Coolest amenities/opt. equipment in cars

what is the coolest stuff you have seen in a car?


[b]i think the coolest stuff i've seen:[/b]

-foot rest in rear passenger seats of the Nissan Cima

-reclining chairs in the maybach

-The laminated glass pane on the inside of the panoramic roof that contains a layer of liquid crystal foil made from electrically conductive polymer material which becomes transparent when AC voltage is applied in the maybach

how useful it is, thats another story:D

i assume you meant amenities, and not anemities...

huh? what? 


yah i messed up. my bad

- Umbrellas in the Maybach's door panels. (or is that the Phantom?)
- Tent attatchment for Pontiac Aztek
- Bottle cooler in Dodge Caliber
- Fade-out dome light in Scions and idk what else
- [b]power windows and door locks[/b] (yeah they're common, but they're so damned handy!)
- Any car with factory carpeted floormats gets points in my book
- GPS navigation
- Power convertible hard-tops

I am a huge fan of gadgets and gimmicks... always thought the following were cool, and although alot of them come standard on newer luxury cars, they are still very cool. I hope to add as many as possible to my car:
Fridge
TV/GPS
Reversing camera
Flip-down panel in centre of front passenger seat of Q45/Cima, so rear seat passenger can put their feet up
Massaging seats
Heated seats/steering wheel/seatbelts
auto-dimming rear view mirror
auto wipers (speed/rain sensitive)
auto headlights
auto-opening doors on Japanese taxis (how cool would that be when driving someone home/picking them up)
power windows that open slightly when you open the door, allowing you to close the door easier (they close once the door is closed)
doors which close them selves if not closed properly (saw that on a new LS430, not sure if it is standard)
auto folding rear view mirrors
rear view mirrors that tilt down on the passenger side when you put it into reverse, so you can see the curb
factory pillar lights in my Cedric which give a nice glow to the interior at night
electric seats with memory for 3 different seat, steering wheel and mirror positions
Head-up-display for speed/GPS

[quote=firelizard ]
- Umbrellas in the Maybach's door panels. (or is that the Phantom?)
[/quote]
maybach, rolls royce phantom, and vw passat

nice list Domink.  damn.  

on my SC400 my favs are
LCD dimming rear view mirror
Auto locks if you turn the car off and forget to lock the car
Auto power sliding passenger seat , if you fold it forward it automatically slides forward for you

[quote=firelizard ]
- Umbrellas in the Maybach's door panels. (or is that the Phantom?)
[/quote]

It's the phantom...

Anyone ever seen the ice chest in one of the Honda trucks?

AME, i actually had a few of those amenities from that list on my JDM V8 Soarer, which i still kinda regret selling.
There's a couple more i thought of:
Fully integrated bluetooth car kit; mutes stereo, plays through speakers, displays number on digital display in the dash. All fully automatic so you never have to take your phone out of your pocket in the car, can even dial numbers in your phone book using steering wheel controls

Not yet available (and not sure if it qualifies as an amenity), but the BOSE electronic suspension. How cool would it be doing a bunny-hop over a bad pothole etc

Doors that lock when you start the engine, and unlock when you turn off the ignition.

Seats in the Japanese Honda Life i think where the fronts lie completely flat to create a bed between on the passenger side from the front to the back of the car.

Airline style Tray-tables on the back seats

dual-zone stereos with separate controls for the backseat passengers

dual-zone climate control (either left/right or front/rear)

dom nooo you didnt tell me you didnt have a soarer and sold it :'( :'( seriously oh man haha just j/k but would have been a sweet project.
Man i still think one of thee greatest amenities is fading dome lights it gets me everytime its like being in a movie theater plus my dd car has black lights in them so its even crazier setup. Also a good thing to have is heated seats like in the winter and have leather ya you guys know how that is freezing on leather.....

But the top of the line is def keyless and electronic entry so you dont need a key ever just be near it and it unlockes and starts thats dope. its found in the new merc's and lexus's i think

Yeah, i had a Soarer; and it was super pimping with factory airbags, reversing camera GPS, heated seats etc. At the time i started getting a bit OCD about the car and refused to drive it anywhere for fear of someone bumping it. And it had lost its exclusivity; due to the influx of twin-turbo soarers the car started to get a boy-racer image which i hate

Dominik, you mentioned doors that lock when you start the ignition, well there are doors that lock when you hit a certain mph (i.e. Mercedes) But I don't know of anything that have doors unlock when the ignition is turned off, that'd be cool. :)

actually, theres a similar nice feature held by GM and Chevy trucks. Unlocks doors when you put it into park. Also, AUTOMATIC lights that turn on when it gets dark. Sounds stupid, but then....its also stupid when you come out of a resteraunt at 11 at night to find your battery dead because you forgot the headlights. :2funny:

steam-ejecting windshield wipers for ice and frost

Betrayed, the headlights one is what i mentioned in my first post (auto headlights). Both the Soarer and my Cedric have this feature and it is something i could not do without. They turn on whenever the light gets too low (in the Soarer they would actually wait until it was pretty dark which i didnt like, in the Cedric they turn on at *just* the right time), and then turn off the instant you open the door after turning off the ignition. I never think about headlights anymore - they are just always perfect. Also i love the look when a car with auto headlights goes under a bridge/tunnel and the lights go on straight away, then off again when you are out the other side. If i get another car without this feature it would be one of the first mods i do.

