Tag: hidden features

Top 15 Useful BMW i3 Hidden Features

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  1. Key and Key fob

We’ll start with some simple ones for those newer to BMWs and the I3. This seemingly simple key actually has many hidden features. Everyone knows you can roll down your windows and sun roof on most BMWs by just holding the unlock button for a few seconds, but did you also know there is a physical key that has a couple of features of its own? Not only can it open the driver’s door, it can also lower and raise the windows if you hold it all the way to the right or left. Well, only the front windows, the rears are fixed in.

A couple other fun key features I found is that if you hit the lock button on your key fob when the windows are opened a little, it will go back up inch by inch and if you have a European version , you can just hold the lock button to close them completely. If your car is plugged into a charger and you lock it, you will also see the charge status. Lastly, if you hit the lock button twice within 10 seconds, it will DE-activate the tilt alarm and the interior motion sensor. Great for leaving a dog in the car.

  • Door Handle

Speaking of leaving things in the car, you don’t have to open the rear door to put something in the back. You can use this handy handle on the back of the seat to lean it forward like in a 2-door car. However, if you do open the door and look in the corner here, you fill find that you have some pull tabs behind a cover. There are these manual pulls all over the car. You can open the charging port, the front trunk and fuel filler door.

  • Fuel cap and charge port has a spot to be stored

While we are here at the fuel door, when you fill your car with either gas or electricity, don’t let the cap dangle, there is a built-in spot to keep them off the paint.

Interior:

  1. Telescoping steering column

Switching over to the interior and controls, there are some fun ones here as well! For example, I recently learned that the steering wheel is not only adjustable up and down, but it’s also telescopic!? How cool!

  • Turn Signal Cancel

Some of the features you use daily also have little tricks behind them. For example, when using a turn signal, you don’t have to push it the opposite direction and turn on the other one accidentally, you can simply tap in the same direction to cancel it. I know it solves a problem that BMW has created by changing how their turn signals work, but cool nonetheless.

  • Follow me home and parking lights

You can also use this stalk to turn on follow me home lights by pushing the stalk away from you. Your low beams will stay on for 30 seconds. This is also why I upgraded mine to LEDs.

Similarly, you can turn on parking lights by pushing the stalk up or down. Left or right side of the car will stay on. Great for street parking or parking in an alley.

  • Put car in neutral/skip neutral

Switching to the other side of the steering wheel, there are a couple of features here as well. You can skip Neutral when selecting Drive or Reverse by pushing the gear change lever past the first click. This one is easy to find after driving the car for a while, but how do you put the car in Neutral? You would think you can just pop it in N and turn it off… but it just goes to Park on its own. To do so, hold the gear lever and the power button for 3 seconds and the release both. Now you are in neutral and car is off.

  • Can turn on radio when car is off

There are a couple of tricks with the entertainment system as well. As an example, you can power on the radio with the car off by simply hitting the volume/power button.

  • Shortcut Buttons

Just to the right of the power button, we have some preset buttons, but what most people don’t know is that you don’t have to use it for radio, you can use it as a shortcut for almost anything in the system. For example, you can make one of them toggle the Hold State of Charge aka turn on the Range Extender or dim the control panel brightness or even switch to different music sources and much more. Fun fact, if you’d like to reset all of them, simply hold 1 and 8 at the same time.

  • Hidden menu

Ok, ok, I hear some of you screaming that you know all of these already, but did you know that this small city car has a drift mode!?

Ok, it’s not actually called a drift mode, but there is a hidden menu that gives you tons of additional information and allows you to enable a roller mode where it will turn off the traction control, stability control, ABS and regenerative braking giving you full control of the rear wheels!

Getting into the hidden menu is fairly simple, you just hold the trip reset button for a few seconds and you are in! Here you can find a few options, including the roller mode which you can press and hold to enable. You can also unlock this menu for a ton more information, like your battery capacity, temperature and other specs not otherwise advertised. To unlock it, enter the sum of the last 5 digits of your VIN and you are in! I will do a full video on this as I think it deserves a deeper dive. We can even check out the CiC iDrive service menu in that video as well. Let me know if that is something you’d be interested in seeing.

