Look, we’re well aware the Toyota Prius isn’t a sports car. In fact, you won’t find very many owners saying their Prius is “exciting” to drive. You could argue it’s mainly designed to do one thing, which is maximizing your fuel economy, and it does that extremely well. It’s little surprise it’s one of the most successful hybrid models of all time and even with the growing popularity of electric vehicles, the Prius continues to be a strong seller.

Just as you don’t get great results washing your hair with dish soap, when it comes to washing your car, you’ll be a lot happier using a proper car wash soap. Dish detergents and other household soaps are designed to remove grease, which means they will strip wax or any other protective coating from your car.

The gas cap is one part of your vehicle that we bet you don’t give much thought to in spite of how often you use it. The thing is, a gas cap does a lot more than simply close off your vehicle’s filler neck when you’re done gassing up. Your vehicle’s gas cap is part of a complex emissions control system that helps prevent pollution that can cause environmental harm. Specifically, the gas cap seals your car or truck’s gas tank against escaping gasoline vapors.

If you’re replacing or servicing your disc brakes, you need lubricating grease. No ifs, ands, or buts, you need to lubricate the metal-on-metal parts that are meant to slide, otherwise, your calipers won’t move properly and you’ll be replacing your brakes (possibly rotors and calipers too) long before they should have needed it.

Water is essential to life as we know it, and it is also our most basic cleaning tool. However, water is not friendly to every surface it touches: Believe it or not, it can actually be particularly harmful to your vehicle’s painted surfaces. You know those water spots you find all over your car or truck after every wash or rainfall? What you’re seeing are mineral deposits left behind after the water dries. Apart from being ugly to look at, water spots can wreck your car or truck’s paint if you don’t promptly remove them with a water spot remover.

One of the first things most gearheads do after buying a new rig — besides washing it profusely, of course — is head straight to the internet to find a cache of aftermarket parts. This accomplishes two things: it helps customize the vehicle for whatever harebrained plans we happen to have rolling around in our brains, and it helps separate our machine from all the others. After all, shouldn’t your truck look just a little bit different than the one your neighbor brought home last month?

While modern cars and trucks run better than ever before, and with less maintenance than ever before, thanks to computers, sensors, and other high-tech wizardry, that doesn’t mean they never need any attention. There are parts in your engine that require maintenance and cleaning over time, and one of those most likely to need cleaning is your throttle body. It’s also one of the most important moving parts in your engine since it’s at the end of what happens when you press the gas pedal.

No matter how good your car, someday it will happen: your air conditioning system will make the dreaded switch from blowing cold air on that hot day in traffic to air that’s just cool. Then, slowly — maybe even over the course of a few days — it’ll become warmer and warmer until there’s no cooling at all.

These days, the WARN name has become all but synonymous with vehicle recovery winches. Ask ten knowledgeable off-roaders who makes the best winches money can buy, and chances are good you’ll get “WARN” as your answer at least nine times.

When it comes to your vehicle’s braking system, several components are responsible for helping your vehicle come to a stop. On a vehicle with front disc brakes and rear brake drums, one such component is the brake proportioning valve. In short, this special valve (which can sometimes be referred to as an equalizer valve) is tasked with controlling the amount of pressure between your front and rear brakes, ensuring you always come to a stop safely.

Many people change the oil in their vehicle rather than taking it to a shop. Some others, who have more mechanical knowledge, may delve into bigger preventative maintenance projects, such as changing a transmission filter or flushing the brake fluid. However, many do-it-yourself auto mechanics fail to apply new wheel bearing grease.

Windshield wipers aren’t exactly glamorous, but the best winter wiper blades are crucial for safe winter driving. You can get away with good all season wiper blades if you live in the deep south, but if freezing temperatures and salted or sanded roads are winter norms in your area, you need to switch over in the fall. And with the ongoing extreme storms and temperatures of the 2022-2023 winter season, we’re not sure anyone is safe from winter weather.