Xotic_SC, yeah i am pretty sure my alarm has alot to do with the unlocking feature. My Soarer and the Cedric both lock at just over 20km/h, but dont unlock automatically. Since installing the alarm, it locks when you release the handbrake after starting the engine, or if handbrake isnt on, it locks straight away. Then it unlocks when you switch the ignition off.

Speaking of non-standard gimmicks; GSM alarm with GPS tracking. Lock your car from anywhere in the world (or from your desk at work), listen to whats going on in the car, and get an SMS of it's current location whenever you are feeling insecure. I cant wait to put this in my car

Anyone have any experience with full-auto-wipers? Are they useful? I always thought that was the ducks-nuts. My soarer had speed sensitive (slowed to intermittent when stopped, and full speed above 100kmh/60mph), and that was awesome...

I'm interested in the auto headlights, not so much for headlights but for accent lighting...do they make universal photosensitive kits for lights that go on in the dark, or is it purely a retrofit option at the moment?

btw, Dodge Caravans/Plymouth Voyagers have doors that lock at ~20ish kmph too
Oh, and on the topic of vans..I like the power sliding doors and power hatch, very handy for SWAT team manoeuvres with an armfull of video games ;D

You can pick up a light sensitive switch kit from any DIY electronics store, would only be a handful of components (even my digital temp gauge kit had a light sensitive resistor to dimm the display at night)

[quote=Dominik ]
Anyone have any experience with full-auto-wipers? Are they useful? I always thought that was the ducks-nuts. My soarer had speed sensitive (slowed to intermittent when stopped, and full speed above 100kmh/60mph), and that was awesome...
[/quote]

newer models benzes and bimmers have full auto wipers. they're useful, since you never have to think about it... unless you take the car to an automatic car wash, where the wipers will activate with the water! the feature is off/on to prevent that problem though.

i know all the bells and whistles is pretty cool to have and makes driving easier/safer but i cant stand them. my level of requirements that a car should have is power door locks and windows that ''i'' control and nothing more. i drove my dads truck which is a high model 05 sport-track and the seatbelt warning wont shut off, doors locks itself but it unlocks when you want it locked(i have kids). and i drove my friends LS430 and damn i just wanted to move it, and i cant even begin to tell you all the gizmos that lit up just to back up. im just use to hot rods and old cars. its what i grew up around. okay off topic >:(

i this the coolest option is the back up sensors. supposedly they beep when you approach an object thats 6' away but the cool part is that half the cars i see with them has scratches and rubbings on the rear bumpers

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a factory umbrella on a Pulsar GTiR. It slides down the length of the car under the rear quarter window and is accessible via a hole in the door sill. Another cool one is on some of the mid 90's Mercedes which ran a vacuum system of pipes throughout the car. They powered all sorts of things but when you closed the door it wouldn't quite close and you'd go to push it again and then the vacuum system would suck it closed. Kinda trippy.

I think some of the new high class Eurpoean cars also have some system where if you have the key on your person somewhere then when you touch the door handle some sort of electric pulse or frequency goes through your finger and triggers the door to unlock (so basically you just walk up and open it and it unlocks). Can anyone shed any light on that?

And have we all forgotten electric curtains on Japanese vans? 

Ben

[quote=Blipman ]
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a factory umbrella on a Pulsar GTiR.  It slides down the length of the car under the rear quarter window and is accessible via a hole in the door sill.  Another cool one is on some of the mid 90's Mercedes which ran a vacuum system of pipes throughout the car.  They powered all sorts of things but when you closed the door it wouldn't quite close and you'd go to push it again and then the vacuum system would suck it closed.  Kinda trippy.

Ben
[/quote]

i wish they would bring the pulsar gtir to the states already. i own a 94 benz s500 and the vacuum system does just that. except if someone doesn't close hard enough it will self close with the suction you dont have to push it again :). also the power locks, gas tank doork, and trunk are all powered with the assist of the vacuum system. however i heard of stories where the pump failed on some owners and they werent able to open their trunk. i hope i never have that problem *knock on wood 3x*

for all ya' all nisaan/infiniti owners', u guys have those "sensor" lights on the celing? that would have been cool for all vip cars!!! (for upgrade ofkorz) we have that on our cefiro overseas-i'm not sure if we have it here in the US ::)

...put ur hand like at least 3 inches away and it will light up itself, to turn-off is the same thing :smitten: