When getting a new car, one of the many key decisions you’ll have to make is what options to add, assuming you can and want to have any of course.
What options you have naturally depends on the car and trim level you’ve picked, but whatever the car you'll want the right balance when it comes to equipment.
If you pick fewer options than you really wanted, then it can feel like your new car doesn’t fulfil all your wishes. On the other hand, add more options than you really need and you could feel like you’ve overspent for no good reason.
With all this in mind, you’ll want to prioritise certain equipment which may not come as standard but should prove a worthwhile investment in the long run. In this guide, we pick out the equipment that may appear on your car’s option list that’s worth prioritising and explain what sort of price you should be paying for each bit of kit if it's indeed an extra.
Air conditioning
Many new cars on the market nowadays do include air conditioning or even climate control as a standard feature. However, several cars in the smaller city car and supermini categories may not include air conditioning or only make it available as an option. This is far more likely to happen if you’re looking at one of the more affordable trim levels.
If the car you’re interested in has air conditioning down as an option then it’s definitely worth thinking about adding it as you’ll be thankful for it particularly on warm, summer days. Expect to pay somewhere in the region of £600 to £700 to add air con.
Cruise control
Cruise control is a useful bit of kit to have particularly if you plan on doing a lot of travelling on the motorway in your new car. Not only it can stop you from creeping over the speed limit and make driving more relaxing, it can also improve your car’s fuel economy.
If you decide to sell your car in the future and it has cruise control featured, this won’t necessarily improve the car’s long-term value but it can make it more alluring to potential buyers. Expect to pay somewhere in the region of £100 to £200 for cruise control.
Heated windscreen
Heated windscreens are a really useful luxury to have during the winter months when wet and frosty conditions set in, particularly if you regularly park outside.
During days when the weather is cold, a heated windscreen can loosen any frost attached, which can then be removed with the wipers. You should also avoid the potential issue of having the windscreen mist up. About £100 is the sort of price you should expect to pay for a heated windscreen.
Mobile phone connectivity
A lot of new cars nowadays offer Bluetooth connectivity and mobile phone kits as an option. Such gadgetry is really useful, particularly if you are on the road often. Bear in mind that you should expect to spend a few hundred quid on such on an option and you’re unlikely to recoup the additional cost.
On a related note, many new cars on the market can be specified with an integrated media device that’ll support the likes of DAB radio, a media player and maybe even navigation support.
While such a system could cost anywhere between around £500 to £1,000, many such devices will support Bluetooth or can even be synced up to the apps on the smartphone. The ability to add smartphone app integration alone could come as a separate option for about a couple of hundred quid.
Parking sensors
If you’re planning on buying a large car then parking sensors is a driving aid that can make parking a lot less stressful. Most of the cars on today’s market, particularly family cars, come with all sorts of parking-related driving aids nowadays. There’s sensors, parking cameras and sensor-based parallel parking aids.
How far you want to go with parking aids depends on how confident you feel about parking, but you could end up spending over £500 on such gadgetry. Rear parking sensors are probably all you need if you’re buying a big car and for that you’ll likely pay around £200.
Satellite navigation
If you expect you’ll be driving to a lot of locations you’re not entirely familiar with while you have your new car, then satellite navigation is definitely a feature worth having. This is something you definitely want to be sure of though because adding sat-nav can be significantly costlier than most other optional kit.
Optional sat-nav could add anywhere between around £500 to £1,000 to your car’s purchase price, which is hard to justify if you anticipate you’ll just be going to familiar destinations day by day.
