Car accessories – a look at some of the best and worst car products

It’s 2020, and cars have come a long way since the days of old. The classic car phone may have all but vanished, but several newer, shinier gadgets have come along to take us into a new era of car technology. As well as the tech, there have been a whole host of new inventions to make our driving experiences better than they were.

But with so much choice now available to us, how do we determine the dapper from the dud? The flimsy from the flash? The practical from the pointless? Take a look at some of our personal favourite offerings, giving you the chance to enjoy a nice piece of kit without having to shell out fortunes. Oh, and we’ve also included some of the worst car inventions or products we’ve had the misfortunate to come across – after seeing what we have to say about these you’ll definitely be looking elsewhere for your next purchase (if you know what’s good for you, that is!)

The good

• TyrePal Solar – Tyre pressure issues are something every driver will have had to deal with at some point, no matter their level of experience. TyrePal’s Solar is a real handy piece of tech which sticks to your dashboard, alerting you if your tyre pressure goes above (or below) your pre-set limits, or even if your tyre has become too hot. A one-time purchase of £99 could see you avoid plenty more in new tyre costs, and more importantly could even prevent car crashes.
• LDesign Bluetooth FM Transmitter – There’s only so much radio we can take, you know? Offering echo cancellation, noise suppression and an in-built microphone as well as its own charging port, this Bluetooth transmitter will have you bopping along to your tunes of choice in no time.
• Tile Mate – How handy would it be to be able to ring your keys from your phone… or even ring your phone from your keys, as well as being able to look on your app at when the keys were last seen? This life saving bit of kit is all but guaranteed to pay dividends at some point. Simply attach the gadget to your set of keys and off you go!

The bad

• Car Swivel food trays – These products were designed for the ‘driver on the go’, but would you really trust yourself to eat a burger and chips off a flimsy tray in your nice clean car when driving around? Many users have reported that these products struggle to hold the weight of anything more than a portion of chips, so with that being said – what’s the point? Spare yourself ten minutes of your day to stop your car and eat!
• Car LED signs – The car accessory market is now flooded with LED products, many of which allow the user to display emojis from them to show their fellow passengers how they’re feeling. The practical purpose for them? We’re sceptical!

Another pet peeve of ours (though not necessarily an ‘accessory’) is alloys which haven’t been taken care of. Alloys are one of the first things someone will notice about your vehicle, but yet so many choose to neglect. As petrolheads it’s always a real head-in-hands moment for us when we spot a beautiful vehicle which has somewhat been ruined by lack of alloy repair or maintenance.

If your alloys are in need of a little TLC, make sure to book in your repair or refurbishment with Prestige Wheels today. Wheel (*wink*) have you looking good-as-new in no time!