Features you've discovered about your car after a year or more

I had an ‘84 Mustang with the horn button on the end of the turn signal lever. It was well over two years before I noticed.

Evidently I didn’t use the horn much then, even now I still haven’t developed the reflex.
 
92 cutlass ciera had manual seats but power recline. I found the button on the lower forward section of the seat cushion, because of course it belongs there. Had been riding around for years in an uncomfortable position. Wife discovered it dinged from the BCM if driven more than a mile with the blinker on.

My 06 prius has a radio that gets louder the faster I go. Just found the setting. My 05 was supposed to have had a levelling gizmo run the HID headlights but it broke at some point in its 300k. The servo motors had screwdriver/ nutdriver flats so I was able to aim the headlights without their help anyway, and the computer didn't complain about its being unplugged.
 
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I can tell you my 05 Cadillac STS didn't have seats that folded down in the back. It had a tiny hole that would open up behind the rear arm rest so you could put your ski's through from the trunk. Because that's what fancy Cadillac folks are concerned with I guess.
I had a '96 maxima that was the same. No fold down seats. Just a pass through behind the armrest.
 
last year, I found out that the '00 Sonata, I Sold in 2010 had a Cabin Filter.
I owned that car from Aug. '01-Feb.'10, put over 100k mi on it.... never new it was there... that might explain some noises from the blower every now and again...sounded like leaves getting ground up...
 
CarPlay, auto text read out, GPS based weather/current traffic conditions, calculator, and GPS mileage radius were all features I had but never used. I'd only see them when I was clearing personal data right before I sold the car.
 
This is not a feature, but a caveat. On Saturday I flipped through the user manual for the '16 Buick and ran across this:

"Do not use washer fluid that contains any type of water repellent coating. This can cause the wiper blades to chatter and skip."

I don't think I've ever seen that in a manual before! How about you?
 
Cabin air filter in my 2008 Impala. Discovered it after 5 years and only because youtube suggested the filter video when I was looking for help on changing the heater blend door. Unlike my other cars with the filter behind the dash, this one was outside under the cowl and wiper plastic.

Also 2-3 years after buying a 2014 Edge for my daughter I discovered it had the ABS hill holder feature. This was first car we owned with this feature and at first I thought the brake calipers were sticking.
 
Since I normally just walk up to the Edge to open it.....If I unlock it with the remote it has a bunch of lights that light up all of the area within 3-4 feet around the car. It looked weird. I found this out about the two year mark.
 
On my Camry, if you turn the key in the trunk lock to the left, and remove the key, the interior trunk release will cease to function

I believe this is "valet" and and intended to be used in conjunction with the valet key (which no one ever does)

The keyfob release will still work, but you wouldn't be giving the attendant the fob anyway, just the grey key that won't work in the trunk or glovebox locks

On my '01 Villager (I taught my parents this as a kid) you can tie the 2 position seat/mirror memory to the remotes, so his and hers have the seats and mirrors to position 1/2 before they get in

I thought that kinda high end for the era 👌
 
My last car - a VW Group model (SEAT Leon) - it was only about 3 months before I sold it that I discovered that the car infotainment unit could read and display SMS from my iPhone. I had connected my phone by Bluetooth the whole time and knew it would do hands-free calling but only discovered the SMS option when my wife got a new car that did the same thing, so I looked at mine again. All it required was me to tick the "Show Notifications" box in the iPhone Bluetooth device settings and boom, done! And this is from an obsessive manual-reader and system fiddler; I must always know how everything works in my cars - this thing though was not in the manual and was more about knowing how the phone worked.
 
Just found this out with my truck, which doesn’t have push button start but uses a fob. You can put your finger into where the fob goes and turn it, but obviously it won’t start. But if you hold the key close enough while turning it with your finger, it’ll fire right up!
 
I was pretty well read on the Giulia before I bought it, but a few months after doing so I discovered that there’s a little plug in the glove box that when opened, redirects some AC into the glovebox to turn it into a cooler.

I can’t imagine ever using it, but a neat little feature.
 
My brother in law was selling his 2004 Jetta and a buyer pointed out it had a 6 cd changer. He had bought used driven it over 10 years and never knew it was there.
 
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