Even if you’re only a casual car enthusiast, the ritual of washing your vehicle can be an excellent way to relax on a sunny afternoon. It’s a great way to get some alone time or reconnect with your family after a long week of work and other obligations. Regularly washing your car or truck can also pay off in more pragmatic ways. Bird excrement, tree sap, and even plain old dirt and dust can permanently damage the paint finish if you don’t clean it promptly, and that can have a negative effect on your vehicle’s resale value.

If you’re a fan of the long-haul road trip, then you know the value of stopping as infrequently as possible in order to reach your destination in good time. But spending more time on the road than in parking lots means bringing food and drink in the car with you. And while fluid consumption is most often associated with bathroom breaks, it also contributes to an accumulation of trash that you must dispose of to keep your car from turning into an awful mess before you’re even halfway to where you’re heading.

There’s no shame in admitting it—it’s all but guaranteed that nearly every single one of you reading this has accidentally hit the face of a curb with one of your car’s wheels. It’s that nails-on-the-chalkboard sound accompanied by the queasy realization that your vehicle’s rims now possess the civilian equivalent of the Darlington Stripe.

Are you looking to replace your standard halogen turn signal bulbs with something brighter? LED turn signal bulbs have become relatively inexpensive in recent years, allowing vehicle owners to upgrade at a low cost. In addition to offering brighter performance, LED bulbs generally last significantly longer than standard halogen bulbs, meaning you’ll save money in the long run without having to constantly replace your bulbs.

Tailgating season isn’t what it used to be, but that just means you need to think outside the box. Instead of a crowded parking lot, try your own driveway. Maybe a campsite or a park, where thanks to streaming services, you can still watch the game even if you aren’t at home. One thing hasn’t changed, and that’s that crowd or not, game or not, you still need the right grill to get your famous food served hot and fresh.

Apple CarPlay redefined in-car convenience when it launched back in 2014, transforming the car’s factory infotainment system by seamlessly connecting it to your iPhone. Suddenly, you could bring your own favorite navigation app to the big screen, rather than having to stare at your phone’s much smaller display or settle for whatever nav system was installed in your car by the manufacturer. Likewise, full control of your favorite multimedia apps – software like Spotify, Pandora, and Audible – were now just a few taps away.

Ready to hit the great outdoors but need to rock some tunes or listen to the game? You’re not alone and your choices for tailgate speakers have never been better. Thanks to developments in batteries, like the ones that power your phone or your car, you can find powerful outside speakers that will run for dozens of hours on a single charge, while topping up your other devices while they’re at it.

Now that LED lighting technology has gotten significantly cheaper over recent years, manufacturers are able to offer a wide assortment of vehicle bulb replacements at an affordable price. LED light bulbs are a great upgrade to any vehicle, enhancing visibility to make your driving experience a bit safer.

If you take long-distance car journeys with any regularity, the chances are good you have experienced a roadside breakdown—and if you haven’t yet, well, it’s probably a matter of time. A breakdown as simple to fix as a flat tire can be especially inopportune when you don’t get a chance to move your vehicle off the roadway. Even if you’re able to stop on the shoulder, you and your vehicle are still at risk of being struck by a passing motorist, and that risk increases exponentially at night or in poor weather.

If your diesel car, truck, or even farm equipment isn’t running right anymore or is sitting parked for a long time or in long temperatures, then diesel fuel additives might be exactly what you need to keep it in top form.

Shopping for engine oil can be daunting, with numerous brands and options available in today’s marketplace. How do you choose from all the different companies offering motor oil when they all sound the same? Well, truth be told, most reputable brands will offer similar products, and in the case of this list, you really can’t go wrong with any of the options. Some oils are better quality than others, offering more performance and working harder to keep your engine clean. But many would argue that the general consumer won’t even notice the difference between Quaker State or Pennzoil. In fact, there have been studies conducted that show most oil brands have similar products.

Even drivers who take good care of their vehicles often forget about the brake fluid. It’s generally not changed in short, frequent intervals like motor oil, although automakers do recommend changing it from time to time. Even though it is not changed on a regular monthly or mileage interval, it does need to be changed every two years. This is especially true with high performance vehicles or hard-working vehicles that put tremendous amounts of stress on their braking systems.

