Typically when people buy a new car, whether it's actually new or new-to-them, one of the biggest reasons is because of features. That's a pretty broad term in the automotive industry; there are powertrain features, infotainment features, convenience features. Maybe you wanted a car with newer performance technology, or something with more driver-assist systems. Maybe you just wanted a better sound system. Last year I bought myself a new-to-me car, a 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS500 that's over a decade newer and much, much nicer than anything I've owned before — and it has a ton of features, especially ones I've never had on a car before.
That brings me to today's question. What's the best feature on your own car? I'll accept a pretty broad range of answers on this, but just make sure to tell me what you've own, what said feature is, and why you like it so much. Bonus points as always for fun stories (or if you've got YouTube videos or social media posts featuring the car in question). I'll round up my favorite answers later this week.
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My Parking Sensors
My CLS was a replacement for my 1991 300SL that got totaled when it was hit while parked, and prior to that I had a Volvo 940 Turbo wagon, an NA Mazda Miata, and a W123 300TD — all as old or even older than I am, all without many modern features. But this CLS, my god! As the vastly cooler sibling of the W211 E-Class, the first-gen CLS was also positioned higher upmarket, coming only with a V8 in the U.S. and with many of the E-Class' fancy features as standard. My particular CLS is almost fully loaded, too, and it has stuff you won't find on a brand new Camry or even a new C-Class. In no real order, I've got a Harmon Kardon surround sound system, a six-disc CD changer, air suspension with adaptive dampers, four-zone climate control, navigation, heated and ventilated seats with adjustable bolsters, keyless entry for all four doors and the trunk, push-button start (with the button on the shifter!), a power rear sunshade, and bi-xenon headlights that turn with the front wheels. I've only ever had crappy halogens before. It's also the first car I've owned with usable cupholders.
So out of everything, what feature do I love the most? Easily the front and rear parking sensors. Look, I'm always the first to admit that I'm just bad at parallel parking. I failed my driver's test for the first time because it took me too many tries. I damaged my family's Sienna parallel parking soon after getting my license. I've curbed my own wheels and those of a couple press cars (sorry again to those reading). My friends always laugh at me because it usually takes me a couple tries of adjusting to really get into a parking spot without being too far from the curb, since I'm always paranoid about hitting it. The CLS, being the first real four-door coupe, doesn't have great visibility. The side windows are narrow, the windshield and rear window are steeply raked, and the C-pillars are fairly thick.
But I'm proud to say that not only have I not once curbed a wheel in this car (knock on the wood trim on my dash), I successfully parallel park on the first try almost every single time. It helps that the setup of the system is great. There's a black bar at the top of the dashboard that fills up with lights, the final one being red when closest to an object, and there are audible beeps that get progressively louder as well. For the rear sensors, that black bar is placed in the rear headliner, so not only is it right in my line of sight when I turn around to look out the rear window, but it's also visible if I'm just looking through the rear-view mirror. It's awesome. What's your favorite feature in your car?
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