Top products from r/driving

Okay so you're also like me, on the old car club that have no Cruise Control. I always argue that the most useful thing on long journeys is Cruise Control. Though now, skipping that, i am going to help with what i know so far.

First things first, you have to make sure your driving position is the absolute best it can be. Everything listed below if applicable:

• Calibrate the base of the seat forward/backward while fully pressing the clutch, and make sure your left knee is bent a bit.
• Calibrate the back angle of the seat to suit you.
• Move the steering wheel itself closer/farther to you so that when your arms are at their most extended point (rotating/pulling the steering wheel clockwise from the 9 o'clock position with the right arm, or inverse, 3 o'clock with the left arm, counterclockwise), your elbow is at a 120 degree angle. This provides maximum muscular efficiency rotating the wheel as fast and as efficiently as possible. If your steering wheel does not move, like in my old Mercedes, you have to decrease the angle of the back of the seat, pushing you forward to the angle of your elbows i just mentioned.
• Raise your seat at a height where you can see in parallel the top edge of your steering wheel, dashboard, and hood/bonnet. If your steering wheel cannot move in any way, just the parallel top edge of the dashboard and hood, if the hood is long enough like the MK3 Golf. In other vehicles where you cannot see the hood, you line up your dashboard and the steering wheel, or not at all.
• Calibrate your left mirror putting your head in the left most part of the vehicle, like the window, and placing the view of the car so that you can see a bit of the back of the car. This will be useful when parking and trying to line up the car to the side of the road.
• Same thing with the right mirror, put your head as right as comfortably possible, and place as little of your car as possible on the mirror while being able to see the side of your car.
• When you go back to center, you will be able to see your blindspot pretty well too.
• Calibrate your middle rearview mirror so that the back window is perfectly in center of the view.
• If you're driving alone for long stretches, lie the passenger seat as far back low as possible for you to have a clear view of your shoulder.

Then, put everything in a very easy order for them to be accessible even while you are driving. Which means money, car documents to hand to the police, your phone needs to be mounted somewhere safe not obstructing your windshield, water and food. Anything you need to quickly access, put it strategically as close and as stable as possible. Check all fluid levels of the car before leaving.

Whenever you feel bored and tired, just pull on the side of the road wherever legal and possible, like a gas station, and have a short walk, breathe some air. Enjoy the little pause, then go at it again.

For last but not least, make sure you have:

• A tire inflator of some sort, even a good little bicycle pump does the job. All it matters is for it to be able to overinflate your tires. Doesn't matter if it has a gauge or not.
• A tire pressure gauge like this: https://www.amazon.com/Vondior-Tire-Pressure-Gauge-Certified/dp/B072Z4SBN9/. This tire pressure gauge will be one of your most important posessions. Little more pressure, little less, you risk sliding somewhere you shouldn't, especially with a front wheel drive MK3. Having your tires perfectly inflated cold with brand new tires is the most reassuring thing to have while on a trip, or while there's a fucking storm and you can barely see outside in the dark and rain.
• A spare tire/wheel and the tools needed to change it
• A basic wrenching kit, cause sometimes small things come loose that you want to tighten
• Snow chain/socks, cause duh
• An umbrella and a raincoat, veeery helpful if it's suddenly raining and you forgot your umbrella, or you have to change a tire in the rain in the middle of nowhere
• Heavy duty sort of gloves, that are flexible but thick enough for you not to cut your hands anywhere
• One flower watering bottle, that you fill with water, pressure with the handpump, and it sprays water
• Some sort of 3 litre water container, cause when you need water 1 litre isn't enough
• At least one microfiber cloth, for it to clean the windows in a smudgy way. 3 are suggested, first cleaning most of the crap, second one cleans the rest to perfection, and third is used to dry the glasses without any water at all, in order for them to be spotless and have no dried-from-sun-or-air areas.
• One or two crappy old cotton shirts to use as rags to check the oil level or whatever oily stuff you need for the engine or wheels.
• 1 litre of every liquid your car uses, like engine oil, antifreeze/coolant, brake stuff DOT4, anything
• A brush for cleaning the wheels, that enters tight spots and makes cleaning wheels a breeze. It's important to clean the wheels not cosmetically, but functionally. If mud or ice or some other crap you don't want enters the brakes, you can be doomed.

