If you're still searching for the ideal Christmas present for a car fan then look no further as we round up our top 20 products from 2015.
We get our hands on hundreds of products over the course of the year, and occasionally something stands head and shoulders above the rest and really grabs our attention. It’s often because it brings something new to the market, but we also consider products that are so much better than rivals and deserve special praise.
• Best dream gifts for Christmas 2015
Below we pick our favourites from a variety of different categories, including sat-navs, dashcams and car covers. Plus we select the best car cleaning products, headlamp bulbs, games and there's even a coffee table book you won't want to miss. So scroll down for these, and many more.
Wo-Wo Snow Foam Lance
Best price: £29.99
Contact: www.wo-wo.co.uk
This caught our eye during the year, as it provides a neat solution to those who can’t get power to where they clean their car, but still want to cover it in snow foam. The Wo-Wo works off a normal hose rather than a pressure washer, and is well made with metal fittings. It creates plenty of foam that easily covered our car – reducing the amount of grime to be taken off with a mitt or sponge. It doesn’t have the blasting power of a pressure washer, but works well and solves a problem.
Specialised Covers Prestige +
Price: From £249
Contact: http://ift.tt/WqVSGA
Our test winners generally balance price and performance, but it’s often the money-no-object choices that take the eye. And that was the case with this tailored indoor car cover. It was up there with the best for breathability and protection against knocks thanks to the thick two-layer material with a soft, fleecy inside. Plus, it fitted perfectly and can be customised to your own colour, piping, stripe and logo preferences. No surprise, then, that it’s still on the test car.
Nextbase DUO
Best price: £199.99
Contact: www.nextbase.co.uk
The Nextbase DUO Twincam is the only dual dash cam on the market with a zoom on the rear-facing lens. This means it can record what’s going on on the road behind you, rather than what’s happening in the cabin. The company has also made great efforts to ensure the split screen monitor replay is precisely matched. Add great image quality and night vision, and the Nextbase DUO sits in a dash cam category of its own.
Bilt Hamber double speed-wax
Best price: £14.95
Contact: www.bilthamber.com
We’ve long been impressed with Bilt Hamber’s shampoo and wheel cleaner, and this year its wax also wowed us. The brand’s finis-wax has always been a top performer in the past, but the new double speed-wax takes things to a new level with great durability, beading water throughout our six-week test. Not the easiest to apply, but worth the effort.
Osram Night Breaker Unlimited Xenarc bulb
Best price: £84.95
Contact: www.osram.com
After 20 years of industry-leading testing, it’s rare that Auto Express performs a test for the first time these days. But it happened in 2015 when we rated HID headlamp bulbs. The results were a revelation. Not only did they expose the woeful beam produced by cheap lamps, but also just how much better the latest performance versions are compared to standard bulbs. Both Philips and Osram’s bulbs impressed, yet the latter’s Night Breaker Unlimited was best.
Ring Smartcharge RSC612
Price: £80
Contact: http://ift.tt/1P7yA60
While flat batteries are inconvenient, they can usually be fixed by charging from the mains. The problem is identifying why the battery went flat. If it’s not something obvious – like leaving the lights on by mistake – this Ring charger can help pinpoint what’s wrong. It includes diagnostic tools, monitoring battery power and capacity, plus an alternator. That’s on top of a versatile and powerful charger with several modes. A great addition to the workshop.
Pioneer AVIC-F70DAB multimedia head unit
Price: £589.99
Contact: www.pioneer.co.uk
Our top 20 wouldn’t be complete without Auto Express’s Product of the Year. The Pioneer AVIC blew us away in May, as it’s the first aftermarket head unit to offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. It combines superb quality with a long list of features, including DAB radio and navigation by HERE. While the system is expensive, at just shy of £600, you get a great deal for that price, plus the easy set-up and intuitive interface make it feel like money well spent.
Jim Clark: Racing Hero
Best price: £54
Contact: http://ift.tt/1O5oMnQ
This coffee table book, written by Graham Gauld, easily made it on to the shortlist of the RAC Motoring Book of the Year awards. Previously unseen photographs and well written text chart the illustrious racing career and personal life of Jim Clark. The talented Scot made racing history with Lotus in the sixties, winning championships in Formula One, touring cars and the Indy 500 before his untimely death at a Formula Two event in 1968. This £54 splurge is a must for any motorsport fan, and earned a deserved five stars when we reviewed it in March.
Anki Overdrive
Price: £149.99
Contact: www.anki.co.uk
We featured the original Anki Drive last year, but this new smartphone-operated slot car-style racing set moves the game on further. Overdrive replaces the original roll-out vinyl mat with magnetic plastic track pieces, which are easy to put together for hundreds of different layouts. Plus, you can boost the comprehensive starter pack by buying crossovers, corners and jumps. Add a great, app-based racing system, and there’s potential for hours of fun.