In the sneaker world, a “sneakerhead” is a connoisseur of expensive, low-production shoes made by giants like Nike and Adidas, as collectors acquire rare, sought-after kicks by trading with other like-minded shoe enthusiasts, seeking out stylish finds to complete their collection. So how exactly do sneakerheads tie into shopping for a new set of wheels? Well, some enthusiasts in the car community share virtually the same hobby — only, these shoes aren’t made for your feet, they’re made for your car. And nothing completes a fresh look quite like a set of shiny chrome wheels.

If you’ve spent many years owning a car or truck, especially one that’s out of warranty, you’ve probably heard the song of the wheel bearing. A roar, like some sort of helicopter, following you closely and changing both pitch and volume with your speed. Drive straight or turn lightly in one direction and it’s there, turn the other and it’s gone? Or maybe you’re just feeling something a little bit loose in the steering? Either way, these could be signs of a bad wheel bearing. It’s not a repair you can put off, but with dozens of different brands to choose from, which one is right?

Like they say in those bad old driver education videos, if a thief wants your car it will be gone in sixty seconds—unless you do something to make it tougher for thieves, making them give up and move on to another vehicle that’s an easier target.

If engine oil is the lifeline of your engine, then fuel is its source of food. In applications such as gas- or diesel-powered on-road vehicles, a fuel pump is tasked with delivering fuel in liquid form from a fuel tank to the engine, where it can be burned in combination with air as a source of energy, ultimately powering your vehicle.

Without a doubt, a pickup truck is one of the most practical vehicle types you can buy thanks to its wide open, easy-to-clean cargo area. And yet, even the best pickup truck design has its limitations. The longest cargo bed available on a truck is eight-feet long, and while that is a useful size, you won’t have trouble finding items that are still too long to fit inside with the tailgate closed.

If you’re looking to seriously upgrade your car’s stereo system, you’ll want to invest in a set of component speakers. Unlike coaxial speakers, which combine the tweeter and woofer into one speaker, a component system separates the woofer and tweeter. Even though it’s a bit more difficult to install the woofer and tweeter separately, the addition of an in-line crossover with a component system allows each speaker to perform better on its own. The result is cleaner and better sound, since the woofer and tweeter can each focus on delivering their frequencies.

When it comes to cleaning your car or truck, nothing beats the microfiber towel. A relatively recent addition to the car care stable, the microfiber replaces a whole host of other car care fabrics including the chamois for drying, paper towel for glass, and whatever you were using to clean your interior that was probably just old t-shirts. Microfiber towels are made from tiny strands of synthetic materials, woven together in a way that makes them extremely soft. More importantly for vehicle cleaning, they keep dirt trapped well into the fibers so that a spec of dirt in one spot doesn’t drag across and scratch the rest of your vehicle’s glass or paint. The best microfiber towels can handle dozens or hundreds of uses, remaining soft, absorbent, and your best friends for detail work.

A radio-controlled car is one of the most popular toys for kids of all ages who like things that can go fast. But what if you’re tired of the battery-powered RC cars that dominate shelf space at toy stores across America? Well, the logical next step is a nitro RC car.

If you have ever shopped for automotive accessories, there’s a likely chance you’ve come across the Audew brand. Established in 2013, this Chinese company is known for its versatile lineup of portable car jump starters and tire inflators, among other accessories. This time around however, we’re going to take a hands-on look at Audew’s 300Wh portable power station, which can also serve as a competent jump starter for your car.

Pickup trucks are designed to be tough enough to stand up to hard work, but they are still made of materials that can be damaged through normal use. And as anyone who has owned a vehicle knows, even a small scratch or dent in your vehicle’s paint can be enough to allow water, dirt, and salt to seep underneath and sow the seeds of corrosion.

Even if you regularly clean the interior and exterior of your vehicle, there is a good chance that you do not clean your engine. Many people don’t attempt to clean their engine bay because the dirt and grime is often far tougher than anything that accumulates on the body or the interior carpeting. Your average all-purpose cleaner won’t remove burned-on oil from around the edges of your valve covers or the dirt that is cooked onto the top of the engine cover. That is where an engine degreaser comes into play.