  • Coat Hanger
  • Power plug

If you haven’t seen my camera install video, you might not know that there is a power plug right under the air vents, super convenient for charging your phone. Also, there is a hidden coat hanger behind this little cover. All you have to do is flip it around.

Engine/Driving:

The last few items I wanted to mention have to do with the engine, driving and storing the vehicle.

One features that’s hard to figure out yourself as a driver is that when braking really hard, the car will also illuminate the lower lights, giving more of a warning to the cars behind, but not only that, if you open the rear hatch and your lights are no longer visible, the lower set will take over and work as regular lights and brakes! Great thinking on BMW’s part here!

  1. Rex Emissions Mode
  2. You can check oil level unlike other BMWs

Luckily BMW did more thinking around the range extender engine which leads me to the next hidden feature, you can put the car in emissions mode. This will turn on the engine and run it for 20 minutes to bring it up to operating temperatures and prepare systems for emissions testing. Your battery charge has to be under 75% as it will charge the battery as a side effect. Could be useful in an emergency! To turn it on, open the hatch, turn on the ignition and then press the accelerator pedal 3 times and hold on the third. Release and press the brake button followed by the Start and Stop button. The engine will start at this point. Another fun fact about this motorcycle engine is that it actually has an oil dip stick, so you can check the oil level unlike most other BMWs. Nice!

  • Long storage hidden feature, hack:

The very last trick that could be useful for some has to do with storing a BMW i3 over longer time. BMW says not to allow the vehicle to sit idle for extended period of time on low charge, so it must be close to fully charged to be stored. This will work great for the high voltage battery, but you will still be risking killing the 12v battery since simply having the car plugged in will not charge it. So, to circumvent this, what you can do is set up a departure time once a week, this will power on the car and charge your 12v battery at the same time saving you a headache in the future.

Summary:

Wow this turned out to be a pretty long video! So, I hope you have learned something new or interesting about a BMW i3 and if you are a hardcore enthusiast, I’d love to hear some of the things I’ve missed. Also, if you’d like to access some more truly hidden features, check out this video where I show you how to code your car for more range, true control of the range extender and even adding a sport mode! Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one!

Mercedes-Benz GLE Hidden Features

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Hi everyone and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy Channel. Today we have a Mercedes Benz GLE 400, one of the most popular luxury SUVs on the market. This impressive vehicle has many cool features you’d expect from a Mercedes; like the bi-turbo V6 engine, 9 speed automatic transmission, cross stitched leather dashboard and steering wheel, adjustable suspension and excellent steering and handling characteristics, but this video will be simpler. We won’t even talk about the blind spot monitoring, the heated steering wheel, keyless entry, power rear hatch, tons of storage, towing ability or even a full spare tire in the back. What we WILL talk about is some hidden features, tips and tricks and things you may not have known about the Mercedes-Benz GLE 400. We’ll even check out a hidden menu towards the end of the video.

This video should apply to both GLE350 and GLE400 from 2016-2019 model years as the main difference there is mostly just the engine, you get a bi-turbo V6 engine producing 330 horsepower and 354 lb ft of torque in this GLE 400, and before it was discontinued in 2018, you could have had a 300 horse power V6 in the GLE350.

Mercedes GLE400 is considered one of the best highway cruisers based on great comfort, good handling, responsiveness and many different driving modes, but there is one features you probably haven’t realized this car has.

Pre-Safe

Have you even wondered why does the seat belt tighten up a little when you get in and put it on? Well, this is a feature called Pre-Safe and what it does is basically pretension the seat belt and figures out the weight of the occupant inside the car and in an even of an accident, the car knows how tight to pull the seatbelt to keep you as safe as possible. This is what fancy racing cars do!

