. . . but that most of the rest of you will have had on a car at some stage.
1) Air conditioning
2) CD player
3) Remote or central locking
4) Alloy wheels
5) Tyres with a profile of under 65
(or should that have been "five features that none of my cars have ever had")
Last edited by: tyro on Wed 1 Sep 10 at 08:20
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It would be interesting to see what people think about the "benefits" of them... I'd say as follows:
1) Air conditioning - great, wouldn't be without it
2) CD player - hardly ever use it
3) Remote or central locking - useful, but could do without it
4) Alloy wheels - waste of time, for show only
5) Tyres with a profile of under 65 - hate the damn things, ruin the ride
I could add another:
6) Factory fitted Satnav - why would anyone want to pay hundreds of pounds over the odds for one defeats me!
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1) Air conditioning - MUST
2) CD player - rarely use, I rather use the MP3 on USB
3) Remote or central locking - ok, can live without
4) Alloy wheels - pain to clean
5) Tyres with a profile of under 65 - my current tyre is 205/55R16 (factory fitted). I think profile value should be compared with width of the tyre. Personally I hate low profile tyres.
6) Factory fitted Satnav - you pay £1000+ for it where as you can buy one under £100.
I could add
7) Parking sensor - never needed one so far
8) Heated mirrors - very useful during winter
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Privacy glass? Wait, I think we've covered that one.
};---)
Spot-on with the grammar, Tyro - although it would take a true stickler these days to object to 'none have'.
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Factory fitted Satnav - why would anyone want to pay hundreds of pounds over the odds for one defeats me!
Agree that fitted satnavs are expensive but if you pay £30,000 plus for a car sticking a cheap TomTom on the window with a suction cup does look a bit naff. Same goes for alloys. Yes they are more decorative than functional but then so is much of a car from the styling to the seat covering to the shiny paint that is so easily scratched. If you just want functional you would end up in a WW2 jeep
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How have you managed it tyro? A lot of those features have been standard fit for a lot of manufacturers.
Have you actively sought to avoid these or has just been the way the cookie crumbles?
P.s. You forgot the other thing none of your cars have... an accelerator pedal or a speedo that reads past 40mph :-P
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WDB: Whew! It would have been embarrassing to have a grammatical error in a thread title. I'd never be able to indulge in pedantry again.
"How have you managed it tyro? A lot of those features have been standard fit for a lot of manufacturers.
Have you actively sought to avoid these or has just been the way the cookie crumbles?"
The last time I bought a car was in 2003. Things have moved on a bit since then. And while I buy new, I also buy cheap.
When we bought the Ka in 2003, we were told that the dealership network had a stock of cars that were available at the low price, and even though we would have liked to have ABS and a passenger airbag, we couldn't have them - unless we paid a lot more.
When we bought the Berlingo in 2002 there were not actually that many options that were available. I don't like electric windows, so certainly would not have ticked that box. Alloys are a pointless nuisance. I don't mind remote and central locking, but was not going to pay extra for it. Low profile tyres were not an option for the Berlingo, and I wouldn't want them anyway.
Air conditioning was the interesting one. We decided that while it was nice, we didn't want to pay out a few hundred quid extra. However in July 2006 (remember it?) I vowed that I would never get another car without air conditioning. And every year there are about 5 days when I would really like air conditioning. Until 2010, that is. Summer 2010 has been the most miserable summer in this part of the Highlands that anyone can remember, and I've rarely been tempted even to roll down the windows.
"P.s. You forgot the other thing none of your cars have... an accelerator pedal or a speedo that reads past 40mph :-P"
:-)
Last edited by: tyro on Wed 1 Sep 10 at 10:22
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five features I have never had are:-
8 track stereo
Back seat driver
Ejector seat
Fluffy dice
Cream leather upholstery
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"Ejector seat"
And I never had a "death ray button" either.
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Factory fit Sat Nav.
Wouldn't be without it. Far easier to use than a loose box on top of the dash or stuck to the screen. I used one in the USA this summer and I really missed the large screen in the middle of the dash. For my work it is invaluable and I don't have to hide each time I get out of the car. That was a real pain.
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The only feature I don't have that I want is an ipod connection. I've got the cassette adaptor but it means living with all the spaghetti. I bought an fm transmitter last week and it's dire.
