Automobiles are rolling department stores containing everything from electronics to music to tires to wardrobe fashion. Wardrobe fashion? Check out the stylish blue leather seats in the Cadillac Optiq.

This year brought more cool features to keep the shoppers coming.

One feature I didn’t care for? The warning gong — BEEP BEEP BEEP — in English start-up automaker Ineos’ Grenadier SUV that went off every time you breached the speed limit. It’s a European Union mandate that migrated like a barnacle on the Ineos when it crossed the pond. A dealer software update scrubbed it.

Here are the dashin’ dozen features ‘n’ trends that stood out in 2025:

1. Fancy fascias: The front fascia has always been a vehicle’s defining differentiator. Big grilles, multiple headlights, just look at those 1950s mugs. But with the recent electric vehicle trend, you could have been concerned that vehicle welcome mats were disappearing. Look at the grille-less front ends of the Tesla Model 3 and Y. Or the Kia EV6 and Chevy Equinox EV. Oh, dear.

Elsewhere, however, 2025 brought marvelous creativity. Check out the light show of the Cadillac Optiq when you approach it with a key fob (ending with the clever illumination of the Caddy crest inside the cockpit). For resurgent gas-powered cars, check out the body color grille of the Acura Integra (yeah, body color grilles have been a truck thing for a long time), and the subtle cross-hatch graphic of the BMW X3.

2. See-thru hood: The digital age has brought a world of safety wonders courtesy of small cameras: back-up cameras, blind-spot cameras, 360-degree bird’s-eye-view cameras. For 2026, Nissan introduced a clever feature on its Murano and Armada models that utilizes eight cameras for multiple views around the vehicle — including the ability to see virtually through your hood.

The visual trick allows perfect placement of your tires in, for example, a curbside parking spot. Or to avoid potholes.

3. Windowless rear: Cadillac innovated the camera mirror last decade and its IMSA prototype race cars instantly adopted it because, well, they didn’t have rear windows. Now production cars are following.

The Polestar 4 ditched its rear window this year in order to increase rear passenger headroom — and the panoramic roof. The driver uses a standard camera mirror to see out back. So, too, the Cybertruck (when its automatic bed tonneau cover blocks the rear window).

4. Console cornucopias: Electronic transmissions have transformed the center console. Without a mechanical attachment to your gearbox, shifters are now located anywhere from the steering column (Hyundais) to the dash (Chrysler Pacifica). That means more room between the front seats for cupholders, wireless chargers, cargo storage. Check out the rear console drawers on the Pacifica, Hyundai Ioniq 9, and VW ID.Buzz microbus.

Then ID.Buzz goes one step further. You can uproot the whole center console and anchor it between the second-row seats for rear passengers to use.

5. Steering wheel buttons: The digital age has also transformed the steering wheel. Today’s wheels have more features than a toy Fisher-Price Laugh ‘n’ Learn Steering Wheel.

There are buttons for adaptive cruise control, volume, radio station tuning, voice commands, and instrument display adjustment. My favorite examples of the genre are Chevy and Dodge vehicles that place volume/radio controls on the back of the wheel so your fingers never have to leave the wheel. Performance vehicles get more options like Porsche’s Sport Response Button and Hyundai N Grin Shift. Press them and the drivetrain instantly optimizes for 20 seconds of performance bliss.

6. Square steering wheel: Square is cool. The eighth-gen Corvette made the square wheel trendy in 2020 to allow for better visibility of its wide, digital instrument display. Other brands have followed suit.

The Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition feature square steering wheels so you can better see their digital screen at the base of the windshield. So, too, the Subaru Solterra, which has also moved its instrument display forward from the traditional dash position. Typical of Teslas, the Cybertruck has no instrument display, but features a square steering wheel for its unique variable-steer wheel with just 340 degrees of motion (compared to the traditional 900-1,080 degrees).

7. Jokes: With Google connectivity, cars are rolling smartphones that can entertain on long journeys.

Hey, Google, tell me a joke.

“How do trees access the Internet? They log in.”

Tell me another.

“What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta.”

8. Wireless phone chargers: Telling jokes, playing music, navigating. All that extra work for your car means your phone runs out of juice faster. So in 2025, wireless charging pads proliferated like dandelions in spring.

They are essential in vehicles like Hondas that have replaced their navi systems entirely with Goole Maps.

9. Frunk meets freat: Electric vehicles made frunks (front trunks) trendy by filling in the hole left by gas engines with storage space (see Tesla, Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevy Silverado EV). The 2026 Lucid Gravity EV puts a seat in its frunk for forward tailgating. Call it a freat (front seat).

10. Four-wheel-steer: The Holda Prelude innovated four-wheel-steer waaaay back in 1988. Now the gimmick is mainstream and available on a variety of luxury cars (a second steering-wheel rack costs money), including the Porsche 911, BMW 5/7 Series, Mercedes S-Class, GMC Hummer EV, Tesla Cybertruck, and more.

It's especially useful in trucks for reducing the turning radius in tight spots.

11. Underseat storage: Hulking, full-size pickup trucks have long used underseat storage to complement their exposed beds. Now the feature has trickled down to the $30k segment. Trucklets like the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick now offer the convenient feature.

12. Dolby Atmos: Dolby’s innovative speaker systems have made movie theaters an immersive sensory experience. In 2025, that experience debuted in automobiles with the Cadillac Optiq.

With speakers strategically placed around the cabin, Optiq puts you in the middle of an orchestra.

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