Crosswind Assist

Another safety item that works in the background is Crosswind Assist, this hidden feature intervenes automatically if the direction and intensity of the crosswind affects your vehicle and stabilizes it by lightly braking one side of the car and making sure you are going straight ahead. This function turns on above 50 mph and can only be turned off by turning off ESP completely which also disabled driving stability, allows your tires to spin freely and active brake assist is no longer available.

EDR

Just like Pre-Safe and Crosswind Assist is calculating all this stuff in the background, this car has a black box of sorts called the Event Data Recorder or EDR that records vehicle dynamics and safety systems in an event of a crash or crash like situation. It will also record whether the seatbelts have been fastened, how fast the vehicle was traveling and what driver inputs were present prior to the event.

Key Fob

Enough about the safety stuff, let’s take a look at some fun ones. We use our key fobs less and less, especially with comfort access, but THIS key fob can do much more than you think. For starters, you can roll down windows and open the sunroof by holding the unlock button and even close them with the lock button as well. Don’t want to take the key fob out? You don’t have to, simple hold the door handle on the sensor like this and it will do the same functions.

Want to check if the battery in the key fob is working properly but you’re not next to the car? Simply hold Lock or Unlock button and the little LED will light up. If it does not, you may need to replace your battery, which can be done by using the mechanical key and popping off the back cover.

Physical Key

Speaking of physical key, this little guy has many functions on its own. Not only can you unlock the front doors, you can also lock the glovebox and cargo compartment when valeting your car and even use it to release the tailgate in an emergency or if the battery is dead.

Tailgate limit

Do you park your car in a garage but afraid that the tailgate will hit the garage door when opening? Well, you can limit the opening angle of the tailgate. To do so, pull the handle on the tailgate to open it and stop it at desired position by pressing the close button on the tailgate or pull the handle on the outside one more time. Then to save this position, press and hold the closing button on the tailgate until you hear two beeps. The tailgate will stop at this position from now on. Very useful!

Fuel Filler Cap Holder

While we are here at the back, let’s check out a feature I wish more people would use. I’ve seen way too many drivers let the fuel filler cap just hang there on the paint work. On this car and many others, you have a little fuel filler cap holder just for this purpose. Nice piece of useful engineering.

Fake Exhaust Tips

What isn’t a useful piece of engineering is fake exhaust tips, I’ve seen it on many inexpensive cars and I can’t stand it and I was hoping Mercedes would be better, but no, it’s the same here.

Before we check out hidden items inside the car, you may be wondering why you have seen other Mercedes SUVs that look very similar but sport the ML badging. Well, this general body style has been in productions between 2012 and 2019, but it only became a GLE from 2016 model year. Prior to this, the car was known as the M-Class or ML400 in this case. Now, let’s jump inside and see what kind of hidden features we can find there.

Hidden Power Socket

We’ll start with a very simple one, there is a hidden 115-volt power socket under the rear seat that can supply up to 150 watts of power. It’s not very easy to see, but definitely useful.

Air vent in the glove box

You know what else is useful? Heated and cooled cup holders, but I’m sure you already knew that one, but did you know that the glove box is also ventilated and will keep your contents cool? Fancy!

Sunblind Reversing Feature

Similarly, out of sight, but very useful if you have kids is the sunblind reversing feature. Some cars now have windows that will stop and reserve if someone’s hand is in the way, but this car will even do so for the sunblind and the sunroof! Safety first!

Extendable sun visors

While we are in this area, *not only do you have 2 sun visors but*(if has 2) these sun visors can be extended to block the sun or prevent glare and improve visibility while on the side of the vehicle.

Conclusion:

As you can see, this seemingly standard SUV hides many interesting facts including some of the ones I have talked about today. If you’d like to see more videos on this car, leave a comment down below as I haven’t even started talking about the air suspension and the versatility it gives you as far as driving dynamics or how you have many different ways of doing most functions without a touchscreen in sight. Anyway, that’s all I have for you guys today, I hope you have learned something new or interesting, like the video for more car content and I’ll see you in the next one!

