Top motoring Xmas presents for 2010

Keep the petrolhead in your house happy with this guide to some of the best festive automotive presents:

PRACTICAL

Cleaners

Dogs may be man's best friend but they can't half make a mess of our cars.

The Canine Collection at £19.99 (autoglym.com) contains all a dog-loving car owner needs to clean away doggy drool and eliminate pooch pongs.

The kit includes a specially-designed brush for removing stubborn pet hair.

Autoglym has a range of cleaning products on offer. The Caravan & Motorhome Kit at £26.99 is targeted at those who want to enjoy touring holidays with their mobile abode looking its best.

Meanwhile, the £44.99 Cosmetics for Cars kit is a pink pack specially designed for ladies, and including a fragrant car perfume.

Survival kit

Meanwhile the AA has put together a Winter Car Kit (£24.99) which includes a compact foldable snow shovel, an adult high visibility vest, an emergency foil blanket and a dynamo torch.

These are likely to sell well this year for obvious reasons.

BOOKS / CALENDARS

Roads With A View: David Corfield. £19.99.

If the icy weather ever loosens its grip on the country we can again start thinking about going out for a drive at weekends.

And those in search of some of England's finest countryside can take a few tips from David Corfield's Roads With A View.

Some of the best routes are remote from the West Midlands but the author does rate drives which are closer to home in the Peak District in Staffordshire, the Cotswolds near Stow-on-the-Wold and the Malverns.

The book features some outstanding photographs and tips for places to eat and drink are included.

The Road to Muckle Flugga: Phil Llewellin £9.99

Phil Llewellin was one of the country's finest motoring writers but remained true to his Shropshire roots till his death of a heart attack in 2005.

This collection of 'great drives in five continents' showcases his readable style and lively wit was reprinted in paperback form earlier this year, featuring a foreword by Jeremy Clarkson

Haynes Manuals

Haynes is renowned for its 'dry' technical manuals but has developed a twinkle in its eye of late. You can get manuals for all sorts of modes of transport these days, whether real or imaginary.

Sci-fi fans may like the USS Enterprise guide (£25), which is full of technical drawings and 'facts'.

In a similar vein but aimed at a younger audience is the Haynes manual for popular character Roary the Racing Car (£9.98).

And for young and old alike there's the official Formula 1 season review (£25) which charts the dramatic 2010 championship from start to finish.

Colin McRae Vision 2011 Calendar: £12.50

Colin McRae was one of the most exciting rally drivers these shores have ever produced until his untimely death in a helicopter accident in 2007.

The Scot was Britain's first world rally champion and earned an MBE for services to motorsport.

Now a charitable foundation, Colin McRae Vision, has been established by his family to use his name to raise funds for education and health project for children both at home and abroad.

Colin's widow Alison has chosen a series of personal pictures of her husband to form a 2011 calendar.

The calendar was produced locally by West Midlands-based Writtle Photographic and is available for £12.50 from colinmcrae.com.

GADGETS

Satellite Navigation

Sat nav devices continue to top Christmas wish lists and each year become ever more sophisticated.

With built-in car systems costing anything up to £2,000 (excluding annual update fees) the portable devices still represent a more cost-effective solution to navigation.

Do your homework and work out exactly what you want from a sat nav and what you can afford.

Tom Tom is the market leader, with a far more complicated product range than before. Its products work well and now come with larger screens too, but watch out for monthly fees for updating data.

Garmin, meanwhile, offers the 1200 series of devices that are small, slim, and simple to use. They cost from around £85 and have bluetooth wireless technology for handsfree calls, pre-loaded maps of the UK and Ireland, and useful speed camera alerts.

The optional cityXplorer turns them into a sat nav for ramblers. Alternatively, those lucky enough to have an iPhone can buy a more than adequate sat nav 'app', such as Co-Pilot Live UK and Ireland, for around £20.

It's available through Apple's UK store.

TREATS

Supercar stuff:

You can get all sorts of supercar merchandise these days, ranging from Ferrari skis, for a cool £2,000, to Lamborghini Christmas candles (£50 for two) and baubles (£63 for three).

If you've got the money, Dutch firm Spyker has issued range of limited edition watches (or 'chronographs' in supercar speak) to mark its participation in Le Mans race events.

These start at around £6,000 and go all the way to nearly £20,000 – but are very desirable.

Bargain hunters, meanwhile, can check out some cool tops in the 'endof-line' section on the Aston Martin website. There are some great black Tshirts sporting the words 'Power, Beauty and Soul' for just £13.

Night-time off-road expedition:

How about an off-road adventure in the shadow of the Malverns. . . in the dark?

The Land Rover Experience Centre at Eastnor offers evening off-road expeditions through its 5,000-acre site in Discovery 4s bearing full Hella light sets.

Trips last around six hours, include a break for dinner, and cost £225.

Supercar club:

Unless you have the funds to go out and buy your other half a six-figure supercar, the best way to get them behind the wheel is through a supercar club.

Ecurie25 might have the answer with its Ultimate Supercar Test Drive package (£4,750) that offers ten weekdays in five of the best – a Lamborghini LP560-4 Spyder, Ferrari F458 and F430 Spyder, a Mercedes SLS AMG and an Audi R8 Coupe.