I was inspired by the Stupid car features thread. For my E36, one of the cool features that it has is an active hill descent assist where in 1st gear, it will crawl down a steep driveway, very cool. The bad part is that I just found out about it a couple of weeks ago.
I like how the e36 wipers slow down automatically if you stop or significantly slow down. Speed back up and they do too. Not rain sensing or anything, just totally speed based. I thought it was a neat trick for a 1993 car.
I'm not sure that the e36 qualifies for the 'average car' designation in my book though... Id call it a pretty great car, even without the wiper feature.
Just about anything with a manuel trans.
What about surprisingly good seats? I find that is a pretty good redeeming "feature" for an otherwise bland and unispiring E36 M3box.
I recently figured out that my Saab's wipers are smarter than me. If you back up while the wipers are on, it will put the rear wiper on as well while you're in reverse.
I didn't want to make the title really long, but it can also include making a good car great.
In reply to rcutclif: I didn't know they do that either! Wow! 
Features? Umm. My jeep has A/C. My miata doesnt... I still like the miata better.
Spare me hill assist and other "nannies"
Turbocharger
In reply to Mr_Clutch42:
What is this about hill assist in an E36? How do you activate it?
Kia and Saab have a little switch to put it in reverse.
The 626's moving center vent
my disco has a pretty neat trick with the rear wiper. If your wipers are on and you shift into reverse.. it will give the rear window two wipes
Ease of maintenance/no need for maintenance is a cool feature.
Things that make the Saturn good in this area:
Belt tensioner (vs. the alternator tensioned belt nonsense in the Miata, my Z32, B14 Sentra, etc.)
Self-bleeding clutch hydraulics.
Drain plug + spin-on filter + dipstick fill tube for Auto trans.
Hydraulic lifters.
Timing chain.
Stuff I've seen in other cars I like:
Bolt-on wheel bearing/hub assemblies, even on driven wheels.
No belts! (3G Prius)
Capacitive touch indicator lights for steering wheel buttons (3G Prius)
Plugs that last 120k miles
A nice sounding factory stereo. (Subaru is terrible at this) Good factory headlights.
The seats in my 91 honda civic felt nice on my bottom.
In reply to SEADave: You just put it in 1st gear, clutch disengaged, and I believe the ECU uses the brakes so it doesn't pick up momentum when driving down a steep driveway.
In reply to Luxinterior: lol. But, your screen name indicates that you want some luxury, what the deuce? 
In reply to Mr_Clutch42:
Are sure its not just engine braking doing that?
Velour makes everything better. Everything.
In reply to jstein77: I'm sure.
I absolutely loved the Heads Up Display in my Grand Prix. I wish all my cars had it.
Light weight
RWD.
Sliding sunvisors.
Notice when you move the visor to the sie window you get that uncovered area where the visor need to be 6 inches longer? My 1984 S-10's visor would slide on the rod to cover that. Never seen another car do that.
LS1. It turns a 4th gen F-body from "oh my God this thing is awful" to "Sort of want."
On cold-weather package subies: windshield wiper de-icing strips. Basically defroster strips that run under the wipers in "off" position. So when you're warming up your car on a snowy warning, it melts the snow on the wipers that tends to stick there when brushing off the windshield.
oil filter on top. Why any car still has the filter down below is beyond me.
fold-down rear seats. I never understand why there are coupes/sedans that don't have a full fold-down rear seat to fit larger items through the trunk into the back seat.
manual transmission should go without saying.
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