For the same reason the Germans do.
Rimshot
I guess I should clarify. Germans keep the little knitted toilet paper cover doohickies in their cars, too. Naturally with toilet paper under them.
These cars are driven old men, with the wife as passenger. The men also always wear hats.
If you are driving down a german road, and see a knitted toilet paper roll cover in the back window of the car in front of you, drive carefully. The gentleman driving is of a certain age, and is probably half blind, palsied, and arguing with his wife. The same warning goes if you see a man wearing a hat while driving a car.
Umm. They keep toilet paper in the car because years ago, there were no rest areas like there are in the USA. If you were traveling and had to stop for a peepee break, you were on your own. Find your own bush, if you know what I mean.
To some extent, this is still true today. Gas stations usually aren’t open all night, and quite a few are closed on Sundays (all day) and Saturday afternoons.
For this reason, the travel guide that my parents intend to write has been privately subtitled “Hot tea, cold soup, and no place to pee.” Don’t expect to see this on the book when it appears in print, however.
Thing is, you can find a 24 hour gas station in Holland just about every 30 kilometers now, and they STILL bring their TP. Besides, it’s not like these people drive for 3 hours on a Saturday night, anyway. And 3 hours at any decent speed will land you in Germany, Belgium, or the North Sea.
We have so many gas stations, the Dutch get spoiled. A Dutch car (usually with caravan) besides the highway, out of gas, is not an uncommon sight on the Belgian, German, and French highways in summer. “Not to worry, I’ll manage the next station! Can’t be more than 20 kilometers!” Surprise, it can be up to 120 km., if you decide the line at the station in Calais is a bit long after driving off the Eurotunnel train, and then optimistically head for Belgium with about 4 liters of diesel left, grumble grumble. Sorry about fucking up the motor management system of your two week old car, dad. 
Anyway, I may have run out of gas, but I did NOT bring TP.
Well, heck. Three posts, and I’m still being misunderstood. What I’m tryin’ ta say is dat da ol’ geezers got used ta havin’ ta bring along their own TP, and ain’t got used ta bein’ able ta stop at rest areas wid shithouses an’ TP.
All clear?
Probably those drink holders. I don’t want to drink & drive, so why did they put them in?
The mute button on the stereo. The on / off switch is about an inch away. If a driver wanted the sound off, they could easily turn the system off.
The timed windshield wiper is never at the speed I want, no matter where I set it. The windshield is either being wiped before it is wet enough or, the rain drops are coming so fast, you really need the thing to swipe across. You hate to do it because you think…well it will swipe across any second now.
This is on the outside of the vehicle but… why do they make the mirror so that they must print the message “objects are closer than they appear”. Why not make the mirror so that objects are at the distance they appear to be?
The check engine light. I believe this to be a trick to get you into the dealership for no good reason.
Instead of putting speeds on the spedometer above 90, they should just write…too damn fast!
In answer to your questions:
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That’s why there are variable intermittent wipers now, or better even, rain sensor systems.
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The mirrors are made so they maximize the amount of information you see whilst still remaining somewhat interpretable. Better to see that car at 7 o’clock at the wrong disance, then not to see it at all and crash into it as you switch lanes.
It’s pretty obvious. Phones that work with the engine running.
Even the condom hanging from the rear view mirror in my friend’s car?
My personal fave is a product offered by JC Whitney. This device, wired into your ECU (although it has a manual switch as well) is basically a recording with a speaker under your hood.
The sound?
A recorded rendition of a Blow-Off Valve for a turbo.
“Enjoy the sounds and attention of a turbo, without the hassle!”
I used to drive a TVR Griffith. It had two truly useles accessories.
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The stereo. The car had a five litre V8 with a trivial amount of sound proofing. The engine noise was such that I could never hear the stereo, so why bother?
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The passenger seat. The car is basically a street legal racer, with no compromises for a passenger other than a seat and door. The noise was so loud all conversations were shouted. The acceleration so brutal that if the passenger was facing in any direction other than forwards there was a real risk of neck injury.
Wrong… a/c is a necessity, even in a convertable. Sometimes the top has to be up, and a/c is necessary.
Other times, it’s just too damn hot, and a/c is needed even with the top down. Maybe not in Holland… but in, say, Phoenix, the only way I could manage to drive with the top down when I went to a conference there in October was to have the a/c blasting on my feet.
Now that I’ve cleared that up, you can carry on.
Wrong… a/c is a necessity, even in a convertable. Sometimes the top has to be up, and a/c is necessary.
Other times, it’s just too damn hot, and a/c is needed even with the top down. Maybe not in Holland… but in, say, Phoenix, the only way I could manage to drive with the top down when I went to a conference there in October was to have the a/c blasting on my feet.
Now that I’ve cleared that up, you can carry on.
Electrically winding windows. They move the same speed as the manually operated ones, and won’t work without the key in the ignition.
That sounds not just dumb, but dangerous. Can you really get them?
Not only can you get them, but some people have been known to remove the airbag in their steering wheel and replace it with a television monitor (read this somewhere).
That gets my vote.
WHile I love my new Beetle,because it is totally designed around the driver and has oodles of comfort and everything is within your fingertips, I gotta say the visors are useless. They are too narrow and short to shield any sun from your eyes. And if you want to flilp it to the side, forget about it providing any protection from the sun shining right in. You’d get more coverage pinning business cards to your ears than the VW’s visors give.
Oh and it has no ashtray and no lighter either! all good.
My Mum had a Nissan Sentra, I was always impressed that the electric windows worked with the key out of the ignition. Made me feel better about driving along icy harbour roads.
I wish I had the time to post links to every one of these things at the JC Whitney website.
How about the plastic horn arrays that play a very bad approxination of La Cucuracha. A friend back in high school had one of these in an honest to God bricks-in-the-trunk-and-lexan-crucifix-door-locks '67 Impala lowrider. They really sound like hell and yes, I want one.