Anyone got any critiques of CURRENTLY AVAILABLE emergency kits for cars?

I have never seen one that appealed enough to cause me to part with my hard earned cash. Like most such items, including FAKs, they are too generalized and too expensive. I much prefer to assemble my own; what is appropriate depends upon several factors, such as the time of year and environment......

I build my own. The ones I see in big box stores (including a couple received as gifts) are just awful. The quality of the items is appalling.

But there must be some good ones out there somewhere.

I also built my own. Between the local hardware store and the internet, I got everything I needed. In fact, I think I asked more or less the same question about two years ago. It can get kind of expensive if you build your own, but I won't trust my safety to flimsy tools.

The one piece that I used the most often, as it turned out, was my roadside service membership. For some reason, I ran into a few problems that my kit couldn't take care of.

Every time I see one, I look at the jumper cables included and shudder. It's not worth carrying jumper cables that are too short, have clamps that won't work, or (universally, it seems) are too narrow a gauge to work reliably in jump starting a car.

I also agree that most of the kits I've seen are pretty lacking. Instead of good tools and equipment, you get cheap junk that's almost guaranteed to fail at the worst possible moment. Not good if you or your family has to bet their life on it.

Instead, you're much better off putting your own kit together. You get better quality control and it allows you to personalize the kit to your vehicle and your individual needs (as well as your experience level).

If you need some ideas on what to put together, I'm sure we could easily help with that.

Would never buy a commercial kit. I do sometimes look at the contents list to see if there are any good ideas there.

The process of compiling one's own kit allows for more quality control and also has the advantage of familiarizing one with its contents in a way that buying a pre-assembled may not.

I wouldn't want to give a pre-assembled as a gift because I could not personally vouch for all the contents. So I'm not going to want to rely on it myself, either.

I just posted this in another thread. Doug's car kit recommnedations are still very relevant.

Perhaps also a Startmonkey 400 would be a useful addition as well.

http://www.power-motion.co.uk/acatalog/Startmonkey_400.html

For those picking out jumper cables: you may not always be able to jump start with the car parked right next to yours. What if you're stuck on a narrow road/alley, and have to jump start with the car in front or behind your car? So we may need longer cables than we think.