Had a Chevy Cruze that had seat warmers. Bought it in 2017, discovered the seat warmers in 2020. 
In my defense, I live in San Antonio, TX, and seat warmers are only needed like 5 days a year.
That depends on whether you have a bad back or not. If you do, any day can be a good day for seat warmers.
I live in the Northeast, and i know the car came with seat warmers when i bought it just before the pandemic, but the first time we used those seat warmers was yesterday, because my husband’s cancer makes him feel cold. Yeah, we had to look for them.
My car automatically turns them on when the weather is cold.
OK, this is the one thing that I absolutely hate about our new Tucson.
There is a manual door lock, the sort which has existed on all cars I’ve had in my lifetime.
However, the manual door lock is deactivated if the car senses the fob in, or around, the car. Therefore, a lifetime of habit where I leave the car and press the manual door lock button must be reprogrammed so that I now have to reach for the fob after I shut the door and lock the car.
I asked the dealer shop guy how this makes any sense and his response was “well, it prevents the fob from being locked in the car. It’s a safety feature.”
To this idiocy, I responded: “Well, imagine a rapist stalking my wife. She makes it in the car, but the door won’t lock as she’s frantically pressing the manual door lock button because the fob is in her purse, but the door lock… in its infinite wisdom… does not work because it’s more concerned with the safety of the fob than it is my wife. She remembers this too late and is grabbing for her purse when the rapist reaches the car, opens the door, pulls her out, and does what he wants to do. But, at least while she’s being raped, she can take comfort in the fact that the fob is safe, wouldn’t you say?”
Let’s say the guy was rather taken aback. He had no response other than to tell me to call Hyundai with my concerns.
Anyway, I hate this fucking feature. Just hate it. Program the car… if you MUST program it… to lock the car when it’s in motion and do not disable the manual door lock for any reason whatsoever.
I would HATE that feature. I really don’t like driving in a warm seat. I used to use it when we had an electric car with a tiny battery, and the general heat sucked (both sucked power and also wasn’t very good) but i disliked it, and have never used it since reverting to a gasoline-powered car. That’s really the only feature of “electric” that i disliked.
Opps, nm
I once had a car that had seats that you could warm, but you could also cool. It would blow air conditioned air, and that was a nice feature in a hot climate.
My current car makes a low rumble, and issues an alert, if I drift out of my lane. To its credit, it has conditioned me to use my turn signal a lot more often, since it won’t alert me if it thinks I’m changing lanes (and I like that I can press the turn signal halfway and only get 3 blinks, instead of a constant turn signal).
I’m probably a safer driver as a result.
Me too. If there’s anything worse than cars being crammed with unnecessary features, it’s allowing them to “help” all the time. For f***s sake, let me operate the damn vehicle and stop trying to do things for me. If a passenger was doing that I’d slap their hands away.
My Bronco won’t let me lock my fob in the car, but I can lock the doors manually if I am in the driver’s seat.
You can turn the feature off in your settings, but I like it. It will turn on heated or air conditioned seats depending on the weather. You can program the temperature you want the car brought to when you start it remotely and always climb in to a car set to your exact specifications. It also has labeled keys so it adjusts the seat perfect for my body when it detects my key.
I have had my car for over 7 years, and just TODAY I learned that it has a parking assist feature. For some reason I never had the slightest curiosity about the function of those two mysterious buttons on the steering wheel. I’ll have to test it out, after I finish banging my head against the wall.
Both of those “features” would annoy me so much that I’d feel obliged to smash something with a hammer! Sometimes concern for safety results in ridiculous overthinking. I wouldn’t be thrilled with all the touchscreen stuff either but that’s just old-fashioned me. My new (to me) older car already has too much gadgetry, but it’s mostly controlled with physical knobs and buttons.
My current ride is 13 years old. I do have proper and timely maintenance done, and it keeps going. It works for me, and that’s all I care about.
I will say, that after reading this thread, I do not want a new car. I don’t want a touch screen, a heads-up display, a third row so I can seat seven, when I don’t even know seven who could occupy it. I’d be paying for a couple of extra seats that would never be used. And the technology that has been described is frankly, scary.
I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles, in everything from a Honda subcompact to an 18-wheeler semi-truck. I know how to drive. It’s bad enough that North American automakers have basically removed manual transmissions from new car offerings; why are they taking more driver control away?
