Every car model has its own design and features. Yet, not all are made equally as some are equipped with only the basics to get the job done. Luckily, there are a handful of useful accessories that you can add to your vehicle to ensure a better driving experience. Some types of accessories are meant to keep you safe, provide ease and comfort, make your vehicle appear cooler, or add fun to your journey. With that, we’ve rounded up the must-have car accessories to keep you revved up and your car always on the go.
1. Smartphone Holder
Having a smartphone holder in your car provides a lot of perks. It keeps your device in a fixed position within your area of vision while keeping your hands on the wheel. Thus, allowing you to use it legally and reducing the risk of accidents.
Note also that smartphones nowadays are loaded with applications to guide you on your trip. All you need is a suitable place on your dash or windshield to mount your device. What’s great is that a smartphone holder lets you adjust the angle and it’s also extremely easy to get your device in and out.
2. Bluetooth Key Finder
Are you worried about losing your keys? Ease your worries! Purchasing a Bluetooth key finder to help you find them in a breeze. You simply need to loop the tracker to your key ring and sync it to your phone. In case you misplace your keys, you can simply use your phone to make it ring. If your smartphone is missing instead, the tracker also works in reverse. With a simple press of the button on the tracker, your phone will ring even in silent mode. What you’ll love more is that Bluetooth key finders are so lightweight. You will barely notice it on your keychains but is sure to help a lot if the need arises.
3. Dash Camera
Whether it’s suspicious activity or an accident, it always helps to have a dash camera that serves as your set of extra eyes during the event. It records what’s happening in front and rear of the vehicle and saves the footage. This can help you skip long and annoying insurance claim processes if the accident isn’t your fault. Plus, you can even use the footage as evidence to dispute wrongfully issued tickets. No matter what type of lies that other parties may make – you can ensure that all is fair and square as you have the proof in your camera.
4. Steering Wheel Cover
If you’re suffering from sweaty palms, you know how gripping the wheel for extended periods can be a problem. Getting a steering wheel cover solves the issue by absorbing moisture, allowing improved grip, and enhancing the driving experience.
Not only that but they also reduce wear and tear to the material of your steering wheel. For instance, a steering wheel cover can help keep the pristine condition of the leather on your wheel by protecting it from sustained use.
Plus, steering wheel covers come in various colors and styles that can give your wheel a quick upgrade. They’re also relatively cheap and easy to install and remove, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be adding them to your car.
5. Blind Spot Mirrors
If you don’t have a blind spot surveillance system in your car yet, you may want to consider getting blind spot mirrors instead. Though these accessories aren’t as intricate as the actual sensors are, they provide ample support in giving you an improved view of what’s happening around your vehicle. Don’t take these small convex mirrors for granted. They provide better visibility and many people claim that they have really helped in changing or merging lanes and in preventing potential accidents.
6. Windshield Treatment
Excessive rain and snow can overcome your brand-new wiper blades and limit your visibility while driving. With that, it’s also essential to apply a water-repelling treatment to your windshield. It coats your windshield, prevents moisture from building up on the surface, and makes it easier to get rid of water, snow, and even bugs. Thus, providing you clearer, sharper visibility out of your windshield for months.
7. Seat Cushion
Regular car seats are often hard and stiff. As such, long hours of sitting and driving tend to be a disaster and snatch away the fun from road trips. A great way to counter that is by adding a car seat cushion. Extra padding provides utmost comfort and support and keeps you in the correct posture, making it more relaxing to commute even for longer periods.
8. Vacuum Cleaner
Your car’s interior gathers dust, dirt, and shredded skin particles that build up on the floor, cupholder, seats, dashboard, and elsewhere around. If you’re eating inside the car, food crumbs add to the dilemma and impact the hygiene and look of your vehicle over time. Not to mention that a filthy car environment is a perfect receptacle for mold and bacteria.
That’s why it’s important to have the best handheld vacuum cleaner in your car. It helps clean the interior of your car safely and effectively. With regular cleaning, you ensure that your car is always in its tip-top condition.
9. Waterproof Seat Covers
Taking your kids or pets with you when traveling can be a hassle. Your little ones who are constantly munching on snacks or splurging on drinks can mess up your precious seats with their sticky fingers and spills. Meanwhile, your fur babies can brim them with hair or drool all over the place.
With that, investing in waterproof car seat covers is a smart decision. You can bring your kiddos and pets without worrying about facing a bizarre mess later. They’re easy to clean with multipurpose wipes. You can say hello to the smell and sight of an immaculate, clean car in minutes.
