These days, cars come with a whole host of electronic wizardry built in. The distinction between in-car technology and consumer electronics is blurring, with many ‘infotainment’ systems working in conjunction with a smartphone. There is still some room to add a bit of cool gadget goodness to your car and here are 10 of the best.
Pure Highway 300Di Digital Radio Kit
This clever little unit brings the joys of DAB radio to your car if you are unlucky enough not to have it pre-installed. It looks as great as it sounds and better yet, the purchase price includes installation by those nice chaps at Halfords.
Stretchy Stig
A bit childish perhaps, but your stretchy Stig lets you get rid of all that road rage safely by allowing you to squeeze, stretch and maul him without complaint. He stretches to four times his normal height, apparently, for those times when the idiocy of your fellow drivers is really too much to bear.
Griffin iTrip Auto Universal Plus FM transmitter
This is a cool little gadget that transmits the music on your phone or MP3 player and sends it to your car stereo in lovely FM quality. It’s like your very own radio station and doesn’t require any installation nonsense.
Griffin PowerJolt Micro Double USB 12V Charger
Fits snugly into your power outlet and provides not one, but two USB ports. Neatly solves the problem of all those arguments with your passenger about whose music to listen to.
Herbert Richter Banana Global 9.1 Tablet Screen Mount
When you are adding all that expensive technology to your dashboard, you want to make sure that it stays there, even when bumping over our potholed roads. This piece of robust German engineering will do the trick.
Jabra Freeway Bluetooth Speakerphone
This is one of the best Bluetooth speakerphones you will get anywhere. Crystal clear sound and the ability to hook up to your car’s FM radio if you want it to.
Exogear Exomount Universal Gadget Mount
The gadget for gadgets. With so many people using sat nav on their smartphones, they need a sure fire way of keeping the device secured to the dash. This manages the job with ease, no matter which device you are using.
Garmin nuLink 2390 with PhotoLive
This premium offering is a clever take on the sat nav application and offers actual live photographs of the route ahead. Quite often a quick look will allow you to make a better judgement on road conditions than the computer can, so it’s a useful addition to the technology.
Contigo Autoseal Travel Mug
This makes having refreshment on the go a whole lot easier. A clever snap shut mechanism is designed for use with one hand and instantly closes when you let it go. It’s almost impossible to spill anything and the double stainless steel wall construction keeps hot things hot and cold things cold.
Bracketron Nav-Mat II
This simple little device is so clever. The special material sticks to your dashboard and allows you to attach the sat nav of your choice without tell-tale sticker marks on the windscreen. A great crime deterrent.
We look forward to seeing what other car gadgets are in store for us in 2014. It will be very interesting to see what car manufacturers do with in-car entertainment systems this year. Volvo have already started using Spotify so we expect to see others follow suit.