Strakka Simulator
Price: £450 half day, inc engineer
Contact: http://ift.tt/1P7yyLA
Strakka’s half-day simulator experience brought out the motorsport fan in us. The professionalism, relaxed setting, location and affordability make for a brilliant day out for any budding race champion. You get coaching from real FIA WEC and Formula Renault engineers, who are incredibly patient, while our driving prowess definitely improved despite the virtual setting. The compelling factory tour and insight into the Nick Leventis-owned racing teams make this an experience worthy of any petrolhead’s time.
• Cheap Christmas car gifts under £50
Gyeon Q2 Fabric Protect
Price: £29
Contact: http://ift.tt/1FEj88i
In our recent test of fabric protectors, one product stood out so far above the rest that we simply had to crown it our Best Buy – and it’s staying in our garage. Q2 Fabric Protect from Gyeon wasn’t the cheapest option we tested, nor was it the easiest to apply. However, these drawbacks were easily outweighed by the stellar performance. It protected our car seat fabric from anything we could throw at it. This is a brilliant product and one that we can’t recommend enough.
A-Z Atlas
Price: £14.99
Contact: www.azmaps.co.uk
If you like to keep things old-school and prefer not to use a sat-nav, A-Z’s Great Britain and Northern Ireland Atlas is worth a special mention. It’s not necessarily the most innovative product on this list, but unquestionably a performer that stood out from the rest in our test of traditional atlases. What’s more, there are postcodes for points of interest given to complement sat-nav use. It’s a great example of designers intuitively combining technology and tradition.
Nokian Weatherproof all-season tyre
Price: £70.98 (205/55 R16)
Contact: http://ift.tt/1O5oMo2
It was a year of debuts in 2015, as we conducted our first standalone all-season tyre test – they’d only been included in our winter tyre assessments before. The latest designs are impressive, yet what really caught our eye was how they performed on snow, where the Nokian Weatherproof reigned supreme. It even topped our comparison winter tyre.
Black & Decker ORA cordless car vac
Price: £149.99
Contact: http://ift.tt/M6WMbF
This cracking cordless vac trumps the old Black & Decker Dustbuster, and it’s less than half the price of the Dyson V6 Absolut it faced in our mini test. Featuring Optimised Runtime + Airflow (ORA) technology, the lightweight cleaner is only 1.2kg. An assortment of attachments coupled with powerful suction allow it to get your car interior back to showroom standards in no time. The on/off button design protects precious 16-minute battery life more effectively than its pricier peers, and it’s really easy to empty, too.
Britax King II child seat
Price: £180
Contact: www.mothercare.com
This innovative new child seat uses an Active Tension System to give your child ultimate comfort in the car. The seatbelt harness, which takes two AAA batteries, glows green once you’ve popped the child into place and tightened it accordingly. It then continues to monitor the tension throughout the journey, automatically slackening off if needs be. This is great for children who fidget, and the seat is suitable for those weighing from 9-18kg.
Philips X-tremeVision bulb
Price: £24.45 (H4 pair)
Contact: www.philips.com
Philips’ first halogen headlamp bulb promised to deliver 30 per cent more light on the road than a regular version, yet this latest X-tremeVision claims 130 per cent. Our mini test of H4 bulbs combined readings at 50 and 75 metres from the car, and showed just how good the new Philips is. The even spread of light was one of its defining features.
TomTom GO 5100 sat-nav
Price: £259.99
Contact: www.tomtom.co.uk
The TomTom GO 5100 may not be the cheapest sat-nav system on the market, but with lifetime map updates and other future-proof features, it’s an investment that will deliver a great return here in the UK and in Europe. Its large screen is practical, plus the live traffic updates alter the route to keep you on the move. The GO 5100 is a five-star performer that’s easy to use, even if you’re not particularly confident with technology.
OBD Saver
Price: £169
Contact: www.obdsaver.co.uk
Advances in tech have left drivers worried about thieves ‘hacking’ cars to steal them, and steering wheel lock sales are booming. But OBD Saver is a more refined solution. The device locks to your on-board diagnostics (OBD) port and rejects unauthorised devices that try to take control of the car. Good news for owners of the BMW X5 and Audi Q7, which have been the target of taken-to-order thefts.
Motoring and The Law app
Price: £2.29, Available for: iOS, Android
Contact: www.askthe.police.uk
Not a week goes by when someone in the office doesn’t want to check a motoring law, regulation or just their memory of the Highway Code. This simply designed app stores a library of questions and provides an offline service for checking your knowledge. It’s handy to have in case of an emergency, and as it uses the same database police forces rely upon, you can be sure the information is 100 per cent accurate.
Forza 6 video game
Price: £37.68, Available for: Xbox One
In a year of disappointing racing games, the long-awaited Forza 6 release was just the tonic we needed. Boasting double the number of cars featured in Forza 5, the new game impressed with its high-quality styling, changeable weather and number of tracks. The straightforward single player mode is great fun, and even more so with the option of driving Ayrton Senna’s McLaren MP4/4 around Spa. This game was worth the wait.
Not ready for winter yet? Read our full checklist of winter car products here...
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