How to Use Your Car Cigarette Lighter: Fun, Ridiculous and Useful Aftermarket 12-volt Accessories

With this handy oven, you can easily cook anything from pizza to nachos; if you are lucky enough to go to a drive-in movie theatre, you can serve your whole car. And who doesn't love to snack during a traffic jam? For a more upscale crowd, stuffed mushrooms or rumaki might be more to their tastes. I would not advise you to try to make a soufflé if the road is bumpy, however. Nobody likes fallen soufflés.

Forget the cheeseburgers and french fries. Instead, make healthy paninis, gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, croque-monsieur or croque-madame, even eggs or French toast with this non-stick sandwich maker. Just wipe it out with a napkin when you're finished. Perfect for those mornings when you are in a rush. And didn't your mother always tell you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?

Whether your favorite beverage is hot or cold, a long trip in the car with nothing to drink is no fun. You know what else is no fun? Hot sodas or cold coffee, throwing out flat soda, or spending two dollars for a fountain drink. Now, you can keep everything either ice-cold or piping hot, just the way you like it. (And yes, believe it or not, hot Dr. Pepper used to be a thing. Just maybe not a recommended thing.)

Keep the air in your car fresh. Other cars on the road emit gasoline and diesel fumes, which contain many toxins, which we breathe, and which can cause damage to our bodies. (As an additional bonus, this device is also very good for getting rid of the popcorn smell from the twelve-volt popcorn popper, or the bacon smell from the frying pan (that is, if you mind breathing in the intoxicating smell of bacon)!)

Forget the hassle of making an appointment, those expensive subscriptions you never have time for, or the hundred dollars per hour just to relax. Now you can de-stress and never have to leave the comfort and convenience of your car. Ideal for those days when the children are screaming for hours on end. (Don't do this while driving—you don't want to get so relaxed that you fall asleep!) Combine with solar panel, below, and you'll never run out of juice!

If you're going to be stuck on the side of the road, you might as well enjoy yourself. Never miss your favorite television show again, simply because you are stuck at the side of the road. (Note: you will need an antenna, the old rabbit-ears kind or the newer replacements for them. There are also the older analog television models but for those you would also need a converter box.)

I'll admit there are some things you just can't do in your car (yet), and binge-watching Netflix is, unfortunately, one of them. However, all is not lost. When there's absolutely nothing to watch on TV, pull out one of your favorite DVDs. Those comedies will certainly keep your blood pressure down when gridlock happens, because laughter really is the best medicine! (And here you thought you weren't going to enjoy traffic jams!)

Can't find your aspirin when you're about to have a major headache from the gridlock? Stash a few in this clever lookalike safe that will fool everyone, and keep other occupants of the car from raiding your stash of aspirin!

Those hot, humid summer days can really mess up your hairstyle that looked so perfect before you left the house. Fortunately, this tiny and amazing little flatiron is perfect for fixing those cowlicks, bangs, frizzies, or whatever else is going wrong with your hair today. Rave reviews on Amazon show that something the size of a highlighter can really do the job and not take up so much space in your car!

Whether you spent the day at the beach, on the lake, or at the pool, or you just didn't have time to completely dry your hair before you left the house, you can finish your blow dry style in the parking lot before you leave your car, so you will always look your best. As a bonus, this handy dryer is powerful enough to defrost the most stubborn ice on your windshield so you don't have to freeze while trying to remove the ice with a hand scraper!

Whether you use this curling iron to give yourself a "flip" style, smooth your bangs, or for curling the ribbons on your Christmas packages, this device will give you just the right tool to accomplish your goal of perfect hair (or perfect Christmas packaging). Now you can always be picture perfect!

Rather than relying on battery-operated electric shavers that never seem to have enough power, by using a 12-volt adaptor you can run your regular Norelco shaver or trimmer over your untidy hairs and always look perfectly groomed. You never know who you will meet!

