How to Future-Proof Your Car on a Budget
Car, license, auto insurance. That’s all you need to hit the road, but if you’re planning on spending several thousand dollars on your vehicle of choice, you probably want that vehicle to meet your needs for the foreseeable future. Back before the turn of the century, having the latest-and-greatest meant having a tape deck or CD player, but things have gotten substantially more sophisticated. Technological advances and new gimmicks are sailing past faster than most can keep up with, but there’s no reason to let a wealth of options hold you back – there are a few recent technologies that you can add to your car in confidence that the technology will be useful for years to come.
Connectivity is King
Even with high-tech alternatives on the horizon, electronic communication standards like USB and Bluetooth are here to stay, at least until the billions of devices currently using these standards are made obsolete. If you have a smartphone, tablet, e-book, or mobile gaming device, you can almost certainly charge it via USB, which is why most quality cars manufactured after 2010 have a UBS port standard. For those lacking this essential charging outlet, car chargers are available for a quick fix and many aftermarket radio units have a USB port.
Bluetooth is another one of those technologies that is just too ubiquitous to go away any time soon. For the uninitiated, Bluetooth is a wireless communication protocol typically used by phones and tablets. You’ve probably seen someone using an earpiece to talk on their phone, and if they were doing it wirelessly, they were probably using Bluetooth. Outfitting your car with Bluetooth connectivity can allow all of your devices to connect with your car and share media with it, allowing you to listen to music stored on your phone through your car speakers wirelessly.
Looking for a cheaper way to listen to your phone through your car’s stereo? Try adding an AUX port to your vehicle or popping an AUX-to-tape conversion tape in. Both devices will allow you to connect anything with a 1/8” headphone output to your car speakers! Looking for cheap car insurance? Cost-U-Less is the way to go.
The Difference a Screen Makes
Having some sort of dashboard display in your vehicle can bring new levels of interactivity and functionality to any vehicle, from media to GPS navigation. For many smartphone users, bringing your phone’s functionality to the dash is as simple as buying and installing a mount for the phone, but users who want to future-proof their vehicles could go a step further.
You may have the option to replace your radio unit with a more advanced GPS navigation system, but built-in systems are always lackluster when compared to the snappy smartphone interfaces we’re all used to. Achieve the best of both worlds with MirrorLink, an emerging technology that allows you to stream your phone’s display to an on-board touch display.
Any more on-the-road life hacks? Let us know in the comments section below and don’t forget to stop by Cost-U-Less today for free car insurance quotes and more!
