Trickle-Down Luxury
There’s an old saying that if you want to know what features will be on mainstream vehicles in a few years’ time, take a look at the current Mercedes-Benz S-Class. That car foreshadowed numerous items which proliferate today, from intelligent cruise control to passive keyless entry.
Some gear shows up these days because it is federally mandated, such as stability control and backup cameras. Still, such things are a boon to new drivers, though safety wonks are right to caution against an over-reliance on such helpers. There’s no replacement for solid instruction and good habits.
[Images: Hyundai, Kia, Nissan]
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Heated seats have been democratized for ages, to the point where they are even present in my son’s ancient Hyundai Elantra. They still work even as the odometer rapidly spins its way to the 400,000 mark, by the way. But heated rear seats? Those used to be the stuff of top shelf autos only a few short years ago. For a spell, the aforementioned Elantra, albeit one much newer, was available with such optional largesse. It is mildly humorous that marketers need to be ultra precise with the description of this feature, generally describing it as ‘heated rear outboard seating positions’ or something similar. You just know some litigious individual would be more than happy to slap a major automaker with a lawsuit after finding out the entire rear bench of their new ride isn’t heated by upholstered elements.
And while this post wasn’t intended to have a focus on seating comfort when I started writing it a few minutes ago, we should also point out that ventilated seats are also becoming very common in affordable machinery. Like the hyper-descriptive moniker mentioned above, car companies are also vigilant about how they describe this chilly feature.
Look closely and you’ll find some brands advertised ‘cooled’ seats while others specifically say ‘ventilated’ seats. This is because unless the car is actively pumping chilled air to the seating surface, it isn’t technically cooled. Simply turning on a fan to move air around, as most of these systems do, provides ventilation and not cooling - at least in the strictest of terms. Thanks again, lawyers.
Enormous infotainment screens are a mixed bag in this industry, with some companies choosing to funnel just about every solitary function through such a display. This is irritating on several levels but bean counters like it since it means the brand doesn’t need to spend money designing and installing buttons. Fortunately, several carmakers are listening to the outpouring of frustration and incorporating more physical touchpoints with the latest redesign.
Still, they’re not all bad, allowing the display of enormous maps to help prevent people from getting lost or providing accompaniment to whatever tunes are blaring from the speakers. Economies of scale all but assure a bit of standardization here; for example, the upcoming 2026 Nissan Sentra will feature a huge 12.3-inch infotainment display across all trims, even the base S.
