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List of over 15 must-have car accessories

6th February 2024, 18:10 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

It includes items such as the floor mat, dustbin, air freshener, smartphone holder, dashcam, fire extinguisher, jumper cable and more.

BHPian Aditya recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Back in 2007, we had a thread on the must-have car accessories that needed to be purchased as extras. Back then, we had recommended getting fog lamps, headlight bulb upgrades and parking sensors. These features had to be purchased as accessories from dedicated stores. Today, one would laugh at that. Today, fog lamps are a part of the standard feature list, halogen headlight bulbs have been replaced by LEDs and parking sensors are standard on many mainstream cars. As is pretty evident, over these 16 years later, a lot has changed.

Today, new cars are equipped with various features. We get sunroofs, sunshades, touchscreen head-units with fantastic sound systems, air purifiers, head-up displays, TPMS, fog lamps, alloy wheels and a lot more as standard these days. Further, fitting certain other accessories might require tampering with the wiring of the car, which might void the warranty. This has made accessory stores irrelevant. Still, certain features are not provided on most cars. These might be utilitarian or aesthetic and help us personalise certain aspects of our vehicles. Some of them are carried over from the 2007 list as they are still relevant.

Here is the 2023 edition of the list of must-have car accessories.

Exterior

Alloy wheels

Some entry-level cars still come with steel wheels. Alloy wheels not only enhance the car's look but they are lighter and stronger than steel wheels. Moreover, since the unsprung weight is less, it improves the driving experience as well.

Wider tyres

Many cars are woefully under-tyred for the power they put out (WagonR 1.2, City, etc.). This is primarily done to improve efficiency, but skinny tyres aren't very safe in emergencies. Upgrading to wider tyres improves grip levels. This enhances the steering, handling and braking of a car. It also improves the car's appearance.

Interior

Floor & boot mats

Floor & boot mats are not a part of standard equipment in most cars. But they are very necessary. They help keep the car's carpet clean. Nowadays, there are so many options with the type of floor mats like all-weather mats, fabric mats, 3D mats, and more.

Air freshener

If a car's doors have not been opened for a while, it can produce an unpleasant smell. This is particularly bad in the rainy season. An air freshener helps in such situations.

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Dustbin

A small dustbin is handy when you need a place to put all the waste such as wrappers, used tickets and more. Your cupholders and door pockets need not be used to store waste. It will also make you resist the urge to throw rubbish out of the car's window.

Car seatback organiser

While travelling, people like to carry a lot of stuff. However, inside the cabin, there is not much space to keep all the items that they have. Hence, stuff is kept loose on the seat, parcel shelf and other places. A car seatback organiser is hooked onto the seatback of the front seat. Various items such as laptops, magazines, water bottles and more can be stored in it.

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Smartphone holder

Many cars do not come with a touchscreen head-unit and navigation. In such cases, drivers use their smartphones and Google Maps. Keeping a phone loose on the instrument cluster or the centre console or seat is not advisable. A smartphone holder mounted on the dashboard will allow the driver to follow navigation instructions without taking his / her eyes off the road.

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Multi-port charger

Today, multiple gadgets are a part of our day-to-day life. These include items such as smartphones, laptops, etc. Different gadgets require different types of charging ports. Therefore, to keep these gadgets running, having a multi-port charger that draws power via a 12V outlet is essential.

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Sun shades

With sun films being banned, sun shades are a good way of keeping the harsh rays of the sun out.

Ventilated seat cushions

In a country like ours, ventilated seats are a boon, especially in a city like Mumbai where a short drive in peak summer even with the A/C running can have your back sweating. If your car isn't equipped with ventilated seats, you can get one of these ventilated seat cushions that plug into your 12V socket.

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Safety

Dashcam

A dashcam is one of the most useful car accessories you can buy today. The recordings can help you during an accident by serving as proof when you are dealing with the law or claiming insurance. BHPian ph03n!x recently had an accident and a dashcam saved him legally and financially.

Reversing camera

In modern cars, we get huge headrests, small rear windshields and thick C/D-pillars. This makes it difficult to get a clear view of the rear during reversing. This can cause an accident. A parking camera proves to be useful here as it gives a picture of what is behind the vehicle.

Fire extinguisher

Fires can break out at any time in any car. An extinguisher is very useful in such cases and using one of these might enable one to limit the damage caused by the fire.

Child seat

Nothing is more precious than the safety of our little angels. A child seat ensures that children are held in place in the safest possible manner in the car.

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Protection

Car body cover

Most of our country is hot and dusty. Besides, many other factors such as dirt, bird droppings etc. slowly damage your car's paint. A body cover offers some protection against these.

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Others

Tyre inflator

It is very important to maintain the optimum air pressure in your car's tyres. This ensures that the car performs well, handles and brakes properly and returns good fuel economy. It also ensures that the tyres last long. You might not have a trustworthy air-filling station in your neighbourhood particularly if you live in semi-urban areas. A high-quality tyre inflator is handy in such cases. It is also useful during touring.

Puncture repair kit

Punctures can happen at any time. In most places, you are not too far away from a puncture repair facility. However, there are times when there could be nothing for miles. In such times, a puncture repair kit is very useful. Again, this is an extremely important accessory to have while touring.

Jumper cables

Sometimes, a battery runs down due to a light left on through the night or if the car is not used for a long time. Apart from that, a battery also becomes weak with time. Ultimately, it may not have the required power to crank the engine. Here is where jumper cables come in handy. Using jumper cables, one can connect the weak car battery to another car's battery and jump-start it.

Vacuum cleaner

Dust, skin particles, hair, food crumbs and whatnot - all can be found in the interior of a car. Keeping the interior clean is extremely important. A car vacuum cleaner is excellent at sucking up all the rubbish inside a car.