The most unnecessary equipment in cars or Avoid this!

Modern cars overflow with electronics and various elements that are often completely unnecessary. This time, I don’t mean driving and safety assistants, the implementation of which is rather the responsibility of politicians, but simply accessories that you can do without. You will often use them only a few times in your life, or they can be replaced with a much cheaper variant.

Given that several hundred cars pass through our hands in the editorial office every year as part of classic tests and international presentations, we are able to filter out things that we could easily miss.

Roof/panoramic window

This element is available for an additional fee in most new cars, but the Škoda Enyaq Coupé has a panoramic roof as standard. Unfortunately, it cannot be “opaque”, as is also the case with electric models Renault Scenic E-Tech EV and Volkswagen ID.7, you can partially cover it only with the factory screen, which is not 100%.

Although a sunroof or a panoramic roof represent a pleasant revival and ventilation of the interior, they also mean an increase in the car’s center of gravity, a decrease in the internal height and usually also the rigidity of the body. On broken roads, there may be rumbling noises from the glazing. And in case of damage, replacing the glass is a considerable expense.

In the case of fixed glazing, you won’t even get the feeling of the wind in your hair, which would bring the experience closer to driving in a convertible. Personally, I could therefore live without this element.

Integrated navigation

Some manufacturers offer integrated navigation at no extra cost even in cheaper models, while others charge a lot for this convenience. At the same time, the vast majority of cars today have a wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto interface (the exceptions are Hyundai and Kia, for which you still have to pull out the cable), so you can replace the built-in maps with third-party applications. All you need is a central display, a smartphone, the given “app” and enough mobile data, ideally even abroad.

Electric seat control

You often cannot avoid it in more expensive cars. And when paired with location memory, it makes sense, especially when multiple drivers take turns behind the wheel. However, if you are the only one behind the wheel and you can adjust the position using a rod, lever, wheel and other mechanical tools for the first time, the electric motor under the seat will probably be of no use to you.

This, together with the entire mechanism, in many cases increases the position behind the steering wheel, in addition, it weighs something by itself. And the probability that something will happen to it over time is greater than with simpler manual adjustments, with which you will achieve the same result many times faster.

Electric closing and closing of doors

The idea of ​​self-closing is especially intoxicating when your significant other slams the door for the one hundred and eighty-seventh time, as if closing a heavy barn door. The so-called soft close, which uses an electric motor to close the door even without human help, is known primarily from premium and luxury cars.

As part of the surcharges, this is a fairly cheap matter with a price in the low tens of thousands of crowns. It’s a nice addition to a new car, but once you come across a fifteen-year-old used car, I’d be wary of this addition.

Similar to the electric seat control, it can happen that the “soft close” fails over time, which means unnecessary service costs.

The same also applies to the electrically controlled opening and closing of doors, which can be found not only in Rolls-Royce cars, but also, for example, in the new BMW 7. In its case, after sitting in the driver’s and passenger’s seats, it is enough to press the pictogram on the dashboard and let the electric motors do the work. In the case of the Munich sedan, you will pay a whopping 40,638 CZK for this convenience. At the same time, you can do without it in practice.

And what can you do without in the car? And what must not be missing? Write to us in the discussion below the article.