Top 10 Tech Upgrades for Your Car

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Tired of the same old boring radio stations and CDs on your daily commute? Kids in the backseat driving you nuts on long trips? Too proud to ask for directions so you wander around lost? Barely able to hear your tunes over all of the engine and road noise? Fear not, there’s a simple and inexpensive mobile electronics upgrade that can cure any of the ills that make modern day drive time monotonous, frustrating or just plain dangerous.

Below we’ve put together a list of the top 10 car tech upgrades for your car. The best part is you can easily add any one of these—or even the whole list—a little at a time, as your budget allows and according to your priorities. Regardless, whether added individually or as a group, each electronics overhaul will go a long way towards making your time behind the wheel more enjoyable, more productive and safer.

1. iPod Integration

By now you probably own at least one iPod—if not several—and likely store most of your music collection on one of these ubiquitous portable music players. Instead of bringing CDs into the car, you can have your iPod ride shotgun along with an entire music library. iPod integration runs the gamut from straightforward FM modulators like Monster’s iCarPlay Wireless Plus ($80), to more elaborate solutions such as Harmon Kardon’s Drive + Play ($200) that can be hard-wired to a radio with an auxiliary input, to high-tech applications like Scosche’s IPBCK wireless Bluetooth transmitter ($250). Many head units from well-known aftermarket car stereo suppliers now boast some form of iPod integration. These range from simple aux-in jacks to being able to control the iPod directly from the head unit’s own controls. With Alpine’s KCE-422i Full Speed Connection Cable for iPods ($30), for example, there’s no need for additional adaptors or boxes and all iPod functions are available via the faceplate of compatible Alpine head units.

2. Satellite Radio

While having an iPod or MP3 player on board gives you access to tons of tunes, satellite radio from XM or Sirius multiplies your entertainment options many times over. You not only get music sliced into dozens of specific genres—Latin, folk, jazz, in addition to every subset of rock, country, rap and pop imaginable—but also multiple channels for news, sports, talk, entertainment, as well as road-rage eliminating comedy. As with iPod integration, just about any car radio—whether stock or aftermarket—can receive satellite radio via a tuner with an FM-modulator, such as the XM Sportscaster ($60) and the Sirius Starbase SC-FM1 ($170). For even better sound quality and control directly from the in-dash radio, an inexpensive aftermarket head unit like Pioneer’s DEH-P4800MP ($150) that connects to Pioneer’s GEX-P920XM XM tuner or SIR-PNR2 Sirius tuner (both $100) fits the bill. For an even easier solution, many late-model cars now come from the factory with satellite radio installed and ready to be activated.

3. Navigation

With all of the navigation options available today, there’s just no excuse for getting lost—or driving around wasting expensive gas. Most of the major aftermarket car stereo manufacturers offer add-on navigation systems that hook up to their higher-end head units, such as the Alpine’s NVE-872A ($1,700) and Kenwood’s KNA-G510 ($800). But this approach is rather expensive and the nav units have to be paired with a compatible head unit. The Eclipse AVN5500 ($1,900) combines DVD-based navigation with a CD player in one double-DIN chassis, but it’s still a bit beyond most people’s upgrade budget. An increasingly popular—and much less pricey—option are portable navigation devices that can move from car to car, such as the Magellan Road Mate 3000T ($600). Like many of the most recent PNDs the 3000T not only gets you from point A to point B, but also includes such extra features as an MP3 player, picture viewer and access to real-time traffic information.

4. Rear-Seat Entertainment

An alternative to a DVD player in the dash is an all-in-one DVD-based rear-seat entertainment system. These come in several different varieties and price ranges. Overhead console systems can be easily added to many vehicles. Clarion’s OHMD 10D ($1,000) console comes with a 10.2-inch screen, a built-in DVD player and infrared and FM-modulator transmitters for the audio program. Another option is an all-in-one replacement-headrest system, such as VizuaLogic’s A-1000 ($1,600). It includes two headrests that are color-matched to the vehicle, each with a 7-inch screen and with a DVD player built into one of the screens, and it comes with an FM modulator and wireless headphones. A version with a DVD player in each headrest, the A-2000 ($1,800) is also available, while the latest version, the A-1250 ($1,995) has an aux input for adding an iPod, videogame console or any other external device.

