The other day I was looking online for good deals on BMW 5 Series cars, and I had seen the car of my dreams for sale by a dealer called Big Motoring World. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I spend obsessive amounts of time on the Internet looking at cars until I find “the one”!
After checking out the Big Motoring World opening times from the branch that had “my” next car for sale (a BMW M5), I was thinking about some of the awesome features that my new car has.
And then I thought to myself; there are lots of must-have features that the cars of today have, which most cars 20 or 30 years ago might not have had as standard! Being the curious (or possibly sad) soul that I am, I did a little research into the feature differences between today’s cars and those from yesteryear.
Here are some of the features of today’s cars that yesterday’s cars didn’t necessarily have!
Air conditioning
These days you would be hard pressed not to find a car that didn’t come with air conditioning or climate control as standard (except for maybe a super-budget brand of car such as Dacia).
Just 20 years ago, air conditioning and climate control were luxurious optional extras that the average man (or woman) on the street simply could not afford!
Air conditioning is mainly sold for its convenience factor, but if you have a respiratory condition such as asthma, you will find air conditioning a godsend.
Bluetooth
For many years now, Bluetooth has been the preferred method of connectivity between car stereo “head units” and smartphones such as the Apple iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy.
Bluetooth enables drivers to wirelessly link up their mobile phones so that they can use their car stereos as part of a handsfree telephone system, and also to wirelessly stream their favourite tunes.
Back in the early 1990s, for instance, Bluetooth didn’t even exist, and we had to make do with 3.5mm jack cables from portable devices to our car stereos!
Satellite Navigation
When was the last time you had to use a paper map to guide you to your destination? If the answer is “years ago” or “never”, you are one of the millions of people reliant on satellite navigation technology.
The thing about paper maps is that they get outdated very quickly, and motorists would often become confused and disoriented because a building stands in place of a road they were supposed to be driving on!
Although motorists can purchase portable satellite navigation devices for use in their cars, a growing number of cars built these days have satellite navigation built into the cars as standard, often linked up to a large, touchscreen TFT display in the middle of the car’s dashboard.
DAB Radio
Modern car stereos have digital radio tuners built into them. We are all used to tuning in FM radio stations, in our car stereos, but they are often subject to interference and range restrictions.
DAB radio is essentially a digital radio network and has been implemented around the world to overcome these problems.
