Buy More
© ericpetersautos.com
Advertising is based on the idea that it is necessary to persuade people they need to buy things that they'd otherwise probably not buy. Implicit in that is the probability they don't actually need what's being advertised - because if they did
Advertising
© ericpetersautos.com
need it, it would not be necessary to persuade them that they do.

They'd just buy it.

Food, for instance. It isn't necessary to persuade people they ought to eat. Hamburger is rarely advertised. Sales on hamburger are - but that's not quite the same thing. People are wanting to buy hamburger, regardless. Maybe they'll buy more if it's on sale. But they'll buy hamburger, regardless.

As far as cars, consider that it is not necessary to advertise heat - or AC. Most people want heat and AC - because it is
All Wheel Drive
© ericpetersautos.com
generally considered unpleasant to freeze in the winter and to sweat in the summer. This is why all cars have heat and AC.

How about all-wheel-drive?

A majority - more than two-thirds - of all new vehicles either come standard with AWD or offer it as an option. Not all that long ago, almost no cars even offered AWD. It was a feature sold chiefly by Subaru and Audi. Now it is sold by essentially every car company.

This reflects the tremendous success selling people on AWD.

But do they actually need AWD? Or is it that advertising has persuaded them they've got to have AWD?

Scuba in a Tub
© ericpetersautos.com
AWD is not like heat or AC in that if you haven't got AWD, you're probably not going to miss it - unless you have to drive on snow-slicked roads as a regular thing. If you live in California or Arizona or another state where winter weather is light - if there's any winter weather at all - then your need for AWD is probably on par with your need for SCUBA gear (assuming you're not a diver). It is nice to have the SCUBA gear, perhaps. But it's kind of silly to have it if you don't really need it.

On dry - and even wet - roads, AWD is about as useful as SCUBA gear that you keep in the closet. There is a hypothetical traction advantage, but it is only an actual advantage if you're driving fast enough for the tires to break traction, which rarely happens if you're not driving very fast. Especially on dry roads. The threshold is lower on wet roads, but it's still high enough that you generally need to be driving faster than you probably should be driving when the roads are wet for the car to begin to slide due to loss of grip. AWD can greatly increase cornering grip and stability during high-speed driving but how many people engage in high-speed driving? In particular, high speed cornering? If you drive at around the speed limit, you need AWD on a dry (or wet) road like a you need SCUBA gear to go for a swim in the bathtub.

So why pay extra for it? AWD adds to the price of a vehicle and it adds to the cost of insuring the vehicle (repair/replacement cost) as well as the cost of maintaining the vehicle. There is also often a fuel economy penalty on top of that.

Oversized Rims
© ericpetersautos.com
Another oversold feature is "rims" - what wheels used to be called, before people got sold on ghetto rap terminology (and appearance). Wheels used to perform the necessary function of serving as the means by which the car rolled. Now we have "rims" that increase rolling resistance as well as cost, because a 19 or 20 inch "rim" is more expensive to buy and replace than a 15 or 16 inch wheel. Most people do not know - or remember - that a 15 or 16 inch wheel used to be plenty big enough for performance cars, such as Camaros and even Corvettes. Then it got trendy to fit "rims" to family cars such that even boring little crossovers now typically come with 17 or 18 inch "rims." Most new SUVs and trucks have at least 18 inch "rims" standard and some go up to 22 inch (and even taller) "rims."

Lane Assist Steering
© ericpetersautos.com
These do not meaningfully improve traction, handling or braking performance. But they do add meaningfully to cost - including fuel costs, via increased rolling resistance and weight.

Gnomesayin'?

Driving and Texting
© ericpetersautos.com
Perhaps the most oversold new car feature is what's sold to people as "driver assistance technology" - which is usually styled "advanced," to sell it. The implication being that drivers need to be "assisted" and that it is "advanced" to be "assisted." This is perhaps true, if they do need assistance to drive. But then the question arises: Maybe those who cannot drive without "assistance" ought to learn how to drive?

It was only about a decade ago that it was an expected competence to keep the vehicle in its lane. Then smartphone usage became ubiquitous - along with smartphones embedded in the dashboard (i.e., LCD touchscreen interfaces) and a consequence was that many drivers could no longer keep their vehicle from wandering out of its lane. Or they failed to notice the car ahead of them braking. Or a kid running into the street. Lane Keep Assistance and Emergency Braking Assistance were sold as the solution.

Maybe a better solution would be paying attention to your driving?