The easiest beginner friendly mods that you can add to your car in 2024!
What are the best car mods for new drivers in 2024? We take you on a beginner car modding journey to find the best and easiest ones.
Trust me, you’re not alone. Almost every new driver in the world has bought a relatively cheap banger to get them through that first year of no-claims and probably gone “Hmm, I really need to mod this car, but what can I do that’s cheap and easy?” Luckily, that’s where we come in.
Modding can be a tricky business, that’s why we have selected the absolute easiest mods you can do yourself that will make you fall in love with your rust bucket all over again. If you want to learn more about car maintenance, check out our essential car maintenance tips for beginners page. Also, if you’re looking for car accessories, we have a best car accessories for new drivers page.
Best car mods for new drivers – Top picks
Here, we have selected the absolute must-haves for your first car, or just mods you should install if you’re looking to get into modding as a hobby.
Best Car Mods for new drivers – Dash Cams
Alright, you got us, Dash Cams aren’t a modification per se, but this is your reminder to get one, as they make your life a lot easier when it comes to reporting accidents, detering thieves, and other incidents.
That’s why Dash Cams are at the top of the list of the best car mods for new drivers.
The ORSKEY Dash Cam is a fantastic place to start when modding cars. The Dash Cam comes with both a hard-wire kit, and a plug to place into your car’s 12v socket making it versatile. Recording your drives can be imperative to protecting you against any wrongdoing or misdirected blame on the roads. That’s the last thing you need as a new driver.
If you’re interested in a Dash Cam, we have a comparison of the best dash cams for new drivers up, if you need a little help deciding on what the best one is.
Dash Cams make fantastic mods because they don’t require you to permanently modify anything about the car, they are largely plug and play (unless you’re hard-wiring) and stick to your windscreen.
What users say about the ORSKEY Dash Cam
One verified purchaser of the ORSKEY dash cam had this to say: “Easy to set up . Works great. Must have piece of kit”
Best Car mods for new drivers – Wind Deflectors
As you might have guessed, wind deflectors deflect wind, they do this when your windows are down so you don’t get a constant stream of wind in your face – while still enjoying the cooling benefits having the windows cranked gives.
We understand that this is England. It’s 7°C all year round and having your windows down leaves you very liable to be cold and wet. However, there is another reason people like to install them onto their cars.
Wind deflectors can give a car a meaner or more aggressive look, which can often make a car look more heavily modified than it actually is.
Despite looking mean, they are usually made of plastic and are incredibly easy to install. They just fit along the rim of your door and don’t usually require any screws or permanent modification to the structure of the car.
You can’t just get any old Wind deflectors, you will have to find a set that is for the make and model of your car. Luckily, Amazon has a search feature you can use to filter results by make and model of car.
Best Car mods for new drivers – Light Tint
Light tint can really change the overall look of your car. With that being said, it’s important that you check the highway code, and don’t modify your cars lights in such a way that makes them illegal. Headlight tint is easy to install and really inexpensive, but it’s not worth making your car illegal.
Light Tint kits are a fantastic, easy way to tint your front or rear lights for cheap.
This modification, paired with the Wind Deflectors, can make for one mean looking vehicle. As we said above, it’s important that you keep your vehicles lights in compliance with the law.
Before applying the tint to any surface, you must make sure the area is clean and free of contaminants, or the film will not stick. Don’t install light tint over damages, cracked, or cloudy lights.
This is by far one of the easiest mods to install for a new driver – it will make a fantastic pair with the Wind Deflectors.
Best Car mods for new drivers – LED Mood Lighting
LED mood lighting can be the go-to modification to completely overhaul the interior vibe of your car. The installation can be a little more involved than some of the other mods on the list, but it’s well worth the effort.
LED Mood Lighting is an easy mod to install, and it is one that makes one if the biggest differences in overall feel of the car. The interior is where you spend your most time, no matter how many pictures of your car you take.
You can get specific kits for different makes and models of cars, so we won’t talk about any specific kits here. But the LEDs usually come with an IR remote, or smartphone integration via app to control the colours and effects.
There’s usually a ground wire and a live wire you can hook straight up to the battery, or tap a fuse with. Bear in mind when wiring up electrics in your car, if you choose the wrong point to connect your hardware, you could cause a parasitic drain – worth the risk, right?
What customers say about the LED Mood Lighting kit that we chose
A happy verified purchaser had this to say about the LED mood lighting kit: “Knocked sideways on receiving this product – a winner all round. Easy to install – fab variety of colours and settings – love the rheostat on the brightness – excellent level of light on the full brightness setting”
Best Car mods for new drivers – De-badge
Holy heck! Have we really found a car mod that technically doesn’t cost anything!? De badging your car can make it look clean and sleek and give it a little more personality, believe it or not. On top of that, it’s incredibly easy to do. Just watch that paintwork!
De-badging a car can be made much easier with a De-badging kit. No, it’s not a garrotting wire, though it does look like one.
This little ling will softly remove the emblems on your car without damaging the paintwork underneath. If you don’t want to splash on a kit, you can use a bit of dental floss.
Once you have removed the badge, you will have a bunch of sticky gunk left over. This is the old factory adhesive and will wash off with any car cleaning kit. You can also buff and polish the area to get rid of any obvious paint fade areas where the badge protected the paint.
The whole de-badging process should take you no more than 20 minutes and is an easy way to make you car look sleek and stylish.
What customers say about the car De-badging kit that we chose
One verified purchaser on Amazon had this to say: “Was not expecting too much from this but it did the job it was designed to do i did snap the first line quite quickly but cannot say if it was i being too heavy with the product or its why they put 3 in the case (one on 2 spare) would i buy again yea prob the handles are well made the little case ideal for storing till needed again dont buy if you are gonna be doing this a lot”
Will modifying my car increase its value?
It depends on what mods you install to your car, and how well they are fitted. Generally speaking, the mods that bring in the most cash are performance mods, the big ones being engine swaps, intakes, and exhausts, just to name a few. It’s unlikely that strapping an LED kit to a 1.4 Polo is going to make any difference to it’s resale value. Unless you’re selling to someone who really likes LED kits.
It’s not even solely about the mods that are installed, it’s also how well the have been fitted. You can put the most exhaust manifold in thee world on a car, but if it’s fitted poorly and causing issues, all it will do is actually decrease the value of the car.
Upgrading is a little different. Say you have an old car, like an E46 BMW for example, those N46 engines are known for plastic timing chain tensioners that wear out and often cause the timing chain to skip. If you installed new metal tensioners to the car (it’s a lot of work) it will help the car hold value for longer.
Final word
There you have it, those are our top 5 mods for beginner drivers. We tried to pick mods that are easy and inexpensive, so that basically anyone can follow along at home. Whether you’re installing wind deflectors, tinting your lights, or hooking up a dashcam, you’re well on your way to becoming a true car enthusiast.
There’s much more to be said about the world of car modifying, even if you are a beginner, so stick around and explore what you are capable, of with Cars for Beginners.