BMW R Nine T Hidden Features

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Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel. Today we are taking a look at some hidden features, tips and tricks and thing you may not know about the BMW R Nine T, also known as the best modern retro styled roadster.

If you have been riding bikes for longer than I have been alive or have had BMW bikes for a while, I’m sure you already know all of the ones below but hey.. maybe there is one that you don’t! If you are a pro, I’d love to hear some tips and tricks below in the comments so we can all learn something cool or new. For everyone else, stick around and I hope you enjoy the video. Let’s get to it!

So, what are some things you may not know about this bike?

  1. If you have owned a modern bike, you probably think that you can just turn off ABS or other safety features with a button, but on the BMW R Nine T you cannot turn off ABS unless you have the new version with throttle by wire. In this case your bike will have traction control as well and you can turn off both using the ASC button.
  2. You may not be able to turn of ABS, but did you know that this bike has an OBD2 port? With a $15 dollar adapter, you can scan the bike, see live data and if you have BMW software or buy a fancy motorcycle scanner, you can do so much more! Very cool.
  3. So, we can read this bike’s computer, but we can also plug in a dedicated GPS or phone charger by using the onboard power socket that’s hidden on the left side of the bike here. This socket is protected just like BMW cars where if the battery voltage falls below the level required to start the bike, it will be deactivated.
  4. If your battery does go below required voltage at some point, you are in luck, because this bike has a built-in trickle charger port. Since the BMW R Nine T uses AGM batteries which can be a little finicky when it comes to charging, you have to follow some steps. You must leave your motorcycle on the trickle charger over winter if not riding or the battery will be trash by spring. IN fact, this bike has had a new battery installed after only 800 miles because the previous owner left it over winter and the fact that it took 2 years to do that many miles. In fact, I have already done about that many miles in the few weeks I’ve owned it. BMW Recommends to plug the bike in if not redden for more than 4 weeks.
    1. Some additional notes on this, you cannot jump start the bike from this socket. The wires are not thick enough and rated for high current and can cause a fire.
    1. It’s also recommended to only use this socket to charge as onboard electronics monitor this socket and know when the battery is fully charged and switch off the onboard socket to make sure if you get a cheap battery tender, you won’t fry your bike or battery. If you’d like to charge you battery directly, it must be disconnected from the bike first.  
  5. The next item on my list is the TPMS or the lack of TPMS sensors on this bike. This is, again, old school so kind of expected, so check your tire pressure. When I picked up my bike and rode it home, I was wondering where was this great handling that everyone has been talking about. The bike kept trying to stand up and was slow through turn. The 15 pounds of pressure made a huge difference and how the bike is very confident on the road and the difference is huge. This is a bit motorcycles 101, but no dumby light here, so check manually.
  6. Speaking of dumby lights, that’s all you get for fuel level as well. There is no fuel gauge on this bike, but you will be informed with a simple light once it’s on reserve.
  7. Number 7 is a parking light. This is pretty common in Europe as far as I understand, but pretty rare on bike in the states. To turn it on, switch off the ignition and then immediately hold the indicator switch to the left until the lights turn on. Cycle the ignition to turn it off.
  8. A feature that surprised me on this bike was actually the auto-cancel indicator switch. If you forget to turn it off, it will actually turn itself off after 10 seconds or 300 meters (almost 1000ft) of driving.
  9. Going back to the battery, if you even need to jump-start the bike, you have to use the connection point on the positive battery terminal under the seat and the negative terminal on the right-side cylinder. Now, of course, the seat cannot just be opened, so it has to be removed. Luckily, you only have to remove 1 screw to remove both seats. Your bike should come with a key for this screw, but I got mine used so I use an actual socket. My replacement Is on the way.
  10. The last thing you may not have know is that you can removed the baffle in the exhaust known as the DB killer to improve the depth of the exhaust sound. It only takes 5 minutes and very easy to do. I have a video on how to do that exactly if you’d like to check it out. It’s also easily reversable if you don’t like it.

