Best Car Prep for College Student with Emergency Checklist

Here’s the Best Car Prep for College Student with Emergency Checklist we created to help keep our son safe on the road! I can hardly believe it, but soon it will be time for my son to go back to College. 

If you are sending your student off to college for the first time, I think you’ll love the 13 Essentials for Creating a Successful Year in College! Packed with loads of ideas and must haves!

One thing that will be different this year is that he will be taking his car!  It was the saddest thing, last year he worked all summer long to buy a new car…well for the money he had he couldn’t get something super deluxe. 

His heart was so set on getting a car for his independence and being able to drive home from college when he wanted.  We cautioned him to maybe save a little longer and that we would come and get him when he wanted to come home, but no he wanted a car. 

It turned out that the car he got had a few problems and so it actually ended up sitting at our house for his Freshman year rather than going back and forth over the mountain pass.  I can tell, that by the time the end of his first year of college was over, I had wished he HAD his car! 

Round trip it’s about 6 hours and because he has such a great network of friends here at home…you can guess…he wanted to come home A LOT!

My son got right back to work practically the minute he came home from college and earned enough to get it fixed up.  I’m excited to say that this year he will be ready to roll with his car!  YAY! 

Car Safety From the Outside

Lets just say that after sitting for a whole school year…it needed some serious polishing up though…Cleaning the headlights, rear lights and windows was an absolute must for the car to be safe!

So my son polishes, shines and details his car with Armor All® Outlast Trim & Plastic Restorer and Armor All® Outlast Protectant for safety AND to make a good impression, as he should! Boy oh boy did these products make a super difference in the details of his car!

As much as we love that our sons car looks nice, his Father and I are going to make sure that his car is also well equipped for emergencies AND in good running shape for travelling back and forth over the mountain pass!

We created an emergency road travel kit and have a check list for what to do “just in case”.

Car Prep for College Student with Emergency Checklist

We really wanted our son to be prepared for any kind of roadside emergency so these are the tools we added to his kit. Or you can purchase one from a store already assembled.

• Screwdrivers
• Wrench
• Emergency Flashlight
• Reflective Triangles
• Jumper Cables
• First Aid Kit
• Tire Gauge
• Bungie Cord
• Gloves

Then of course there is all of the standard equipment that ALL cars should have:

• Tire Iron
• Spare Tire
• Ice Scraper
• Spare Change ~ just in case!

Now that the car is equipped with tools and instructions on how to use some of them, the last thing that I think is the most important, is  a checklist of WHAT and HOW to handle an emergency situation. 

By the time kids are college age they should have common sense and know how to handle many different kinds of situations BUT it’s totally different when you are out in the middle of nowhere and the car breaks down or you have a flat tire and you’ve never actually changed one.

Below is a printable check list for really any one in a tight spot in the middle of nowhere!

Click on the picture above. It will immediately open in a new window so you can download or print!