The Best Accessories For Every Car Owner

Odds are you have your pride and joy parked on the driveway or in the garage. However, left uncovered and unprotected, that sparkling ride will fade fast from the sun, exposure to the elements, or possibly picking up a small ding or scratch — even when parked safely inside the garage.

Investing in the right truck or car cover is the right move and will save you from future agony. The Motor Trend T-850 ($84) truck cover carries name recognition and stays true to its automotive roots with the right features anyone would seek in light protection. 

The truck cover’s heavy construction makes it cumbersome to drape over and remove after pulling it from the storage bag, which uses the same material as the cover. We purchased a T-850 for a 2008 Honda Ridgeline (1st generation) and discovered that folding in the side mirrors helps with fitment since mirror side pockets are absent. The elastic hem is snug and grabs the bumpers tightly. On gusty days, we took the precaution of securing it with the attached underbody straps.

Grommets for the cable lock are exposed. Typically, it is not a big issue since the possibility of leaving a mark would likely occur on the undercarriage or somewhere where it would go unnoticed. Nicer covers, such as the Coverking, will sew a piece of material on the underside as a preventive measure against potential scuffs.

Wrapping a cover over a truck or any vehicle has its challenges. Thankfully, the cover has the Motor Trend name stamped on the front end for quick orientation. Fitment isn’t perfect because this cover will fit over the first-generation and second-generation Ridgeline. Since the second gen has different angles and is 4 inches longer and almost an inch wider, the cover-up of our 2008 model wasn’t perfect.

This T-850 truck cover gets high marks for water resistance. Rainwater did not leak through in the low areas where the cover drops into the truck bed. More importantly, we didn’t detect condensation build-up anywhere due to the truck cover’s ability to breathe and allow moisture to evaporate.

We’ve been using the Motor Trend T-850 truck cover on and off for about 3 months, and it has retained its shape so far. Many low-cost car jackets start showing signs of age when you see fading, water seepage, and overall fit getting looser and looser. 

In short, the T-850 car cover offers reliable protection for your vehicle, helping to prevent sun damage, exposure to the elements, and potential scratches. While it may require folding in side mirrors for a perfect fit, the cover’s snug elastic hem and straps help secure it, even on windy days. Its water resistance and ability to prevent condensation buildup are notable features. After 3 months of use, it has maintained its shape and performance, making it a worthwhile investment for preserving your vehicle’s appearance and condition.

We purchased a Kayme 6-Layer Truck Cover ($67) to protect an older Ford F-250 that doesn’t get driven much. In the past, the owner has used other truck covers to help slow down the aging process of being outside all the time. Comparatively, Kayme’s multilayer construction is about mid-range in quality. The material feels better than a low-cost truck cover but doesn’t match up to a premium brand. 

This design’s bright silver finish is highly reflective in the sun, while the cotton lining feels soft. The six layers are bonded together and don’t add up to too much weight. Removal and folding it up were easy tasks. For example, we liked how easy it was to move it around and get it tucked under the bumpers. 

The fitment is pretty snug, and we were confident it would stay on the truck on those gusty days. For added security, the Kayme truck cover has front and rear underbody straps and buckles if you’re fearful of having it blow away. Fortunately, Idaho had some rain and snow pass through the state this spring. We noted that the truck cover sheds water wonderfully, but had to tent the truck bed portion to prevent water from pooling. 

To sum it up, the 6-Layer Truck Cover offers mid-range quality protection for a budget-friendly price. While not as premium as some brands, its multilayer construction provides better durability and protection than low-cost options. The truck cover’s reflective silver finish and soft cotton lining add to its appeal, and the snug fit, along with the underbody straps and buckles, ensure it stays secure even on windy days.

Its ability to shed water effectively is a plus, although some tenting may be needed to prevent pooling in the truck bed portion. Overall, the Kayme truck cover is a solid choice for protecting your vehicle from the elements.

Unlike the other systems, the Meguiar’s Scratch Eraser Kit ($23) doesn’t come with sandpaper or two different “grits” of drill sponge, and there’s only one level of polish. And, as you would guess, that meant we didn’t find it was as useful for attacking deeper damage to any car’s clear coat. But it also means there’s less involved. You clean the area, dab some of the compound onto the drill sponge, and work through the scratch while keeping the drill on at about medium speed.