A few things you should know about the bike is how to check your fluids! I feel like it’s even more important on a motorcycle than it is on the car. As an example, to check your oil, you have to make sure the bike is warmed up and on leveled surface and hold the motorcycle vertical. Then you have to wait 5 minutes and check the little window. The oil should be between top and button. This and much, much more is in the manual for the bike. People complain that manuals now-a-days only have stuff like don’t drink battery contents, but this manual is actually very useful. You can even learn how to remove and reinstall front and rear wheel. Speaking of wheels and tires, this motorcycle has quick release front axle. Who knew such thing even existed!? I was also surprised that on a modern, although retro looking bike, you would still have tube tires, just like on my 1976 Honda CB360!

Well, that’s all I have or you guys today, I hope you learned something new or at least found it interesting. I’d love to hear your opinion or features I don’t know about in the comments down below, like the video and subscribe to the channel for more content and I’ll see you in the next one!

Top 10 Useful BMW X5 Hidden Features – BMW F15

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Whether you are shopping for a BMW X5 and wonder what are some cool hidden features or you’ve had your BMW X5 F15 for a couple of years, I hope you get to learn at least a few useful hidden features you didn’t know before or least some cool tips and tricks that you didn’t know before. If you know of any other cool features I didn’t mention in the video, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below so we can all learn!

Top 10 Useful Chevy Volt Hidden Features

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Just bought a Chevy Volt or renting out for a weekend? Find the top 10 useful hidden features on the Chevrolet Volt. Some of these are more useful than others, but all are interesting tips or tricks that you may not know about the Volt. I got over some hidden storage compartments, infotaiment features, hidden menus, accessory mode and so much more!

Hyundai Kona Review & Hidden Features

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Hey Guys and Welcome back to another video on the SimpleCarGuy.com. Today we are taking a look at this 2019 Hyundai Kona that my girlfriend has been driving for the past couple of years. Has it been a good car, has it had any major issues, what are some of the cool hidden features or things that you didn’t know about and most importantly should you buy this European looking little car that’s just a little more than ordinary? Let’s take a look!

If you’d like to skip the review part and just see the hidden features, skip to:

Has it been a good car? Over all, yes. Now, of course your expectations of a car may vastly differ from mine, but for a car that’s under 25 thousand dollars, it packs a lot of European design, great bright headlights, lots of safety features and even a 7-speed dual clutch transmission with a peppy 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine that actually makes it kind of fun to drive. When it comes to front end of the car, it has been commented on a lot. In my opinion, the upside-down face with the headlights at the bottom and the daytime lights at the top, give it a nice aggressive, almost high-end German car look. It’s never a bad thing when you buy a daily gas saver and get something more in return. I do wish the fog lights would match the otherwise LED front end as they stand out quite a lot when used. One thing you may not notice on this car due to its grey color is the ugly plastic pieces around the wheel-arches and few other parts of the car. It works well on grey, black and some other darker colors, but looks very cheap on brighter paintwork. Of course, this is purely my opinion, but I had to mention it.

So, how has the reliability been? This KONA’s 1.6 turbo engine even though known to be very reliable has had an issue in the first few months of ownership. The car got a check engine light and we had to take it to the dealer. The service department quickly figured out that it was an injector, replaced it under warranty and it’s been running smoothly and very efficiently since then.

My opinion on the car only counts so much as I don’t drive it daily, so I asked my girlfriend to give me a quick review on the car from her perspective. She’d told me that after two years of ownership, there are some things that she really enjoyed and some that she could live without. She is impressed with the quality of the interior; especially, the leather seats that add a touch of luxury without having to spend thousands. With the ample trunk space, foldable back seats and relatively low trunk sill that the Kona provides, she is able to fit groceries, furniture, large boxes without having to turn to a minivan or large SUV. Apple CarPlay makes it very easy to enjoy music on the go and calling friends and family is done safely without having to pick up the phone.

Even though the Kona has a great interior, it does take a long time for the seats to warm up compared to other cars and even longer for warm air to start coming from the vents. Luckily, you can turn on the heater from your BlueLink app on the phone, but even after 10 minutes of running she still has to wear gloves before going on a drive on cold Chicago winter days. Once the heated seats are warmed up, they are a great feature and she would love to have the same convenience available for those sitting in the back. Lastly, as a none aggressive driver (ok, I would have to specify here and say that she can be a bit “enthusiastic” while driving), she did notice that if you take a corner a little faster the car tends to ‘tilt’ and she had to be mindful of her speed as it feels almost unstable. What she is talking about is of course body roll and I can’t say that there is a lot of it in this car, but it’s no sport car as far as handling, that’s for sure.

In conclusion, there have been pros and cons to owning a Kona but it does make for a great fun car that is reliable and easy to drive.

I hope that gives you a little bit of an insight into what a non-car enthusiast thinks of the KONA. I know there are many professional reviewers, but they don’t drive the car daily and that’s what matters in a daily driver, the personal experience with the car.

Now for a little fun, I thought I’d show you some hidden features, tips, tricks and just things you may not know about the KONA.

One of the more obvious, yet useful things you may not have known about the KONA is that there are two storage pockets under the HVAC controls right above the USB port where you can store your phone perfectly. Speaking of extra hidden space, a lot of people don’t know that in the rear hatch, you can take the floor cover off and the foam piece if your car has the cargo tray and drop it down about 3 inches giving you more storage room in the back.

Have you wondered where the space tire is on this car? Wonder no more, it is right here..

While we are at the back here, did you know that the rear wiper also has a washer fluid nozzle for cleaning? And if you have auto-wipers, the rear wiper will come on automatically when you shift in reverse and it’s raining. If you don’t like things happening on their own or afraid there might be ice buildup, you can easily turn it off in the menu. Of course, everyone knows there is a defroster on the back glass, but did you know that this car also has heated side mirrors? Pretty nifty!

The info-taiment is primarily focused on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but there are a couple settings you can adjust. As an example, you can move the sound to whatever corner of the car you want.

This Kona came with some good safety features, such as the lane keeping assist, Blind-Spot Collision Warning, Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning, rear camera and a few others, but no parking sensors. All of these are listed in your car spec sheet, but did you also know that your KONA will turn off the fog lights when turning below 25mph and turn on corner lights for those slower turns. You can’t have both, it’s one or the other. Speaking of speed, if you hold the plus and minus buttons while the cruise control is on, it will increase and decrease the speed by 5mph increments. The last hidden features that I was surprised by is the sun visor, it can be extended to provide just a little more shade!

As most modern cars, the KONA has an app that allows you to remote start the car, set up custom climate profiles, flash the lights, honk the horn and locate your car among other functions. I do think it’s a little silly that the car lights up like a Christmas tree when started remotely, but it’s not the end of the world.

So, would I recommend a Hyundai Kona for someone that is looking for a fun daily driver? Absolutely, you will enjoy a fun and energetic driving subcompact SUV, with decent handling, great gas mileage and overall a smooth riding experience. The turbocharged engine is a must if you want refinement and some pick up!  Not only that, when you get inside the cabin, it feels well made, upscale and future proof. So, thank you guys so much for watching, I really appreciate it. Let me know if you’d like to see more SimpleCarReviews and I’ll see you in the next one.

15 Hidden Features – Porsche Boxster 981

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I have always been a fan of the Porsche Boxster and when I had a chance to drive it for a couple of days, I wanted to experience it to the fullest, see what were the hidden features and things I didn’t know about this Porsche 981 Boxster. How many of these quirks did you know and what came as a surprise to you? I was really impressed with the rev matching feature and how quick the roof went up and down. It also came to my surprise that you can’t easily see the engine, even though this car is meant for enthusiasts. I hope you enjoyed learning about the lesser know features and leave a comment with other Porsche fun facts!