In one of our recent Top 5 pieces, we looked at our favorite car options that people rarely have on their cars. In this Top 5, we wanted to take a look at some car options that have been popping up on a bunch of cars recently, that we think are actually useless. We have chosen five popular car options that are available in a lot of cars, that cost additional money to buy, but are rarely used on a daily basis.
Sport Mode We love the current crop of sports car that all have adjustable drive modes to configure the car. Ford got a lot of publicity with the Drift Mode in the Focus RS, which has now been copied by Mercedes. In a sports car, these modes are usually very distinct, but the sport mode on a boring family sedan is a different story. We have seen sport buttons on everything from the Hyundai Elantra to the Lexus ES, but they really don’t do much. People who purchase these cars aren’t expecting a canyon carving sports car. These buttons rarely get pushed, and are therefore useless.
Paddle Shifters Just to be clear, we aren’t referring to automatic transmissions, just the paddle shifters attached to them. Like our sport mode choice, we love paddle shifters when they are actually relevant. However, a CVT Honda Accord does not need paddle shifters. How many people actually drive their Accord around “shifting gears” through traffic? In most mainstream cars, the paddle shifters get used on the test drive after the salesman points out how cool they are, and maybe once or twice in the first month to show off to friends. After that, people rarely use them which makes them a waste of money.
Rear Seat Entertainment This is one of our most hated tech features in cars. It was nice as a kid to have a car DVD player in the back of the car, but kids today have so many more options like iPods and iPads that make the rear seat entertainment systems seem like a waste of money. These systems can cost thousands of dollars from the manufacturer, when you could just as easily go out and buy two iPads for your kids for a fraction of the price. We do like the expensive systems in cars like Porsche and Mercedes that can access car menus and control infotainment, but we wouldn’t want to relinquish control of the radio to screaming kids in the back seat.
Power-Adjustable Seats On our previous list, we declared our love for high tech seats with advanced functions like massaging. However, we also admit that power-adjustable seats are usually just a useless option. Jay Leno likes to point out that a power seat usually only gets used once. After the driver has set up their seat preference, the power seat remains dormant for most of the car’s life. The only exception to this is when one car has multiple drivers that frequently switch out. For this scenario, memory seats can come in handy. For everyone else, power seats are just heavy objects that get hauled around without much purpose.
Moonroof/Sunroof A large, panoramic moonroof can make a car’s interior seem extremely spacious even if it is very crammed. These large glass units have made the normal moonroof seem silly in comparison. We rarely see people driving around with their moonroof open, which defeats the point of having one that even opens at all. Many automakers have started to offer a “moonroof delete” option for enthusiasts who know that the moonroof adds weight up high, which can ruin a car’s handling.
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Basic Knowledge of Car DVD PlayerFeatures: As a replacement for CD player, car DVD playerhas been upgraded with more functions, such as GPS navigation and iPod/iPhone input etc. What’s more, it’s equipped with display screen and Win CE/ Android intelligent OS, which left a large space to expand and add more functions. Specification: The car audio playerwhich equipped with display screen is bigger than the traditional CD player. Currently, the double DIN car DVD player is quite common. Function:With the rapid development of electronic application technology in recent years, the car stereohas become a “integrated platform”. It not only supports Bluetooth, Wi-fi, but supports DVR and hands-free etc. Input:Generally speaking, CD/DVD, FM and DAB is the way to input audio and video. But nowadays, car audio player can read and play various audio, video and document files through USB/AUX/SD card and Bluetooth. Output:Choices for output include audio signal and RCA. To transfer the signal to DSP processor, few stereos would also support optical and coaxial output. Touch screen: More and more in-dash car DVD players are equipped with the HD touch screen. Therefore, the sensitivity and response speed of touch screen are important standards to measure the units’ Sound quality:Most Android car head unitis equipped with single DVD pick up head, which don’t perform as well as special CD pick up head. Thus, we’ll recommend users to buy DSP audio processor additionally.
FAQ for Android Car Stereo Amplifier1.How can I populate my address book’s contacts into the Android car stereo universal? A: For downloading the address book’s contacts from your phone to the radio: firstly, you need to pair your phone with the Android head unit, then please click the contacts icon and search your contacts like the following picture: Please make sure that you use the built-in contacts in your phone, otherwise it can not be searched. Also, if your smartphone runs Android 5.0 OS or above, please allow all the submissions in your phone when the stereo searches the contacts. 2.After installing the car DVD player, I can’t hear any sound through the speakers or the Bluetooth. The music is attenuated but no phone or GPS instructions can be heard. Is there a hidden menu to give more volume to GPS and Bluetooth? A: Normally, we don’t have hidden menu to give more volume. And for setting the GPS app sound ( we pre-installed the IGO free copy version ), please check the setting below: You can re-install the IGO app from our SD card to check whether it would help or not. Besides, please enter the settings=>GPS, make sure that you turn on the GPS monitoring. You can turn up the GPS mixing ratio so that the GPS sound would be louder. As for the Bluetooth issue, if you make the phone call via Bluetooth, please well close your car windows and doors, then turn the volume of both your phone and the head unit to the middle level. You can also enter the factory setting ( the password is 126 ), and check the BT setting. 3.In case of the extra mic, how can I increase the volume ? I don’t find any possibility to adjust the mic volume in the car audio player. A: Please use the extra mic and increase the car radio’s volume. 4.I’m not able to get torque to recognize that Bluetooth is on. Therefore, I can’t connect Bluetooth to the OBD. I can connect to it from my phone but not from the Pumpkin Car Head Unit. Is there something I can do to get this to work ? A: For pairing the OBDII, you need to know the protocol of your car and select the correct protocol in “Torque”. Followings are the whole instruction: ①Please enter “Bluetooth ”application, then set the pairing code of the radio to the same one as the OBDII scanner’Generally, it would be 0000 or 1234. ( please try both ) ②Then please open the built-in torque, choose the OBDII scanner MAC address in the application setting and choose your car protocol. 5.How do I change the default music app ? A: Since the car DVD player Bluetooth is based on Android 4.4, you can download other music player apps like Spotify in the built-in play store ( need Wifi or other Internet source ) and install it on the head unit.…
Car Stereo Installation GuideBy Robert Ferency-Viars This installation guide walks you through the process of installing a new Android car stereo. Please read over these guidelines before beginning the installation in order to give yourself an idea of what to expect. Tools Needed (depending upon vehicle) Remove the factory stereo When installing a new stereo in your car, your first step will be to remove the old stereo. Pay close attention to the steps involved, for the process for installing your new stereo will be the same, but in reverse. For detailed information on how to remove the factory stereo in a specific vehicle, refer to your Crutchfield MasterSheet™ instructions, if available. They will walk you through the process step-by-step. Otherwise, you may use the general guidelines below. Before you begin, start by setting the parking brake and removing the negative cable from the car battery to prevent accidentally short circuiting something. Disconnect your battery's negative terminal before any installation job to protect your electrical system.. Your factory stereo will be mounted in one of two ways: secured in a metal mounting sleeve by spring clips bolted to the dash with brackets…
