7 low-cost tech upgrades that make an old car seem new

Don't buy a new car. Just get some cool new gear.

A car.
(Image credit: Screenshot/Pearl Auto)

One minute you are going along, blissfully unaware of the cool equipment your fellow drivers have in their new cars. Then you catch a ride, and it becomes clear that their car does some very cool things. It brakes on its own. It has cameras that show the driver what's behind them. It has radar. It's connected to the internet. It communicates. It can practically drive on its own. What happened? Your car isn't old. In-car technology has changed a lot in just a few years.

"That's it," you say. "Time for a new car!" And then comes the inevitable sticker shock. All that slick new technology is expensive. And the pace of change hasn't slowed: Next year, there will be something new to envy.

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Christina Wood

Christina Wood has been a working writer for over a decade. She has covered technology, education, parenting, travel, and many other subjects for Family Circle, Better Homes and Gardens, Popular Science, CIO, This Old House Magazine Yahoo!, PC World, PC Magazine, USA Weekend, and many properties that are no longer in print. Her novel, Vice Report, is available on Amazon.