10. Portable Jump Starter
You may have not experienced grappling with a dead car battery yet, but trust us, it can be a major inconvenience should it happen. Not being able to start your car in the middle of the road is a stressful situation. You’re lucky if a passing friendly stranger saves your day with a pair of jumper cables and an open trunk. But what if you get stranded helplessly in an isolated place in the middle of the night?
As such, it’s also a must to get your own portable jump starter. Think of it like a powerbank for your car that gives your car a good shock of electricity to start its engine. It can help you get yourself out of those tricky situations and get back on the road again.
11. Cargo Box
If you’re an adventure junkie who likes traveling to new places with your car, exploring the outdoors, hiking, and camping overnight, chances are you’ve experienced your own storage woes of not having enough space for all the things you need for the trip.
To remedy that, you can install a cargo box on the roof of your vehicle and expand space without heavily modifying your car. You’ll have alternative storage to keep your outdoor gear, camping equipment, and sleeping bags, and continue your exciting escapades.
12. Organizers
A car feels like your home. With that, you should keep things clean and tidy like your original home. However, it can be a cumbersome task given the different types of clutter like tissue rolls, hand sanitizers, tumblers, chips, and soda cans that you bring in your car. To keep your sanity, you can simply add organizers to your vehicle. These organizers are easy to install, come in types, shapes, and sizes, and have compartments to hold your items in place. Thus, making them easy to access when you need them.
13. Glass Breaker
While we don’t want bad things to happen, accidents are inevitable, even with the utmost caution. If you get stuck inside your car submerged in a body of water, you’ll need something to get yourself out before time runs out. A strong and sharp glass breaker is just the tool you need to save you from such a situation. Moreover, you can also use it for other emergencies like rescuing a child or pet locked inside a car or breaking the glass of an office or home window during a fire.
14. Non-Slip Sticky Pads
Non-slip sticky pads may be one of the simplest accessories on this list, but they’re extremely useful. Adding one in your car can prevent things from sliding off your slippery dashboard, cupholder, or center console. That way, your sunglasses, keys, pens, etc. won’t fall on the car floor should your vehicle hit a bump.
15. Trash Bin
Keep chips wrappers, empty water bottles, fast food containers, or used tissue papers from ending up on your car’s floor, under the seat, or in the cupholder. Have a trash bin to keep all the trash until you find a suitable place to throw them out. This is particularly great during long road journeys, where it’s difficult to find garbage disposal stops. It helps you keep your car clean and help protect the environment, too, knowing that you won’t be tempted to throw your waste out of the window.
16. Expandable Hanger Bar
No one wants to go to a business meeting, family occasion, or vacation with curled or creased clothes. Fortunately, you can simply convert your backseats into a closet-on-wheels. Install an expandable hanger bar where you can hang your clothes and keep them in tip-top condition as you drive to the location of the special event. This tool is even useful when picking up dry cleaning or hanging everything else you won’t like scattering inside your car.
17. Air Freshener
Your car is a small confined area that remains close at most times. With that, foul odor from any strong-smelling food you ate, unclean environment, or accumulation of allergens, dirt, and moisture can easily stay trapped inside and make driving less enjoyable. To make it always smell nice at all times, another car accessory you should not forget to add is an air freshener. It comes in a variety of scents like lemon, strawberry, lavender, pine, and a whole lot more, which can instantly make a positive impact on your indoor air quality and make driving a fun chore.
18. Dashboard Ornaments
Your dashboard is a perfect ground to show your personality and further accentuate your vehicle’s interior. From Chinese lucky charms to wooden letters, small figurines, fun bobbleheads, crochet decors, to practical dash clocks, you can buy different decorative pieces in various sizes, colors, appearances, and levels of sophistication to beautify your dash and give it a personal touch.
19. Interior Ambient Lighting
Are you looking to give your vehicle’s interior a premium look, instead? Your best bet is adding interior ambient lighting and turning it into a full-on light show. You can find a fascinating array of cool ambient LED lighting options that you can mount on your car, particularly on the footwells, dash trims, climate control vents, speaker surrounds, cupholders, and below the seats. Aside from enhancing the overall design of your car, interior ambient lighting also provides other perks like improving space perception, aiding in finding controls and having better orientation, and making the car feel safer while driving.
20. Floor Mats
If you’re the type of person who is always on the lookout for how to keep his car clean, protected, and stylish at the same time, a great way to do this is by placing floor mats over your car’s carpets. Can you imagine how big of a hassle it is to clean twigs, mud, sand, and other dirt from your car’s carpet? Yikes.
Floor mats serve as a layer of shield that protects your precious car carpet from such debris. Plus, they’re easier to clean, so you can always keep the interior in a tidy condition. No worries, as there are lots of stylish designs to choose from, also making it an easy and quick way to customize your car.
