Best car-themed Christmas gifts for under £50 2025
Stuck for Christmas ideas for the motoring enthusiast in your life? Here are 20 great options for under £50
Looking for a gift for the car lover in your life, or just want some ideas for your own Christmas list? We’ve been scouring the world for perfect petrolhead presents. Some are practical and useful, while others are a bit sillier and designed to raise a smile or start a conversation at the dinner table.
For this list we’ve set ourselves a budget of £50, but some of the gift ideas cost less than a tenner, making them perfect for a Secret Santa or stocking filler. Here are our top 20 gifts for under £50.
Autobahn Tape
- Price: around £16.95
- Contact: fredaldous.co.uk
If your kids (or you) are getting model cars for Christmas, they will need somewhere to play with them. This Autobahn Tape allows them to create new roads pretty much anywhere, and the 20-metre roll of easy removable crepe sticky tape is printed to look like a highway, complete with white lines and zebra crossings.
It means you could build an entire network of imaginary roads on the living room carpet, or perhaps your office desk if you’re a big kid. Perfect for road testing the Christmas Hot Wheels. The Autobahn Tape kit also comes with some pop-out cardboard cars, traffic lights and cones to complete the fun.
Auto Express subscription
- Price: From £30
- Contact: subscribe.autoexpress.co.uk
What could be better for a car fan than a subscription to Auto Express? If you’re lucky, they might even let you have a read once they’ve finished catching up on all the latest news, opinions, and the best car and product tests in the business.
Prices start from just £30 for a quarterly print and digital subscription, giving them the best of both worlds by allowing them to enjoy access to Auto Express on a phone, tablet or laptop, as well as getting their favourite motoring magazine delivered to their door every week.
Basecamp Isuzu bowl
- Price: around £47.95
- Contact: isuzu.co.uk/accessories
With dog ownership at an all-time high, you might need to figure a pet into your gift planning. One idea might be a new bowl to eat their leftovers from, and Isuzu dealers are now stocking the Ruffwear range of products.
The Basecamp Bowl has an easy- to-grab shape, anti-slip silicone ring and a durable stainless-steel liner. If you use it as a water bowl when on the move, a clever anti-splash ring keeps the liquid inside while you’re driving, but still allows the dog easy access to a drink.
Car mat coasters
- Price: around £18
- Contact: iconiccoasters.co.uk
Here’s a gift for drivers who like to keep their desk as clean as their car. These drinks coasters look just like tiny floor mats, with a red border and a tyre-like tread pattern. They measure 11cm x 9cm and are made of washable soft PVC so it’s easy to clean up drips from your morning cuppa. They come as a set of four, so there will be enough to impress your car-loving mates when they pop in for a brew.
Classic Cars
- Price: around £30
- Contact: collins.co.uk
You could encourage a lifetime love of cars by buying a budding enthusiast a book like this to help develop their passion and build their knowledge. Nigel Boothman’s Classic Cars is a directory of 100 popular and famous machines, providing a wealth of interesting facts in an easily digestible and engaging format.
It provides just the right amount of information, along with some great photos. That makes it just the right side of challenging for a school-aged reader, but it isn’t so simplistic that an adult can’t enjoy it as well, making it great for festive family discussions.
Groov-e My Tag
- Price: around £17.99
- Contact: groov-e.co.uk
We all know someone who is constantly misplacing their car keys and who would benefit from a tracker tag to help reduce their stress levels.
The Groov-e My Tag offers Bluetooth-based tracking, which works with Apple devices at a price that makes it more affordable than Apple’s own AirTags. It’s certified for use with Apple’s ‘Find My’ functions, so millions of devices around the world can help users locate the tag. It’s also rated as IP67 waterproof, which means it should survive if you accidentally drop your keys in a puddle.
Hunter and Walker Fragrance Halo Car Perfume
- Price: around £14.50
- Contact: hunterandwalker.co.uk
If you’re feeling romantic, how about getting your car some perfume for Christmas? The Hunter and Walker Fragrance Halo is a cut above most air fresheners, resembling an item of jewellery rather than a cardboard tree, and finished with Czech crystals and metal details.
The black ‘ring of pearls’ gently emits a perfume-like scent over eight weeks, with four fragrances on offer: Blackberry & Bay, Lemon Spa, Pear & Freesia or Rhubarb & Mint. You can add a posh gift box for £2.50.
John Lewis Kids’ Race Car Duvet Cover & Pillowcase Set
- Price: around £26
- Contact: johnlewis.com
Need a present for a car-mad kid? John Lewis offers this reversible duvet and pillowcase set. One side features monster trucks, big wheels, tyre tracks and flags. If they become bored of that, the other side is a black and white check. An alternative set has cars, trucks, buses and planes. It’s all printed on 100 per cent cotton and to a standard single duvet size of 200cm x 135cm.
Land Rover 1000 piece jigsaw
- Price: around £15
- Contact: meandmycar.co.uk
Most classic car fans will have a soft spot for the original Land Rover Defender and its ancestors, so this jigsaw should keep them busy over the Christmas break. It features images of 24 of the company’s utility models, ranging from the very first Series I to a last-of-the-line Defender. The 1,000 pieces mean it is tricky to complete, but won’t be too taxing for anyone who likes looking at small details of Land Rovers. Once you’ve finished, it can either be framed or broken up for another rainy day.
Mattel Brick Shop Maserati MC20
- Price: around £21.99
- Contact: shopping.mattel.com
This 1:32-scale Maserati MC20 kit is bound to keep adults and older kids busy over the festive break. The Mattel Brick Shop model needs assembling, and there are 250 pieces including a custom decal sheet and two sets of wheel covers so you can personalise your model. There’s also a metal signature plaque, plus a matching 1:64-scale Hot Wheels car if you can’t wait to get playing. The larger model features opening butterfly doors and a visible engine, too.
