Purchasing a vehicle to suit your lifestyle needs is important: if you’re just commuting through city streets to work, you’ll probably prefer a compact car. But if your priorities are making it up the mountain every weekend for fresh powder, then you need a car that can keep up with you. However, a new car isn’t always in the budget, so these five tips can help you make your car fit your lifestyle, no matter how long you’ve had it.
1. Trunk Space
A sedan might be more economic on gas, but if you’re doing weekly road trips, you’re going to want something with room for some junk in its trunk. A hatchback is a great option to keep your gas costs low, while still giving you tons of space for storage–especially if you can fold down the back seats. If you’re not shopping for a new car, no problem: roofs offer great unexpected storage space simply by installing a cargo holder.
2. Seat Covers
After a busy day, the last thing you want to be worried about is keeping your car interior clean. Life is messy: whether you’re throwing muddy boots into the back, loading up mountain bikes, or even just packing up dirty, wet hockey bags, do yourself a favor and get seat covers for your car to protect the fabric. There’s tons of fabric options available to suit your needs, and you can even get custom-fit covers to take the guesswork out of it—no adjusting or slipping and sliding. These covers will give you seats with breathable fabric that can keep up with your active lifestyle.
3. Racks
If you have a smaller car, you definitely should invest in roof racks to give you extra storage space for bulkier items. You can get racks designed for specific uses, like bike racks or sport racks. This way you’ll still be able to fit passengers in the car, even with snowboards, bikes, and surfboards. There are even options for watercraft racks, so that you can transport kayaks and canoes, no matter the size of your car.
4. Towing Accessories
Make your vehicle more road-trip friendly by adding towing accessories: whether you want to tow a trailer, a boat, or a camper, you can do so with a few easily installed accessories. You might need no more than a trailer hitch and an adapter to open up your weekends to so many new possibilities, like a camping trip, new jet skis for the cottage, or taking the boat to new lakes.
5. GPS
If you love taking weekend drives and getting lost, or have ever had trouble navigating your way to a remote ski mountain, then you should consider a GPS system. Most new cars have built in GPS, but if you’ve got a “well-loved” model, then you can pick up a portable GPS for your car for a pretty reasonable price. There are tons of accessories that let you mount the GPS onto your windshield for handy viewing and charge the system using a USB port in your car. These portable systems are especially handy if you’re navigating through the woods or mountains with no cell service.