The kind of thing that a big-tech ‘mobility provider’ would describe as a ‘last-mile personal transportation solution’ today, the Honda Motocompo was brilliantly ahead of its time. It was a tiny, boxy foldable scooter designed to stow in the boot of the City hatchback, so if you needed to get into a city centre, you could park on the outskirts then complete your journey on two wheels, leaving a stinky trail of blue two-stroke smoke in your wake. Well, it was the ’80s after all.
‘What’s so weird about a car having a clock as an optional extra,’ you may be asking yourself, and that’s a perfectly valid question. But what about a clock that costs the same as a terraced house in some parts of northern England? That’s what Bentley offered when the Bentayga first launched in 2015, in the form of an optional Breitling tourbillon dash clock that set buyers back around £150,000 – roughly the same as a Bentayga cost in the first place back then.
Of course, a car as opulent as the Bentayga is likely to have a few extravagant optional extras, and the brand’s Mulliner bespoke division also hoped to reel a few people in in 2016 by offering a hand-built fly fishing kit in the boot. Featuring space for all the stuff you’d need for an afternoon by the (presumably private) riverbank, we can’t find too much info on whether many Bentayga buyers took the bait or whether Bentley created a rod for their own backs with this accessory. Maybe it was all just a red herring.
We’ll move away from Bentleys soon, we promise, but we can’t simply ignore the fact that in the Batur, the company’s ultra-rare, £1.65 million coupe from a few years back, came with the option of having several pieces of the interior finished in 18 carat gold. This wasn’t the first time gold had been used in an automotive application – McLaren F1 engine bay, anyone? – it was the first time we could think of that it was there purely as a way for the owner to say ‘I have more money than you mere mortals could possibly even comprehend’.
Subjecting your passengers to your terrible music taste is easier than ever these days, but in the ’50s, you were largely limited to whatever fuzzy nonsense your local AM radio station was broadcasting. Chrysler was one of the first companies to try and tackle this, briefly offering ‘Highway Hi-Fi’, an optional dashboard-mounted vinyl record player. It took special records designed to withstand the bumps that came with playing them in a moving car, but this… didn’t work, and Highway Hi-Fi was discontinued in 1959 after just four years.
Picture the scene: you’re a billionaire who needs to transport something long and thin, but literally all of your 37 cars are at the garage – except for your Koenigsegg Agera R. Good thing you saw this incredibly common situation coming, and ordered your Agera with the specially designed Thule roof box it was available with, turning it into the perfect car for camping getaways*.
We once popped The Stig in it, and he seemed happy enough up there.
*Please don’t hold us to this
Apparently, around 41 per cent of British households have a dog, so it really is remarkable that most car companies don’t do more to cater to this huge section of the market. Skoda does, though – it has a whole range of canine-specific accessories, including a seatbelt (turns out the usual human kind aren’t that great for dogs). Is all this really just an excuse to show you a picture of a cute dog? Yes, yes it is. You’ve got us.
Wood panelling on cars was quite a big thing in the ’50s and ’60s, but trust Rolls-Royce to go all extra with it when it brought it in as an option on the Phantom Drophead Coupe in 2007. Just in case the owners of this opulent convertible were worried about getting separation anxiety from their yachts when on dry land, the DHC came with the option of a tonneau cover finished in a nautical-inspired, handcrafted teak decking. Ahoy there, etc, etc.
We’re not done with Rolls-Royce yet. Oh no. Currently, you can order a special picnic hamper designed to perfectly fit into any of the company’s current models. If you’re picturing a wicker basket with a scruffy tartan blanket inside, though, you’re going to be disappointed. This thing’s made from aluminium, teak and leather, and contains Hungarian crystal wine glasses and Wedgwood porcelain crockery. Perfect for laying out on that little grassy bit at Watford Gap Services.
You absolutely, categorically should not drink and drive, and you shouldn’t really smoke and drive either. In a Rolls-Royce Phantom, though, you’re probably not doing the driving, which means you can stretch out in the back seat, happily puffing away on a fat Cuban and sipping on your favourite small-batch 18-year-old single malt from Rolls’ Cellarette, an all-in-one cigar humidor and whisky chest designed to slot into the rear of its cars. Yours for a very reasonable £40,000.
