You’re not wrong. I’m more talking about the other bullshit. HUDs instead of gauge cluster (or in addition to), power mirrors, power seats, heated and cooled seats, etc etc. There’s so much of this type of thing that has crept up to base models.
HUDs are great, you get to see your speed without taking the eyes off the road. They’re also an optional extra even in expensive cars.
Power mirrors have been around since the 80s. Heated seats are pretty much required in my climate, cooled is nice too - and only the former is standard (and only costs like a hundred bucks per car at most to implement tbh, it’s a REALLY simple system). Actually if you want to go real cheap, the Dacia Sandero for 15k€ doesn’t even have heated seats either. You have to pay 500€ for the thermo package to get those + automatic climate control.
If these things (cooled seats in particular) are now standard in base spec low-end cars in the North American market, it must mean people weren’t buying cars without them. Because they’re still optional extras in Europe.
You’re not wrong. I’m more talking about the other bullshit. HUDs instead of gauge cluster (or in addition to), power mirrors, power seats, heated and cooled seats, etc etc. There’s so much of this type of thing that has crept up to base models.
HUDs are great, you get to see your speed without taking the eyes off the road. They’re also an optional extra even in expensive cars.
Power mirrors have been around since the 80s. Heated seats are pretty much required in my climate, cooled is nice too - and only the former is standard (and only costs like a hundred bucks per car at most to implement tbh, it’s a REALLY simple system). Actually if you want to go real cheap, the Dacia Sandero for 15k€ doesn’t even have heated seats either. You have to pay 500€ for the thermo package to get those + automatic climate control.
If these things (cooled seats in particular) are now standard in base spec low-end cars in the North American market, it must mean people weren’t buying cars without them. Because they’re still optional extras in Europe.