Road safety is paramount any time you are behind the wheel. It’s especially important during those lengthy stretches on family road trips. Either way, one of the more cumbersome parts of navigating a vehicle is avoiding direct sunlight to the eyes. If you can’t adequately see what’s in front of you, the sun becomes a major safety issue. The ADDVISOR Shade and ADDVISOR Plus intend to fix that problem.
The ADDVISOR Shade and ADDVISOR Plus: A Closer Look
These Smartadditions products act as additional visors for your car, allowing you to swing the built-in to the side for more coverage. We got our hands on the ADDVISOR Plus, which includes a polarized visor for enhanced UVA and UVB protection without sunglasses.
Smartadditions “focuses on bringing luxury features to every driver” and every vehicle. The ADDVISOR Plus also offers two-direction sun protection. Unlike clip-on visor extenders that can block access, the ADDVISOR doesn’t interfere with existing attachments like garage openers or mirrors, and it advertises “virtually infinite positions.”
The ADDVISOR Shade alone could surely prove useful for those vehicles that aren’t already equipped with two visors. Though, for everything it claims to do, the Addvisor Plus feels a bit limited.
The ADDVISOR’s versatility is a recurring theme on the product page. That said, it only blocks the sun when it’s right in front of you, and its “infinite positions” only go so far. The site shares that “shorter drivers enjoy better glare protection with flexible positioning.” Still, these drivers may still have issues when it comes to the level of sunlight the built-in visor blocks from the side. Without adequately blocking sunlight from the side, there isn’t much use for the additional visor beyond the polarized attachment.
Speaking of which, the polarized attachment is included with the ADDVISOR Plus is a valiant effort. While it’s easy to see the intent here, it doesn’t feel all that practical given more common, and arguably more effective, alternatives. For one, it presents a similar problem as the standard visor attachment: limited coverage. It’s actually smaller than the ADDVISOR Shade it attaches to. Like most drivers already do, simply throwing on a pair of sunglasses just seems like the best choice over what the polarized attachment gives you.
Our Verdict
The ADDVISOR Plus fulfills its main purpose: equipping a single-visor vehicle with a second one with more sun coverage. Ultimately, the height and the position of the sun and your car will limit the amount of coverage the Addvisor Plus provides. The polarized visor addition is logical but not incredibly helpful in practice. Some travelers may find it useful to have on hand, but its features don’t quite live up to the $69.95 price.
Editor’s Note
We shared this review with the Smartadditions team and received outreach from Co-Founder Greg Tucker, who disagreed with some of the conclusion included in the Road Trips for Families review.
He shared, “The main value of The ADDVISOR is providing two independent visors for simultaneous front and side sun protection, eliminating the distraction of repeatedly moving the car visor as road direction changes. Our primary customers are daily commuters, prescription glasses wearers, and (more relevant to your audience) parents driving children to after-school activities who benefit from having one less driving distraction and clearer views in busy drop-off/pick-up areas.”
