XCscott
01-09-2004, 09:01 AM
A few threads here seem to be about "I love my XC but why..." and "I wish...". Well here are some items from an electronics standpoint that are in my 2nd vehicle, '03 Chev Trailblazer LTZ, that maybe people could banter about as positives or negatives. Most of the items below are programmable by the driver from a menu on the dash contrlled by the steering wheel buttons.
1. Optional automatic locking doors when vehicle shifts into gear.
2. Complete Driver 1 and Driver 2 settings. Allow me to explain. My wife is driver 1. When she opens the car with her remote it sets the seat and outside mirrors to her profile. It sets the heat control settings to her last settings. It changes the radio settings, stations, equilizer, volume to her preferences. When I use my remote or simply hit the #2 setting when in park, it changes everything to my preferences.
3. "Easy exit" seat option. When the vehicle is placed in park, the seat backs up about 3-5 inches creating additional clearance from the steering wheel. Very beneficial if you are 6-9 months pregnant.
On a previous vehicle there was a fairly innovative but ultimitely doomed 8-6-4 cylinder control. This was the old GM Cadillac engines from the early 80's. Depending on the vehicle revs the engine would actually "close" active cylinders to reduce gas consumption. If you do an extreme amount of highway driving this was very good. However the technology was probably too far inferior for the idea at the time.
Anyone else have some innovations/toys from other cars that we can debate the merrits of?
1. Optional automatic locking doors when vehicle shifts into gear.
2. Complete Driver 1 and Driver 2 settings. Allow me to explain. My wife is driver 1. When she opens the car with her remote it sets the seat and outside mirrors to her profile. It sets the heat control settings to her last settings. It changes the radio settings, stations, equilizer, volume to her preferences. When I use my remote or simply hit the #2 setting when in park, it changes everything to my preferences.
3. "Easy exit" seat option. When the vehicle is placed in park, the seat backs up about 3-5 inches creating additional clearance from the steering wheel. Very beneficial if you are 6-9 months pregnant.
On a previous vehicle there was a fairly innovative but ultimitely doomed 8-6-4 cylinder control. This was the old GM Cadillac engines from the early 80's. Depending on the vehicle revs the engine would actually "close" active cylinders to reduce gas consumption. If you do an extreme amount of highway driving this was very good. However the technology was probably too far inferior for the idea at the time.
Anyone else have some innovations/toys from other cars that we can debate the merrits of?