What is something you learned about your car after you owned it?

I've had my C43 since December 2022 and I continue to learn things about it. It has so many features that can be configured. One thing I found interesting was how you can change the speed and sensitivity of the touchpads on the steering wheel and console.
 
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On our 2024 Carnival, I learned just last week that the intermittent wiper speed settings are speed-dependent. Also, when the DTE reads empty, you literally have a gallon or less on this vehicle. All my other vehicles would have multiple gallons when the DTE reads 0 miles.

I also learned after purchase that this van runs so much better on premium fuel. It has very high compression, 12.3:1, and pumping in 93 makes it feel like a different vehicle entirely.
 
The long press unlock for windows down is totally undocumented in the original owners manual for my '17 Ridgeline, although subsequent manual updates now mention it. Also on the Ridgline the instrument cluseter has a border that changes color between white and green depending on fuel economy at the moment. I had owned the truck for several years and never noticed the border until I happend to catch it in transition one day.
 
I remember a car ad from the distant past, advertising a 2-tiered glove box. They said something like "With both a glove compartment - and a compartment for gloves!"
My Ram has one like that… higher trims got a door, poverty spec like mine is just a big opening. There is currently a bible and 2 bags of nuts and bolts in mine 😉

My 2011 Durango had a calculator (presumably for calculating the exact amount of energy in your impending crash) built into the GPS system.
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I had no idea about my 2016 CRV EX has a Sport mode "S" on the transmission mode selector, and no idea of what a hoot is to use when the vehicle is all warmed up and open roads are available. Sport mode makes the CVT keep the engine revs higher, the gas peddle becomes more responsive, and the I-Vtec kicks in earlier. It's like adding a very noticeable increase of horsepower. I know it's only 185 HP but it gives all it has, and truthfully, when climbing winding hills fast in S mode, I can't use full peddle for more than a few seconds because it would go fast enough to roll over in a turn.
 
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Also, I had no idea the V70 Volvos had a "telescope to extend" cross bar and safety net built into the rear seat backs.
Ditto for the rear "riser seats". It also had a pop-out frame which held a trash bag; very civil.
Inspecting the XC90 after buying it did I stumble across that middle "booster seat" set-up. Our 5 year old used that one.
 
That BMWs material planners and emission compliance engineers are a bunch of elaborate sadists - the first that will go in front of the squad when The Revolution comes.

Incidentally, in a newspaper from the future that fell through a time crack, there's a mention:

"...BMWs material planners and emission compliance engineers: a bunch of elaborate sadists - the first that went in front of the squad when The Revolution came..."

I know, I know, I'm quoting a great book here, but it's for a good cause.
 
I had been doing regular transmission drain and fills on my 1996 Corolla (bought new) since new and figured I was way ahead of the game. It had over 315,000 miles on it before I found out that unlike the 4-speed automatic available on the higher trims, the 3-speed automatic this car had, had a separate pan and drain for the differential, which also took regular dex/merc like the trans did. The fluid in there was 20 years old with 315k miles on it and I when I drained it, maybe half a quart of black, glittery, semi-liquid goop came out. I think it was supposed to be like a quart and a half of ATF. I did a few changes on it over the next year or so and it was still fine at almost 400k miles when I took it to the junkyard because of rust. I had no idea that automatic and differential were separate on this transmission. Apparently not too many did because this was a high failure part on this model because of this as hardly anybody knew they were separate. Woops...
 
I had been doing regular transmission drain and fills on my 1996 Corolla (bought new) since new and figured I was way ahead of the game. It had over 315,000 miles on it before I found out that unlike the 4-speed automatic available on the higher trims, the 3-speed automatic this car had, had a separate pan and drain for the differential, which also took regular dex/merc like the trans did. The fluid in there was 20 years old with 315k miles on it and I when I drained it, maybe half a quart of black, glittery, semi-liquid goop came out. I think it was supposed to be like a quart and a half of ATF. I did a few changes on it over the next year or so and it was still fine at almost 400k miles when I took it to the junkyard because of rust. I had no idea that automatic and differential were separate on this transmission. Apparently not too many did because this was a high failure part on this model because of this as hardly anybody knew they were separate. Woops...
My dad was quite the maintainer of cars, but my sister had a 1997 Camry. The differential came apart on the highway due to...this. He got in his truck with the tow dolly, brought her home, and found a junkyard transaxle.
 
I owned the Pilot for a couple years thinking it only sat 7 people. Then I found that despite the narrow third row seats, there is a third seatbelt back there.
 
My 2001 Jeep Cherokee has heated mirrors. I bought it about 10 months ago. I turned on the rear window defroster one day and my mirrors cleared up. This thing doesn't even have cruise control.
Thanks to your post, I took a look at our 2007 Grand Cherokee that we've had since 2010. Darned if it doesn't have heated mirrors, too. (Not that I've ever had to use them here in South Carolina).
 
Had my car 9.5 years, and just learned about dimpled panels. I assumed heat shields. Rear CAT looks nice!


In the 70's I bought a Ford Elite from Hertz in NJ. I had it for some time before I put my hand under the front seat looking for something I had dropped. Fingers found a liquefied sandwich.

Fast forward to 2020, I bought a 15 MB ML 350. I had forgotten about stop/start being on that year's vehicles. Some time later I realized that my ML should have had that but didn't. A nice discovery to me.
 
On my 2016 BMW 535d, there is a little analog "wheel" between the center air vents that you have to "roll" forward or reverse if you want full heat or full AC, independent of the temp you have the heat/ac set to. Took me a week of being cold the first winter I had it to finally figure it out. Durrrr
 
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