We’ve been covering dash cams for several years, and we still find the market confusing. There are familiar name brands like Nextbase alongside fly-by-night companies that might disappear at any time; and nearly identical rebranded commodity products with just enough good reviews to make a brief appearance in searches. In fact, from updating our Buyer’s Guide for the last four years, we’d say that about 40% of the brands-you-never-heard-of last less than a year, which is not good news for anyone making a warranty claim or looking for customer service.

With more and more drivers choosing to buy SUVs and pickup trucks for family duty, trailers of all types are becoming a more common sight on our roads. Deploying this newfound hauling prowess is one thing—but deploying it safely? That’s quite another.

As we all know, off-road driving at night is the most challenging form. When rocks or debris appear out of nowhere, it could damage your vehicle or even leave you stranded in an unsafe position. There needs a solution to keep you safe when driving on rough terrains. LED Rock lights can be a game-changer for keeping you safe during severe driving conditions. LED Rock Lights are are mounted underneath your vehicle and light the path around your truck. They will provide enough illumination so you can see rocks, debris and obstacles clearly, ensure your driving safety in the dark.

Since the invention of the automobile more than 100 years ago, just about every part of modern cars has been improved upon or reimagined in some way.

If you've been eyeballing those big tow numbers on modern pickups, there's something you should know: Most of them are not rated using a traditional under-bumper hitch. Instead, they're rated using a 5th-wheel hitch. The tractor-trailer style kingpin and horseshoe hitch head take weight from the trailer, and put it over the middle of your tow vehicle, right over the rear axle. This eliminates one of the major causes of trailer sway and jackknifing: Too much weight on a trailer hitch.

Routine washing of your car is great for keeping your paint looking shiny and new, but occasionally, you’ll want to put in some serious elbow grease to ensure your paint remains protected. You’ve likely heard of polishing and waxing your car to restore some of its lost shine, but to really keep your paint finish pristine, you’ll want to use a clay bar.

There’s a good chance you frequently give your car a nice wash. But how often are you devoting attention to your car’s interior? As you can imagine, the seats, floor mats, and carpet of your car experience plenty of daily abuse. From dust and dirt to mud and grime, thorough interior detailing can go a long way in preserving its resale value. If you often travel with children or pets, you’ll want a bottle of quality upholstery cleaner.

Here are the best car waxes you can buy that will give you great results and help protect your paint.

Not everyone has the time to wax their car regularly. Traditional paste wax can take over an hour to apply, with a thorough process of rubbing, buffing, and cleaning up afterward. If you’re looking for an easy and efficient way to give your car’s finish a layer of wax protection, consider spray waxes. While spray waxes don’t last as long as traditional paste wax, they can be applied in as little as 15 minutes, depending on the size of your car. Spray waxes are designed to offer a good level of protection with less effort; they work better if your car already has a layer of existing wax protection.

The proliferation of hybrid and electric vehicles has made energy-efficient tires an increasingly important market segment, and tire giant Pirelli has followed that trend with their Elect designation for EV tires. Vehicle manufacturers’ approvals of the line doubled last year; Pirelli says they’ve racked up more than 250 homologations since the Elect designation debuted in 2019. The tire is now available for many aftermarket applications.

All passenger vehicles in North America have had polycarbonate plastic headlights for decades, and they all have one thing in common: They are constantly exposed to the elements and over time they turn dull, yellowed, or foggy. Not only does this look bad, but it can cut down the amount of light dramatically. Fortunately, headlight restoration kits can restore almost all old headlights, or at least bring make them bright enough to be safe again.

Unless you have some of those fancy and increasingly rare glass headlights, you will need a headlight restoration kit one day. As far as we know, 1997 was the last year any passenger vehicle in North America was sold with glass or sealed beam headlights, and plastic lenses have been mandated by both US and Canadian transportation agencies for decades. Plastic lenses have a lot of advantages besides the obvious one of not shattering on impact (or when a stone hits them): They let you replace ( or upgrade) just the bulb, and they’ve allowed designers to create complex shapes that not only look interesting (good or bad is in the eye of the beholder), but spread light better. And of course, they’re much lighter and less expensive, not that the cost savings gets reflected in an MSRP.

If you own a high-performance car or are performing upgrades to your vehicle, you may want to look at getting some ultra high performance tires.

Amazon is hosting Prime Big Deal Days October 10-11, so expect even more savings ahead of Black Friday this year. We'll be sure to follow up and update this post with the best automotive deals for Prime Day in October, so check back on October 10 and 11! For now, you can see some of the deals from earlier this year during Prime Day.

Yokohama Tires has updated its performance-oriented ADVAN line. The new ADVAN Neova AD09 will supplant the Neova AD08 and, according to the manufacturer, offers superior track and street performance. Buyers will have up to 51 sizes to choose from.

The carpet in your car has to endure a lot. It’s not just getting in and out, and everything you track in with you, but most of the wear and tear comes from shifting around as you drive. The abrasive grit in dust and dirt actually damages nylon fibers and makes it wear out faster, so installing a set of the best floor mats will also preserve the appearance and resale value of your car.

If you know what you’re reading, the name tells you a lot: DeWalt DCF900 20V MAX 1/2-in High Torque Impact Wrench. That’s right, after years of waiting DeWalt has finally added a genuine high-torque cordless impact wrench to their successful mid-torque range (like we use in the AutoGuide Garage). And it’s a beast, rated at 1,030-lbs.ft. of tightening torque and 1,400-lbs.ft. of breakaway torque.

Welcome to AutoGuide’s Deals of the Week. Do you have the time to scour the internet to find the best deals on auto parts and accessories?

Trucks and SUVs are the largest they’ve ever been, growing almost 25% between 1989 and 2019. That makes it increasingly hard just to get in your door if your vehicle didn’t come from the factory with running boards. It’s particularly hard for smaller people, children, and older adults, so much so that according to the most recent data from NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), falling while entering or exiting a vehicle is the #1 cause of non-crash injuries. An estimated 146,000 people a year require a trip to the hospital or or a visit from an EMT for injuries caused by getting into and out of vehicles. That’s 400 people a day, every single day. Anything you can do to make that safer, especially installing side steps or running boards, won’t just make your life easier, it could save you a trip to the hospital.

If you’re driving an electric vehicle, especially a high-performance model like the Tesla Model S, its easy to get used to the one-pedal driving experience that most EVs offer. Using the electric motors to stop and slow the car is such a neat trick compared with traditional braking systems. So you might be thinking that your EV doesn’t need high performance brake pads, especially when it comes time for replacement.

Bridgestone announced their new WeatherPeak touring tire on Jun 14, 2022. This tire is the first all-season tire in the company’s history to earn Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake certification (3PMSF). Tires that carry the 3PMSF designation offer better traction in snow than traditional all-season tires.

Liqui Moly is a company that’s serious about automotive performance. That means substance over style, and it’s a seriousness that has helped build the company’s reputation as a leading oil, lubricant, and automotive chemicals manufacturer. And when it comes to motor oil, you won’t find one better than Liqui Moly’s Molygen.

We included this McCulloch steamer in our Best Steam Cleaners article based on over 11,000 positive reviews. As it’s the best selling canister steamer on Amazon (and probably the world), and tied for best-rated on our list at 84%, we bought one to find out not only if it’s as good fans of the model say, but how useful a steamer really is for both interior and exterior automotive cleaning.

You depend on your truck to start reliably every time, every day; but then comes a critical moment when you twist the key and your engine fails to come to life. Instead, an insipid clicking of the starter solenoid and dimming of the lights betray a dead battery. It could be snowing or raining, you could be late to work, and instead of getting on your way you’ve got to summon a tow truck to defibrillate your truck back to life.

We think open discussion and information is good for the insurance business. Otherwise, it’s easy for misconceptions to spread and become common knowledge. Misunderstanding the ins-and-outs of your insurance policy could be a costly mistake, which is why we’re taking the time to tackle some of the most common myths when it comes to auto insurance.

The personal effects that travel in our cars with us can collect into distracting, unsightly mountains of clutter; it makes sense, then, to try to organize them. But there’s another side to controlling the mess—safety.

Editor’s Note: Sailun arranged for Mike Schlee to test out the Sailun TerraMax HLT tire by flying him to Homestead Miami Speedway. Mike was not directly compensated for his review.

Editor’s Note: Sailun arranged for Mike Schlee to test out the Sailun Inspire All-Season tire by flying him to Homestead Miami Speedway. Mike was not directly compensated for his review.