21. Puncture Repair Kit
Tires are often overlooked, but they are one of the most vital parts that your car needs to run on. They support the vehicle load, transmit traction or stop your car, absorb road shocks, and follow your intended travel direction. If they go flat and you don’t have a spare tire, you’d be unable to drive your car and be left stranded. Fortunately, puncture repair kits are now widely available to help you get out of such a situation. They come with a bottle of sealing fluid and an air compressor, which you can use to seal any puncture temporarily and inflate your wheels to keep your car back and running.
22. Car Hooks
Don’t let your food, purse, bag, or jacket roll around the floor during your entire trip. It can be very distracting seeing contents rolling everywhere inside and absorbing whatever dirt is grime and dirt present in your car after your last clean-up. An easy solution is installing car hooks, which you can easily attach to your car’s headrest. It’s an instant extra storage option where you can hang groceries, umbrellas, baby supplies, water bottles, and so much more. They’re cheap little accessories but are certain to make a big impact.
23. Car Cover
Using a high-quality car cover is important, regardless if you’re parking inside or outside. Sun exposure can be damaging to both the interior and exterior of your car. Your car’s paintwork, seats, and dash can easily fade and crack due to sun damage. Meanwhile, you also need to protect the exterior from dust, dirt, bird droppings, leaves, and accidental scratches. A car cover will also protect your vehicle from getting wet and dirty during rainy and snowy seasons.
24. Heads-up Display
Utilizing technology originally developed for fighter jets, heads-up displays are now a must-have accessory in cars today. They’re extremely useful, allowing you to stay in the loop and see vital information without taking your eyes off the road. You stay informed by seeing a wealth of details on the windshield like speed and direction at a simple glance. A growing number of new car models are now offering built-in HUDs. If your vehicle doesn’t have one yet, it’s an addition you won’t regret.
25. Electronic Body Massage Pillow
Another way to beat neck and back pain from an arduous drive is getting an electronic body massage pillow. As such aches are unavoidable during long drives, this device can help provide the traditional lumbar support and keep the lower back and neck muscles more relaxed and at ease. It comes with rollers and a heating function that will make extended periods of driving more bearable.
26. Alloy Wheels
Alloy wheels are a must-have when thinking of accessories for your vehicle’s exterior. They are simply attractive and provide a clear aesthetic edge over steel wheels. Apart from glamorizing your car, they also have other advantages like being lighter than steel, better fuel economy, better heat dissipation/conduction, better braking, and being corrosion resistant. Your car will evidently stand out, increase value, and be easier to maneuver with alloy wheels on.
27. GPS Navigators
Though phone applications are very useful in finding your location and getting directions, they won’t help if their battery gets drained and you’re in the middle of an unknown place without internet connectivity. That’s when GPS navigators are incredibly useful and indispensable, as they connect directly to the satellites. You stay safe and connected at all times even in the remotest areas.
Things to Consider When Buying Car Accessories
While all the things listed on this can do wonders for your car, you’re not obliged to make a shopping spree and place them all in your vehicle. A car is already a considerable investment, which is why you should be careful in spending your money on auto accessories. With so many options available, however, it can be quite difficult to determine which ones are the best for you. To help you out, here are some things you should consider:
Think About Your Needs: Be mindful that accessories aren’t a requirement for driving. Basic cars already have the essential features they need to run even without the add-ons. Accessories are there to improve the experience, depending on your needs. Make sure to assess what you actually need in your car and your lifestyle. For instance, do you need help in keeping things tidy instead? Purchase various types of car organizers to do the job.
Check Your Budget: Always take the time to check your budget and see how much you can realistically spend on car accessories. While other add-ons are cheap, some can entail a hefty price and hurt your wallet. If that’s the case, you can reconsider buying an accessory, purchase it at a later convenient time, or resort to DIY items instead.
Practicality and Usefulness: Practicality and usefulness must be your top priorities. Are you going to actually use the product? Will it bring benefits to your driving? Or, are you buying it because it is trending and you’re joining the bandwagon? Remember, there’s no point in spending money on accessories that don’t serve a purpose and add value to your car.
Compatibility: Furthermore, it’s vital to check whether a car accessory is compatible with your vehicle’s model. Some accessories are intended for newer cars, others are for older models alone. Ensure to also see if there are special installation requirements that your car may not meet or may require professional assistance.
Quality: Lastly, don’t miss out on checking the quality of the materials of the accessories you’re buying. You can see an endless list of options in the market, but not all of them are created the same. Always check the type of material used, the reviews, and the seller’s ratings. That way, you can somehow assure yourself that whatever you’re buying can last you for a long time.
Don’t step on the brakes on these add-ons. Once you get these accessories you ultimately need for your car, expect to elevate your driving experience and make every journey easier and more memorable.