Hidden Features in Cars – You will be surprised! » MotorOctane

Manufacturers love to boast about their cars’ extensive feature list. They use it as the main selling point and will try to squeeze every single feature of the vehicle into the brochure. On top of the feature list, manufacturers add hidden amenities to enhance the vehicle’s quirkiness and practicality. Here are some features your car has that you didn’t even know about.

Toyota Fortuner

The Toyota Fortuner has one intriguing feature that you probably didn’t know about. Open up the boot, and you will find a plastic panel on the left. You would find the jack and other tools necessary in case of a puncture. But behind these tools, you can find 2 long pieces of plastic. There is no direct purpose of this part until you fold down the 3rd row of seats.

Once the boot floor is flat, you will find the two seat brackets exposed. The plastic parts fit perfectly onto these brackets, concealing them and giving the boot a cleaner look. It also serves more than just an aesthetic feature, since dust can no longer collect inside these brackets, and you get a completely flat cabin floor at the same time.

Maruti Suzuki WagonR

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The WagonR has been the most practical hatchback in India for quite some time now. However, the WagonR is popular as a fleet vehicle, and most fleet models come equipped with a CNG tank in the boot, severely reducing boot space. Maruti Suzuki identified this issue and decided to maximise cabin practicality. You get lots of cubby space inside and a secret compartment to help store your stuff.

Many WagonR owners are unaware of such a compartment. To find it, reach into the crack in the front passenger seat. It will be a struggle, but once you go deep enough, you will get your hands on a fabric strap. Pull this strap outwards to extend the lower part of the seat.

Once the seat has been pulled out, you will find the compartment. The compartment is large enough to fit 5 1L bottles or a few sets of trousers. This compartment serves as a basket because it has a handle. You can take out this basket and put your groceries in it if you like.

The outgoing WagonR also has a similar tray underneath the front passenger seat. This tray is easier to find but is much smaller than the one found in the prior generation.

Honda CRV

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India only recently got onto the SUV trend, but Honda released one such revolutionary SUV back in the early 2000s. The CR-V may not have been a best-seller, but it did have a few unique features. One of these features was a folding table! Yes, you heard that right, the CR-V came with a folding table in the boot.

This folding table was available in the first and second-gen models but was discontinued after the 2006 unit. Since the spare wheel was mounted on the tailgate, a space remained in the boot. Honda engineers decided to utilise this space uniquely by installing a foldable table. You can simply pull out this plastic table and unfold the legs. Now, you can have a cold drink and a nice meal by the side of the road. This feature screams of the 2000s, and such quirks are lost in modern cars.

Volkswagen Polo

The Volkswagen Polo was popular for many things, but practicality wasn’t one of them. Still, it was a quirky car with many notable features that many cars from that era lacked, like one-touch window up and down.

The Polo had one major design flaw. People commonly like to put the windscreen wipers up when parked. This has become a common habit amongst Indian car owners. The primary objective of this habit to make cleaning a bit easier. But with the Polo, if you tried to do so, the right wiper would scrape against the bonnet. After a certain point, this habit damages the paint near the scraping area and also wears out the wipers.

Volkswagen considered this problem when designing the Polo. Once you turn off the car after your drive, turn the ignition key all the way off into the natural position. Next, slightly turn the switch up until you hear a small click, or into the first position. This would only turn on the electrical systems, but the ignition remains off. Now slightly pull up the wiper stalk. This would cause the wipers to complete a half-swipe, and they are now upright. Turn off the vehicle, and pull the wiper away from the windshield. This time around, there is no contact between the wiper and the bonnet, which saves you a lot on repainting costs.

Tata Safari

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No, this is not the new Tata Safari we are talking about. We are talking about the original Tata Safari. It came with modern-day features like heated ORVMs. This feature is relatively uncommon even by today’s standards, and yet, Safari had it back in the early 2000s. This feature can be pretty helpful during the monsoon or winter seasons, when the mirror can fog up. To activate this feature, all you needed to do was press the defogger switch on the dashboard. Additionally, it also had rain-sensing wipers, which seemed like a revelation back in 2006.

Mahindra XUV500

The XUV500 was a revolutionary car for the Indian market and may have been the catalyst for the current SUV dominance. It came packed with many luxury features, like light-sensing and cornering headlamps and voice recognition, which were rare for a car in that price bracket.

Most of the abovementioned features serve a purpose, but this one seems rather pointless. Open the glovebox of the XUV500, and you would be greeted with an ample amount of cabin space. However, you would also notice a weird slot in the glove box. This slot holds your business cards. Mahindra must have predicted that the car would be popular among businessmen and used as a luxury car rather than an off-roading machine.