I’m not exactly sure what you mean - you mean the DRIVER’S door remains unlocked while a driver is sitting inside? And when she presses the door-lock button on the interior of the door, that refuses to engage? I guess I don’t really know what you mean by the manual door lock. The fastened/unfastened padlock buttons on the door? You are not able to lock the doors - say when driving in a sketchy neighborhood?
I’m a tad curious how you would even discover this. Did the 2 of you experiment together with one of you representing the would-be rapist? Are you REALLY concerned about this danger? (I’d imagine carjackers might be more likely than parking lot rapists, but I may be mistaken.)
Also, are you saying that you wish to exit your car and have it automatically lock behind you when you close it? I’ve never had a car that did that. For our last 3 cars, you could lock the door when exiting by pressing the extrior door handle or by pressing the fob. Honestly, I’m not exactly sure HOW I used to lock the door before that. I think with the fob, but I’m not sure. I remember well in olden days holding the door handle button depressed while closing the door, or locking it with the key. But I cannot recall what was the case between then and the current “touch the exterior door handle.”
I readily admit, however, that I find the door locks on our Subarus somewhat less than optimal. Here are a couple of routine situations we face.
-Wife and I drive with the dog in the back seat. She parks and turns off the car. I get out and try to open the back door, but it is locked. I finally figured out how to change the settings. (I REALLY dislike having to go into settings to change things - but that is me being tech-incompetent.)
-I drive a passenger somewhere and he has something in the back seat. I stop to let him out, but the car is still in gear. The back door is locked and I have to press the button on the door.
-I’m in the car with the engine running but in park. My passenger arrives and goes to open the rear door to put something in the rear seat - it is locked. I try to find the unlock button on the door, but it does not light up until I put the car in gear.
Minor hassles - but recurrent hassles nonetheless.
An issue with Subarus of recent vintage involves the radios. They automatically turn on when you start the car, no matter whether you turned them off the last time you drove. Our dealer said it is an issue with the radio manufacturer. I got a new loaner recently, and it seems to have been fixed. My wife handles it in her car by turning the volume down to 0. But I don’t mind the radio/CD player turning on automatically when I am alone. Further complicating things, you cannot turn it off when in reverse. So when we get into my car, whoever is driving starts it up, throws it into reverse, and the radio blasts on. My wife wants to turn it down/off, but can’t until I change into drive. I understand it is intended to keep folk from fiddling with their radio when backing up.
My car (21 Hyundai Sonata) will happily let me lock the doors using the interior controls even if the key is not inside. What it won’t let me do is leave the fob inside the car, close the door and use the OUTER lock button to lock the car. I’m still safe from marauders though.
I gather the current definition of “manually” includes pushing a button that electronically fires the door locks of the non-driver doors? My brain still thinks of “manually” as some sort of direct mechanical interaction, which isn’t even possible on many cars these days.
I’m trying to remember the last time there was an exposed mechanical door lock handle / plunger on one of my cars. Maybe 20 years ago?
My last 2 cars have been / are like that. If you have the setting set that way.
I walk up, and the car unlocks when I’m (my fob in my pocket really) about 5 feet away. I open the door, hop in, push the start button and drive off. When I get where I’m going I push the stop button, hop out, and walk away. When I (my fob) get about 10 feet away the car locks itself & chirps the alarm to tell me it’s done so. I never have to think about it unless there’s no chirp. It’s always locked unless I’m getting in or out. And then it’s always unlocked.
If I walk away with a door or trunk left ajar the car will start beeping for help when it senses the fob leaving the area. Pretty darn idiotproof.
I can’t even figure out why you would want to lock the fob on the car- in a car that uses a physical key ( if any are left), I might want to lock the car with the key in the ignition to run the heat/AC but all the cars I’ve had with fobs keep running if I get out of the car with the fob.
But I definitely prefer not being able to lock the fob in the car. Because my husband would be calling me all the time to bring him the other fob.
Mine makes an obnoxious tone if you depart with the engine running but will continue to run for another 20 minutes before turning itself off so you don’t leave it overnight.
Agreed that I don’t know the use case for “Intentionally locking your key inside the car” and the refusal to allow it has saved me more than once… or twice…