra assistance is needed. Especially when trying to get a big car into a typical British parking space. That’s when a 360-degree camera system – sometimes called surround-view – comes in very handy.
The system uses a network of cameras to build a top-down view of the car and its immediate surrounds. The image is shown on the dashboard display. The best systems produce a high-definition image that shows exactly where any obstacles are and how much room you have to play with. Which makes parking an absolute doddle.
Adaptive cruise control with traffic assist
Cruise control is arguably the most useful driver assistance feature, especially on a long journey. It takes the strain of maintaining a consistent speed off the driver, and it improves fuel economy. Adaptive cruise control takes the principle one step further, using radar to match the speed of the car ahead, up to the speed limit you set.
Traffic assist goes yet further, managing speeding up and slowing down in stop-start driving. Some systems can even steer the car – though you have to keep your hands on the wheel. Some systems operate more smoothly than others, but traffic assist can take the hassle out of a jam.
Adaptive LED headlights
Adaptive headlights are a controversial topic in the Parkers office. Some of us love them, some of us don’t. Many cars now have headlights with automatic high-beam, switching between the high and low beams when sensors detect an oncoming car. Adaptive headlights work on a similar principle but, rather than switching to low beam, they block out a portion of LEDs and/or pivot the light beam. So you get a full-beam view of the road without dazzling oncoming drivers.
That’s the theory, at any rate. In reality, some systems are more effective than others at providing a clear view ahead and not dazzling oncoming drivers. And it’s the latter point that makes them a bone of contention in our office.
Wireless phone charger
Charging your phone in a car can be a royal pain. The cable will end up trailed across the car’s interior – assuming you actually have one – and you really need the phone in a proper cradle. If not, it’ll have to be lose on a seat or jammed into a cupholder, and the cable won’t stay plugged in, anyway.
A wireless phone charger removes all that hassle. It’s usually in a cubby on the centre console; you just put your phone on the pad and it starts charging. Most of the time. It only works with phones that have a built-in inductive charging loop and you may need to take the case off. Wireless charging can also make a phone very hot, but some cars now have air-conditioned cubbies for it.
Service plans and extended warranties
Car servicing can be expensive and major repairs can be ruinous. Fortunately, you can reduce the outlay by getting a fixed-price service plan and/or an extended warranty for your car. They’re available from most car manufacturers who typically offer several plans of different lengths. You can pay in a lump sum or spread the cost.
You’ll know exactly how much each service is going to cost you, and you’ll be protected from any unexpected expenditure. Some manufacturers employ variations on the theme. For instance, Toyota offers up to 10 years of warranty if you have yours serviced at its garages.
Heated steering wheel
We all know how unpleasant it is to get into a cold car on a winter’s day. It can take a while for the heating to get going, so there’s nothing better than turning on a heated seat and feeling the warmth spread over you in a matter of seconds.
But then you reach out and touch a freezing cold steering wheel, which takes the edge off somewhat. Reaching out and touching a heated steering wheel, though, is one of life’s great pleasures. Once you’ve had one, you’ll never want to be without.
EV battery heat pump
It’s a well-known issue that electric cars provide much less range in cold weather than when it’s nice and warm. That’s because the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs can’t perform at their best in low temperatures. A heat pump warms the battery up, so it can get closer to delivering the range you expect.
It’s best to use the heat pump while the car is plugged in to charge, just before you start your journey. Most electric cars have an app on which you can set your departure time for the heat pump to kick in automatically.
Metallic paint
You don’t just have a choice of colour when speccing your car. Most manufacturers offer various different paint finishes, as well. Pastels and matts may be fashionable these days, but nothing beats a nice, shiny metallic. Used car buyers tend to prefer neutral greys and silvers, which are usually metallic anyway. But don’t let that put you off getting a more imaginative metallic red, blue, green or even orange if that’s what you want.
Panoramic sunroof
Modern crash safety standards have led to many cars having rather small windows. That can make the interior quite dark and dingy, especially in the back. A panoramic glass sunroof floods light in, making for a much more pleasant travelling experience. An opening sunroof draws fresh air in, as well. They can reduce headroom, though.
Extra storage
It’s surprising how vastly wide-ranging the amount of interior storage space is between different cars. Many, such as the best SUVs, have loads, but there’s still quite a lot that have next to none. At both ends of the spectrum, you’ll often find a package of extra cubby holes, hooks and nets on the options list and it’s always well worth having.
You never can have too much storage, especially if you have kids. Just remember to occasionally look through all the cubbies for melted sweets, apple cores, discarded wrappers and lost toys.
What’s not worth your money?
There are plenty of common car options that aren’t really worth spending your money on. For instance, bigger wheels which often ruin a car’s ride quality and need more expensive tyres. Night vision systems can often lead to you spending more time looking at the dashboard than out of the windscreen. Decal packs can make a car harder to sell on and you’ll never get the cost of fancy paint and upholstery back.
What are the most important car safety features?
There’s a very long list of safety features that new cars are legally required to have. It includes such things as autonomous emergency braking, speed limit warning, lane keeping assist, and a driver attention monitor. The usefulness of these systems largely depends on how well set up they are in a particular car.
Which one is most important is a matter of perspective but blind spot monitoring is well up there. That’s because most modern cars have huge blind spots behind the driver’s seat and you can easily lose large SUVs, even big vans and trucks, in them. The little orange light in the door mirror that warns you there’s a vehicle alongside is really helpful.
What are features on demand in cars?
Certain car manufacturers are trialling so-called features on demand, most notably BMW. The idea is that you pay a subscription fee to unlock certain features on your car, such as heated seats or more sophisticated sat nav.
If you decide you don’t need them anymore, or you sell the car, you simply end the subscription and those features are no longer available in the car. Until someone else pays for them. The features on demand model may eventually become widespread but the low uptake there has been so far suggests it’ll be some time before that happens. If it ever does.
What is the ADAS feature in the car?
ADAS stands for advanced driver assistance systems. It includes all the ‘active’ safety features in a car that are designed to prevent a crash happening, or at least reduce the likelihood of one. ADAS features include things like autonomous emergency braking, cross traffic alert, blind spot monitoring and driver attention monitoring.
