Hidden features in modern cars: Part-II

This is in continuation to our previous story on hidden features that your car may have and you aren’t aware of.

Wiper service position

Skodas, VWs, BMW

When a car is being cleaned or the wiper blades need replacement, the wipers need to be lifted up. Some cars are designed in such a way that the wipers cannot be lifted up due to the bonnet design. In such cars, the wipers have a service position which will move the wipers up and allow you to lift them. In all Skodas and VWs, the way to do this is to pull the wiper stalk down after shutting the ignition. The wiper blades will then move upwards. This will help you lift the wipers without damaging the paint on the bonnet

Programmable come home lamps

Fiats, Skodas,VWs,  BMWs, Maruti Baleno

Some cars come equipped with come home laps that need to be activated. This feature leaves the light on for a predefined amount of time after the car has been shut, illuminating the path ahead. In the Fiat cars (Punto, Linea), they can be activated by pulling the head lamp lever towards you after removing the key (withing 2 minutes). The duration of that can be changed by pulling the lever multiple times. For example, pulling once will give you 30 seconds of illumination, pulling twice will give 60 seconds and till a maximum of 210 seconds. Skodas and VWs need to be plugged into the VCDS software to change the settings for lower end versions. For higher end versions, it can be done in car settings. The Maruti Baleno too has the option of changing the time duration of come home lamps.

Auto light shut

Fiats, Skodas and some VWs

Some cars come with head lamp warnings that beep if the car has been turned off and the head lamps remain on. Other cars will automatically shut the head lamps when the engine is shut. We tried it on the Fiats as well as the Skodas and found that this is a very useful feature.

HU time set

Fiats

Some people who have fiddled around with the stereo settings on their Fiats have found out that there is an option to leave the stereo on for a maximum period of 20 minutes after the key is removed. The setting can be changed in the menu option of the radio (radio off).

Image source: 4

Continued below: Hidden features in modern cars part-II