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My current Citreon has an IPod adaptor as an option (so the IPod menu shows and is selected via the Nav screen).... but they wanted £250 to fit... only the kids have IPods so I offered them the chance to pay.... response was muted.
As standard though I do have phono input sockets that they connect to via the IPod headphone jack with a 3.5mm jack to phono lead.
So Tyro your new mower will have more bling than the cars?
BTW sadly 2010 was the first year we didn't holiday in Scotland for a decade... the declining August weather in 2008 and 2009 made us say enough is enough. It was the right judgement but hopefully things will alter in the future. We're wondering about the May bank holiday for 2011.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 1 Sep 10 at 11:46
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My mates had three cars, some how none of them have had a 12v output! Even his 09 plate Panda some how missed out on it!.
I've owned five cars made from 1995-2010 with the majority being 1995-1999.
1) Air conditioning - none of my cars have had this, and not fussed at all.
2) CD player - three out of five of my cars have had this, do use it.
3) Remote or central locking - three out of five have had standard central locking but none remote.
4) Alloy wheels - only one of them (actually my dads but was my car for a while in my name)
5) Tyres with a profile of under 65 - (only my dads, the rest all had 65+).
6) Inbuilt satnav - none of them
7) Automatic wipers - None of them but my Pandas are very clever and there is a setting to make them speed up the faster you go.
8) ABS - Only my Panda.
9) Choke - None of my cars had this.
10) Side aribags.
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Can't believe I've flipped the O & E in Citroen! I'd always laughed at a local admag where you would always have a few Citreons listed before the main bulk of Citroens.
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Aha so if you want to sell PSA in a the local adds you simply swap the letters around to get noticed :).
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>>We're wondering about the May bank holiday for 2011.
Come on up, FL! May for the last 4 years has been pretty good, whereas the 'summer' months have been pretty dire! The other advantage of May is that the midges have not really got going. Can be cold at night though - our apple tree is late flowering, and often catches a frost in the last week of May when it's in bloom....
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I had a (work) 2003 Peugeot 406 HDi estate with pretty much every toy on it, but even including that thing the features I’ve never had on cars are:
Automatic transmission
Leather seats
Heated seats
Cruise control
Parking sensors
My shabby 13 year old Escort does alright with its heated windscreen, electric mirrors, power steering, central locking and aircon – the only feature I really miss is ABS.
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>>features I’ve never had on cars are:
Automatic transmission
Leather seats
Heated seats
Cruise control
Parking sensors<<
You ain't really missed out there Turbot Dave, The Leather seats are too slippery, Heated seats y'all can do without, Cruise control I could never get on with and Parking sensors drive me crrrazy in my Almera
(but swmbo luvs em)
I likes me autotrans though but it wouldn't suit a 13 year old Escort, unless it had the 1.6 Zetec lump in it,
then it would guzzle fuel like it did it my Focus.
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>> My shabby 13 year old Escort does alright with its heated windscreen, electric mirrors, power
>> steering, central locking and aircon – the only feature I really miss is ABS.
>>
>>
Hopefully you will never need to miss the ABS ;). On the four cars I had without ABS I never needed it. That said I am glad my Panda has it.
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>> On the four cars I
>> had without ABS I never needed it. That said I am glad my Panda has
>> it.
Get out of it, you never go fast enough to activate the ABS sensor.
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Exactly :). But I am still glad its there for when I am driving down a 60mph country lane might make the difference between crashing or not. In reality I will probably never need ABS like I hope to never need the airbags but still glad they are there.
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"BTW sadly 2010 was the first year we didn't holiday in Scotland for a decade... the declining August weather in 2008 and 2009 made us say enough is enough. It was the right judgement but hopefully things will alter in the future. We're wondering about the May bank holiday for 2011."
I don't holiday in Scotland myself - mostly because of the weather, partly because I'm looking for a change of scene - though if we are in Ireland or England, we sometimes spend a few days in the south of Scotland on the way home. We had a couple of nice days in SW Scotland this year, with some lovely sunshine. (Still didn't need air-con, though!)
May is the month for visiting the Highlands. As Richard says, weather is usually good, and there are very few midges. This year, however, May was pretty disappointing for weather. No midges though.
