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It would seem that there are more traffic accidents on average as the years trickle by and this is because there are many car accessories that actually get in the way of people driving?

Well the fact is that car accessories are actually very important because they have assisted us with our driving skills whereas others I have to say have really not been much use at all. When thinking of car accessories it is pretty safe to say that the car mat is not usually the item that comes into your mind unless of course you are cleaning the car out, but these things actually help us out when we are driving.

They are there to actually help to keep grip when your feet are not on the pedals and believe it or not car mats are responsible for saving many lives. If your car mat is on its way out and is starting to actually curl up at the sides and you get your foot caught then you are going to have an accident.

More recent accessories like the Sat Nav have helped a lot of people out and have saved a lot of arguments from occurring but at the same time they have also been behind many distractions that have led to accidents and death which is why it is debated if they are really that useful. Even though this device is actually far superior to a map, if you need to take a long look at the screen I would still advise you actually pull over.

So although those car accessories along with the very strange gap insurance and bad credit car leasing are all there to help us out, there are positives and negatives to everything.

GPS’s are mostly uninteresting to me since I have little use for one in NYC, so this post is mostly for my brother and his BMW.

It’s unclear what the “expanded relationship” is between Garmin and BMW Motorrad, but I’m pretty sure the announcement of the BMW Motorrad Navigator IV GPS is the extent of that whole business.

Anyway, the Navigator IV was built specifically for BMW motorcycles with a 4.3-inch touch-screen that’s glove-friendly and comes preloaded with the BMW dealer database among many other POIs. Turn-by-turn voice prompts can be transmitted via Bluetooth (A2DP) without the hassle of having to remove your gloves or helmet. A four-button mount exclusive to BMW allows for “many quick-key functions for extra control and usability.” Specific routes can be sent to other Navigator IV units via Bluetooth. You can even peep the Nav IV’s trip info page for speed, heading, altitude, or a customizable fuel gauge based on your BMW.

Look for the BMW Motorrad Navigator IV to drop in Q3 in NA and Europe.

Garmin

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s….the Nav-Mat – the latest “crime-fighting device”. This is one of the strangest satnav accessories that I’ve come across. Its makers claim that “tell-tale sucker marks on windscreens” are one of the major reasons for satnav theft. So they’ve come up with the Nav-Mat, which basically looks like a beanbag for your satnav. It sits on the dashboard, therefore preventing those “tell-tale sucker marks”. Apparently “the contoured and weighted, anti-skid underside stops the device from sliding and, unlike traditional window mountings, leaves no suction marks on the windscreen”. It’s available here for a bargain £19.99 (plus £5 p&p). Alternatively, buy some window wipes here for 99p.

Those clever little devils at Santok have been up to more cunning in-car japes – this week launching a nifty little in car charger with two 12 volts plugs and two USBs, interesting no?

The STK may look like the disembodied head of Johnny 5 (can a robot be disembodied? can it even have a head?) but it’s infinitely more uselful. The two 12 volts cigarettelighter-size sockets let you plug in your in-car goodies, your sat-nav and ipod dock, while also charging those USB gadgets that you normaly find tethered to your computer. The STK has a jointed arm so you can wiggle it into whatever position most fits your wheels’ dash. You could also plug a USB splitter into one of the USB ports, giving you even more USB ports, and then plug another into that one, and another into that one, until your car starts to look like the Dolorian from Back To The Future and you start calling everyone Maaarty. That would be sweet.