Products

Tire manufacturers have long since figured out there is a market for task-specific truck and SUV rubber. Sometimes those tasks take drivers over obstacles at Moab and other times it merely involves that gravel patch in the driveway that was supposed to be fixed last week. Better call the contractor, ASAP.

Not all of us need to install a different set of rubber the instant Old Man Winter pokes his head around the corner. While parts of the continent grumble into their coffee about that day’s forecasted high (*raises hand*), wide swaths of the population can run the same tires year-round, particularly if it’s the family daily.

Yes, yes — we’re aware of the date on the calendar. While most of the East Coast is getting buried in snow, the middle part of the country is enduring untold misery falling from the sky, and the less said about road conditions in high elevations, the better.

If you’re eating from the instant ramen end of the automotive menu (*ahem Ace of Base ahem*), chances are your new whip won’t have all the snazzy options a manufacturer has to offer. While economy of scale and common platforms increasingly ensures that base cars have some kit they would not have had just a few short years ago, costs have to be cut somewhere.

In 2019, most new cars and trucks come with a backup camera as standard equipment. Daddy Goverment decreed the rearward lens to be standard safety equipment about a year ago, with the effort pushing for this law gaining steam in the early 2000’s after a tragic driveway accident. Having more visibility astern is never a bad thing.

Floor mats are, much like your author, routinely ignored until needed or they fail to work properly. These things serve faithfully to keep your car’s carpets clean yet are hardly given a second thought — unless they’re annoyingly bunched up near the base of your seat, at which time they’re cursed to high heaven. They’re the Rodney Dangerfield of car accessories, I tell ya.

Look, we get it. Not every road trip in your vehicle will be a model of efficient packing. Jimmy wants to take along half his soccer gear, the dog won’t eat out of any other bowl, and Jane simply has to have her hockey stick for practice because tryouts are next month. Where are you going to fit it all?