Shopping for insurance has changed dramatically in recent years. Smaller companies have entered the marketplace (there are now over 6,000 insurance companies and 36,000 independent agencies serving consumers across the US!), new technologies have made pricing more accurate, and comparison shopping has become a regular part of the insurance buying process. Some consumers prefer to work with an insurance agent and others are content to complete the entire process on their own online.

They’re everywhere today, but lithium-ion jump starters only first appeared in 2013. Now there are thousands of them (see our favorite portable jump starters), and what was once an expensive specialty product is affordable enough that most people should keep one in their car. They’re not only convenient, but safer than using jumper cables, as all the good ones detect reverse polarity. This prevents injuries from sparks and arcing; possible fires; and damage to a car’s battery and even electronics. In an emergency you don’t need another vehicle to get your car started, plus they almost all have flashlights and various USB ports to act as giant chargers and battery banks.

Installing one of the best bed liners helps your pickup truck last longer, protects your resale value, and can even enhance its appearance. A bed liner not only protects your truck’s bed from being damaged by whatever cargo you are hauling, they also help to protect the bed from rust.

Flat tires and blowouts are almost inevitable; a situation that could prove disastrous— 612 people were killed in tire-related accidents in 2019 alone. What’s more, a survey indicates that up to 60% of motorists would have difficulty changing a tire, making that eventuality all the more onerous.

All plastics eventually fade when exposed to the environment, but if your car’s trim is starting to look gray and sad, the best trim restorers can help to revive it. This weathering is a complicated process driven by UV light, and ultimately can’t be stopped, but you will be happy to hear that not all hope is lost, and you can actually bring some of that shine back to your plastic and trim pieces by using a high-quality plastic restorer. 

You’ve heard the promise in every insurance commercial: bundle your policies and save!

*Final Update Posted May 4th, 2022*

We’ve used a bearing puller for years, and always with a little dread. We never owned our own, and borrowing one from a friend or using it in another shop is always an adventure. Any time you pick one up, you know you’re going to be fumbling with it when you try to get the little jaws in place while screwing it down. You usually need a rubber band, a third hand, and reserves of calm we don’t have. It’s a problem so difficult that NASA designs their own.

Lingenfelter Performance Engineering has donated one of their hair-raising (just listen to the thing) Eliminator Spec engines to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Nothing adds road presence like a set of high-quality side marker lights. Marker lights make it easier for other drivers to see your truck or trailer, which is particularly important if you have a larger vehicle than most on the road.

Your brakes are the single most important safety feature of your car, so if it’s time to replace your brake pads or you just want an upgrade, we are here to help.

It’s hard to think of a more important automotive component than brakes. The ability to stop your car quickly, consistently, and repeatedly without losing control is crucial to keeping you and others safe out on the road. If your braking system isn’t well maintained, your chance of being involved in something “unfortunate” increases significantly.

If you have a heavy trailer to tow with your truck or SUV, you probably already have a Class III, IV or V receiver and hitch. But what you need to go with the receiver is a weight distribution hitch to level your rig and prevent sway.

After years of delay and hundreds of avoidable deaths, all cars sold from the 2018 model year onward in the US and Canada were required to have a backup camera (the EU is phasing them in during 2022, and the UK is discussing them). But while this important safety feature is now standard across the board, most cars on the roads today are not equipped with a reverse camera. That’s where an aftermarket backup camera comes in. We’ve combed through the top-rated models across styles and price points to bring you what we think are the best choices for different needs.

There’s a long list of reasons to own a good pressure washer. For us car fans, a pressure washer means more effective, efficient car washing – akin to having a coin-operated car wash stall at home. For homeowners, pressure washers offer even more utility, from power-cleaning decks, driveways, and siding, to spraying out gutters and scrubbing down grills.

Most of us don’t start out working on cars in a well-equipped garage. If you were lucky, maybe your parents or a friend had one of the best floor jacks, and you got to use it for your automotive work. But when most projects seem to require buying or borrowing a new specialty tool, a new, high-quality car jack can be low on the list. Impacts, air ratchets, it’s those tools that get the glamour and end up in your toolbox first. 

