Have you read your car manual cover to cover? If not, there might be a few secret features that you didn’t realize your car had. Even if you did read it, we share some car hacks and features that are not usually outlined in a manual.

Get the full potential out of your vehicle with these tricks.

Store Your Essential In A Shower Caddy

It’s important to have a few essentials in your car like wipes, oil, a flashlight, and windshield washer fluid. However, it’s so annoying when you can hear these items rolling around in your trunk or can’t find them when you need them. A shower caddy is the perfect organization tool for your car essentials and it keeps them stationary – a win-win.

Pop Any Dents Out At Home

If you have any dents in the plastic parts of your car, this hack will pop them out and help your car look like new again.

Grab your plunger and a pot of boiling water and head out to the car. Pour the hot water on the vehicle dent which makes the material more flexible. Then quickly place the plunger on the dent and pull.

Get Your Headlights Sparkly Clean

Guess what common household product works wonders for cleaning headlights?

Toothpaste!

Apply the toothpaste (preferably one that contains baking soda) to your headlights and brush. Your foggy and dirty headlights will start to get really clean, then just wash the surface with water and dry them with a towel. 

Let Lincoln Check Your Tires

It’s important to get new tires if yours have worn tread or are balding. Tires affect the control of your car, your stopping ability, and your safety. An easy way to decide if you need new tires is to use the “penny tire trick”. Take a penny and place it head first into the tread of your tire. If you can see the top of Lincoln’s head, then you need new tires because your treads are worn down.

Dryer Sheets Will Have Your Car Smelling Fresh

Dryer sheets are another car essential. They are wonderful at getting odors out of a car, removing debris or dead insects, and pulling pet hair out of fabric. They are affordable and work a lot better than temporary dangling air fresheners.

Easily Open Your Key Ring

We all struggle with split ring keychains, they are so hard to open and sometimes even cause you to break a nail. An easy way to open a key ring is with a staple remover. Simply place the staple remover teeth in between the rings and push down.

A Door Ding Bumper

Do you have a tight parking spot in your garage? Kids always swinging the doors open with abandon and hitting the wall? Then this door ding bumper is the perfect, affordable solution. Take a pool noodle, cut it in half, and secure it to the wall that your car door is hitting. Now your door will land on a soft pool noodle and not get scratched.

Keep Your Bag Upright

If you struggle with where to put your purse in the car, then you will love this hack. I don’t like putting my purse on the floor and if I put it on the passenger seat, it usually ends up spilling, ugh. Then I discovered the trick to put a carabiner around your head read insert and loop your purse handles through it. It’s brilliant – everything stays in my purse, it’s not on the dirty/wet floor, and it’s easy to access.

Laundry Basket For Carrying

I love to bring all my groceries in on one trip. Even if it means 4 bags in each hand, digging into my flesh. That’s why this is one of my favorite car hacks. Put a classic laundry basket in your car for carrying big loads easily. It can easily hold 4 grocery bags and you don’t have to worry about them ripping. It also is great for clearing out miscellaneous items from the car or for loading groceries from stores that don’t have bags (i.e. Aldi, Costco)

Cereal Bin Doubles As A Trash Can

Trash always accumulates in the car. And if you have kids, it’s tenfold. A cereal storage bin is an excellent solution to keep your trash contained and very easy to dispose of. Just line the bin with a plastic bag and position it in an easy-to-reach place. The smell will also be contained and once it’s full, the disposal is simple.

In Cold Weather, Face Your Car To The East

When you arrive home for the night in the cold winter, park your car facing the East. In the morning, the sun will warm up the windshield and make it a lot easier to scrape off any frost that accumulated overnight.

Quick Fix In An Emergency

Pantyhose are a very useful garment to have on hand. We suggest putting a pair in your car’s emergency kit. One of its many uses is acting as an emergency fan belt. We don’t recommend this for long distances, but if you are stranded with a broken fan belt, you can use pantyhose to make a temporary fan belt and drive to the nearest car shop. Just place the nylons around the pulleys and tie into a tight knot. *This will only work in cars with V-belts. If your car has serpentine straps, the pantyhose trick won’t work because there are no grooves.

Best Road Trip Toy Ever

Road trips with kids always sound fun in theory, but once you get on the road, it’s immediate regret. Kids love to whine, make a mess, and get bored quickly when driving long distances. One of the best, screen-free toys for a road trip is the Magna-Doodle.

