<aside> 💡 Features outside of this list are down to personal preferences. If you find a feature that sounds interesting to you, you can read about it online. Youtube might even have videos demonstrating the feature for you. That being said, most of the make-or-break features should be covered in the list below.

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• Blind Spot System: This is a way for the car to indicate other vehicles' presence in your blind spot using an audible or visible warning. You may already have experienced this on your test drives or in previous cars. In my eyes, this is a must-have in cars today.
• Lane Keep Assist: A system for the car to detect and warn you if you drift out of lanes. Note that this is most effective on freeways. (The technology relies on visual sensors. Wet roads, rains, and worn-out lanes tend to mess with the system)
• Backup Camera: Self-explanatory and comes standard in nearly all cars today. The thing to look for in today's cars is how well the backup camera helps you. There might be distance-guide lines to help you judge the distance to objects in the display, or an audible warning while backing up. As a bonus, some cars have a 360-degree view which is extremely useful when parking in tight spaces.
• Seat Material: Between cloth and leather, it might be a question of personal preference, but keep in mind a couple of things.
  • Fabric stains easily and can be annoying to clean, especially in wet weather.
  • Leather (and faux leather) retains temperature, so extreme heat or extreme cold gets to the seat quickly. If you prefer leather, consider seat heating/cooling depending on the climate of the place you live.
• Front Heated Seats: See (Seat Material). This is a nice-to-have for cloth seats, but Recommended for leather seats.
• Cruise Control: All cars have cruise control these days.
  • Adaptive cruise control is the car's ability to adjust its speed based on distance from vehicles in front of you. This is especially useful for plenty of freeway driving and commutes
  • Pilot assist (or similar term) The car will follow lanes and maintain distances with little to no guidance from the driver.
• Climate Control: Auto climate control is where you can set a temperature, and the fan speed and heating/cooling adjust accordingly. Dual climate control allows the driver and passenger to set different temperatures for themselves. Yes, the car itself would have some intermediate temperature, but the air blowing at the respective persons would be at a different temperature.
• Apple CarPlay/Android Auto: Plenty of cars support both/either of these. These technologies make navigation and entertainment options much easier to use.
• Headlights: Halogen - Traditional, cheaper headlights. LED / HID - Much brighter, but expensive. I'd recommend the LED/HID headlights at higher latitudes, wet climates, etc., where you might need to drive more in worse visibility conditions.
• Auto On/Off Headlamps: Set the headlights to auto and forget about them. They will auto-magically turn one if the surroundings get dark.
  • Auto On/Off High Beams: Automatically sets the car's headlights to high beams (brighter settings) if it detects no oncoming traffic. This feature would be barely used in urban settings and can sometimes get annoying in wet weather.
• Curve Adaptive Headlamps: Headlights move as you turn the steering. Considered a safety feature so you can see what you are turning into.
• Windshield Wipers: Variable-intermittent is standard, where you can set various speeds.
  • Rain Sensing wipers: Very useful in wet climates where the wipers adjust speeds automatically.
• Rear Windshield Wiper: Not all cars have this, but it is a nice-to-have for wet climates, especially for larger cars or more visibility.
• Heated Side Mirrors: Useful in cold climates (think frosty/snowy weather) where the side mirror tends to fog up and affect visibility.
• Automatic Parking: Most cars that have this feature can Parallel park themselves reasonably well. This technology is not without flaws, and does not work all the time. But if you need to parallel park a lot (street parking at home or work), this might save you a little headache.
• Tire Type: Summer tires - built for higher speed, last longer, and made for dry roads. Perform worse in wet conditions. All-weather tires - wear out a bit faster, but you need these for humid climates.
• Power Driver/Passenger Seats: This allows you to adjust seats electronically rather than using levers and cranks. Cars that have this feature will let you save at least 2 presets on seat settings and adjust automatically with the click of a single button. Very useful if you expect people other than you to drive your car frequently.
• Screen Size: 7 inches is the minimum screen size you want on your car for a usable touchscreen interface. Most people prefer 8 inches or higher.
• Brake Assist: You don't need to press the brake as hard. The car 'helps' you stop faster. This is useful for larger cars, where the car feels ‘lighter’ than it is. If you like a more rigid drive, you'll find such a feature annoying.