Right, we’ll move away from Rolls-Royces now or we could be here all day, but not without a mention of the company’s Starlight Headliner, which embeds hundreds of tiny fibre-optic lights into the ceiling to recreate a clear night sky. It’s a bit of a Rolls signature, making it all the more incongruous that a similar – albeit much less intricate – copycat version was offered on the Vauxhall Adam, of all cars.
If you’ve ever been driving through the British countryside and happened upon a gaggle of people trying to shoot themselves some dinner, there’s usually at least one Range Rover nearby. Knowing its audience, Land Rover capitalised on this with its ‘Event Seating’, which makes use of the Rangie’s split tailgate to provide a pair of comfy leather seats, allowing you to take the weight off your feet after a day of shooting – or perhaps, for practicing your drive-by pheasant-bagging skills.
According to some (possibly nebulous) sources we found, the typical Italian drinks anything between four and eight cups of coffee a day. No wonder they drive everywhere so fast. With such a prodigious consumption of caffeinated goodness, it’s no surprise that Italy’s biggest carmaker saw fit to offer an on-board espresso machine in the otherwise forgettable 500L people carrier.
The Toyota Century is proof of how notions of luxury differ vastly between cultures. Japan’s homegrown take on Rolls-Royces and Bentleys features an interior trimmed not in leather but in wool, curtains instead of tinted windows, an ostrich-feather duster for keeping the interior clean and, as an option, lace doilies for the headrests and backrests. Yes, what might put Brits in mind of boiled sweets and weekday daytime TV is considered a must-have luxury feature in Japan.
Things granite is useful for: sculptures, curling stones, slippery pavements and countertops in Cheshire kitchens. Note that car interior trim is not on that list, but that didn’t stop Mercedes from offering it through the Designo customisation programme on the second-generation CL, buyers of which could opt to have the centre console, steering wheel and door panels finished with genuine blue pearl granite. Funnily enough, not many people went for it, although Bentley’s Mulliner programme now offers a similar – if slightly less garish – treatment.
Never a company to let considerations like taste and practicality get in the way of a good old fashioned display of wealth, Mercedes later went on to offer the CL’s successor, the S-Class Coupe, with the option of no fewer than 47 Swarovski crystals embedded in its headlight units in 2014. Unlike the laser lights BMW and Audi were rolling out around the same time, these had absolutely no practical application whatsoever, but they did let passers-by know how filthy rich you were. And probably made you much more susceptible to headlight theft.
One of our favourite things about Renault’s reborn 4 and 5 are how distinctively, unashamedly French they feel. Just stepping inside them makes us feel like we could be zipping around the cobbled streets of the 18th Arrondissement. That said, the option of a wicker baguette holder attachment for the centre console may be pushing our appetite for kitsch to the absolute limits. Oh, who are we kidding? We love it.
Ever owned a convertible car and found yourself wondering how much of your time driving it had been spent with the roof down? No, of course you haven’t – you’ve got better things to do with your life. That didn’t stop Mini offering its second-gen Convertible with the ‘Openometer’, an additional dial that told you exactly that. Truly, one of the most pointless car options ever, especially because the main analogue part of the dial was maxed out after just seven hours.
Having your seats and other parts of your car interior wrapped in peeled cow has long been a signifier of luxury, so it stands to reason that the more leather is in your car, the more luxurious it is, right? It does in Stuttgart, apparently, because Porsche has long offered buyers the option to trim every conceivable bit of the interior in leather, including the air vent slats. We jumped on the 911 configurator while writing this, and found that it’s currently a £1,233 option. Yikes.
Carjacking was a big concern in the 2000s, which prompted Volvo to develop the Personal Car Communicator, a system that, among other things, could detect a heartbeat in your car and alert you via a flashing light on the keyfob. Frankly, its use case feels a bit limited, especially since it would only work if the alarm had already been triggered, although if you had a habit of accidentally locking your significant other in the car, it might also have come in handy.
We’ve all been there: driving along, wishing that a very specific part of our car interior was more reminiscent of the kind of 1970s house where something slightly seedy might be going on. Thankfully, the Nissan Cube had you covered with the option of a small circle of shagpile carpet that sat on the centre of the dash. Why? Well, firstly, you could use it to pop your sunglasses on to stop them sliding around. Secondly… erm…