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, roughly 9000 sun glare-related accidents occur every year on U.S. roads. Common sense says that having a pair of sunglasses to hand could help mitigate some of the danger involved with driving into the sun.

Most of the time, it’s unnecessary to give your vehicle’s differential cover a second thought; the technology has been around for decades and works well. However, drivers of trucks and offroad vehicles have good reason to consider upgrading their differential covers. Those vehicles are often called upon to operate under arduous conditions that are harder on every component, including axles and differential assemblies.

SUVs and crossovers are the dominant body styles on the road today, and, public perception aside, they are, in essence, tall station wagons. As with the wagons of yore, there’s a large cargo area and seats that can be folded any which way to make efficient use of the space. This is great—until the bags of potting soil stowed back there burst or the family golden retriever has shed his bodyweight in fur all over your car’s cozy cabin.

Toy cars are one of life’s great joys. Some of our best memories are playing with Matchbox or Hot Wheels in the sandpit as kids, before we moved up to remote control buggies, slot-car races, and even building our own.

Not all hammers are created equal—at least according to Thor. Whether you’re a Norse God or a simple art lover hanging a picture over the fireplace, a quality hammer is essential—the best hammers offer power, precision, and ease of use.

No matter how carefully you drive and park, it’s almost impossible to avoid getting a scratch on your car or truck. But if it’s not through the clearcoat and into the paint, one of the best car scratch removers can save you a trip to the body shop. Most light scratches are only on the surface of your finish, and there are car scratch repair products that can make them disappear. 

Any number of people might require safety cones for work, play, or ensuring the public’s safety. Whether you’re marking off a gymkhana course, directing traffic, or need to indicate where the delivery van bearing the Royal Warrant is to park, there’s a safety cone perfect for the job.

Have you ever felt the frustration of your shopping bag or purse flying off the passenger seat and unloading its contents all over the floor? Everything that was safely stowed is all over the car; it’s frustrating, it’s a pain to clean up, and things invariable get lost in the melee. Consider too that having the contents of your bag disgorge themselves in the car could even create a dangerous distracted driving situation.

Being a do-it-yourselfer, there’s always a need for more workspace and quality equipment.

There’s only one way to answer the question, “Is it my battery, or something else” when your car won’t start: Hook up the best car battery tester and get a readout of what’s going on. Skip the pointless troubleshooting, this one trick will quickly tell you if your battery is OK; or if it needs to be replaced. 

A quiet, comfortable ride free from dust, drafts, and wind noise is something drivers expect from their cars. Manufacturers spend big money to ensure acceptable levels of noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH); weatherstripping, door and window seals are a big part of that. Without them, your car is a whistling, freezing, scorching, misery machine. Yet who thinks about the molded rubber and metal components that contribute so much to riding refinement?

If you have a 2022 Toyota Tundra and you would like to add a couple inches of lift without compromising on-road ride quality, the ProComp 2.5” Performance System from 4WheelParts.com is a great option. As the name suggests, this coilover suspension setup lifts the new Tundra by 2.5 inches, making room for a 35-inch tire, but it does so without compromising on-road comfort.

You may have an image of washing a car in a driveway with a hose and a bucket of suds, but the best foam cannons are a much easier way to do it. Not do they take less time and water, they also takes out some of the risk of rubbing grit into your finish. Even if you’re not that passionate about detailing or washing your car, owning a pressure washer and a foam cannon to use with makes the job a lot faster, easier, and can give you better results.

Every car owner should include one of the best tire pressure gauges in their toolkit. Keeping your tires properly inflated ensures they wear evenly, and that you’re getting the best possible gas mileage. It’s a small investment that will keep you from having to replace your expensive tires too soon, and save money on every fill up.

If you have a 2021 Ford F-150 and you are looking to add enough height to fit a set of 35-inch tires, the folks at 4WheelParts have you covered with the newest offering from ProComp. The ProComp 6-inch lift kit for the 2021 F-150 comes with all of the components and hardware needed to lift the truck by 6 inches; making enough space to move up to a 33- or 35-inch tire while also increasing ground clearance for off-roading.

The biggest leaps in automotive technology over the past few years haven’t been in propulsion; they’ve been in driver safety. The average new vehicle is safer than it’s ever been, with highly advanced, sophisticated systems that can literally “see” the road and warn of – or react to – potential threats.