There is another thread on the forum which asks 'what your car has that you didn't know about'. Its a good question but a stupid one at the same time and by this I mean that we 'men' who know everything, dont need to read the Owners manual, do we. As a result of us knowing everything we have stuff on our cars that we didn't know we had ...... hence the thread.
So this got me thinking and I have to be honest, it can be dangerous at my age but I persevered and came up with this thread .... What extras do you really need?
When I finally cut the ties to my Mothers apron and went to travel the highway and byways of Ireland as a young Sales Rep selling engineering tools I used to travel 70,000 miles a year. In those days, a passengers door mirror was an extra as was a radio! Now we have a seemingly endless selection of goodies to fit to out cars, but what do you actually need? I remember having this discussion at a sales meeting one year and I came up with stuff that we have taken for granted for years!
Back then when I started in this noble profession I had a VW Jetta LD 1.6 diesel 4 speed - no radio and no door mirror!! It had headrests though! As time passed cars got more equipment but most of it you didn't need and the stuff you wanted was extra - simple marketing I suppose! So what was on my list? Well the list has changed slightly but here it is with a few new additions but you must remember that now, as a consultant, I still travel 70,000 miles a year ....
The car must be a diesel ..... with the following
Electric front windows
Power Steering
Good sound system with a good Bluetooth phone connection
ABS
Comfortable manually adjusted cloth seats
Good headlights with a proper cleaning system
Decent washer bottle capacity with heated washer jets
Aircon
Drivers arm rest
12v power point x 2
Thats it. Its not much is it? My E220 has almost all of that and my new Passat has almost all of that and a pile more stuff that I dont use or need.
So think about it. Think about how you use your car and with that in mind, think about what do you really need. Not what's nice or nice to have but what you need to have.
I will be watching ..... ;)
So this got me thinking and I have to be honest, it can be dangerous at my age but I persevered and came up with this thread .... What extras do you really need?
When I finally cut the ties to my Mothers apron and went to travel the highway and byways of Ireland as a young Sales Rep selling engineering tools I used to travel 70,000 miles a year. In those days, a passengers door mirror was an extra as was a radio! Now we have a seemingly endless selection of goodies to fit to out cars, but what do you actually need? I remember having this discussion at a sales meeting one year and I came up with stuff that we have taken for granted for years!
Back then when I started in this noble profession I had a VW Jetta LD 1.6 diesel 4 speed - no radio and no door mirror!! It had headrests though! As time passed cars got more equipment but most of it you didn't need and the stuff you wanted was extra - simple marketing I suppose! So what was on my list? Well the list has changed slightly but here it is with a few new additions but you must remember that now, as a consultant, I still travel 70,000 miles a year ....
The car must be a diesel ..... with the following
Electric front windows
Power Steering
Good sound system with a good Bluetooth phone connection
ABS
Comfortable manually adjusted cloth seats
Good headlights with a proper cleaning system
Decent washer bottle capacity with heated washer jets
Aircon
Drivers arm rest
12v power point x 2
Thats it. Its not much is it? My E220 has almost all of that and my new Passat has almost all of that and a pile more stuff that I dont use or need.
So think about it. Think about how you use your car and with that in mind, think about what do you really need. Not what's nice or nice to have but what you need to have.
I will be watching ..... ;)