If you are in your car, your recreational vehicle, or your boat, and need to do some quick circuit testing, this little accessory will do it just fine up to 28 volts! If you make a wiring repair or are trying to find a wiring fault in your vehicle, this will help you find it. This is a very useful precursor to the soldering iron.

Far more useful than you might think, a soldering iron is necessary for those crucial repairs to wiring or plumbing. If you live or vacation in the middle of nowhere, or in a RV, you'll use this handy tool very often for simple wiring repairs (up to 16 gauge). If the wiring in your vehicle breaks, which does happen, this might just get you out of a very sticky situation with your dignity intact!

Every party needs music, and this system is the perfect hookup for music anywhere your vehicle is. This ingenious device can be heard for quite a ways (which is why you should have the decibel checker), and with a little ingenuity, it can be transformed into a mobile karaoke system. Now, wouldn't a karaoke contest really liven up those staid camping trips?

What's a party without mood lighting? Whether you are decorating your car, boat, or RV for Christmas, a block party, or something a tad more intimate, these LED lights will certainly set the mood, and they come in a variety of colors. In addition, their energy efficiency means the tiny bit of power that these LED lights draw leave much more juice for you to run all your other 12-volt accessories!

Stash an inflatable air mattress and sheets in your trunk, and you can be ready when the mood strikes you! Face it, nobody looks attractive blowing up a full, queen, or king air mattress, or when they are contorted from trying to fit into a car back seat. Now you won't have to visit the chiropractor or massage therapist; sleep on a bed, and avoid wrenched backs!

If you live where snow or ice storms are frequent, or on the coast where you might get a hurricane in the fall, this heated blanket could turn out to be a real lifesaver, especially when combined with the solar panel below. Your car's heater will run only so long as you have gas, but as long as you have a charge in the battery, this blanket will keep you from freezing.

It can be dangerous out there if you are vulnerable. If your low tire indicator comes on at night, don't risk your safety by trying to find a gas station with air, especially if you find you don't have the correct change. Simply pull into any safe place, such as a police station or other safe area, inflate your tire in a flash, and you are good to go! The tire inflator is also good when the temperature drops, since air pressure in your tires is dependent to some degree on the air temperature. If you are diligent about checking your pressure, the savings in gas mileage could pay for your investment in a very short time.

I often have my tires rotated at a place where they use air-powered tools to tighten the lug nuts. If you are not really strong, you may have a lot of trouble removing the lug nuts by hand afterwards, which is what usually happens on the side of the road! So, if your tire goes flat and can't be reinflated, you can easily remove the lug nuts yourself with this impact wrench, and have your spare on safely in just minutes.

If you have a flat tire, or you need to jack up your vehicle to get it out of a ditch, mud, ice, or snow, this jack will do the work for you. This 12-volt accessesory really is essential if you have a disability that may prevent you from using the jack that comes with your car. Follow the directions and use this safely, as this is most definitely not a toy!

This is the item that started me on my search for aftermarket 12-volt auto accessories! I like to keep my car neat, and this handy vacuum cleaner not only maintains the value of my car (and neatly cleans up all the mess from the popcorn popper), but keeps me from being embarrassed when I need to give someone a ride. And if someone spills water, the fact that it's a wet-dry vacuum means that I can quickly clean up any spills.

If you really don't spend a whole lot of time in your car, boat, or recreational vehicle, but you want to have the option to occasionally run an AC-powered appliance from your vehicle battery (my parents use theirs during their fairly frequent power outages to heat up food and drinks), this converter will run a normal AC-powered appliance. We use this for tailgating, because we tailgate only a few times a year, and it's not worth having and storing separate appliances.

Have a 12-volt aftermarket vehicle accessory that you just are not able to live without? Now you can take that indispensable gadget with you wherever you go (in my case, it is that nifty heated blanket and heated massage cushion)! Perfect if you break up a road trip with a night in some budget motel and you absolutely must have that coffee maker and super loud alarm clock to get you up in time to make your checkout.