TL;DR: Make sure to calibrate and prepare everything in your car as much as possible, so that all you have to think about is driving and enjoying the ride. This allows place for your mind to be careful about other idiot drivers and such. The more you prepare, the less you have to think about in a crisis situation.

I am 22 years of age, started driving on March 2017. I am very passionate about driving and cars, and my knowledge comes from experience, not google. I learned that preparation is the most important part of driving, and it changed everything in my driving experience, with me already having done some of the craziest things ever, while having very little money to go by (i can barely afford changing the oil in my car, let alone gas).

I am currently using this one . Video quality is pretty good and you can see the footage on its mobile app. It's by Anker.

I would also recommend getting an endurance card rather than normal sd card. Like this one.

Sounds like you're interested in driving, if so I'd wholeheartedly recommend this book, it's very insightful and well written, the guys an ex police driving instructor and really knows his stuff

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-Performance-Driving-Reg-Local-ebook/dp/B00S3TZ6ZO

Well when I'm using a real GPS I put one of these on the dash http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002IKKFJ6?pc_redir=1410437440&robot_redir=1 the good thing about the bean bag mount is that there is no adhesive and it is quite grippy so it doesn't slide around. I place the bean bag in the center of the dash where it is easy for my eyes to travel.
But most of the time I use the gps that's on my phone and I use one of these http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004ALHMDS?cache=1db82b7d77f1a6f1099bb683b22138a4&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1410670599&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1 which sticks into the AC vent. The phone is still central and high enough in my field is view where I can easily read it.

Cruise control makes highway driving a lot easier. Just stay in the right lane, try to figure out the rough speed of traffic, and go a few km/h below that (this usually ends up being a few km/h above the speed limit, but if you want to go the limit that's fine too).

People can go around you, and with cruise your speed will stay consistent so they have nothing to complain about.

Don't obsess over your rear view. It's good to keep an eye on it in city driving, and obviously you need to check it before slowing down or changing lanes, but when you're going at a constant speed the morons behind you are just going to distract you and stress you out. Your attention needs to be on the road ahead of you.

If the left lane is clear for a while behind you, it's good form to move over if you see cars merging, but certainly not obligatory. You should be able to maintain the same speed. If there are cars coming up in the left lane, don't worry about it.

I would highly recommend you buy convex blind spot mirrors if your car doesn't have them. It does NOT eliminate the need to check over your shoulder for cyclists and pedestrians on surface streets, but can effectively eliminate your blind spots for highway driving. My car has really bad blind spots and they make me feel much more comfortable on the highway.

I hate to promote products here, but either one of these would be useful for you:

Backup camera, take your pick

Backup sensors

One thing you didn't mention that might be worth considering is one of those big, police style rear view mirrors:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001A0J2JO/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687622&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0015FYQ90&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1B3CNP4PMY6P8XDX2YQE

I've not tested one of these but it sounds worth at least considering given the circumstances you describe.

There are some halfway decent clip-on sunglass lenses these days. I bought a pair at Walmart for my last pair of glasses.

Nothing even close. Here’s an aftermarket 360 degree system under $150.

I had compression fractures of multiple vertebrae two years ago and have dealt with a lot of back pain over time. While some things helped for a while (like a small inflatable pillow behind the small of my back) what helped me the most long-term was a wedge cushion with a cutout in it:

https://www.amazon.com/Car-Seat-Cushion-Strap-Wheelchairs/dp/B00Q5HXQ9O

That's one of the pricier ones but it helped me a lot. I went from getting sore after two hours to being able to handle at least 2-3x that. That said, I'm short, so a little extra seat height was welcome.

Here's an idea:

Buy some orange cones. You can get some for like $7 on Amazon.

Go to an empty parking lot at night or just to some deserted open area where you can set up these cones in whatever pattern works best, and practice driving/parking. That way you can still fuck up and correct your mistakes without actually fucking up your car in a real parking lot.

My dad did that with me to teach me how to drive a car that's pulling a trailer and I was able to get it down in no time.

If you are being followed by a driver the police take that very seriously (with good reason), this was exactly the right call and was handled as well as a shitty situation could be imo. If you are a bit paranoid after this incident (and anyone would be) I would suggest getting a dash cam. Nothing works like video!

I feel like installing a light bar in my rear window to flash at high-beamers... but it's technically illegal.