[NiInJa]

Along with the ones covered already, the trend that I am liking is even the smallest cars are being sold with good music systems (not in terms of sound quality) that have additional features like navigation, voice commands, car usage statistics and other information which is a real boon and a step in the right direction as Internet of Things (IoT) becomes more prominent in automobiles. Soon, we might get e-sims working in day-to-day cars.

[IshaanIan]

For me it has got to be the infotainment systems. Touchscreens, apple car play, Android auto, decent sounding speaker setups I mean today's Grand i10 sounds so much better and it's infotainment system can do so much more than the 1st generation fluidic Verna. The Tiago sounds better than any Honda City, clearly in car entertainment is moving forward and that is the one and only thing I like about new cars honestly.

Oh that and I forgot to mention; brakes! Braking is generally improving with new cars.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

For me it has got to be the infotainment systems...

+1 to that, with the caveat that I like clean in-dash integration most Hyundai cars have, and they're pretty decent usability-wise too.

Not a fan of the stick-out ergonomic and visibility disasters from Ford or Tata.

[rovingeye]

I skimmed through the thread and am surprised nobody has mentioned heated/cooled seats yet. Living in Delhi - we see extremes of summer and winter each year. The next car I buy will surely have this feature.

[Ranger747]

Great observations! Multiple people mentioned infotainment systems. I too agree here. Along with all the mechanical improvements, the car electronics has come a long way and still has a long road ahead. Things that are in pipeline are so promising. For example multiple car makers including BMW, VW, Toyota are all working on Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication. This has potential to save lives. I feel, the infotainment screen in future is going to host a lot more meaningful data and analytics. It could analyze your driving habits and may even get an insurance discount if you are a careful driver.

Safety features are becoming standard these days. Its is really great. Earlier it was a luxury feature while music player came standard. It's a change in public mentality too. Finally car makers make what people are willing to pay for.

cheers!

[turbowhistle]

Superb thread. I echo most of the thoughts here and so many apt trends. Will try to list out my favourites.

1.Me being a techy, I love how the infotainment systems have evolved from cassette players to screens that can rival iPads.
2.Most manufactures are more alert about the safety and the cars are getting more and more robust everyday.
3. Power is easily available, there are so many cars available with 100+ factory horses which makes it really fast and reliable
4. There are fun cars which can be daily driver easily, for example Octavia RS or Tiago JTP.
5. Although we haven’t made the switch totally yet, but we are slowly warming up to the automatics. And people have started preferring automatics over the manual counterparts.

[Rajeevraj]

It has been very interesting to see the speed at which features which were only available in premium cars, trickle down to the mass market. One good thing about herd mentality. One manufacturer does it, others have no option but to follow.

The latest feature I was surprised to see was the front parking sensors in the XUV300. Expect it to become standard in this range soon.

The next wave I see is related to advanced driver assistance systems. Autonomous cars are a long way away, but the lower levels of automation with related to collision warnings, AEB, ACC, Driver Fatigue Alert Mechanisms I believe are important as the traffic levels soar in our country. This trend may just skip some of the premium cars and come straight to the mass market.

Am surprised to see that no one is offering the Dashcam as an OEM fitment.

[deadguy25]

A quick list:

1. All four disk brakes.
2. Air bags.
3. All kinds of sensors - inside and outside the car.
4. Preset (customized seating positions).
5. Seat belts for all in the cabin.
6. Adjustable steering.
7. EPS.
8. Power windows.
9. Climate control.
10. Anything else I may have missed.

I do notice one thing missing, years ago, few high-end cars had tiny wipers for their headlights. I do not seem them on any car now, not sure why.

[vivek_lm]

1. Six plus airbags being on offer. I sincerely hope the seven airbags that Yaris offers as standard becomes the trend sooner rather than later.
2. ABS+EBD becoming standard, thanks to stricter government rules. Hope ESP follows suit in the near future.
3. Mention of safety and crashworthiness and the (well deserved) increasing importance being attributed to it.
4. Automatics being available in lower variants.

[BeantownThinker]

There are 2 features that I want to see more in the cars to come.

1. A center console that controls all the functions of the car and more. Like the mobile has replaced the calculator, the pda, the camera, the watch, etc, I want the center console to take over all functions of the car for which we use different gadgets today. It should integrate the speedo, the tacho, fuel gauge, temp indicator, the music system, navigation, OBD scanner, the dash cam, car configurator, etc.

Given below is a sample image of how the Tesla console looks like today (image taken from their website)





2. I really dig the new cameras replacing the ORVM in the new Lexus. They are so much better than the current ORVM available in the mass market. I really hope these trickle down to the mass market soon.

http://youtu.be/-SNnL-virlc

[Samba]

Driving became easy!

Driving on congested roads - Power steering
A tight parking - rear camera/ sensors
An emergency maneuver - Abs, Ebd, Esc, Traction control
You crashed your car - Airbags
You hit a pedestrian - Pedestrian friendly bumpers
Got lost - GPS
Have to attend a call while driving - Bluetooth
Rear window became foggy or dirty - Defogger / rear wiper
Going for a long drive - Cruise control
Feeling bored - In car entertainment

Few major leap mechanically from my point of view will be -

Carburetor to MPFI
Drum brakes to Disc brakes
Much improved electrical's
Relaibility
Space management
In earlier cars, rust was a major problem which we hardly find in our modern day cars unless its very poorly maintained.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by motorworks

Nice thread!

However what I absolutely hate is the new obsession over infotainment systems in cars. The very second feature that is being advertised these days is the size of the screen. This obsession leads to car manufacturers spending more money on infotainment rather than safety and useful essentials like rear disc brakes, or any other useful feature. All of us already have 5-7inch handheld screens, laptops, tablets, big screen TVs and more.
Wish this obsession stops at a point and we quickly move on to other needed features.

I beg to disagree. A large, the larger the better, display screen is one of the most important features for me. I would not even consider a car that came with a less than 8 inch display and would prefer the ones that come with a 12 inch or bigger display. A fully electronic display behind the steering is even more desirable. A good example are the Volvo XC40 and XC90. Both have fully digital displays along with large control screens. It really helps with safety aids as you can see a 360 degree camera, navigation and other useful information.

[Ranabegins]

I don't know if fuel efficiency qualifies as a trend or not but that's something I really appreciate about these new engines. Earlier it used to be a challenge to extract the ARAI claimed mileage from cars but now a days if you drive keeping the mileage in mind and don't put too much of weight on the accelerator you can easily go higher then the claimed mileage.

[landcruiser123]

Toyota like reliability is not guaranteed in non-Toyota vehicles, but other brands have significantly bridged the gap that the reliability is not a USP for many ~95% users. If I were driving across the Sahara desert, I'd still do it only on a Toyota.

I like the fact the 2 airbags and ABS are guaranteed across all variants of lower segments. In 2007, the (diesel) Innova V costing 12.5 big ones offered dual airbags and ABS as standard. In 2018, we got even the Swift and Ignis offering ABS and dual airbags standard across all variants.

Also, I like powerful versions of regular cars- Baleno RS, Abarth Punto, Tiago JTP etc. MSIL messed up by removing the S-Cross with the 1.6 diesel.

[five46]

Easy finance is a trend which can also be added to the list. Though not a virtue of any car in itself, but the plethora of finance options has made buying a car that much within reach.

Options like 100% on-road funding, step-up EMI, etc. allows one to even look at a segment above than segment originally planned for.