Among the many positive aspects of modern vehicle electrical systems is that they allow engineers to use a vehicle’s power to provide lighting almost anywhere in your car or truck. For example, if you drive a late model pickup truck, it most likely has cargo bed lighting that is often built into the same housing as the high-mount brake light, mounted above the rear window. That light (or lights) comes on when you open one of your truck’s doors or push a button in the cabin.

Drive a few HPDEs or drag races and it won’t take long to figure out that your car’s performance bottlenecks aren’t really about power or torque—they’re about oiling.

It’s that time of the year again, except 2020 has been a bit strange to say the least. During this time of social distancing, you may have just had a virtual Thanksgiving with family and friends, staring at the screen of a tablet instead of socializing around a table filled with food. And while some of us got a break this year from having to cook a giant meal for everyone else, holiday shopping is still on the menu.

The automatic transmission remains one of the most significant inventions in the history of the auto industry. In its early days, it made driving a car easier, and in recent years has allowed automakers to engineer some of the most fuel-efficient vehicles ever produced. Most modern automatics use hydraulic pressure to engage and switch gear ratios, along with a fluid coupling that delivers power from your vehicle’s engine to its transmission. Therefore, your transmission’s fluid is integral to its operation, and also lubricates the transmission’s hundreds of moving parts.

If you drive in harsh winter conditions, it is a good idea to keep some sort of snow traction mat in your vehicle. Even if you have the best snow tires or a traction-aiding device like tire chains, there will still be situations where the snow is too deep. If there is too much snow, or if there is ice under the snow, snow tires will likely fall short. Chains are the next best bet, but they are time-consuming to install and remove. In the long run, snow traction mats are the best short-term tool to provide a layer of gripping surface between your tires and the driving surface.

Portable generators, like those often used when tailgating, can easily improve any vacation experience. If you’ve ever been camping in the great outdoors, you’re probably already aware of just how convenient having a portable generator on-hand can be. Want to charge your cell phone in the middle of the woods? Use a portable generator. Looking to take advantage of all that natural wood in your electric smoker? A portable generator can power that smoker for hours on end.

Wireless winch remote controllers deliver an extra dose of flexibility and convenience over the typical hard-wired controller, and the option just became even more convenient thanks to a new state-of-the-art system that allows users to operate their winch through a new app.

Problems with catalytic converters are one of the most common causes of check engine lights, but they’re extremely expensive to replace, so if you’re having issues, it makes sense to try one of the best catalytic converter cleaners first.

Nearly all modern vehicles come standard with a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS), but maybe you own an older vehicle that doesn’t have one. It’s important to know when your tires are overinflated or underinflated, as it can affect the performance of your vehicle including its fuel economy. Fortunately, the automotive aftermarket now offers convenient and affordable TPMS kits that are easy to install, allowing you to add a monitoring system to your older vehicle.

If you’re unsatisfied with the sedate noise and responsiveness of your off-roading rig, and you’re on the hunt for something to “wake it up” a bit, we have the remedy: the MagnaFlow Overland Series Cat-Back Performance Exhaust.

‘Tis the season for going over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house. But what to do when you have a little one in tow and Grandmother’s house is 2,000 miles away? Your full-featured, miniature La-Z-Boy-style car seat may be exactly the right tool for the job in day-to-day travels, however you’ll quickly find it’s impractical for planes, trains, and (rental) automobiles.

The venerable Toyota 4Runner is a perennial favorite among those who like to venture off the beaten path. Even in its current form, on sale for over a decade without any major changes, the rig continues to command big money both in the new and second-hand markets, while previous-generation models are also outrageously popular. Given their reputation, it only makes sense that there is a veritable truckload of accessories available in the aftermarket.

If you’re a weekend warrior that loves taking your car to an occasional track day, it’s time you invest into a competent pair of racing or driving shoes. Spending hours on a track can be grueling and exhausting, especially if you have the wrong gear. So much of driving involves your feet, so naturally, a durable and comfortable pair of racing shoes are a necessity. A proper pair of racing shoes also plays an important role in safety, providing secure grip on pedals, better pedal feel and, most importantly, protection against fire.