What’s pretty heartening, however, is that when we couldn’t get a hand application to cut the mustard, the Meguiar’s Kit was generally up to the task, and the process never took more than a few minutes. We found it was also very good at buffing out tiny, hairline scratches. And, because it’s drill-based, you can work over a larger area more quickly than operating by hand.

Since the bottle that comes with the system is a generous 4 ounces, we were able to try it on a bunch of other cars, too, like a friend’s old MG, his VW, our tester’s Honda, and even his old tractor. It shined on each one.

That said, we’re talking about a $6 difference between this setup and the 3M one, and we’d probably recommend the latter if you’ve got some pretty deep gouges. Because at that point, you really do need that extra-fine sandpaper and to go through both steps of buffing and polishing. 

As with the 3M, using a drill has drawbacks. It is difficult to get into the crannies of your car’s sheet metal, and again, you could end up over-buffing a creased edge. Use caution and always work the drill slowly, keep it moving, and don’t press too hard. Let the material do the work.

If we could change one thing with Meguiar’s Scratch Eraser Kit, it would be to allow the applicator sponge to be removable from the drill bit, as it is with the 3M system. It’s easier to wash and thoroughly clean that way, but as it is, this is a very good value that gave us great results.

Shine Armor Revive Scratch Repair ($8) attacked swirl marks left by car washes and door handle fingernail micro-scratches. Like all of the hand-application polishers we tested, the game plan is very simple — make sure the surface is clean and dry (and cool), add a very small amount to a clean, dry microfiber towel, and apply medium to hard pressure as you spread the polish around and rub. 

We were consistently impressed with this product. It removed surface scratches from the clear coats of several different cars, and we felt like the restoration value of what we saw, even with a haggard paint job, like on my old Honda, was pretty impressive.

After fixing up the door handle of a friend’s VW — which had pretty bad fingernail scratches — he went after scratches all over his car. (Spoiler alert: No, he couldn’t miraculously restore rock chips that went all the way through to bare metal on the edge of his car’s hood.) 

Another reason to like Shine Armor Revive Scratch Repair was that it left less residue than competing brands. We were able to just keep polishing, and it left virtually nothing behind once we were done. Several of the others required coming back and really rubbing away the remaining dust, or you’d have swirls left by the compound that were nearly as hard to remove as the scratches themselves.

Meguiar’s is featured a lot on our “10 Best” lists. That’s because they have a reputation for quality car cleaning products. These powerful cleaning products, when used together, produce a comprehensive, professional car detail that will turn your car into the envy of the block.

We like Meguiar’s Complete Car Care Kit because it includes nearly all of those high-quality and dependable products. You won’t find yourself running back to the automotive store because this all-in-one kit includes everything you could need to achieve a showroom shine, including a microfiber wash mitt, applicator pad, and microfiber towel.

The best part about Meguiar’s Complete Car Care Kit is the remarkable value for detailing products that work exceptionally well. For less than the price of professional car detailing, you can ensure that your car achieves a spotless finish month after month.

The Premier car cleaning kit from Armor All comes with eight top-notch car cleaning products to keep your car sparkling inside and out. Designed to tackle tough messes on the interior, exterior, wheels, and tires, this kit will give your car a next-level clean.

Thanks to the easy-to-use spray bottles, your car is a few quick sprays away from a like-new finish and a spotless shine.

We like the Armor All Complete Care Kit because it combines the brand’s most reliable and powerful car cleaners into a comprehensive, easy-to-use auto detailing kit. The mix of products ensures the complete removal of all dirt, dust, and grime from all of your car’s interior and exterior surfaces. You also get a gel tire cleaner and tire protectant because no detail job is complete without shiny black tires and spotless wheels.

The Armor All Complete Car Care Kit accomplishes less with more, and that is why we consider it one of the ten best car detailing kits. This collection of Armor All products is suited to keeping up the appearance of a well-cared-for car, truck, or SUV. Jobs that require more intensive cleaning and care are listed below.

The Armor All’s eight-piece kit comes with the following:

– Armor All Ultra Shine wash and wax shampoo

– Armor All Extreme wheel and tire cleaner

– Armor All Extreme Tire Shine

– Armor All Original Protectant spray

– Armor All Glass Cleaner

– Armor All Multipurpose Cleaner

– Wash pad

– Armor All air freshener pump

If you prefer doing things the old-fashioned way, which requires some sweat equity, the SYLVANIA Headlight Restoration Kit ($25) comes with everything you need. This kit is ideal for folks who prefer to do projects by hand and see their headlights return to their former glory. It’s also the best kit to get the job done.

