What new-school revelation have you had?

Corollary to the "what old school product do you still use" thread.

I have a new Volvo, and by "new" I mean the year starts with a 2.

Had a strange thought on the Way Home from Work, Day 2 of Ownership:

"Huh. It's 34 degrees outside, and I don't need to wear an earflap hat to deal with the cold wind through the car because the car has all of its weatherstripping."

"wait my car started on the first try? Hey that's pretty convenient."

I like it when my car has an outside thermometer I've discovered.

Butt warmers.

and a heater that doesn't take the whole commute home to defrost a window.

When I can't hear my washing machine running and I have to go make sure it is.

I was reminded, yet again yesterday, how much I like modern EFI, as I was attempting to figure out the lean surge in a computer controlled quadrajet. Had to turn on the wayback machine for that one.

Related to modern heaters- last January I drove my XC90 500km home from Edmonton in a snowstorm, -25, and as I pulled into town here, I noticed there was not a spec of fog, let alone frost, on any window.

When I bought my new Si I thought the backup camera was completely pointless.

Now I love the damn thing. Having a wide-angle lens on the ass-end of the car is great when backing out from between two monster SUVs: just enough vision to see anyone coming down the row.

Also damn handy when parallel parking.

Automatic headlights and wipers. Sure they're not ideal but I'm lazy and forgetful.. They take care of themselves. Also, hids.

I drive a 1990 Mada and my bride just got a 2011 c300 4matic. So, um, prettymuch everything there...

Efi, overdrive, ac, and cruise. In the process of adding those "modern revelation" to my pair of classics. Didn't realize just how much I appreciate them until I had to daily the 70 duster for a month a few times. Its got ac and overdrive now. The 64 has overdrive and efi now, with cruise control and ac in the works.

Hungary Bill wrote: Butt warmers. and a heater that doesn't take the whole commute home to defrost a window.

I don't own a car with them, but I'd like to add air conditioned seats to this list. Also, side mirror defrosters. So nice!

Drove a rental Taurus recently with a bunch of dodads in it. Most of the stuff I was not terribly impressed with and would HATE to have to fix.

What new-school revelation did I have? If you have the seat AC on and you fart, it blows it into your face.

So yeah, interesting feature. Something you can look forward to Racer1ab. I wonder when I will see that in a commercial?

We have access to more information than ever before, and better yet, it's available while on the john. What did people do before? Just sit there?

In reply to aircooled:

aircooled wrote: If you have the seat AC on and you fart, it blows it into your face.

This is truly a first world problem.

Mitchell wrote: We have access to more information than ever before, and better yet, it's available while on the john. What did people do before? Just sit there?

Stack of magazines in the cabinet under the sink.

Electrical crimp joints opposed to stripping, soldering and wrapping.

Mitchell wrote: We have access to more information than ever before, and better yet, it's available while on the john. What did people do before? Just sit there?

I still read magazines

I heart EFI. I got soooo tired of swapping brass trying to get something to run right just to have the weather change thus throwing all my hard work right out the window. I like having a bunch of little guys inside that magic box who run around and do that for me.

BIG affordable tvs.

I'm a real-life cyberpunk dystopia character and it totally sucks.

DVR. Watching tv in real time is for suckers!

Also, google. Remembering things is hard so being able to spew a few random keywords into my phone and get the answer I was grasping for....priceless.

8 speed transmissions are the realness My 5.0L V8 gets almost identical gas mileage as the wife's 3.5L V6....provided I'm not stuck in traffic.

The answer box in my pocket is incredible. Everything from useless trivia to diagnosing a no start condition. Downside is everyone thinks they're a doctor and a mechanic (including me ).