There are more bells and whistles included in vehicles than ever before. No longer can you hop inside a car and discover where the windshield wipers, turn signal, and seat adjustments are before you hit the road. Today, you have many new features and dash notifications to get familiar with.
Getting to know all these new details of your vehicle can take a lot of time, which may tempt you to forgo getting to know these safety features in the first place. However, taking the time to get to know all your car’s safety features is important for these five reasons.
Getting to Know Your Car Can Reduce the Chances of an Accident
The whole point of having modern-day safety features in your car is to keep you safer on the road. Unfortunately, some safety features can end up causing an accident instead of preventing one.
Seatbelts that aren’t adjusted properly can cause additional injuries, as can not having your chair adjusted properly when the airbag deploys.
Modern safety features can also cause you to panic if you don’t know what they are. For example, a sudden beeping to alert you that you’re drifting out of your lane could startle you into overcorrecting, which could end up causing an accident.
However, that doesn’t mean you should get too comfortable behind the wheel. Know your car’s safety features inside and out, but don’t rely on them to save you. Always remain alert on the road, regardless of the safety rating of your vehicle.
Safety Features Can Make You Safer on the Road
When you know and understand the safety features in your car, they can do what they were meant to do—keep you safer on the road.
Some of the most common modern safety features you’ll find in vehicles include:
- Adaptive cruise control that ensures you stay a safe distance away from the car ahead of you.
- Automatic emergency braking that will engage if you don’t react fast enough.
- Lane departure technology can warn you or even steer you back into your lane if you drift.
- Blind spot detection alerts you to vehicles that you may not be able to see.
- Rear-view cameras can prevent you from hitting children, pets, and other vehicles.
They Can Lower Your Car Insurance Rates
It’s the law to make sure you have car insurance, but how much you pay can differ a lot depending on certain things. That includes your driving record, but it also includes the kind of vehicle you drive.
Today’s safety features have the potential to lower your car insurance rates. Features that have been present in cars for years, like air bags, can reduce your rates, but the more modern features you have, the more you can save. If your car has daytime running lights, crash resistant doors, and electronic stability control, you’ll be surprised at how much you can save. There are other ways too to save on your car insurance, for example, you can compare car insurance on Money Expert.
They Can Make It More Expensive to Fix Your Car
Safety features have the potential to make you safer on the road, and they can lower your car insurance rates, but that doesn’t mean driving a new car with multiple safety features is all good. Unfortunately, the more tech-savvy our cars become, the more expensive they are to fix.
Fixing a car with safety features has the potential to cost you more than if you had to fix an older vehicle. For example, safety sensors are hidden in bumpers and windshields, which means replacing these features also means replacing the sensors, which can get expensive.
They Can Make You Feel Better When Your Teen Drives
Although many parents automatically search for a clunker when their teen is ready to hit the road, it’s actually much better to choose a newer vehicle with modern safety features.
If you allow your teen to drive a newer vehicle with safety features, like a backup camera and automatic emergency braking, you can relax a little when they hit the road. Although their driving skills are still important, you can rest assured that a simple beginner’s mistake won’t result in a trip to the hospital or a totaled car.
Although many safety features are intuitive, there are more features than ever before. Don’t let a surprise beep or unfamiliar dash indicator light startle you when you’re on the road. Get to know your car’s safety features inside and out so you can stay safer on the road, enjoy lower insurance rates, and much more.
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Featured image source: car.harman.com