If you’re in the market for a new car and you can afford a fully-loaded top-end model with all the bells and whistles, that’s great. But for the average Joe (or Jane), the price is a consideration and it’s difficult to sift through all the jargon car salesmen confuse you with. So, what are the essential safety features in cars that prevent accidents? Which new auto technologies are pure gimmicks and which ones save lives? Here are some essential safety features your car should have.

Airbags

Even the least expensive cars these days have at least two front airbags. In the event of high-speed or high-impact collisions, airbags are only second to seat belts in saving the lives of front seat passengers. The latest auto technologies include airbags that deploy on the windscreen of the car to protect a pedestrian who may get hit while crossing the street.

Back-Up Camera

 

A dashboard display of what’s behind the vehicle comes on as soon as you put your car in reverse. Some back-up cameras include trajectory lines and distance readings to help you navigate, but more importantly, this technology prevents you from inadvertently running someone over (there have been instances when a parent backed up a large SUV over their own toddler in their own driveway). The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) will make back-up cameras compulsory in all vehicles by 2018.

Fatigue Detection Systems

Drivers drifting off to speed are a danger to themselves as well as others on the road. New car technologies detect erratic driving, such as sudden deceleration or drifting, and warn the driver with an audio or visual alert. This safety feature is especially important for people who spend long hours on the road alone, such as truck drivers. More expensive models in passenger cars are able to profile a driver’s normal driving patterns and quickly detect any deviation from the baseline, even factoring in external factors such as road surface and crosswinds.

Parental Controls

Parents of teen drivers can rest a little easier when their young driver heads out of the door with car keys in hand. Parental control technology for safety in automobiles allows parents to place limits on the vehicle’s speed and audio volume. The system can also be programmed to sound a continuous alarm if seat belts remain unfastened after the vehicle begins moving. GPS vehicle tracking allows parents to track the vehicle in real time.

Blind Spot Detector

If you’ve ever started to switch lanes but jerked back into your lane because a car was in your blind spot, you’ll know the value of a new technology called blind spot detector. This feature sets off an audio or visual alert if there’s a car in the driver’s blind spot. Some systems can also detect bicycles and pedestrians outside the driver’s field of vision.

Car DVD Players: 

Nowadays, there isn’t a home without a car DVD player, but one of the latest and coolest ways to electronically enhance your life is installing one into your car! Car DVD players come in all different varieties and prices, but even the cheapest ones will send you into movie viewer heaven!

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Today you are going to learn some easy and practical ways to keep your car clean. Nowadays most people are always in a hurry and can hardly find time for their car. But its maintenance is very important. After all, you probably travel with your vehicle every day. It does not feel comfortable to see all the mess inside, does it? Here are a few tips about how to maintain your car in good condition:

Do not eat inside – unfortunately a lot of people have this bad habit. Eating inside is one of the most unpleasant things you can do in your car. You might throw out the wrappers immediately, but that would not help a lot. Just think about all the crumbs and stains that may be left behind. If you want to keep the interior clean and shining, you’d better avoid this action.

Hang a trash bag – even if you do not eat inside, there is always some junk and useless stuff. Hanging a remove bag on the back of your seat would be a very wise solution to this problem. You can use it for papers, water bottles and all the other trash that may be acquired there. At the end of the week, you just take the bag out and throw it away. It is that easy!

Knock your shoes before getting in – of course, you cannot get in your car with completely clean shoes, especially when it rains or snows outside. But you might do a little trick to reduce the dirt. Just sit down on the seat with your legs outside. Then knock your feet together. That should at least free the footwells from some spoils and grime.

Wash your floor mats regularly – even if you follow the last advice, you cannot fully protect the floor mats from getting dirty. But there is an easy way to clean them. First a little vacuuming to take away the big chunks. Then you scrub the mats with soap and water and let them dry. Follow this scheme regularly and you will manage to maintain them neat and clean.

Keep your car in a garage – if your car stays outside all the time, it will need a proper cleaning a lot more frequently. Keeping it in the garage is the best way to protect it from all the dirt that Mother Nature can bring. And if you do not have a garage, just try to find some enclosed space. It will help a lot for the outlook of your vehicle.

These are the recommendations for maintaining a clean and nice-looking car. Try to follow them and you will quickly notice the positive effect. Of course, in case of a real mess or car damage (it happens to everyone), you can always call professional mobile car valeting service. Just think about what will be the best option for your car and take all the necessary measures.

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In one of our recent Top 5 pieces, we looked at our favorite car options that people rarely have on their cars. In this Top 5, we wanted to take a look at some car options that have been popping up on a bunch of cars recently, that we think are actually useless. We have chosen five popular car options that are available in a lot of cars, that cost additional money to buy, but are rarely used on a daily basis.

Sport Mode We love the current crop of sports car that all have adjustable drive modes to configure the car. Ford got a lot of publicity with the Drift Mode in the Focus RS, which has now been copied by Mercedes. In a sports car, these modes are usually very distinct, but the sport mode on a boring family sedan is a different story. We have seen sport buttons on everything from the Hyundai Elantra to the Lexus ES, but they really don’t do much. People who purchase these cars aren’t expecting a canyon carving sports car. These buttons rarely get pushed, and are therefore useless.

Paddle Shifters Just to be clear, we aren’t referring to automatic transmissions, just the paddle shifters attached to them. Like our sport mode choice, we love paddle shifters when they are actually relevant. However, a CVT Honda Accord does not need paddle shifters. How many people actually drive their Accord around “shifting gears” through traffic? In most mainstream cars, the paddle shifters get used on the test drive after the salesman points out how cool they are, and maybe once or twice in the first month to show off to friends. After that, people rarely use them which makes them a waste of money.

Rear Seat Entertainment This is one of our most hated tech features in cars. It was nice as a kid to have a car DVD player in the back of the car, but kids today have so many more options like iPods and iPads that make the rear seat entertainment systems seem like a waste of money. These systems can cost thousands of dollars from the manufacturer, when you could just as easily go out and buy two iPads for your kids for a fraction of the price. We do like the expensive systems in cars like Porsche and Mercedes that can access car menus and control infotainment, but we wouldn’t want to relinquish control of the radio to screaming kids in the back seat.

Power-Adjustable Seats On our previous list, we declared our love for high tech seats with advanced functions like massaging. However, we also admit that power-adjustable seats are usually just a useless option. Jay Leno likes to point out that a power seat usually only gets used once. After the driver has set up their seat preference, the power seat remains dormant for most of the car’s life. The only exception to this is when one car has multiple drivers that frequently switch out. For this scenario, memory seats can come in handy. For everyone else, power seats are just heavy objects that get hauled around without much purpose.

Moonroof/Sunroof A large, panoramic moonroof can make a car’s interior seem extremely spacious even if it is very crammed. These large glass units have made the normal moonroof seem silly in comparison. We rarely see people driving around with their moonroof open, which defeats the point of having one that even opens at all. Many automakers have started to offer a “moonroof delete” option for enthusiasts who know that the moonroof adds weight up high, which can ruin a car’s handling.

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