Advertorial : Top five car accessories currently on the market

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Our cars are swiftly turning into sophisticated pieces of computer technology, and industry experts are predicting an explosion in the number of apps and options that will come with new cars. In fact, some are even predicting that by 2015, all new cars will be connected to the Internet.

Of course, with the new cars, come the new accessories, so here’s your guide to the top five around. Some old, some new, and all certainly being developed into a better gizmo as we write.

1. Screens

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One of the more controversial options around – screens built into the back of the headrests, and bringing the airplane experience to your car. Some parents think these are a God-send, allowing the kids to watch a film or play a game and leave you up front to drive in peace and quiet. Others think that it’s another sign of a lack of attention span in kids and the end of the traditional travel games. Nonetheless they are popular, and they’re not going away any time soon.

2. Hands Free

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Cars are getting smarter, but the old hands free system remains the best, and safest, way of using your phone when you’re on the road. Voice command systems are improving so you never have to take your hands, or eyes, off the wheel to make the all-important phone call. Despite what car experts say about integration, your phone and your car are always going to have to be separate, so hands free isn’t going away soon.

3. SatNav

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These days SatNav is inbuilt into new cars, along with all sorts of other clever location things that can help you park more easily and be better aware of your surroundings. Displays vary, some are even talking of projecting onto the mirror rather than having a screen that you clip in, but whatever way you dress it up, being able to get from A to B without someone reading a map (or having the map upside down) is a great invention and is here to stay.

4. Apps Ahoy

Ford-3

The modern car is controllable from more or less anywhere. The latest generation of Apps allow you to do things that you’d never have thought of before – like defrost the car from bed by flicking a switch – checking the petrol gauge or other internal systems before you’ve finished your breakfast. Alternatively you can use your phone to play podcasts or music through the car speakers without ever having to worry about CDs slipping down the back of chairs again. Your car can tell you where the nearest and cheapest petrol stations are, or what the road conditions are like five miles down the road.

5. Black Boxes

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As cars get more expensive and cleverer, there’s no way that car insurance is going to get cheaper, so it has to offer better value for money and the black box is a great solution. An inbuilt system that monitors when, where, and how fast you drive might sound like Big Brother, but if it means cheaper car insurance, and the possibility to independently prove that you weren’t at fault for an accident, then it’s got to be a good thing and can only lead to safer, cheaper journeys. A worthy winner of our top five.

At Allianz Your Cover, you can add Car Contents Insurance to your current car insurance policy with Your Cover. This add-on will protect you against loss, damage or theft of personal possessions left in your car, or in a trailer or roof box attached to your car. For more information, please visit www.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk.

Keith Adams

9 Comments

  1. No way would I have a black box anywhere near my car. Just another mechanism, disguised as an insurance saving mechanism, for the government to spy on where you are travelling to. They’ve already put ANPR cameras everywhere ‘for security purposes’, they’ll be able to have a full log of your journeys.
    (And before someone comes in with the old ‘nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide’ line, this is about civil liberties not aiding criminals)

  2. The ideal car for the school run would have automatic transmission and automatic steering thus enabling the ‘driver’ to have a mobile phone in one hand and a piece of toast in the other.
    We live in a fast moving world where everybody is on the phone or inputing crap about their mundane lives into Twatter and Facebook.

  3. One thing I hate seeing on the roads and dual carriage ways is people using mobile phones Texting on the move and a few weeks back driving home in the dark an Audi A3 over took in the fast line, I did not mind but when it was level I clocked the white glow of the phone held above the steering wheel and not joking I can the read the Facebook blue band logo and below the black lines typing in as it passed.

    I saw red flashed my head lights twice Like Oi you in!.
    they slowed a first and then sped off and seeing stuff like that make me wish for blue lights in the front grill of my motor.

  4. my pet hate aswell, people on mobiles gggrrr. all these new gadgets 1984?big brother is watching you!!!

  5. With Mini ITX PCs becoming popular, there have been a few in-car PC projects.

    The likes of the Raspberry Pi might make a handy media server. With SD cards and SSDs you don’t even need to worry about the hard drive platter getting a knock.

    A few years ago someone transplanted a Mac G4 into a rear engined Tatra, and created a UI display to give MPG stats, current playlist etc.

    http://oreilly.com/pub/h/3657

  6. The one I like is the “I’ve got an old stereo” so how can I listen to my new kool tunes? By putting on my headphones and pluging in my ipod/iphone! While the kids kill themselves in the back of the car.
    Never heard of an FM transmitter or a cassette adaptor?

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