Five Features We Can’t Live Without In Our Cars

Cars come with a lot of options for features and add-ons, and it can be hard to discern what you really need from the stuff that is added just because it can be. At Classic Honda of Midland, it’s our job to help you narrow down your vehicle search to models that have all the things you can’t live without. To help you decide what you really don’t want to miss out on when you’re looking at used cars for sale in Midland, we’ve outlined a few of our can’t-miss features, whether that be the technology that helps us stay connected, makes our lives easier, more comfortable, safer, and much more.

You can count on Classic Honda of Midland to offer you an array of used models to choose from. The five features we’ve selected have been carefully chosen to represent what the modern-day automotive experience has to offer. Keep reading to learn what we’ve come up with, and if you want to take a closer look at any or all of the features listed, then you should visit our dealership to see them up close. Ready? Get Set. Go!

#1: Power-Adjustable Seating

Let’s start with one feature that many of you are likely already used to––power-adjustable seating. Power-Adjustable seating isn’t anything new, far from it, as we’ve been seeing seats with power-adjustable seating since most of us were children. Perhaps you’ve never had power-adjustable seating before and are content with manually shifting your seating position with all sorts of knobs and levers. However, once you experience the ease of a power-adjustable seat, it’s hard to deny that going back to the old-school manually-adjustable seats will be a tough pill to swallow.

Additionally, many vehicles, especially base-level trims that tend to include a power-adjustable seat, only do so for the driver. Since you’ll likely be the one driving the vehicle you’ll be purchasing, it’s worth considering the comfort of your passengers too. Thankfully, shopping in the pre-owned market gives you plenty of opportunities to find a vehicle that matches your budget and extends the benefits of the driver’s comfort to other passengers.

Power-adjustable seating comes in all types of forms. Our personal favorite is the power-adjustable seats with built-in power lumbar support. There’s a high chance you’ve experienced lower back pain or will at some point in your life, and lumbar support has been a crucial component for many drivers––people even buy lumbar pillows for extra support on their car seats. If you do your shopping right, you won’t have to worry about any external accessories and can enjoy the comforts of driving. If it’s your first time driving with a power-adjustable seat, just don’t fall asleep when you get too comfortable.

#2: Heated Seats / Heated Steering Wheel

This one goes hand-in-hand with the power-adjustable seats we mentioned earlier: heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Although here in Midland, our winters are tamer than what you’d find somewhere in New England or Montana, it’s worth having a vehicle that supports heating elements built into your seats. It only takes one day of starting up your vehicle on a cold day to realize, “maybe I should have opted for those heated seats.” Again, in Texas, this isn’t always the biggest of our concerns, but it’s also important to have if you plan on traveling to colder climates. You can opt for a heated steering wheel so you truly never have to worry about uncomfortable mornings on your commute. Even if you aren’t traveling in the cold, a heated steering wheel is still nice if you are a person who always has cold hands.

Heated seats also allow us to bring up another feature––an honorable mention, if you will. If you’re putting time and effort into deciding which type of seat you want––like a power-adjustable heated seat––you may as well consider what material you want your seats to be made up of. For example, cloth seats are regularly the standard unless you’re purchasing a more premium-oriented vehicle. Cloth seats are considered basic, but if you spend more, you can often upgrade to leatherette, synthetic leather, or genuine leather. You are going to want to warm up leather on colder days anyways because sitting on cold leather is an experience many of us have had and one that we prefer to avoid at all costs.

#3: Rearview Camera

We’ll put it bluntly: if a vehicle doesn’t have a rearview camera, look elsewhere. Rearview cameras were once considered high-tech, but then again, so were CD players. Sure, if a vehicle you’re buying doesn’t have a CD player, it may not be a deal breaker in the age of digital media through our phones and other music players, but would you still spend so much money on a vehicle that omits a feature universally recognized as standard? No, you likely wouldn’t. To be fair, any vehicle built from 2018 onward will have a rearview camera as required by law, but if you are looking at used models before then, you need to make sure you get one.

Any driving instructor would tell their students not to get used to the rearview camera so they can learn the old ways of reversing by looking over their shoulders, and that’s still the preferred method. The camera provides extra information about your surroundings you should take into consideration, like how close you are to an object behind you. Often, manufacturers add a few extra features to the rearview camera, such as a parking assist that displays the trajectory of your vehicle’s reverse path in real-time.

#4: An Infotainment Center

The rearview camera seamlessly brings us to our next item on this list: an infotainment center. It doesn’t matter what size the screen is, if your vehicle doesn’t have an infotainment center, find one that has it. Sure, if you’re upgrading from an older vehicle, you may have never experienced an infotainment center, but there’s no doubt it plays a significant role in how we perceive our vehicles as crucial tools in our lives and is the modern-day standard. Everything is a computer if you think about it, and infotainment centers blend the versatility of an internet-connected device with the functions you associate with your radio––like audio controls.

Having an infotainment center also opens the door to other modern features we’ve become accustomed to. For example, many modern-day infotainment centers include features like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto––sometimes the wireless variety. Infotainment centers often include USB ports for charging your phone or as an AUX input, but your vehicle may also include a Wireless Charging Pad to wirelessly charge your phone––something most flagship devices support in the year 2023.

#5: Safety Features

Again, this is something you are going to find as a pretty standard offering in most recent vehicles, but older models may or may not have a suite of safety and driver assist features. Many manufacturers take part in such a concept, like Honda Sensing, Ford CoPilot360, Chevy Safety Assist, and many more. These suites will have many similar features, but what comes standard does vary from brand to brand and model to model. Features you can expect to find in modern-day safety suites include forward collision alert, automatic emergency braking, parking assist, blind-zone monitoring, and much more (though names for these features will vary). In the year 2023, you may as well invest in your future and ensure you have a vehicle that takes the necessary steps to prevent accidents or lessen the damage when they occur.

We Could Keep Going

Picking a list of five features we couldn’t live without wasn’t easy, and we could easily keep going. The most helpful part about the modern-day automotive industry is that everyone has different tastes, but manufacturers are more equipped than ever to accommodate even the most specific of drivers. There’s a chance your top five list may look entirely different, but that’s the pure beauty of a discussion like this. If you want to find used vehicles with the features you’re looking for, then visit us at Classic Honda of Midland today.

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