You can draw for hours with the Magna-Doodle and have no squish crayons, markers on the seat, or running out of materials. Magna-Doodle allows you to draw with your finger and then wipe away the design when you are ready to start a new one.

Coca-Cola Is A Fantastic Wheel Cleaner

Coke has been known to remove rust from items, which makes it a fantastic cleaning agent. The carbonation dissolves metal oxides and removes tarnish and rust to make metal look shiny new again. We prefer to use a light coke to reduce the stickiness and it’s also helpful if it’s slightly flat. Try opening it the night before, taking a swig, and then setting it on the counter to use on your wheels the next morning.

Place Your Keys Near Your Head For Longer Range

It might sound silly, but placing your key fob near your head when pressing the keys will give you a longer range. If you are trying to unlock your car from far away, then give this trick a try. How does it work? The fluid matter in your head creates a better conductor for the signal to send.

Nail Polish Works Wonders On Small Scratches

Nail polishes come in an extremely wide variety of colors. Head to your local ultra and find one that matches the color of your vehicle. Then go to the car wash and get your car clean and warm, locate the small scratch and apply the nail polish carefully over it. No expensive paint job is needed, it will look flawless with this simple trick.

Quick & Affordable Phone Holder

There are two ways to use a rubber band to create a phone holder. The first one involves using a binder clip (as pictured), wrapping a rubber band around it to create tension, and clipping it to your vent. Another more primitive option that works great in rental cards is just looping the rubber band through the top of the air vent and out the bottom. Then just stretch the rubber band over the top and bottom of your phone to hold it in place.

When It’s Hot, Keep Your Seat Belt Secured

The metal on your seatbelt can get scaldingly hot in the summer. If you know it’s going to be a scorcher and your car is parked in the sun, then click your seatbelt into place after you exited the vehicle. That will keep the metal part tucked away so it can’t get super hot and burn you when you re-enter the vehicle.

Shoe Organizers Make Great Car Organizers

Swing a shoe organizer over the back of your seat and you will have lots of little cubbies to keep your various car essentials organized and visible. This hack is especially helpful if you have kids because they require a lot of stuff i.e. wipes, sippy cups, snacks, diapers, etc.

Quick Cup Holder Clean

Cup holders always collect so many crumbs and dust and they are notoriously hard to clean. An easy solution is silicone cupcake holders! These cupcake holders fit perfectly into cup holders and they make them so much easier to clean. Remove the cupcake holder and shake out crumbs or bring them inside and wash them in the sink whenever you need. They also add a fun pop of color to your car.

De-Ice Your Locks With Hand Sanitizer

Ice builds up on metal quickly when your car is outside in the winter. Sometimes the build-up can be so thick, that you are unable to get your car key in the door. Hand sanitizer is great for this situation. The alcohol in hand sanitizer helps melt the ice. And if you think of it at the end of the night, you can proactively apply hand sanitizer to your locks to prevent ice from forming in the first place.

Clear Nail Polish Can Protect Window Chips

Nail polish is the hero once again with this quick trick. Applying clear nail polish to small window cracks can help keep the crack from spreading. First, wash the area with soap and hot water and wait for it to dry completely. Apply a thin layer of clear nail polish to the area and then let it dry. The crack should be sealed and protected after this process.

Hot Car Cool-Down

If your car has been sitting in the sun all day, it’s going to be boiling inside. The fastest way to cool down your hot car is to open all the windows and then open the driver’s side door. Having that specific door open will create a low-pressure wind that will suck the hot air up and away.

Kitty Litter Defroster

If you seem to be battling a foggy window a lot, especially in the winter, then this hack is for you. Fill a sock with kitty litter and place it on your dashboard near the windshield. The kitty litter will help absorb condensation and defog your windows quickly.

Wipe Down Your Windshield Wipers

The windshield wipers are an area of the car that we don’t think about cleaning, but it can make a big difference. Even when you go through a car wash, the wipers are usually missed because they are laying flat. Rubbing alcohol on a rag is amazing for this spot. Once all the grime is removed, the blades will work like new again.

Cover Your Mirrors To Prevent Ice

Cars and winter are not a great combo, but we still need them to get around. Anything that helps with the ice build-up is a welcome hack. One tip we received is to put ziplock bags over your side mirrors when not in use. This will help keep frost from building up and cause less frustration in the morning. Another trick is to spray the ice with rubbing alcohol and it will melt quickly