Customising Your Car on a Budget
If you are reading this then no doubt you find yourself amongst the immeasurable number of people who are tired of driving the same car as everyone on the road. It seems bizarre that we customise and add personality to so many other elements of our life, our phone, our laptop, our clothes – but neglect to do so with our car. Contrary to common belief, customising your car on a Budget is not intrinsically linked with extortionate costs – there are many small measures you can take that amount to a big change.
Brief History
I recently read in a BBC news article that customisation in vehicles has a rich history. It has been cited as beginning in the aftermath of the Second World War – some believe that people got a taste for the high horsepower aircraft engines that were so prominent during the war; they began to customise their vehicles with this technology, forming clubs and taking part in races.
The popularity of vehicle customisation amongst celebrities had a huge impact on popular culture. George Barriss (creator of the 1960 Batmobile) is said to have had customisation requests from the likes of John Wayne, The Beatles and Elvis! It is following this trend that music, movies and TV shows started to jump on the customised bandwagon – the rest, as people say, is history.
Tips and Advice
The manner in which you customise your car is often dependent on how you plan to use it. I often divide my customisations into 3 core factors, so I have also split up my recommendations as such.
- Entertainment: The main affordable source of entertainment in your vehicle is music, now often people invest in subwoofers or high quality speakers, however, these are costly – for high quality sound you have to invest in high quality speakers. You can actually simply improve the sound in your vehicle through the less costly alternative of upgrading your CD player. Upgrading your CD player drastically alters the clarity – in most standard cars the pre-installed sound system is very basic, not sophisticated enough to produce an overly clean sound. I would actually prioritise something like this, let others worry about customising the body – changing your player changes your actual driving experience.
- Aesthetics: You can drastically improve the resale value of a car through small changes to the exterior. It does not have to cost an arm and a leg though, there are plenty of companies that deal in the sale of cheap car parts, and I don’t mean the type that will fall off as soon as you look away. Cheap Car Accessories include: window tints, wheel trims, replacement mirror covers and steering wheel covers – they all cost relatively little and don’t require a lot of time to fix. These accessories are no risk, all reward. You can even add little ornaments to your dashboard, add car stickers or window hangings…to an extent, I advise you don’t add anything that may obstruct your view.
- Practicality: after sale add-ons are not always the result of vanity, sometimes there are legitimate reasons to want to customise your car, in the interest of safety and maintenance. For example you may want to buy a cheap boot mat to ensure that your vehicle doesn’t succumb to any stains or grime. You may want to replace your lights if they are starting to fade, get window tints to prevent sun glare from obstructing your view – these are all cost effective changes that can serve to provide peace of mind.
When people think about car customisation they think of adding spoilers and alloy wheels, but changes to your car do not have to be extreme to be effective. If you have any further recommendations for those looking to customise their car on a budget please sound off in the comments section below.