5. Bluetooth

Let’s face it: You will be bringing your cell phone into the car and you will be making and receiving calls. So you may as well do it safely, and Bluetooth wireless technology lets you talk hands-free. A number of easy Bluetooth upgrades are available so that you can keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel when you’re on the phone. These range from Parrot’s EasyDrive plug-and-play car kit ($100) to Sony’s MEX-BT5000 CD radio with built-in Bluetooth capability ($399).

6. DVD

If you’re going to replace your factory radio, you may as well spend just a little more and go with DVD rather than a CD-based head unit. Not only is the price difference fairly negligible in the mid-fi range, but you also get much more capability and features for your money. For example, with a DVD receiver that’s dual-zone capable and satellite-radio ready, you can send a video signal to screens in the rear of the vehicle and an audio signal to wireless headphones, while the front-seat occupants enjoy satellite or AM/FM radio. JVC’s KD-AVX1 DVD receiver ($600) sports a clever 3-inch LCD monitor embedded in the faceplate as well as dual-zone capability, while the Dual XDVD8130 ($600) has a two-step, motorized 2.5-inch LCD display and can play MP3-encoded CDs.

7. Speakers

No matter how great the electronics in your car stereo system are, it all comes down to the speakers—the critical components that take all of the sophisticated signal generating and processing technology that occurs upstream and turn it all into sounds you actually hear. One of the quickest and most cost-effective paths to better mobile sound is to upgrade your car’s speakers. Simply swapping out the low-fi factory speakers that come with a generic stock stereo system for higher-quality aftermarket drivers can make a dramatic improvement in sound quality. So called “drop-in” speakers from Polk Audio’s dX Series ($99 – $179) and JBL’s Grand Touring Series ($60- $200) are designed to fit the most common stock-speaker openings without any modification to the vehicle. One caveat: Some premium OEM audio offerings have speakers that are specifically designed to work with the unique electronic architecture of the system and changing them can make the system sound worse, if the speakers can even be changed at all.

8. Subwoofers

Perhaps nothing makes a bigger impact than adding a subwoofer to a car stereo system. Even if you don’t listen to rap or bass-heavy music, the low-frequency energy of a synthesizer, bass guitar and bass drum in, say, rock music gets lost if your system can’t reproduce subbass. Plus there are often effects and ambient information in the low-frequency range that you’re totally missing if you don’t have a dedicated subwoofer that can go low. There are many self-contained add-on subwoofers on the market, such as Bazooka’s BTA8100 100-watt amplified 8-inch subwoofer tube ($240) and Infinity’s BassLink ($350) with a 10-inch sub powered by 200 watts. Another way to go is to add a subwoofer box like Kicker’s DCVR10 box with two 10-inch subwoofers ($280) or one that’s specifically designed to fit your particular vehicle, such as one of JL Audio’s Stealthbox systems ($500 to $1,400), and then add an amplifier to power it.

9. Amplification

Adding more power to your system also makes a huge difference in not only the quantity but also the quality of your car’s sound. Some amplifiers, like the 100-watt two-channel MTX TC4002 ($300) and the 65-watt two-channel Blaupunkt PCA 265 ($160), are specifically designed to be inserted between a car’s stock radio and factory speakers and can accept “high-level” (amplified) outputs from a stock stereo. The Blaupunkt PCA 265 even has an input for an iPod or other portable music player. Amplifiers without high-level inputs can also be used with the addition of a “line-level adaptor” between the stock head unit and the amp, and most aftermarket radios have low-level preamp outputs.

10. Sound Deadening

Road noise is your car stereo system’s enemy since it masks many of the subtle nuances in music. Sound-deadening material is the first line of defense against road noise invading your ride, which is why luxury carmakers spend so much effort to make their interiors as quiet as possible. You can get a Lexus-like quiet simply by adding sound-deadening material, such as Dynamat’s Xtreme Door Kit ($100) or Cascade Audio Engineering’s DK-1 door kit ($75), to your vehicle. Similar products are also available for other parts of a vehicle, such as the hood and trunk.