"So Tyro your new mower will have more bling than the cars?"
Looks like it!
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2009 summer was the most uncomfortable year we've experienced with midges.... not sure if was the dull rainy days were to their liking? We'd be fine out on the boat at speed but arriving back at the cottage beach or harbour was a nightmare. We got the time down to about 5 mins tying up and packing things away but in that period the cloud of midges that found us was like looking through a soup... in our eyes, ears, down our necks etc. Not many bites as we used Avon Skin so Soft but boy were we please to run into the cottage.
BTW Tyro what area of Ireland do you visit... like it? Could be on our next year's shortlist.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 1 Sep 10 at 13:02
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Midges love dull rainy days. The things they don't like are 1) wind, 2) bright overhead sunlight (they don't mind morning and evening sunlight), 3) dry conditions (they are worse near streams), and 4) cold conditions. 2010 has been worse than 2009 for midges. If I use Avon Skin so Soft myself if I'm looking for some lotion (I prefer a midge hood), but I'm told this new stuff called Smidge (which you can buy online) is much better.
We've visited various areas of Ireland. This year it was county Antrim - especially the glens thereof. The parts I've most enjoyed were Kerry (staying at Killarney) and the Wicklow mountains (staying in Glendalough). We've also visited County Donegal (which is very nice) and County Mayo.
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I got the stuff out of that shop "go outdoors" in a silver bottle, didn't go for the max strength one (brown label i think we went for) but went high enough up the scale that if you apply to skin you'll cause irritation.
2-3 skooshes around your t-shirt and they dont come close so no mouthfuls of midges anymore (unless your cantering along on a horse, they don't get a chance to shift out the road :-)
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Hello Richard. Yep I think we'll give May a go. It hasn't just been Scotland with the iffy summer weather... know some folks who've had terrible south coast holidays too in 2009.
Our 2009 holiday was in Knapdale. We had huge fun (coastal boating) but had to take all our *having a great time in the sun* photos on one or two days.
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Terrible thing to do on C4P - go back to the original topic......:)
I've got all Tyro's 5 - 1 to 3 valuable but could happily live without 4 and 5.
5 things no car of mine has had:
1 Separate starter (except for my first car, a 1955 Austin Cambridge)
2 Electronic handbrake
3 Can of gunk instead of a spare wheel
4 Privacy glass
5 Digital speedometer
Hopefully no car of mine ever will.
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>> 5 things no car of mine has had:
>>
>> 1 Separate starter (except for my first car, a 1955 Austin Cambridge)
>> 2 Electronic handbrake
>> 3 Can of gunk instead of a spare wheel
>> 4 Privacy glass
>> 5 Digital speedometer
>>
>> Hopefully no car of mine ever will.
>>
I've had all of these and find most of them useful although wouldn't go out of my way to specify them.
>> 1 Separate starter (except for my first car, a 1955 Austin Cambridge)
On SWMBO's Civic and my 330d, can't say I mind either way although the BMW doesn't involve a separate key to release the steering so is more convenient.
>> 2 Electronic handbrake
Kinda, the 330d has a hill hold feature which is actually quite nice once you get used to it, especially good when towing.
>> 3 Can of gunk instead of a spare wheel
Civic had this, we paid extra for a spare wheel, BMW has neither - just run-flats and not even a wheel brace
>> 4 Privacy glass
I got this on my 330d as it was more cost effective than rear blinds for the kids, actually I have a theory that it promotes travel sickness so next time I'll get blinds. useful in the hatch/boot section of my touring though as prying eyes can't see in.
>> 5 Digital speedometer
SWMBO's Golf VI had both analogue and digital to read out the KPH, the Civic had digital, wasn't any more accurate but I found it surprisingly good.
Back to the OP, I find cruise control very useful e.g. in 50mph motorway roadworks and wouldn't consider any car without Aircon (preferably climate control).
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Thu 2 Sep 10 at 17:52
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5 things none of my cars have ever had?
1. 4x4
2. can of gunk instead of spare wheel
3. bull bars
4. electric aerial
5. Japanese or Korean made - not deliberate, I've just never seen one that I fancied or met my requirements at the time of buying.
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Five features that none of my cars has ever had - hobby
