Getting New Car Technology on Your Existing Vehicle

I learned how to drive on my mom’s old Toyota Corolla. This was the dependable commuter car through and through. So, what this also meant was that Old Faithful also lacked a lot in modern conveniences and creature comforts. In my mom’s eyes, the fewer “features” the car had, the fewer things could go wrong. The windows were of the hand-crank variety, there was no air conditioning, and — to the best of my recollection — there was no “intermittent” setting on the windshield wipers. It wasn’t fancy, but hey, I had a ride (sometimes) as a teenager.

Another very distinctive memory I have of this vehicle was that it had a tape deck. In addition to AM and FM radio, it took cassettes. You have to remember that, by this time in the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, most of us had moved on to playing music on CDs instead. I think I purchased my first music CD around 1995 or 1996. And I had no way of playing my CD collection in this car. As a stop-gap measure, I would record individual songs from my CDs onto cassette tapes from my home stereo.

Eventually, I picked up a used Sony Discman (unfortunately without any sort of anti-skip technology) that came with a cassette adapter. The way it worked was that you’d put that cassette into the tape deck, a wire dangled out of the adapter, and that wire plugged into the Discman. It was my workaround to get “modern” (at the time) technology into an older car. Years later, I remember picking up a series of FM transmitters so I could use my MP3 player on my car stereo too.

As you’ve most assuredly noticed by now, the newest and coolest car technology tends to debut on higher-end vehicles. The first airbags were only included on luxury vehicles, but now we expect them as standard equipment on all vehicles. The same is true with GPS navigation. It may have once been the case that you were Mr. or Ms. Fancy if your car had a touchscreen built into the dash, but now they’re commonplace.

Of course, not all of us can afford to upgrade our vehicles every couple of years to get the newest car tech. That’s not really practical. So even if technology like that has trickled down to mainstream vehicles, it can still feel out of reach. Thankfully, there are all sorts of ways you can introduce and implement new car technology into your existing vehicle.

There are simple dongles and adapters, for instance, to add Bluetooth to your car. That’s actually what I use now to stream music from my smartphone to my current vehicle. The car has Bluetooth, but only for voice calls. The adapter acts as a Bluetooth receiver, tapping into the auxiliary input so the car’s speaker system effectively operates like a Bluetooth speaker.

It’s not just about entertainment either; the same scenario plays out when it comes to convenience and safety as well. Many modern vehicles come with an automatic tire pressure monitoring system. And as of last year, there’s a federal mandate in the United States that all new cars need to have a backup camera. According to federal data collected by the Chicago Tribune, some 15,000 people are injured and over 200 people die each year “because of backover crashes.”

But what if your existing vehicle doesn’t have this “new” car tech? Just as you can buy aftermarket GPS navigation systems, you can pick up one of the Tadibrothers backup cameras. Systems like this are remarkably affordable, starting from under $200 in some cases, complete with the backup camera itself, the monitor to mount on your dash, and the necessary installation hardware. You can even pick up a wireless backup camera if you prefer, or one where the display integrates into a rear view mirror.

There are essentially no compromises when compared to the OEM backup cameras you find on newer vehicles. You still get great night vision (military grade, even), discreet license plate mounting for the camera itself, and an extra wide viewing angle. Unlike many OEM systems, aftermarket backup cameras like those from Tadibrothers can give you that rearward-facing view even when you’re driving forward. There’s even an option to add a second camera if you want.

At first, I was skeptical about the actual utility of backup cameras on cars. Now that I’ve had one for a couple years, I can’t imagine driving a car without such a system. It makes both stall and parallel parking so much easier, and you gain so much more visibility with what is directly behind your car. Without it, you might not see the child chasing after a ball or the obstacle otherwise hidden from view.

We may upgrade our smartphones every couple years, but most of us don’t buy whole new cars every two years. We can, however, add in the newer technology as we go to prolong the life and improve the convenience of our current vehicles.

Promotional consideration for this post was provided by Tadi Brothers.