Exotic sports car owners are a special breed. While “whatever works” might be good enough when buying parts for your typical commuter car, if you own a high-dollar Ferrari or a Maserati, you know that “good enough” just won’t do.

Despite recent advancements in environmentally conscious electrified vehicles, most of the cars and trucks we drive are powered by fossil fuels. While this well-proven technology still contributes to ozone-depleting pollution, automakers have made huge strides in reducing pollution levels through a variety of emissions control solutions.

Now that Black Friday’s over, it’s time to turn our attention Cyber Monday. If you didn’t get around to shopping on Black Friday because you were still in a food coma, there are still plenty of great deals on Cyber Monday. Like Black Friday this year, many online retailers have already launched their Cyber Monday deals before the actual day.

One of the best Black Friday deals available for car/truck/Jeep owners comes from Advance Auto Parts. All day on Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27 you can save 25% on your entire order.

Despite how complex many modern vehicles are, you can do many common repair and maintenance jobs yourself even if you only own basic tools and have limited experience working on your own vehicle. More importantly, you can also easily diagnose issues with vehicle systems like the brakes and suspension because what you see is what you get, whether it’s worn brake pads, a broken spring, or a leaking shock absorber. Things get more complicated when you suspect something is amiss inside your vehicle’s engine and is causing it to perform poorly.

Are you ready for a family-friendly show that celebrates the incredible bond between dogs and their humans? The Pack is a new competition series you’re not going to want to miss.

Vans come in many sizes, but share a lot of features and benefits. Perhaps the greatest benefit, though, is versatility. A van can be configured to carry a lot of passengers, or a ton of cargo. It can be outfitted for duty as a camper or as a work space. It offers the utility of a pickup with the security of an SUV. So, van owners, shouldn’t you protect and care for your van by getting and using the best van covers?

If you need to work on cars more than a couple of times a month, it won’t take long before you wish you had a lift. Sure they’re expensive, but driving up and raising your car with a lever is so much easier than using a jack, ramps, and stands, that we don’t think your wallet will mind as much as your back. That’s before you even think about the difference between working on your car lying on your back in the grime, compared with standing up and working at the level that’s best for you. So when it comes time to move from jack to hoist, these best car lifts should give you just the right lift you need.

Americans love trucks. But sometimes, we don’t care for our beloved pickups as well as we should. We leave them to fend for themselves out in the cold, or park them deep in the garage without any protection. Whether you park indoors or out, in good weather or bad, your pickup needs and deserves only the best when it comes to truck covers. A good cover will protect your vehicle from sun, UV rays, and heat buildup. It will be waterproof and breathable, tough, yet soft to the touch. It will provide security and peace of mind whenever you are away from your truck, because you’ll know that your pickup’s safe from harm.

Bleeding your brakes, or changing the old fluid and getting out the air, can be a long, dirty, and difficult process. If you’re doing it the old fashioned way, you probably need to find a friend who doesn’t mind sitting in your vehicle being bored and pushing the pedal once in a while. If none of that sounds appealing, but you still know you need to do the job, we’ve got the solution. The best brake bleeder kits get you off the jack stands and back on the road as quickly, cleanly, and as easily as possible. And you won’t even need to pay back that buddy who helped you out, because they can stay at home.

Your car may have a big trunk that can swallow a lot of luggage and cargo, but it’s a big, empty area, which means that it’s not very good at organizing your stuff. Sure, some manufacturers put some kind of storage under the floor for smaller items, but for general use, it’s very hard to keep the trunk organized.

O2 sensors are critical to emissions control on your car, SUV or truck. As the name implies, the O2 sensor (also called an “oxygen sensor” or “lambda sensor”) detects the level of oxygen in your engine’s exhaust flow. This level is reported to the ECU, which uses the data to adjust the engine’s fuel-to-air mixture to keep the exhaust oxygen levels at permissible levels. It’s a dynamic process, with constant monitoring and response. All late model cars have at least one and up to four oxygen sensors, depending on engine type, configuration, and layout.