When I was a kid in the 1960s, our family vehicle was an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon.
The only safety option it had was seatbelts, which we didn't use, and a hood as wide as Tennessee and promised to bludgeon anything in our path with the brute force of a snow plow.
Today's families have a ton of options to choose from when buying a new car, truck or SUV - including high-tech safety nannies that make modern vehicles less susceptible to crashes. On top of that, modern electronics have made automobiles cocoons of creature comforts with Wi-Fi hot spots, audiophile-quality sound systems and navigation systems featuring real-time traffic alerts.
The trick is knowing which "options" are the most cost-effective and useful for families. It's not unusual to see options totaling one-quarter of the sticker price.
But what's the true return on investment?
The average monthly car payment is edging close to $500 (actually $483), so shaving $120 or so a month is a meaningful amount. If you think of it as saving the equivalent of your cable TV or mobile phone bill each month, it makes those automotive add-ons a little less enticing.
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So, if you're vehicle shopping this summer or plan to enter the market soon, here are some personal observations from a family man and "car guy" who has driven almost every make and model vehicle on the road today as the auto-review guy for the Times Free Press.
Put simply: When it comes to optional equipment on cars and trucks, there's a time to splurge and a time to purge.
Splurge on
- Back-up cameras. By 2018, every new car sold in America must have a back-up camera. But until then, they remain an option on many models. About 200 people are killed every year in America by cars running in reverse. The victims are often small children playing in a driveway. Back-up cameras, which display a rear-facing view on a small screen in the dash, promise to virtually eliminate this chilling hazard. For older cars, after-market cameras are available for a few hundred dollars (including installation).
- Forward emergency braking. When I was a lad, I rear-ended a car. Adding insult to injury, the car I crashed into was my mother's. While following her one day I anticipated she had merged into traffic ahead of me when she hadn't.
Boom!
Of all the new electronic safety features available on today's vehicles, emergency braking holds the most promise of radically reducing the number of fender-benders. A front-mounted camera detects a vehicle or pedestrian ahead, calculates the closing speed and alerts a driver of a possible danger. If the driver doesn't react quickly enough, the car brakes itself. This is just the kind of safety feature that saves young, inexperienced drivers from poor judgment or inattention.
- All-wheel drive. This is often a $1,500 to $2,500 option. Still, if you do any mountain driving, it's worth the extra dough. When your mobile phone rings at work at 11 a.m. and you suddenly have a hour to pick up your kids at school in a driving snowstorm, you'll be glad you sprung for all-wheel driver, aka AWD. Plus, vehicles with all- and four-wheel-drive have higher resale value.
' Also consider splurging on: Satellite radio (if you have a long commute), leather upholstery for easy wipe-ups, heated seats (a luscious luxury) and road-side assistance coverage (some new cars don't have spare tires).
Purge
- DVD systems. There was a time, about 10 years ago, when expensive DVD systems were all the rage in family vehicles. Luxury brands, in particular, used to charge $1,500-plus for factory-installed DVD systems that piped "Finding Nemo" to little Aiden and Allie in the back seat. Now you can buy tablet computers for every occupant in the car for $1,500. Who buys DVDs anymore, anyway?
- Navigation. Since nearly every smartphone comes with Google Maps or some other GPS app, car-based navigation systems have lost their appeal. Even enhanced navigation systems that offer traffic updates and restaurant locations seem redundant when you are carrying the latest iPhone or Android device.
- Stereo upgrades. If you lived in a phone booth would you really need a stereo with 15 speakers? I don't think so. Same goes for your average family sedan.
- Also consider purging: Expensive wheel packages (replacement tires will be more expensive), data plans for rolling Wi-Fi (redundant with smartphones), cooled or ventilates seats (unless the thought of your car blowing cool breezes in your nether regions interests you) and aromatherapy systems (seriously, I once drove a car with this feature).
Instead of aromatherapy, get one of those Christmas-tree shaped air fresheners and pocket the difference.
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.
