Gift ideas for car lovers as another McHenry Christmas approaches

You’re trying to think of a great gift to get mom or dad as another McHenry Christmas approaches, but what to buy them? It’s never easy. They seem to have everything they need. A tie for dad or a box of candy for mom just won’t do.

The place to start is considering their passions. If, like many in McHenry, they are car lovers, this may open an entire vista of possibilities. The same is true if, for instance, they are equestrians. If the latter, there are an abundance of possible gifts for horse lovers. But this is an automotive blog so we’ll focus on gifts for car lovers.

What is their favorite car – the car they once owned or the one they dreamed of owning?

Let’s suppose that mom always wanted a 1990 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Convertible. It would be great if you could buy a pristine used 1990 Benz of her dreams. But that may not be in your price range. You could easily spend $12,000 on a car in reasonable condition. But there is another option.

You can get a colored print of the car and have it framed. You could buy color print of an ad for the car from a 1989 or 1990 magazine and have that framed. You can even buy a model kit of the car. A 1990 Mercedes Benz 500 SL Convertible 1:18-scale model was available from Revell models on ebay at the time of this writing.

Of course, if mom or dad were into muscle cars, the possibilities expand dramatically. Pictures and models of their favorite hotrods are all over the place. You can also get shirts and hats prints of that favorite muscle car. In fact, you could find a photo and have it printed on a shirt or hat.

Places, such as Hobby Lobby, have an abundance of decorations they can put on the wall. Some are good for the garage. Others are classy enough you can put them on the wall of the garage or on the wall in the house. You can even find neon wall clocks celebrating different automobiles.

On the other hand, maybe they already have a car of their dreams. A shirt or hat with an image of their car may be just the thing. You could even use a photo of them with their car and have it printed on a shirt. Then again, you may want to consider accessories.

The number of accessories for automobiles is almost unlimited. We’ll just run by a few options here:

Personalized floormats or with the car logo
A reflective/thermal windshield cover to keep the heat out while the car is parked
A personalized keychain
A dash- or window-mounted cellphone holder
A backup camera kit
A radar detector (if mom or dad have a lead foot)
A car vacuum that plugs into the cigarette lighter
A tool to breakout of the car window if they end up in a river or lake
A really good flashlight

Well, these are just a few ideas for you to consider. As Christmas in McHenry approaches, it’s good to have options when you start shopping.

Comments

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

Sap, Sun and Droppings conspire to attack your Richmond car’s finish

Who doesn't love summer time in Richmond? But this is also the time of year when sap, sun and droppings attack your car's finish. It’s a beautiful summer day in Richmond, IL, so you take the car to Richmond Carwash and give it a thorough cleaning. Or maybe you go for an entire detailing. On the other hand, you grab a bucket, sponge, brush and appropriate cleaners, drag the hose out to the driveway and wash the car yourself. Before you know it, the car is clean and shiny, almost like the day when it was new, right? But what does Murphy’s Law say about washing your car? Inevitably, if you wash your car, you can count on rain. It almost seems like, as soon as you give the car a good bath, the rain clouds start plotting and changing course to head straight for your Richmond home or wherever else you park your car. Let’s imagine that Murphy takes a pass when it comes to applying the Law of clean-car-precipitation onto your vehicle. You have the car washed but it doesn’t rain. You’ve...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog