With all the technology being thrown at cars, trucks, and SUVs these days, it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Herein some personal opinions on what’s worthy of your respect and dough, and what’s simply overkill or marketing manipulation. I’m using generic or commonly accepted terminology for these, as the manufacturers love to come up with their own labels and acronyms.

SMART KEY: A key that you can keep in your pocket; usually the doors lock and unlock based upon your proximity to the vehicle. This is indeed a wonderful feature, especially if, like me, your hands always seem full when you’re climbing in and out. A ‘start/stop’ button fires the motor and turns it off. Companies like Nissan offer this all the way down to basic models, while BMW charges extra. TREAT.

REMOTE START: Another legitimate life-improver: hot day? Let the A/C take the cool the cockpit while you sit in your office. It’s a safety feature in winter, as you can thoroughly de-ice the windows before you head out on the road. The eco-warriors wont like the fossil fuel you’re burning to do so, but a car doesn’t actually use much at idle. Besides, there’s nothing better than climbing into a pre-heated seat on a freezing morn! TREAT.

VENTILATED SEATS: “O, what decadence!” will declare some. Yet, in independent studies, ventilated seats cut down on A/C usage (thereby increasing mileage). And it’s wonderful on a brutal day to keep one’s low back and nether regions from getting sweaty. They vary in effectiveness, so try before you buy, but overall, a very nice thing to have. TREAT.

AUTO STOP/START: Actually pioneered by the Europeans a decade back, it took the success of the hybrids from Toyota and Honda to show how painless it was to have your car or truck shut down at stoplights, and instantly restart as you drive off. Worth 1-2mpg on its own, it’s now standard on many BMWs across the pond, and will be coming to a car lot near you soon on more mainstream vehicles. TREAT.

HEAD UP DISPLAY (HUD): Adapted from jet fighters, a HUD projects info like speed, RPM, navigation instructions, and even the radio station onto the windshield right in front of the you. GM actually does it the best with cars like the Corvette, and once you adapt to it, you wonder why every car doesn’t offer it as a safety feature. Cost is the biggest issue, so it tends to remain a rare option. TREAT.

NIGHT VISION: Using various infrared cameras and/or radar to read heat signatures of pedestrians and wildlife, companies like Lexus and BMW offer night vision screens either in the dash or inset into the windshield. While cool to toy with, at least for now they remain more gimmick than tool. There screen size is often too small, and you usually have to look away from the road to see them. In the future we’ll see better integrated versions, but for now they’re more for showing off. TRICK.

XENON HEADLAMPS: For decades, Europeans got wonderful headlamps, with powerful incandescent bulbs and good optics, while Americans got low-wattage junk. Thankfully the US government finally saw the light, and now we also have access to beautifully bright—and therefore safer—headlamps. The best are xenon gas-discharge systems, offer that super-white glow and more range. On many cars, xenons are still just for the low beam units, but on higher end offerings, bi-xenons for both dipped and high beams are offered. Worth every penny from an active safety perspective. TREAT. Often combined with…

SWIVILLING HEADLAMPS: So-called ‘active’ lighting swivels the bulbs or reflectors as the steering wheel is turned. Some also have little supplementary lights that come on as you approach steering lock to help in tight turns or when parking. Very nice in the country or on a curvy road, and in the city they help you to see pedestrians around corners. TREAT.

NAVIGATION: Oh boy! Even though only two companies actually make the navigation maps and software, how well the system is realized in any given vehicle makes final judgments difficult. Compounding this is that aftermarket units from the likes of Garmin and TomTom are so good—and so cheap, at a few hundred dollars—that almost all OEM offerings seem like a rip off. When well wrought, and especially when in unfamiliar surroundings, they can seem heaven sent. But they are still prone to errors, and since it’s so cheap to ad it to your phone service or buy it aftermarket, I’d say the value’s not there at current OEM prices. TRICK.

REAL TIME TRAFFIC: When added into the navigation system equation, the case begins to change. Since most of the US population lives in or near urban environments and traffic jams are so ubiquitous, anything that can save transit time starts to seem like a great deal. Using roadside sensors, traffic databases, and even reports from other cars equipped with similar systems, R/T updating is just beginning to show what it’s capable of. Right now, XM does it best. TREAT.

AUDIO: iPod integration, hard drive storage, satellite radio, HD Radio, and cockpit digital sound processing (DSP): the list of groovy new toys for in-car entertainment is seemingly endless. We truly live in the golden age for in-car audio quality and source selection. Two caveats: the signal bandwidth (hence the audio quality) of satellite radio is truly atrocious. And iPods or like digital storage devices also offer lower audio quality—no matter what settings songs were encoded at—than the humble CD, which is still the gold standard for pure musicality. Thankfully, the rapid progress being made in digitally equalizing and correcting the signals going to the speakers continues apace, allowing more bang for you buck. This subject is of sufficient complexity that we’ll talk about it more in the future in a dedicated post. In the meanwhile, here are my off-the-cuff responses: HD radio, iPod integration, and DSP are TREATS; Satellite radio, and most hard drives are TRICKS.

ADAPTIVE CRUISE: Uses radar or laser to measure the speed of vehicles in front, and adjust yours to match. Great in theory, but fairly useless in moderate to heavy traffic, as it leaves too big a gap in front of your car (for liability reasons), which everyone dives into like lemmings, forcing you further and further back. A few exceptions: Lexus’ system can be turned into regular ‘ole fashion cruise control when you’d like, and the super-duper Audi and Mercedes systems will ‘creep’ with stop-and-go rush hour traffic, which is kinda sweet. But the cost/benefit ratio is still hard to justify for mainstream usage. TRICK.

LANE DEPARTURE WARNING: Uses optical sensors to let you know when you’ve strayed out of your lane. Helpful if you’re drifting off on a long trip; otherwise a very annoying system that beeps at you every time you cross the lines along the road’s edge (i.e. most all the time in normal urban driving). Some even adjust the steering to bring you back to the ‘intended’ trajectory, giving a whiff of Big Brother. In theory a lifesaver in single vehicle rural accidents, but I think it’d be better just to train the people to pay attention. TRICK.

BLIND SPOT MITIGATION: Various sensors tell you when someone’s in your blind spot. The implementation of these systems varies so much by manufacturer at this point it’s hard to make a blanket assessment. Some are horribly annoying, others well-calibrated and useful. The bottom line, however, is that most people don’t use their mirrors enough, or turn their head enough before passing, which would make such devices unnecessary. Sometime in the midterm future we should see wide-angle cameras replacing side mirrors, which will benefit safety and aero efficiency. Until then, this is a mediocre stopgap in most applications, for people who don’t pay attention. TRICK.

BACK UP CAMERA & SENSORS: I can be unequivocal here: back up cams are flat out wonderful, especially in trucks and SUVs. They’re cheap, too. Aftermarket ones are a few hundred bucks, which makes a mockery out of what some manufacturers charge. In any case, a great aid in preventing dings and scrapes and potential injury. TREAT.

Send article as PDF to