Many cars come fully-equipped and jam-packed with the latest in technology, safety and comfort. However some car companies still skimp on what you’d assume would be standard kit by now. What makes it even worse is some even charge you a small fortune for basic extras like a little cable to connect your music devices.

Five Car Features We Wish Were Standard – By David Taylor

Here is a list of what we’d hope to see fitted as standard to passenger vehicles. Let us know what you’d like to see standard in your next car, or what feature your current car is missing, that you hoped it would have.

USB Port

This is a simple one. With so many car buyers owning smartphones, the ability to charge devices is invaluable. It seems there are few smartphones (especially those named after fruit) which have a battery life spanning more than 12 hours and given the amount of usage, that device is going to bleat like a dying sheep until it can be charged. Little USB flash drives have grown considerably in size, and you can easily cram a dozen CD’s worth of music into a tiny piece of plastic the same dimensions as your thumb. It’s very convenient, but some cars still don’t have this as standard. Let’s hope the port is located somewhere sensible too, like the centre armrest, or glove compartment.

Anti-lock brakes

We find it abhorrent we live on planet with over a billion cars and yet there are still vehicles being manufactured without anti-lock brakes. Trying to justify the slower and smaller vehicles don’t actually need them because they’re slower isn’t a valid excuse. Vehicles are can be deadly regardless of whether they’re travelling at 60km/h or 120km/h. Countless studies have shown that an inexperienced driver with an ABS-equipped car can stop quicker than an experienced driver using a traditional cadence (braking hard and releasing pressure when the wheels are about to lock up) technique.

Electric windows

Many cars companies fit these without second thought and regard them as standard equipment. However there are still some cars rolling out with manual winders in the front. This isn’t the ‘90s. At the very least there should be electric windows in the front and we will accept manual winders for the rear.

Air conditioner

In case no-one had noticed, we live in Africa which happens to offer a rather warm climate. In winter the conditions can be pleasant, but during the summer months temperatures rocket over the 30 degree mark. Your car essentially becomes a sauna on wheels, and you’ll soon make the seat damp with your sweat. We’re not asking for state-of-the-art climate control here, just a simple system to blow cold air into the driver’s face, his feet, the windscreen or a combination of the above.

Spare wheel

Despite road surfaces being of generally good quality in urban areas, there’ll come a time when a motorist will suffer a puncture He or she will need to replace that wheel in order to resume driving. The boot however doesn’t have a spare wheel and instead, there’s a tyre repair kit with a can of sealant. What is this nonsense? How do you use it? You can’t expect the average person to know how to use this stuff effectively. All we ask for is a spare tyre and it doesn’t even have to be a full-size wheel if space is limited.