For some people, cars are just a way to get from point A to B, while for others, their car is more important than the destination itself. Especially if you consider the example of those that enjoy travelling by road and those that like to explore new regions in their own cars and trucks, half of the joy of the trip is the vehicle in which they travel.
Everyone has their own tastes and preferences, but one thing is for sure: everyone would like to own a nice car. What we consider nice does vary with our requirements and our preferences. Spending a few seconds in a rocket-fuelled drag car is a great experience for some while for others that might be travelling across the country in a comfortable RV with all their friends and family. In either case, the vehicle itself plays a critical role. The great thing is that no matter what you prefer and what your budget is, you can always make some changes to your current vehicle that will help you achieve that end goal. While this might not be that true for extreme examples such as the professional drag car, there are still a lot of things you can do to your daily driver that will make it that much more comfortable, enjoyable, and even reliable. Here are some of the best aftermarket add-ons you should consider.
Audio equipment
Everyone likes to have some nice music in the car, but in all honesty, the speakers and the head unit that comes with the car from the factory are far from enjoyable. Sure, if you are buying a super luxury car like a Mercedes Maybach or a Rolls Royce, the audio system will be quite a bit better, but for the majority of the cars on the road, the audio system isn’t that great. When it comes to the audio equipment, you have to keep an eye out for the head unit, the amplification, the speakers, and the woofer. Most cars don’t have a dedicated woofer. Ideally, you should upgrade all of these components to get the most out of your system. For instance, if you leave the head unit as it is but gets extremely high-end speakers and woofers, the output from these devices will be limited to the quality of the signal that the head unit is able to provide. This just proves that upgrading everything together is going to be the best option to get the most out of the system.
Food and drink
Cities are getting bigger, traffic is getting worse, and more and more people are spending a large portion of their day simply commuting from work and back. In fact, some people now rely completely on a drive-thru breakfast to get them going because they simply don’t have the time to cook before they leave for work. On the other hand, with so many people now shifting to touring and Overlanding due to the international travel restrictions, having on-board solutions for food and drink are becoming important. Even if you are just a city driver, it’s still important to immerse yourself in reliable research detailed in Explaining Fridge & Freezer Van Conversions to ensure that you have the knowledge for it and that it does a great job for all kinds of purposes. In fact, if you have an old family van or a medium-sized wagon that is a redundant secondary car, you could fit it with a fridge or freezer and use it to make some money. There are a lot of businesses that require refrigerated vehicles to transport their goods. You would be targeting a very niche customer that is willing to pay good money for this unique service. The downside is, it might not be that convenient to bring the vehicle back to stock form after the conversion.
Performance
This is probably one of the most open-ended sections of vehicle performance as there are just so many things that can contribute to better performance. More importantly, there are numerous things that vehicle owners can be interested in and certain aspects of the performance that they want to improve. For instance, one of the most common upgrades to them are larger rims and while they do look nice and provide better traction, they come at the price of compromised steering control and a lower fuel average. If you are looking to make performance upgrades to your vehicle then you should look at the car as a complete system. Making changes in one of its parts will necessarily require changes in other parts of the car. If you can make the complementary changes then you will have a vehicle that is both fun and safe to drive. Just enhancing one aspect will only increase problems, decrease reliability, and open you up to a whole range of challenges in the mechanics of the car.
Aesthetics
One of the most prominent aspects of the vehicle is the car’s appearance and aesthetic appeal. Many people think that they are stuck with the factory colour that they chose and the overall stock appearance of the car whereas, in reality, this is far from the truth. There are a ton of things you can do to change its look without compromising stock reliability. For instance, rather than getting an aftermarket paint job, consider getting a wrap or what is known as car foil. This is literally a wrap of film that covers the entire vehicle and gives you the colour you want in the texture you like. Whether you like a glossy yellow or a matt grey, it’s all possible with wraps. Or you can get customised 3D number plates to give it a personal touch as well.
When it comes to accessorising and customising your vehicle, the options are endless. The real challenge is to identify what you like, what you want to be done, and how you can make those changes to your vehicle. After making drastic changes to the vehicle, you might not want to risk this with your daily driver as these changes can take time to be installed and can be unreliable. However, no matter how extreme the change is, anything can be done to any vehicle with thorough testing and high-quality work. In addition, you want to ensure that before making any changes, the modifications you have planned will not compromise the legality of the car. Road regulations vary a lot from one place to another so be sure to look into these before you make the modifications you have in mind.
Featured image: Hans M/Unsplash
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