[KennyFSU]

3rd suicide door.

[stein_325i]

The town and country horns featured on older Rolls and Bentley's.

[chassis]

Powered folding headlamp covers/panels/doors on the 1977 Mercury Colony Park station wagon.

Those were the coolest for a pre-teen such as myself to see on a new car.

[9M71]

Blinkers on a BMW. The most interesting of them all.

[rwheels]

I know, it's old and somewhat dumb, but the starter, had to have been a unique feature, in it's time. Imagine doing this.

[chassis]

Rolls-Royce with door-stowed umbrella.

[spazzyfry123]

May not be something anyone would have thought about back in their time, but looking at it now, interesting to see floor-mounted high beam switches. I want to say both my ‘65 Mustang and ‘68 C10 had these

[tim99ws6]

Still think this is one of the coolest features, even if it is on a minivan:

[Alfisti]

It was until Dyson came along with a hand held that actually worked.

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by tim99ws6

Still think this is one of the coolest features, even if it is on a minivan:

Ha! I forgot about that. I remember seeing that when it came out and was wondering...How is this JUST now coming out and why didn't I think of it?? Makes getting rid of the Cheerios a lot easier!

[chassis]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

May not be something anyone would have thought about back in their time, but looking at it now, interesting to see floor-mounted high beam switches. I want to say both my ‘65 Mustang and ‘68 C10 had these

My 1989 Ford F-150 XLT Lariat 2WD 300ci 5sp 8 ft bed had a floor mounted bright lights button. I ran this to 230k miles and it would have kept going if I put the time and effort into it.

Also my 1978 Ford F-100 Ranger 4WD 400ci 4sp short bed had the feature. What a bucket of bolts that truck was.

[chassis]

Fold and tumble rear seats in SUVs and minivans.

[rwheels]

Originally Posted by chassis

My 1989 Ford F-150 XLT Lariat 2WD 300ci 5sp 8 ft bed had a floor mounted bright lights button. I ran this to 230k miles and it would have kept going if I put the time and effort into it.

Also my 1978 Ford F-100 Ranger 4WD 400ci 4sp short bed had the feature. What a bucket of bolts that truck was.

Those were common for older cars; but this, "Rolls Royce, Under the Stars"
(in a convertible, it means opening the top)

[stein_325i]

Originally Posted by chassis

Fold and tumble rear seats in SUVs and minivans.

Stow n' Go in Chrysler minivans were the best thing ever. I rented them to move my youngest kids into college years ago. Definitely an awesome feature and super practical.

[GenXer]

Steering wheel push button START
Normal on an exotic car but very cool on a family sedan


How about some Swarovski crystal gear shift knob BLING!


Then there's Audi keygina

[GenXer]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Cool story.

Saab put the ignition near the hand brake for 2 reasons instead of the usual placement on the steering column because .....

a) They felt the dangling keys were a risk of impaling the driver's knee
b) They felt that under the right circumstances, a heavy set of dangling keys could turn and switch the car into neutral whilst locking the steering (shit you not)

So, GM buys Saab and naturally GM are like ... what the fuck are you doing with the ignition down there? This costs a damn fortune and it is right where the cup holders go you swedish meatballs, change it to be like our other cars. Head of Saab says sure, no worries, but basically ignores the mandate because Saab.

Sure as shit, the whole GM ignition issue starts to raise it's head and then totally blows up, Sven in Sweden is like "I fucking told you so" .... admittedly as he was packing his shit 'cos they went tits up but still ... fuckers had a point.

I had two Saab 9-3 1999 and 2013 after GM Opelized it. I love the center mounted ignition switch and the cool green instrument panel that could be completely dimmed except for the speedometer.

[dtox9]

I had a GMC Envoy "XUV".... loved that vehicle....
It was the extended frame version of the Envoy.
The cargo area was a composite mini truck bed full enclosed like a regular suv.
Behind the back seat row was a fold down mid-gate tail gate with roll down window separating the cargo area from the cabin area....
This allowed you to have a 100% weather tite cargo bed.

Oh yeah... did i mention that the rear tailgate was dual function... also with a roll down rear window?... it would drop down like a truck bed tailgate, or swing open like a door gate....

Oh Yeah... did I also mention that the roof opened up over the cargo area allowing you to have an open air bed when you wanted/needed??

I could carry full sheets of plywood, or snow blower, or book case... etc etc.
Or could also just put luggage in the back completely dry and safe.

[King Rudi]

I had a Mazda 626, years ago, that had oscillating front heat/AC vents. Simple. effective and everyone who rode in my car thought it was the coolest thing ever.

The AC seats in my first IS 350 were so nice in the summer. Nothing like wearing Nike dri-fit golf shorts and having cold air blow up through the nether region. So damn nice.

The rev matching on the current IS is nice, and also kinda stupid considering the car is as slow as it is.

[W12x]

Teslas have the option of making fart noise when you push the button on steering wheel, they added that with a software update in late 2018 I think, and you can select which driver/passenger seat area it comes from.

Toyota also offered RAV4 in EV form around 97 or 98 till early 2000s, the range was only 100 miles ish, I didn't know that till I saw one in California a few years back.

Toyota offers a model called Century in Japan, basically the Rolls Royce of Japan, and the best seats they offer is made out of very fine wool, and it's been that way for decades. (If anyone is going to Japan in the future, check out the Toyota MegaWeb, you can ride in the Century, or drive it if you have international permit, and they also have 2000GT on display)

[chassis]

Flip out sail windows. The best! Photo: bringatrailer

[rwheels]

Originally Posted by dtox9

I had a GMC Envoy "XUV".... loved that vehicle....
It was the extended frame version of the Envoy.
The cargo area was a composite mini truck bed full enclosed like a regular suv.
Behind the back seat row was a fold down mid-gate tail gate with roll down window separating the cargo area from the cabin area....
This allowed you to have a 100% weather tite cargo bed.

Oh yeah... did i mention that the rear tailgate was dual function... also with a roll down rear window?... it would drop down like a truck bed tailgate, or swing open like a door gate....

Oh Yeah... did I also mention that the roof opened up over the cargo area allowing you to have an open air bed when you wanted/needed??

I could carry full sheets of plywood, or snow blower, or book case... etc etc.
Or could also just put luggage in the back completely dry and safe.

I remember these. How was it? What did you like, or not, about it?

[freakystyly]

Originally Posted by chassis

Flip out sail windows. The best! Photo: bringatrailer

E30 coupes had those in the rear! so did many minivans... they were a great alternative to cracking open a sunroof.