Michelin Bibendum Tyre Pressure Gauge
- Price: around £9.99
- Contact: halfords.com
This is the perfect stocking filler, making it quick and easy for the recipient to check their tyre pressures. The Michelin Tyre Pressure Gauge looks like a little statuette of the famous Monsieur Bibendum figure and it’s small enough to fit neatly in your pocket or glovebox. It makes for an attractive keyring, too.
But it’s also an accurate instrument that covers a range from 5 to 99 PSI with a claimed precision of +/- 1 PSI on an LCD digital display. It comes with a battery-saving feature shutting off after 10 seconds of inactivity.
Motorsport Aroma Candle Tin
- Price: around £18
- Contact: meandmycar.co.uk
Here’s a present that makes scents! World Motorsport Scented candles are packaged in a metal tin that resembles a tyre, but luckily they don’t smell of rubber.
There are four fragrances. Memory from Monza has an Italian citrus fragrance and features a picture of an F1 car. Rally Legend has a Lancia Delta Integrale and “woody Finnish notes”, Monaco Race Day smells of musk and vanilla, and Essence of Motorsport mixes cedar with amber and berries.
Playforever Luft Hopper
- Price: £39.70
- Contact: playforever.co.uk
The Playforever range of toy cars are safe for kids over 12 months, but we think there are plenty of adults who will love their friendly, comic-like looks. They are top quality too, made from ABS plastic with child-friendly, soft-roll rubber wheels and body shells finished with a high-gloss, UV-proof clear coat. They claim to be built to last a lifetime. There are plenty of cars to choose from, but we want the Luft Hopper, based on a seventies Porsche 911 Targa.
Porsche Crest Espresso Duo
- Price: around £49
- Contact: shop.porsche.com
You might think it would be impossible to buy anything from a Porsche dealer for less than our budget limit, but there are actually a few items in the company’s gift catalogue under £50.
We reckon the Porsche Crest Espresso Duo set would make a nice gift. The two porcelain cups’ and saucers’ shape is inspired by engine pistons. They feature the Porsche crest and a thin gold ring. You also won’t need to do much wrapping because they come in their own gift packaging.
Save The Manuals Socks
- Price: around £12
- Contact: heeltread.com
Much to the horror of enthusiastic drivers, the manual gearbox is a dying breed. But you can show your appreciation for three pedals and a stick shift with these socks. They are our favourites from a massive selection of car-themed footwear from Heel Tread, paying tribute to the most distinctive manual transmission shift-pattern maps ever. They include the Ferrari F50, Ford Bronco, Porsche 911 GT3, VW Golf GTI, Honda Type R, Lamborghini Countach, Audi R8, Toyota GR Yaris, Citroen 2CV, Porsche 959 and VW Bus.
Scalextric Christmas Jumper
- Price: around £28
- Contact: uk.scalextric.com
While a full-size Scalextric set might be out of our price range, here is something to help fans of slot cars get into the groove over the festive period – and one that’s sure to be a talking point at your office Christmas jumper days.
The Scalextric Christmas jumper is knitted in the UK and uses the company’s signature blue and yellow, woven with the iconic Scalextric logo and sprinkled with pictures of track, controllers and festive snowflakes. It’s available in sizes from small to XL.
Streetwize Car Key Faraday Box
- Price: around £20
- Contact: argos.co.uk
We are all concerned with the rise in car crime these days and know that a Faraday signal-blocking pouch can stop thefts by preventing thieves from intercepting radio signals given out by your car keys.
This box, from Streetwize, is a more elegant and convenient way to prevent keyless vehicle theft. It’s smart enough to leave on your hall table and will take the whole family’s keys. It blocks all signals including SMS, WiFi, 2G, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, and RFID.
T-lab Roadtrip Paris T-Shirt
- Price: around £34
- Contact: t-lab.co.uk
Any fan of French cars will love the idea of driving a classic Citroen DS in Paris, and this t-shirt from T-lab certainly caught our eye. The bright orange graphic is designed to resemble an Airfix-type model kit and suggests a build-your-own-road trip approach to the charms of the French capital – including the silhouette of the famous DS21.
If you don’t fancy a French option, there are plenty of other car and motorsport-themed shirts in T-lab’s online shop, all of which are printed in the UK on premium-quality, light organic cotton.
Tolman beanie hat
- Price: around £25
- Contact: tolmanengineering.co.uk
Here’s something that will mark you out as a connoisseur of motorsport. Only true enthusiasts have heard of Tolman, the engineering company behind the Tolman Edition Peugeot 205 GTi restomod. Now, it’s also selling a range of merchandise featuring its logo. The Heritage Beanie will keep you warm while tweaking your 205 or watching a rally – choose from Graphite Grey with a white logo or French Navy with red.
Volkswagen GTI baby romper suit
- Price: around £40
- Contact: volkswagen.co.uk
Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Volkswagen Golf GTI, which seems like a great opportunity to start getting the next generation of drivers enthusiastic about the seminal German hot hatch, with this 100-per cent cotton GTI-branded baby romper suit.
It is designed in classic GTI red and features a large, white logo on the front, plus the grid coordinates of the VW factory. There’s a subtler badge on the back and pop fasteners to make getting dressed and changing nappies easier. It’s available from any Volkswagen retailer.
Did you know you can sell your car through Auto Express? We’ll help you get a great price and find a great deal on a new car, too.
