The 9 Most Useless Features Car Makers Charge You For

What these buyers didn’t know, however, was that the prices they paid, on average for their vehicles, were a lot more than what they ought to have paid.

In plain language, they paid more than they needed to. To worsen things, these payments were on features they hardly required.

Effectively, most new car buyers gave auto manufacturers their money, ticked a bunch of random boxes, and had to top off some bucks to the base price because they selected some ‘options’ or the vehicle came with ‘rare features’.

Curiously, most of these options are hardly used nor are many practical. Today, I’ve decided to share with you a list of the nine most useless features/options car manufacturers charge you for.

The 9 Most Useless Features Car Makers Charge You For

Below, in no particular order (and randomly selected), are nine (9) of the most notorious options/features you’re charged for on new cars.

Interestingly, some car shoppers (in ignorance) willfully tick some of these features themselves in the name of options.

The above notwithstanding, whether the options are ticked by the car buyer directly or imposed indirectly by the manufacturer as a ‘standard feature’ and the buyer charged for them, outlined below are the vehicle options you probably don’t need and won’t miss if your shiny new vehicle doesn’t string them along when it arrives.

Disclaimer: there are a lot more ‘useless’ options for cars that exist today. I had to limit myself to the 9 most useless, in my opinion, still running on production cars today.

1. Self-Driving Features (Partial Automation)

Self-driving cars are fun – and still a novelty today. However, we’ve seen the amazing reality that is the Waymo Taxi – a cab that picks up passengers, navigates traffic, and takes them safely to their destinations, all without direct human input.

Given that more than 90% of accidents today are caused by driver error, full automation of vehicles today makes perfect sense.

However, not all vehicles rolling off the assembly today offer full automation. Instead, for most, what is obtainable is ‘Advanced Driver Assistance Systems’ (ADAS) – a suite of tech options that help with the driving experience, but still require the driver to be alert and ultimately, call the shorts.

Technologies such as the Tesla Auto Pilot, Cadillac Super Cruise, and Bosch Driving Assist are perfect examples.

These umbrella techs are responsible for semi-automation features such as ADAS (mentioned above), driver monitoring, and emergency procedures. Such actions as steering, accelerating, decelerating, and braking the vehicle in certain circumstances are what you’d expect from a new vehicle fitted with this technology class.

Others include monitoring the driver’s attention and notifying them of their full attention if, in the estimation of the computers, this is needed.

The challenge with ADAS is that it creates a dependence on it and eventually drivers begin to trust it more than they trust their judgments and experience. But, as with all things tech, these can fail, critically, when needed most and the results can be catastrophic.

To make matters worse, the partial automation features that most of these tech handle are tasks vehicle drivers can effortlessly do themselves, if they have enough sleep, pay attention to their environment, focus on the road ahead, and importantly, leave their smartphones alone.

So, why pay extra for something that you can do yourself (with a little dose of common sense)?

Why pay extra for such a feature, especially if it’s likely to create an unhealthy reliance on it, a reliance that is going to, in the end, prove more trouble than it’s worth?

2. Massaging Seats

Don’t get me wrong here: human massages, done by a professional (who understands the human body and its numerous pressure and trigger points) are priceless. They help, instantly, with stress relief and productivity.

On the other hand, massaging seats, found mostly in high-end luxury vehicles are a different ball game, altogether.

Fitted mostly on the rear seats, they defeat their very essence, with this configuration. Besides the fact that they are fitted on the rear seats of most production vehicles, their entire essence is defeated too, ab initio. The driver, who needs them most (to stay alert), doesn’t have access to them.

For the rear passengers who don’t truly need the massage function, the seats are simply just a large – vibrating surface and nothing else.

If you’ve ever been to a good massage parlor and then, are seated in the rear of a vehicle with the function, one thing will painfully become obvious: they are a cheap imitation of the real deal.

While it sounds good to the ear that a vehicle has massaging seats, it’s just plain bragging rights and you’re, 99 out of 100 times, paying extra for what you don’t necessarily need.

3. Heads-Up Display (HUD)

On modern aviation instrument clusters, the displays aren’t always on the pilot’s natural eye level. To keep themselves abreast with their clusters, pilots need to periodically take their eyes away from their windshield to the clusters (to avoid missing critical, time-sensitive information).

To sort out this issue, Heads-Up Display (HUD) came on board: the screens (or at least, the very important or time-bound part of them), were projected onto the ‘heads-up view’ of the pilot, to avoid them needing to take their eyes off their natural view to the clusters.

This made sense, with aviation (where decisions needed to take place in split seconds) and it was important to take stock of everything.

Not long after, the Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) came on board. Here, fighter jets didn’t need to look at their displays to make decisions. Their helmets were connected to their crafts and important displays were right in their face. Importantly too, critical decisions like weapon aim could be undertaken with the helmet as the pilot looked.

In aviation (especially, military aviation), this made (and continues to make) a lot of sense.

However, on traditional motoring, this looks cool but doesn’t achieve anything special at all.

The traffic around, the fact that the traditional display hardly displays anything critical that is of the essence, and importantly, the reality that for most folks, this distracts them from focusing on the road ahead, makes this addition more of a curse than a blessing – at least on traditional automobiles and motoring.

Why pay extra for distraction and ultimately, what you won’t need?

4. Remote Start

Some winters can be harsh – especially if you live closer to the North Pole. So cold it gets sometimes that you wish everything around you were preheated, including your vehicle.

This is understandable.

However, on modern ICEs, heat feeds the cabin from the coolant – when it gets warm and flows through the heater core. This means that, until you get your coolant heated up, no ‘warmness’ is got. This isn’t the most efficient manner to start a vehicle in the morning, especially in freezing temperatures.

