What new-school revelation have you had?

Why do more cars not have this?

Revelation yesterday driving the Volvo. From the owner's manual:

the cruising speed can be increased or decreased by depressing the SET button (A) towards either + or -. One short press on the button corresponds to a speed change of approx. 1.5 mph (2.0 km/h). When the button is released, the vehicle will maintain the current speed.

That's right. The cruise control not only has a speed bump-up button like every cruise control ever, but there's also a bump-DOWN button. No need to coast then re-set then bump back up because you slowed down too much. Just bump down.

AWESOME

Also, the big ol' box is getting 30-33mpg, which is crazy.

Knurled wrote: Why do more cars not have this? Revelation yesterday driving the Volvo. From the owner's manual:

the cruising speed can be increased or decreased by depressing the SET button (A) towards either + or -. One short press on the button corresponds to a speed change of approx. 1.5 mph (2.0 km/h). When the button is released, the vehicle will maintain the current speed.

That's right. The cruise control not only has a speed bump-up button like every cruise control ever, but there's also a bump-DOWN button. No need to coast then re-set then bump back up because you slowed down too much. Just bump down. AWESOME Also, the big ol' box is getting 30-33mpg, which is crazy.

Every car I've ever owned with cruise, had a accl and coast button to increase/decrease the set speed. Even GM's crappy stalk controls would do that. The resume switch would also accelerate if held and the set button would decelerate if held.

Heated grips on the motorcycle. It's 23 degrees and I'm typing this on a phone with fingers that are not frozen! If it weren't for my frost bitten toes I wouldn't even have had stopped for coffee to read this.

I have always been the old school "you don't need electric windows; what's wrong with hand cranks?" kind of guy. I always buy the lower end car with the lesser frills.

When my car got punched in the rear I was given a Mazda 6 rental car with blue tooth - the phone and music streaming from my phone opened my eyes. I was hooked and every work sales car I own will definitely have this technology.

Toyman01 wrote: Every car I've ever owned with cruise, had a accl and coast button to increase/decrease the set speed. Even GM's crappy stalk controls would do that. The resume switch would also accelerate if held and the set button would decelerate if held.

Every car I've had/used with a "coast" button used the coast button to shut the cruise off. Much more polite than tapping your brakes.

GPS. I berkeleying love it. Especially built in GPS. I can pay so much more attention to driving and the world around me when I'm not worried I'm going to miss a turn. I wanted to hate it, but I don't.

PubBurgers wrote: I think the internet and it's availability via tablet or smartphone has been the biggest game changer of my lifetime. Fancy super hi def wall mountable cheap giant TV's are also pretty awesome. When I was a kid touch screens were super scarce and seemed like the most awesome thing in the world. I take for granted that most technology I use these days utilizes them. I still hate touchscreen keyboards though. Videogames have come a long way since I first started playing Super Mario Bros. for the NES.

+1,000,000 to all of this. And in that as an adult I can eat pizza whenever I want, and my 5-8 year old self would be in heaven.

Toyman01 wrote:

Knurled wrote: Why do more cars not have this? Revelation yesterday driving the Volvo. From the owner's manual:

the cruising speed can be increased or decreased by depressing the SET button (A) towards either + or -. One short press on the button corresponds to a speed change of approx. 1.5 mph (2.0 km/h). When the button is released, the vehicle will maintain the current speed.

That's right. The cruise control not only has a speed bump-up button like every cruise control ever, but there's also a bump-DOWN button. No need to coast then re-set then bump back up because you slowed down too much. Just bump down. AWESOME Also, the big ol' box is getting 30-33mpg, which is crazy.

Every car I've ever owned with cruise, had a accl and coast button to increase/decrease the set speed. Even GM's crappy stalk controls would do that. The resume switch would also accelerate if held and the set button would decelerate if held.

every GM car that i've had has had the ability to increase or decrease the speed by pushing the proper button on the stalk... going way back to stuff from the 80's.. my 94 Chrysler LHS did this, too.. actually, every car i've ever driven with cruise has done this..

novaderrik wrote:

calteg wrote: 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.

bah- moar speedz is just a gimmick... the bone stock carbureted 305 backed with a mere 4 speed overdrive trans in my 86 Caprice would average just shy of 30mpg with the cruise set at 80 on the interstate with the AC blowing ice cold and 27 in day to day around town driving. granted, it wasn't as fast as a more modern car, but damn if it wasn't an awesome cruiser..

and my Prizm pulls down 33mpg with a 4 speed. But neither of those cars weigh 3600lbs and have 420hp.

I used to be of the mindset that the only doodads a car needed were A/C and cruise control. After spending a weekend in a 135i, my mind has been changed. The DSG was great, heated seats are AMAZING, bluetooth phone integration rocks, heated mirrors and remote start too. All of it was so nice and now I will be considering those things on my next DD.

Iphone - having the internet at hand everywhere from finding work related parts to youtube auto repair videos is light years ahead of going to the library for copied pages from repair manuals or calling around until someone knew what you were describing you needed