Small details you love about your car

I know it's old-tech, but the arm that reaches out with the seatbelt from the B pillar when you start the car. Not a big thing, but when you're big around the shoulders/chest and have a fucked up lower back, it's a God send.

It's a good question and I wonder if the 7 is the same as the 5, but I never noticed!

Similar to the point Racing makes, I liked the 'door to door' leather on the 7, I guess that's to be expected, but the surprising part was the B Pillar being covered in leather (up to where the headliner starts) with a nice contrast double stitch which lined up with the armrest in the door.  Just a shame it didn't have an Alcantara headliner. 

You can see it if you zoom in on this picture.





I also liked the way the tweeters lit up, but I know that's not to everyones taste.

With my current car, the thing I appreciate every day is not only the steering wheel moving up out of the way (which is normal with electric wheels), the seat drops down to the lowest setting and the suspension goes into access mode so it feels like you are being dropped off whenever you park up.  There's even more leather than there was in the 7, which makes it feel pretty special inside.

Doesn't really fit in the design detail bracket, more functionality, but being able to control the seats from the touchscreen was a surprise.  Having the ability to put the rears up and down feels a bit pointless (use the buttons inside the boot), but it is useful to be able to change the memory setting on the passenger seat before someone gets in (you can do the same for both rears) and also being able to power the rear armrest up out of the way.   I also like the blind spot warning in the rear doors (clear exit monitor iirc) and the proper fridge, that's been great in the summer.

The rear seats are very adjustable (10 way inc lumbar) and even more comfortable than the 7 series, I'd say they are even better than the standard Phantom seats which before now were the most comfortable I've sat in.  Not that I sit in the rear seats in mine.

I love all the creases in the body of the Scirocco - every one is a perfect curve and flows so smoothly into the next panel.

In the Mini it's the way door mouldings light up a pattern with hidden lights at night (in the day they're plain silver).

Um mine is a 4dr.

Frameless four doors from memory include nearly all German coupaloons/fastbacks:

Mercedes CLA and CLS
All BMW Gran Coupes from 2 to 8.
Audi A5 and A7 Sportbacks
VW Passat CC and Arteon

The Model 3 and Model S both have frameless doors.

Is it electric like the Taycan?

Difficult to answer on Eva, but I like the rear lights not being three layers behind a plastic cover so they stand out nicely. I also like the hockey stick LEDs at the front, the main reason for choosing the optional lights as opposed to wanting the voodoo lighting.

The LED ambient lighting is also a huge step up from the F11.

At launch yes it was a great piece of design, however I always felt that the Grand Scenic (launched a couple of years later), did it far better:

• Want to put seats 6 and 7 up in the Zafira, you have to fold up and slide the whole centre bench forward, if the seats are occupied the occupants  have to get out; massive faff if there are kids and car seats, in the Grand Scenic, open the boot and pull the tabs, the seats fold out, want them folded away just pull the tab again, push on the seats and they fold on themselves into the floor, the Zafira, slide the whole centre row forward....... 
• Lack of legroom in seats 6 and 7 in the Zafira, the whole centre bench has to move forward, in the Grand Scenic, each centre seat slides, independently. 
• Need to load up the car for a tip run, all 3 centre seats in the Grand Scenic come out (sometimes, a, pain to put back!), the Zafira, the bench folds up and slides forward, OK a pretty good bit of design but you still have a good foot of folded seat depth left in the car. 
•  Want to carry something long but not particularly wide and a couple of passengers, you can't in a Zafira as the whole bench has to slide forward, you can in a Grand Scenic as the middle seats slide and remove independently. 

The one thing I realised this morning I really liked about the mighty Skoda, but didn't fully appreciate, was the radar-controlled cruise. 

Right about the time a moron in a Juke pulled out about 50 yards in front of me this morning and the Kia didn't slow down by itself!! 

Voodoo cruise would be so much better if people could drive at a steady speed, which most seem to be incapable of. That means it often annoys me on the motorway, so I really only use it in average speed limits and when it really is brilliant, in slow moving or stop/start traffic as it keeps you in the centre of the lane as well.

The Fiat's rife with great little design features - in a way that's its main thang.

But one of the things I most like about my wife's 500 is the interior colour scheme, which features cream plastics and leather trimmings (the so-called "Ivory Ambience"). It ought by rights to be horrid (cream plastics?!?) but it isn't. Combined with the body colour dash panel (white in this case) and jazzy half red and half cream fabric seats, it's just a fun, fresh and funky sort of place to be.

500s with the "Black Ambience" and oft-specified grey tweedy seats don't look anywhere near as jolly and appealing.

I don't know why more manufacturers don't offer more fun and/or homely interiors. Volvo gets it interiors-wise but I don't really care for the actual cars. I really don't like the black/grey monotone plastic landscape in so many modern cars.

I was invited to a pre-launch preview of the Kadjar; the car on display had a very nice cream interior and a number of us at the event remarked how nice it was and how it lifted the interior. We were told that UK-spec cars wouldn't get this option, only black.  The reason was apparently because so many cars sold in the UK were company-owned and they knew that the keepers wouldn't look after them, and a light-coloured interior would show more dirt and be harder to clean for good resale value.  So it appears that company car ownership is what drives the dull interiors of a lot of cars sold in the UK

On the Benz I really like the adjustable side bolsters on the driver's seat which means that I can have the seat wrapped around me. I really sit in the seat, rather than on it and together with the multi-level, multi-adjustable lumbar support it is an extremely comfortable place to be. The voodoo cruise and voodoo lights are also superb.

On the Mini the head up display is a must-have to overcome the style-over-ergonomics design of the main dashboard.

On the Standard it is the group of remote greasing points under the bonnet, which reduces the amount of crawling around under the car required.

On the Alvis it is the fact that all the brightwork is nickel plated, rather than vulgar, modern chrome!

My 1992 Shogun had vents for the rearmost passengers as did my Alphard.

BMW don't appear to do the torch anymore but the first aid kit is still there, albeit I think it's in the spare wheel well now (must go out and check in case the parcel of stuff there is actually something else more exciting