Is Etsy The New Gearhead Go-To For Custom Car Accessories?

The handmade jewelry site is a haven for custom car parts.

Jordan Golson | 

Sep 29, 2022 | 2 min read

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Etsy is perhaps best known for its homemade and vintage fashion accessories — there are more than 300,000 search results for “Personalized Wall Sign,” for example — but there is an increasingly impressive selection of 3D-printed and customized car accessories as well.

The advent of cheap 3D printing has created a veritable smorgasbord of creative new hardware to customize your car or just solve a simple problem like what to do with your trash. Ford even offers some accessories for the Maverick that you can 3D print at home.

Trash Bins, Hooks, and Storage

Garbage disposal is an age-old problem. Whether it’s seemingly endless fast-food straw wrappers or a Diet Coke can, you need a place to dump your stuff. Many of the Etsy solutions are designed to hang from the front seat headrests, for example, but there are countless others that clip to the map pockets on the doors or even repurpose your cupholders.

There are endless simple-but-useful items like 3D-printed hooks available, like these ones that hang from the seat headrest and advertise an impressive 44-lb carrying capacity, or these tiny ones that clip to your vents and are popular for holding facemasks.

There are more specific items like this chicken nugget-sauce holder, and a cable holder to help keep phone cords out of said sauce.

Decorations and Personalization

Less useful but no less fun are the countless decorative items like these miniature Starbucks drinks that clip to the vents, and light-up cupholder coasters with car brand logos on them.

The branding does seem to be a Wild West of likely unlicensed merchandise, so be sure to doublecheck anything claiming to be from a brand to make sure it’s not a knock-off.

Still, there’s plenty here to personalize your car to your liking. These colored strips of PVC plastic are designed to slide into the gaps between elements of your car’s interior, like around the stereo or the air conditioning vents, and these silly vinyl decals are great for spicing up your button blanks.

Trim Pieces and Repairs

Customizing the interior of your car is important, but the exterior sometimes says even more. There are lots of Etsy items specific to certain models, like these stainless steel exterior trim pieces for a 2007-2014 Cadillac Escalade.

There are aftermarket additions like fake air intakes for your hood or bumper-mount taillights for below the tailgate of your pickup truck.

If you’re just looking to replace a broken part, you might be able to find that too. Here’s a replacement trim molding for the headlight washer assembly on a Mk7 Volkswagen Golf, and front bumper turn signals for a 2001 Volkswagen Passat.

Jordan Golson

Jordan Golson is a transportation reporter covering cars, trains, planes, future cities, mobility and more — basically, if it moves and doesn’t go to space, he's on it. He is especially interested in the intersection of transportation and technology, and that means he goes deep into electric cars, autonomous vehicle tech, sensors, safety, connectivity, and similar topics.