Your car is your sanctuary. It’s where you unwind after a long day at work, sit for hours on a long road trip, and listen to music or chat with your friends while you’re stuck in traffic.
For all the time you spend in your car, you might as well enhance your driving experience to make it as comfortable, relaxing, and convenient. That means transforming your car into a high-tech ride. On a budget? No problem. We put together a list of five cutting-edge tech gadgets you can buy for under $300.
1. Bluetooth Adapter
Just because your car doesn’t have Bluetooth streaming capabilities doesn’t mean that you have to get a pair of headphones and fumble around on your smartphone every time you’re in the mood to jam out to your favorite tunes.
With a Bluetooth adapter, you can stream music from your smartphone to your factory car stereo and listen to the music through your car’s speakers. The downside to most Bluetooth adapters is that they require an AUX input and they may create a little clutter on your dash. Some of them don’t even offer the ability for you to manage your music with your factory stereo and steering wheel controls.
That’s why we offer VAIS Tech Bluetooth adapters. They’re designed to be plugged in behind your factory stereo and allow you to browse your music library and adjust the volume with your factory radio and steering wheel controls.
2. Remote Car Starter
Remote car starters are becoming more and more common. If your car doesn’t have a remote starter, you don’t need to trade it in just to get a newer car that has one. You can drop a hundred dollars or two on a quality aftermarket remote starter for your car. You can even buy a smartphone remote start system, such as Viper SmartStart, that allows you to start your car with your smartphone.
3. Smart Driving Monitor
Did you know that you can plug some hardware into your car’s OBD-II diagnostics port and monitor your driving habits on your smartphone? What a time to be alive! A smart driving monitor will not only give you information on your car’s average speed, fuel economy, and other important information about your driving habits, but it’ll also display check engine codes, record every trip, and help you find your car in a crowded parking lot. A few good smart driving monitor brands include Kiwi 3, Drivebot, and Automatic Smart Driving Monitor.
If you want a cheaper solution, you can download the Dash app – which is free and compatible with Android and iOS applications – and sync it up with a $10 Bluetooth OBD-II data logger.
4. Dash Cam
There are many different reasons you should own a dash cam, which is a camera you mount on your windshield to record the road ahead of you at all times. A dash cam protects you in the event of an accident, provides video evidence of hit-and-runs and just about anything else, captures interesting footage, and documents your trips. Not bad for a gadget that costs less than $200, is it?
5. Head-Up Display
With a head-up display, you no longer have to take your eyes off the road. Everything is on the windshield in your line of sight. This high-tech safety-oriented accessory displays information such as your speed, navigation directions, traffic alerts, and more. Some even connect to your smartphone and show text messages as they pop up.
This cutting-edge technology isn’t just exclusive to brand new luxury cars. You can get one for a couple hundred bucks. If you’re on a budget, there are a few basic head-up displays you can get for $30 or $40.
With one or all of the high-tech solutions on this list, your driving experience is bound to improve tenfold. Which one would you get first? Tell us about it on Facebook!
Categories: Car Accessories