Text by Robin Liss

If you prefer the highways to the sidewalks and spend too many hours of your life choking on someone else’s exhaust on your way to work, then it’s time to add a little tech to brighten your drive. These gizmos won’t speed up your commute (hold your breath for those hovercrafts), but they’ll certainly make it more entertaining.

Delphi Roady XT | If you’re not ready to plop down 20 Benjamins or more for your stereo, you can go a more economic route with this satellite radio. The Roady can undock from your car and connect to an optional boom box or home audio mount so you can have your XM radio anywhere. The service is $12.95 a month and you won’t get Howard Stern on XM (though whether that’s a good or bad thing, only you can say). ($79.99)

Vizualogic A-2000 | Xzibit won’t have anything on your ride once you’ve got a pair of Vizualogic headrests with LCD monitors in the back. One of the headrests includes a DVD player which feeds a signal to both units. The units are custom installed and the company will match the headrest to your car interior. ($1999)

Pioneer AVIC-Z1 | If you can ignore Pioneer’s creepy corporate slogan “It Knows,” then you’ll find that their Z1 is a pretty cool (if not Big Brother-ish) product. The stereo has a 30 gigabyte hard drive to store GPS maps with voice recognition. With a subscription, you can hook the unit up to XM Radio’s NavTraffic service to give you real-time traffic information, though early reports indicate that the traffic data isn’t all that useful. The stereo can also hook up to your iPod through a custom kit, and it has a DVD player for your passenger. ($2,250)

Blueheat Air Top Heater | New Englanders take heed. The Air Top Heater connects to your car’s gas tank and engine to pre-heat your car in the morning before you go to work. Because it heats up both the engine and the interior of the car, you’ll have defrosted windows – and no ice to scrape from your windshield. It uses far less gas than a remote starter, so feel free to run it for hours on end. However, you’ll need a professional to install it. ($1,600)

Tom Tom To Go | Prices have dropped in recent months on GPS car navigation units. The Tom Tom To Go comes in two models, one for $799 and one for $599. The $599 model features door-to-door GPS navigation with an easy to use 3D map view. The more expensive version adds a hard drive for more maps and the ability to connect to your Bluetooth cell phone to act as a hands-free car kit. The larger hard drive is a plus because you won’t have to connect Tom Tom to your computer to download maps. The GPS unit attaches to your car windshield via suction cup while competing models come with heavy stands to let them rest on your dashboard. But Tom Tom’s suction was no match for my driving “skills,” so it detached from my windshield and came crashing down on me while I was going 70 mph down the freeway. ($599 and $799)

Harmon Kardon Drive + Play | “I’m sorry, Officer, but my iPod shuffled to Bon Jovi and I freaked out and hit this lamppost.” Embarassing? Control your mp3 player in style with the Drive + Play iPod car attachment kit. The kit has an external LCD display to mount to your dashboard which replicates your iPod control menu and an external control knob to shuffle through tracks – technology unique to Harmon Kardon. The kit is designed to work with any in-car radio or in-car tape deck, but the radio transmitter is low power so audio quality might be bad in populated areas, and a professional will have to connect it directly into your stereo through your car’s wiring. All in all, no system gives you better control and information without having to replace your in-car stereo. ($199)