Which optional extras do you value most? Following the 68-plate transition, Go Compare investigated which boxes buyers are most keen to tick. The results are interesting…
Parking sensors are by some way the most popular add-on, according to the survey of 2,000 drivers. Sixty-five percent of drivers said they’d pay extra for them. Oddly, tyre pressure monitoring came second, with 58 percent saying they’d specify it.
A total of 45 percent and 44 percent respectively said they’d choose automatic headlights (third) and windscreen wipers (fourth). Automatic emergency braking came fifth, on 42 percent.
In sixth is cruise control, at 34 percent, because we’re all about doing as little of the driving as possible. Lane-departure warning follows in seventh (31 percent).
Climate control, memory-adjustable seats and self-parking take eighth, ninth and 10th places respectively.
Matt Oliver from GoCompare attributes our sweetness on parking sensors to the increasing size of our cars: “According to Driver and Vehicle Standard Agency data, reverse parking is one of the main reasons people fail their driving test, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that technology which makes reverse and parallel parking easier is so popular with drivers.
“In recent years, the size of cars has grown considerably – both in width and length, while the average size of parking spaces hasn’t changed – making parking even more of a challenge.”
The challenge of driving more generally is perhaps what motivates the ‘driver assistance’ theme in the options top 10.
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