Useful car features you should use when it's raining or cold
When it's wet or cold, mirror defroster, windshield defroster, steering wheel defroster, etc. are useful features that you should use every time you drive to increase comfort and ensure safety. However, not everyone knows and pays attention to this.
Most cars today are fully equipped with features to support different weather conditions. In Vietnam, because the winter weather is not too harsh, some features are often overlooked or rarely used by users.
However, if you live in an area with cold winter weather, pay attention to the features available on the car below.
Mirror and glass drying
Mirror and glass heating is one of the equipment that has become popular on new cars recently and is a very necessary feature for car users.
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When it rains, rainwater sticks to the mirror, glass or in cold winter, dew will also condense and accumulate, affecting visibility as well as driving safety. With cars equipped with this feature, the problem of water condensation, steaming or fogging of glass will be solved.
The mirror and glass heating buttons are usually located in the air conditioning control area, the buttons are usually located in the center of the control panel. Usually the outside mirror and rear window heating will have the same icon, while the front window heating will have a separate icon.
Steering wheel dryer
Heated steering wheel is a rare feature on popular cars, except for some Korean domestic cars that were previously imported unofficially. This feature will mainly appear on luxury cars.
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An electric heating system that runs around the steering wheel will bring a pleasant warm feeling to the driver, especially in the winter. The driver also does not need to wear gloves when driving. Some cars can set the steering wheel heating to turn on automatically when the temperature drops below the set level.
The steering wheel heater symbol is usually located on the steering wheel, steering column, driver's left button cluster and sometimes appears on the air conditioning area of the center console.
Chair drying
Seat heating was previously common on car models using leather seats, but now this feature can be optional on fabric seats as well. On popular cars, seat heating will only be equipped for the front seats, while luxury cars will usually be equipped for all seats.
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Seats with heating function will warm the occupants faster than hot air conditioning system. Some high-end cars of BMW, Mercedes-Benz are even equipped with heating on the center armrest or door panels. The seat heating symbol is usually located near the gear lever area or air conditioning control area.
It is worth mentioning that the seat heating feature is bringing benefits to electric vehicles as seat heating consumes less electricity than the hot air conditioning system. Therefore, car manufacturers also recommend that in winter, electric vehicle users should use the seat heating feature rather than the air conditioning to ensure the distance traveled.
Remote start
Remote start is no longer strange to car users as this feature has gradually become popular in popular cars. Remote start is activated by key, helping users, even at home or in the office, at a certain distance from the car, to easily start the engine before getting in the car.
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With this feature, in winter, the space inside the car can be pre-heated, as long as the user sets the automatic air conditioning mode. However, in Vietnam, the remote start feature seems more useful when using the car in the summer.
Nowadays, some cars can even be started remotely via a smartphone app, so users can start their car from anywhere in the world as long as there is wifi.