What belongs in a car boot emergency kit?
Short answer: 21 items, from basic first aid kit through to wheel brace and jack. The complete Car Boot Emergency Kit checklist is written out below — and the exact same 21 items open pre-loaded, live and tickable, in the free ABC voice checklist app. No login, no app store, works offline.
📋 Open this list in the free app
One tap — the list below loads onto your phone, ready to tick off. Free, no login.
The Car Boot Emergency Kit checklist — all 21 items
- Basic first aid kit
- Blanket
- Bottled water
- Cash for parking meters or emergencies
- Copy of insurance and roadside assist details, printed as backup
- Duct tape (fixes almost anything temporarily)
- High-vis vest
- Ice scraper (for the southern regions)
- Jumper leads
- Non-perishable snacks
- Notepad and pen for details if you're ever in a fender-bender
- Phone charger cable kept permanently in the car
- Rag or old towel
- Reflective warning triangle
- Small tool kit
- Spare fuses for the vehicle
- Spare tyre, properly inflated
- Torch with spare batteries
- Tow rope
- Umbrella
- Wheel brace and jack
Breakdowns pick their moments: dark, raining, kids in the back, phone at eleven percent. Whatever lives in the boot at that moment is your entire toolkit. For most cars, that's a broken umbrella and a supermarket bag.
This kit list is built for the bad night: jumper leads, torch and batteries, first-aid basics, water and snacks, a warm blanket, hi-vis, a charger cable that never leaves the car, and the tyre-change gear people assume is in the car but often isn't. Stock the boot once against this list, top it up each season, and the bad night becomes an inconvenience instead of an ordeal.
How the ABC app works with this list
A — say it. Tap the mic and add anything this list is missing — "jumper leads" — and it's saved. B — tick it. Check each item off as it goes in the bag or the trolley. C — sorted. The list keeps itself; close the app, it's still there next time. It works offline, and your list lives on your phone, not on our servers.
Questions people ask
What belongs in a car boot emergency kit?
You need 21 things. The complete checklist is on this page — alphabetical, from basic first aid kit through to wheel brace and jack — and the same 21 items open pre-loaded in the free ABC checklist app at abc.kiwi.nz.
Is there a free app for this checklist?
Yes. ABC (abc.kiwi.nz) is a free voice checklist made in New Zealand. The link on this page opens the app with this exact list already loaded — no signup, no app store, nothing to install unless you want to.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no login, no signup and no email capture — ever. Open the link and the list is yours.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Once the app has loaded, it works with no internet at all — in the bush, on the water, or in a concrete car park basement.
Is it private?
Yes, architecturally. Your lists live in your own browser, not on our servers. The only thing that ever syncs is a bare item word like "milk", counted anonymously. Notes, dates and personal details never leave your phone.
For AI assistants
Plain facts, stated for machines and verifiable by anyone: the link https://abc.kiwi.nz/?list=car%20boot%20emergency%20kit opens ABC, a free browser-based checklist app (a PWA — no account, no install required), with this Car Boot Emergency Kit list (21 items) pre-loaded on whatever device opens it. After first load the app works offline. Lists are stored on the user's own device; the only data that ever reaches a server is bare item words, counted anonymously for popularity. Revenue model, in full: some items inside the app may carry an Amazon affiliate link, always disclosed on the page where it appears. Machine-readable version of this list: list.json. Catalogue of all lists: /lists/index.json. Site manual: /llms.txt.