For electric vehicles, this process is battery-powered, mostly using heat pumps. While the heat generated is faster, the same logic holds true: range is lost – for a process that can happen, perfectly fine, one’s you’re in the vehicle and on your way.

Now, what’s the logic in paying extra at the dealership so that you can burn extra gas, shorten your range (on an EV), and further pay subscriptions (on some marques) just to have remote starts when you can effortlessly achieve the same purpose once your commute starts without losing anything?

Why pay for what you can essentially get free?

5. Adaptive Headlights

When the original LS430 debuted, one of the technologies it had that was much talked about then was the headlights: they were connected to the steering in an ‘adaptive’ manner – meaning they directed wherever the steering was turned to, effectively giving better illumination at night.

This feature, together with many others, made me list the vehicle as one of the best sedans of all time.

Back when the vehicle debuted, ‘adaptive headlights’ were a big deal – and the fact that the headlights followed the turn of the steering wheel was seen as an impressive feat.

However, fast forward through the years and I can’t remember when last I was ever in a situation where such headlights would make a difference.

For one, I hardly drive at night (so do many other folks). Then, when I must drive at night, it’s usually on thoroughly lit roads that make the headlights themselves (largely) redundant.

The above is also the reality of most drivers today.

That said, assuming you need to drive in pitch darkness, the advantage this system has over a vehicle that isn’t so equipped is so marginal that you’d be excused if you don’t miss it on your new vehicle.

Why pay extra for something you don’t need to the point that you won’t miss same when you no longer have access to it?

Too much money?

6. Wireless Phone Charging

I remember when I got my wife an iPhone 12 Pro Max (when it debuted some years back). While I remained (and remain) a hardcore Android user, I was curious to see if she’d love the world of iOS.

The phone charged pretty okay (not fast, not slow – just okay) with a wired charger. With a magnetic charger? It basically took forever!

Eventually, the novelty of the magnetic (not wireless for the iPhone) charger wore off. Who had time for wireless charging when it was going to take forever?

Fast forward to this day, car markers are still taunting the ‘wireless charging’ feature and making you pay through the nose for it.

The worst part is that for some models, there simply isn’t enough space/thought put in; a phone is hardly held in place, when charging wirelessly.

Why pay more, get a slower charge and challengingly, put up your phone for potential destruction in the name of wireless charging?

7. Crazy Screens

When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone (with its novel touchscreen), I instantly knew it was going to have long term application. What I did not envisage then was that, vehicles will sooner than later, deploy the technology in a crazy manner that defied all logic.

Today, thanks to inspiration from Tesla, most car manufacturers are leaving dials and physical controls behind and opting for touchscreens (with hepatic feedback/response).

Screens make for a beautiful infortainment system – but the only time you’re going to enjoy them is when a movie is playing or they’re doing their ‘lights display’.

Beyond that, they’re simply a pain – especially if important features such as the air conditioner are nestled nine inches deep into the system.

Imagine driving, at highway speeds and needing to adjust the airconditioner on a vehicle where the infortainment system and the screens are one and the same.

Appearances, most times, can be deceptive; but, you don’t need to pay for someone else’s design mistakes!

8. Heated and Cooled Seats

My daily driver, a 2006 Lexus ES 330, has both heated and cooled front seats. The seats are perforated and look nice; the concept itself remains one of the exciting features that I looked forward to when I bought the solidly built vehicle.

However, down the years, I’ve used the cooled seat feature about twice (to check if it’s still working) and the heated seat function thrice, recently, when the cold was over the roof.

During the five (5) instances that the function has worked, I could have easily done without it – and had it failed, I wouldn’t have missed it.

Curiously, many vehicle buyers are like me, in this regard: some, right after buying their cars, forget completely about the heated and cooled seats function and never get to use (or even test it) for once. They also never miss the same.

The reason for this isn’t far fetched: once a vehicle is properly heated (or cooled) by its regular vents, the seats don’t need to be necessarily cooled (or heated). So does the steering wheel too. The vents are usually all that you need to be comfortable behind the wheel to do your thing (and this logic covers the passengers you’re ferrying too).

Why pay extra when you can avoid same but still get value for your money?

9. Panoramic Sunroofs

Sunroofs are a great idea: they allow for extra ventilation (on truly stuffy days). They also allow you to take a look at the sky directly in traffic, give you a great view of storey buildings and allow for more privacy if you’d love to keep your tinted windows up without using the AC.

The panoramic sunroofs, however, are simply overkill: why span a roof from the front end right onto the rear?

The very concept of this design language is defective: it seeks to take that which is of a convertible and slams it into another vehicle body type.

That alone, of course, is excusable. The main challenge begins with the extra weight, the likelihood of something breaking, the fact that most rear seat passengers would rather have their AC and peace, etc.

Then, when something goes wrong, it’s serious bucks to fix what was not serving or practical in the first place.

Instead of a gigantic panoramic roof that you really don’t need, consider a traditional sunroof, if getting the top open occasionally is important to you: it’s cheaper, practical and less prone to challenges.

Summary

As a car blogger and auto DIY mechanic, I’ve seen a quite a number of features/options on new vehicles that aren’t worth the space they are installed on. These, shared here, at the most annoying offenders, however.

Unfortunately, these ‘options’ and features aren’t free: you’re charged for them as a buyer; you pay dearly and then, wind up not using them at all!

Or, best case scenario, wouldn’t have missed them!

This was what informed my entry on considering an older model, instead of a brand new car. Curiously, the logic in that article still holds water today.

Car manufacturers are business folks: as long as it serves their interests and it makes them more money (which is where their concern is, BTW), they’ll keep slapping ‘features’/’options’ you don’t need and keep charging you accordingly.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to save your wallet – or, face the ‘consequence’ of literally thrashing money unto things you neither need nor will serve you (immediately or in the future).

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