Features Not to Get Excited About

Imagine it's been 10 years or more since the last time you went car-shopping. That old jalopy has finally kicked the bucket, and you've been thrown into the new-car marketplace. A lot has changed on new cars, and not just under the hood.

More and more features that were considered premium a decade or two ago have filtered down to the most basic cars. Knowing which features are commonplace may prevent you from being roped into thinking that heated seats are the latest and greatest feature, and that other cars in the segment don't have them. That is, of course, untrue.

Cars.com's editors, who spend lots of time in new cars every week and are in hundreds of cars every year, have gone through lists of features and voted for ones you shouldn't get excited about the next time you're car-shopping.

Heated Seats

There's no questioning the effectiveness of heated seats — they make an unbearable winter that much easier to cope with. Heated seats are widely available and can be had in vehicles as inexpensive as a $12,000 Smart ForTwo.

Automatic Headlights

Fully automatic headlamp control uses a light sensor to turn the headlights on and off. It's a commonplace safety and convenience feature that makes sure your lights are on when they're supposed to be. If you're driving at dusk or through a tunnel during the day, the headlights turn on automatically.

Trip Computer With MPG Readout

Just about every new car has a trip computer, but many are also being equipped with miles-per-gallon monitors that allow drivers to monitor fuel efficiency and adjust driving habits for the best mileage. Nissan, for instance, has announced that every new Nissan and Infiniti model introduced will have a fuel economy monitor. Drivers can typically monitor average as well as instant fuel economy.

Keyless Entry

If there's one way to max out the search results when using Cars.com's Vehicle Recommender, it's searching for vehicles with keyless entry. The feature that locks and unlocks the doors with a key fob is standard on many new cars, and when it isn't included it's typically part of a low-cost option package.

MP3 Jack

There's no easier way to pipe music into your car from your favorite portable music device than with an auxiliary input jack. With the purchase of a basic headphone-to-headphone cable, you'll be able to play music through any portable player, meaning not just iPods. The feature is so common we're surprised when a new car doesn't have an aux input.

Tire Pressure Monitoring System

This one is a no-brainer: Beginning with the 2008 model year, all vehicles were mandated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to have tire pressure monitoring systems as standard equipment. These systems are a safety feature that warns drivers when their tire pressure has dropped.

Cruise Control

The common use of electronic "drive-by-wire" throttles under the hood of new cars makes it less expensive for automakers to integrate cruise control. Automakers need to make only minimal changes to incorporate cruise control on these types of systems.

Folding Backseat in Sedan or Coupe

Folding rear seats are relatively new — within the past decade — and new coupes and sedans today make use of this cargo-organization feature more than ever. In a 60/40 configuration, 40 percent of the rear seat can be folded down to give access to the trunk for large cargo, while the other 60 percent can still be used for seating a passenger, or vice versa, or both can be folded down together.

Power-Adjustable Outside Mirrors

Power-adjustable mirrors eliminate the need to lean over to the passenger side to adjust a manual side-view mirror, which always seems to move much more than you want it to when adjusting. Power side mirrors are available on many new small cars and almost all vehicles of other types. They're standard equipment even on a compact 2009 Toyota Corolla.

Folding Third-Row Seat

The age of yanking out heavy third-row seats is over, as new minivans offer a third row that folds flat into the floor; some come as standard equipment, some are optional. The choice you have to make now is whether to order that power-folding third row, which is available on some vans. Those fold flat into the floor with just a push of a button.

Cars.com photos by Ian Merritt