A Car Lover’s Gift Guide

It’s almost time for the festive tradition of gift giving, but buying gifts for a car-mad loved one can be difficult. But don’t panic, we’re here to help.

We’ve put together a list of gift ideas covering everything from stocking fillers to tech gadgets, all of which are sure to be a hit with the car-crazy person in your life. Or, if you want to give someone some tips on what to get you this year, just fire over this blog!

1. A good phone holder

Having to fumble around with your phone for directions or having to rest it on the dashboard is a huge pain – and also often dangerous. Getting a good phone holder that can be mounted to the air con grills or the dashboard ensures that your loved one can have everything they need to hand.

It keeps their phone safe, and means they can easily look at directions rather than having to rely on audio cues or fumble with their phone at traffic lights. Safe and practical.

2. A Chamois Cloth

Perhaps a more mundane choice of gift, granted, but certainly not less useful. A good quality chamois cloth makes it a million times easier (we’ve measured) to clean your windscreen from condensation and grime without leaving smears.

Considering how much dark-driving we do in the winter months, we all know how difficult it can be to drive with other drivers’ headlights making dirty windscreens glare. A good chamois cloth and some window cleaner make a great stocking filler.

3. Car Perfume

We like to smell nice in day-to-day life, and car lovers like their cars to smell nice. There are few details as effective as car perfume to tell passengers that your loved one takes care of their car. From luxury air fresheners to popular fragrance-inspired scent pots, the car perfume world has tons of options to choose from - the hardest part is deciding what one to buy!

4. Professional Car Cleaning Kit

A high quality cleaning kit usually comes with great microfiber cloths for interior and exterior cleaning. They also come with effective degreasing sprays to make cleaning easier. There are tons of great branded kits out there that come with all of the waxes and polishes to get a car looking like it’s just rolled off the lot - and everyone loves a sparkly clean car! If your loved one tends to have a messy car, however, then a handy portable car bin might help stop that too!

5. A steering wheel cover

They can look cute, they can feel nice while driving, and they can add a personal touch to a car in an easily-reversible way. Getting, for example, a bright pink fluffy steering wheel cover is a cheaper and simpler way to inject a bit of personality into your car without having to get all of the seat reupholstered. Whether you want to choose something serious or something that's sure to make them laugh is up to you!

6. Car key finder

Now, let’s start with the more serious presents.

A good car key finder can connect with your mobile to give a key’s exact location when you’ve lost it, which can be a lifesaver if you know someone who has a habit of dropping their keys when they’re out and about. More basic key finders should otherwise at least have an alarm that you can sound when you’ve misplaced your keys, handy for finding them in the house.

These make a great present for people who regularly misplace their keys – and can save a lot of time and stress, too!

7. Bluetooth Aux Adaptor

These adapters plug into your stereo’s aux input and accept a bluetooth connection from your phone. So instead of spending hundreds of pounds on a fancy bluetooth-enabled car stereo, you can plug your aux adaptor in and play music to your heart’s content.

It’s a perfect gift for music lovers who have older cars or don’t need a full stereo upgrade; plus, you can pick them up at lots of different shops or online websites.

8. Alexa-Enabled 12v Socket Charger

For people who love to have fully connected lives, tech like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home have changed the way we do things - and now that can come to the time we spend in cars too. These Alexa-enabled devices are a great way to connect the capabilities of Alexa with the necessities of driving - from playing music to asking for directions to the nearest coffee shop. It’s a great way to help the person you love get around and control things in their car, all while keeping their eyes on the road.

9. Mechanic’s Toolkit

This is the most expensive present, but also something that can last a lifetime. If your loved one is a fan of getting under the bonnet and taking care of their car, tinkering with everything, then a good quality, organised toolkit is going to make their lives so much easier.

Having to rifle through a toolbag of tools and bits and bobs significantly slows down maintenance work – so a car lover who also loves mechanics is going to love you forever if you give them the gift of an organised workstation.

Now that you’re full of gift ideas, go forth, shop, and make people happy this Christmas.