Five especially useful car features

Thirty years ago useful car features that made waves included airbags, fuel injection, and anti-lock brakes. Now all new cars are equipped with these conveniences and safety items. Let’s take a look at five newer features you should look for on a car today.

Backup Camera

First is the backup camera, which was made mandatory on all vehicles sold in the US for 2018. While all new vehicles do have this feature, they can vary widely in quality and implementation. Some models include the ability to zoom the camera, have graphics on the screen to help show clearance around objects, or offer protection against vehicles approaching from the side. But some models have such a small screen that the positive effect of the camera is somewhat negated.

Blind Spot Monitor

Another new safety feature is the blind spot monitor. Usually implemented with a visual cue on or near the side view mirrors, and in some cases an audio alert as well, these cameras or sensors can alert the driver to another vehicle or object located in the blind spot, keeping you safe before that lane change.

Electronic Stability Control

Perhaps the most advanced new safety feature is electronic stability control. This safest of useful car features uses several sensors which feed information into a computer to assist in emergency maneuvers. The car can send braking to individual wheels during a rapid turn to keep you in the lane and out of the ditch. Especially useful on large top-heavy vehicles, this technology has proven life-saving and should be considered a must have in these bigger vehicles.

Remote Start

A tremendously useful car feature is remote start. Now you can start your car from inside your warm house before going out to scrape the windshield off on a frosty snowy morning, or you are able to get the air conditioning going before you have to go out to your car after a long hot day at work in August. With remote start, you can simply preset your seat warmers, defroster or climate control settings before you get out, by hitting a button on your key fob and presto, your car can start up and run for you to get the interior environment set to how you want it before you ever get to the car. And the feature is safe, as the car cannot be driven without the key which is still with you.

TPMS

Keeping your tire pressure at the correct PSI is obviously smart for many reasons, for another very convenient modern car feature to look for before purchase is a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). Vehicles with this feature can notify the driver when one or more tires are low on air pressure.all vehicles are required to have this in some form, but some systems simply illuminate a light on the dash, and it’s up to the driver to check them all, but more advanced systems can tell exactly which tire is low, or even show all tire pressures in real time, all the time!
For more information about protecting the seats of you car, visit our website or call us at 888-246-5653.