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Honest, practical verdicts on the strange-looking fixes that earn a place in your garage, car or home. We say plainly whether we have used a thing or only researched it.
A researched review of the NOCO Boost Plus GB40: where its reputation is justified, where sizing matters, and when a larger jump starter is wiser.
Fix 8 · Ugly 5
One is tethered to the car and always works. One is free of the car and depends on a battery you have to remember. The choice is about failure modes.
One is a charger, one is a maintainer, and the right answer depends entirely on how many batteries you own and what condition they are in.
What actually belongs in the trunk of an older car, ordered by how likely each failure is — and the kit items that are mostly theatre.
Antoni Daskalski · Updated 18 July 2026 · 5 min read
Things that look wrong and work anyway. Every one of them earns its shelf space, or it is not here.
Five ugly little tools that solve dropped, hidden and badly lit problems before a ten-minute garage job turns into an hour.
Five small car products that look like clutter until they prevent bags, paperwork, rubbish and sun-baked trim becoming daily annoyances.
A battery terminal cleaning brush is ugly, tiny and easy to ignore. Here is when it helps, when it does not, and how not to overstate it.
A Bluetooth 12 V battery monitor can show voltage trends, but it cannot diagnose every drain. Here is the useful version of the idea.
A car trash can only works if it stays upright, contains leaks and is easy enough to empty that people actually use it.
Detailing brushes and cleaning gel are odd little interior tools for vents, seams and switchgear, with limits around delicate trim.
In the workshop right now
1976 Mercedes-Benz 450SL (R107) · Updated 1 July 2026
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