Inside the box you’ll find sandpaper, plastic gloves, and two types of paper towels. There’s a surface activator that quickly removes the top layer of oxidation. You’ll also see a polishing compound, masking tape, and a protective clear coating compound. Following the instructions will restore your headlights to a clear finish with lasting UV protection.

The restoration process begins by spraying the surface activator onto the headlight to soften the plastic. This step is followed by progressively sanding and polishing out the haziness and scratches on the headlight lens.

The last step is the application of the UV blocker coating, which will achieve clarity and make the lenses look almost new. Since this coating offers long-lasting UV protection, SYLVANIA guarantees a polished appearance for the vehicle’s lifetime.

After enduring 15 Idaho summers and winters, our tester’s 2008 Honda Ridgeline headlights were heavily oxidized and cloudy. Following 90 minutes of manual labor, which included sanding and polishing, we applied the UV blocker.

The clear coat brilliantly restored the clarity of the headlight to like-new condition in addition to protecting the lens from future oxidation. This SYLVANIA kit only provides enough materials for one set of headlights, but the warranty lasts as long as the vehicle’s life.

This Ultra Headlight Restoration Kit from 3M ($19) includes almost everything you need to remove years of haze. The only things you need from your garage are a cordless drill (or DA orbital) plus an hour of your time.

We removed years of oxidation from a 2012 Mazda3 typically garaged at home. The owner had the headlight lenses cleaned up by the local dealership about 5 years prior, but the unforgiving sun brought back the cloudiness. 

Since this is a kit put together by 3M, they include a couple of indispensable materials: a small roll of their green automotive performance masking tape and a Trizact sanding disc. The remaining contents of the kit include several types of sanding discs (P200, P500, and P800), a disc pad holder drill attachment, a nitrile glove, and 3M Quick Headlight Clear Coat wipes.

What makes the Trizact disc special is its 3D-patterned, precise mineral structure, which delivers a fast cut and consistent finish. Equivalent to a 3000-grit sanding disc, it’s used in the final step of polishing to remove abrasive marks and super-fine scratches.

The green automotive performance masking tape will stick even if it gets wet during the sanding process and doesn’t leave behind a sticky residue. It also helps prevent accidental damage, so we always mask the area surrounding the headlights as standard practice. Yes, it takes extra time, but it’s the first line of defense if the spinning disc pad holder happens to touch the paint. 

During our process, the Mazda3’s lenses were sanded and polished until smooth but left with a cloudy haze. Two coats of the 3M Quick Headlight Clear Coat were needed to restore clarity and achieve the best results. Bubbling of the liquid will occur if you apply too much with each swipe. Allow the first coat to dry before applying the second coat. Don’t get disappointed if the first coat doesn’t look brilliant, as the second pass will clean things up and restore the clarity to almost new.

The Ultra Headlight Restoration Kit gave us professional-grade results and is easy enough for first-timers to use. Restoring a set of heavily oxidized lenses requires a little less effort than the Sylvania kit, which was the most labor-intensive of the kits tested. Thankfully, we won’t have to repeat the process down the road if the warranty is an indication of how long the coating will last.

Although we hesitate to describe any car phone mount as sexy, the Peak Design Car Vent Mount ($100) sure gets close. It sports a minimalist design. And despite its diminutive stature, it has a weighty, premium feel in the hand, thanks to its anodized aluminum construction.

Installation was a breeze. We hooked the retractable arm onto an upper vent slat and tightened the rear control knob as we slid the rubber brace onto a lower vent slat. That was pretty much it. The rubber brace can slide up and down, accommodating air vents with various spaces between the slats. But this system — as with most vent mounts — doesn’t work with curved or criss-crossed vent slats, or on the dental-floss-thin air vents found in Teslas.

Although this sturdy mount works right out of the box with MagSafe-compatible phones and cases, the magnetic connection is especially strong when using one of Peak Design’s cases with its proprietary SlimLink locking system, which was primarily how we tested this product.

If you love your current case but want that stronger magnetic sticking power, you can pop on Peak Design’s Universal Adapter (which we didn’t test). The caveat is that “wireless charging may not be possible or optimal.”

In terms of adjustability, both of the unit’s control knobs are easy to use, but they are so flush to the mount’s body that we almost missed seeing them. The forward knob adjusts the arm’s tightness so it can swing the mounting pad into an ideal viewing position.

When it comes to tilting, unlike other units, this one does so without needing to loosen and tighten an awkward knob on the backside of the phone holder. Peak Design has apparently found the amount of tension necessary for the assembly to stay perfectly stable under the weight of a phone and still allow manual tilting as needed.

That may seem like a little thing, but it shows how much engineering went into the Peak Design Car Vent Mount. If you’re willing to pay the premium price for that level of thoughtfulness — whether for this or the less expensive non-charging version — this is the phone mount for you.

At least among backseat denizens, the Baseus Joyride Pro Series Car Backseat Mount ($14) has the magical ability to create peace in the universe. It can deftly hold mobile devices with 4.7- to 12.9-inch diagonals, which covers most phones and tablets available today.

The word “installation” seems a bit strong to describe the setup process, which simply involves squeezing the spring-loaded holder and snapping it into the headrest bars. From there, you could lower the headrest to stabilize it, but it doesn’t need the help.

Besides its laughably low price tag, we were most impressed with how adjustable this mount is. It can slide side to side, pull forward or push back, and swivel 360 degrees (for portrait or landscape viewing).

Unlike the Peak Design Car Vent Mount, this one has the usual control knob in the back that adjusts the tension, allowing you to tilt your device in the stand. Once you’ve found that happy angle, it’s plenty stable. And easy enough to readjust.

We were already familiar with Baseus for its charging products, but just happened to stumble upon this auto accessory. So, in a sense, it’s not surprising that its Baseus Joyride Pro Series Car Backseat Mount isn’t widely available. But if you’re looking for an easy, affordable, and competent way to hold a mobile device on a headrest, snag this one where you can.

The OBDLINK MX+ ($140) is a top-of-the-line tool for getting all the information possible from your vehicle’s OBD2 port. In a compact design, the scanner is an easy-to-use plug-and-forget system that you can leave in your OBD2 port 24/7, thanks to the battery drain and overvoltage protection. Additionally, this piece claims to be hacker-proof using a unique security mechanism that prevents unauthorized access. 

We found the MX+ to deliver the most information for our vehicle. While diagnosing, the codes were clear to read and understand. The device also generated detailed trip reports and logs that were filled with hundreds of parameters — like fuel consumption — ultimately providing more metrics than any other scanner we tested. For many late-model General Motors, Ford, Mazda, Nissan, and Toyota vehicles, including our test rigs, we were able to read and clear the codes of advanced automotive networks like airbags, anti-lock braking systems, tire-pressure monitoring systems, and more.

What also set the MX+ apart was its ability to connect with third-party apps. This computer is compatible with hundreds of apps that unlock enhanced performance, let you change vehicle settings, remote start the engine on select vehicles, and even connect with electric vehicles for diagnostics. On top of the enhanced log data and graphs, there is an additional heads-up display mode that offers 13 different preset parameters, which are readable in straightforward gauges on your phone or tablet screen. This component expands the data you can live monitor while driving. 

For off-street driving, there is even a performance mode that clocks variables like 0 to 60 miles per hour (performance), ¼-mile time, ½-mile time, and more. For modern vehicles, 2022 models and newer, there is much less compatibility with this scanner. But new vehicles are being added as fast as possible, and software updates are free.

Overall, while this was the priciest Bluetooth scanner we tested, it delivered the most information about our vehicle. The interface was the easiest to keep plugged in for frequent use, and the design was our favorite for monitoring live data. For anyone who wants to get the most possible from their OBD2 scanner, the MX+ is the one for you. 

Looking for a basic reader at a bargain? The Motopower MP69033 ($24) is a friendly-priced scanner that won’t let you down. This wired scanner easily connects to your vehicle to read and clear codes. It features large buttons for ease of use and a simple menu of functions. 

This plug-and-play OBD2 scanner is relatively small with a 2.8-inch LCD screen that’s in black and white. Its 2.5-foot wired cord lets you plug in under the dash and work from the front seat with plenty of slack. It doesn’t need batteries or to be charged, because it’s powered by your vehicle when plugged in. 

Available in six languages and compatible with most modern cars, this design matches many models. What are you giving up? While it does provide live data, the screen can be hard to read, and it only offers one parameter at a time. It doesn’t have some of the features like enhanced diagnostics or full data logs that other scanners have. 

But the snazziest technology isn’t for every driver, nor does it always fit the bill. If you want an analog scanner that just works for basic code reading and clearing, look no further than the MP69033.