Is it a car or is it a house?

Where would you rather be? Sitting in your car that provides ever-changing views? Or in your studio flat which overlooks an ugly neighbouring building?

Unlike your apartment, your vehicle has no noisy neighbours. Drive and park it in the right places and you will be in a room with a view. And it’s comparatively cheap to heat on chilly days and cool down on hot ones. True, it’s cramped and it’s lacking in basic facilities. But thanks to companies such as Halfords, Maplin, and Motorworld, cars are becoming more and more like homes.

Such outlets consistently demonstrate their highly competitive regular pricing and stream of special offers. Each store tries to be better than the opposition. And that competitive spirit is great news for the car users.

Maplin launched an in-car microwave that provides motorists with up to 600 watts of power to cook with. At £99.99 it’s not cheap, but for drivers normally forced to buy expensive hot meals at motorway service areas, this microwave could pay for itself in weeks.

And if you're a heavy coffee drinker, a £10-£15 Halfords, Motorworld or Maplin kettle that plugs into your 12 volt cigarette lighter socket could pay for itself within a day or two. Make your own coffee from the comfort of your car and you’ll save almost £2,000 a year. And that’s money that could be better spent in in-car goodies. How about a TV, DVD player, dash-mounted audio system with MP3 socket, sat nav, fridge, additional heating/ventilation system, window blinds and even a back-up power plant to ensure that your car battery doesn’t die on you? And still you might have enough left over for an Asus wireless lap top computer that fits in the glove box.

Maplin is the best place to go if you're looking for advice on how you can safely allow your car battery to run these and other serious electrical appliances which need varying degrees of power. Cigarette lighter sockets and the appropriate leads are often adequate for the job. Alternatively, Maplin has a range of portable solar panels that can be fixed to cars to top-up energy supplies. Or is the inverter that accepts normal, domestic three pin plugs the answer for you?

Have you thought of fitting a second power source, similar to those that campers, caravaners and sailors use, to power all those additional on-board appliances? Motorworld and Halfords are the specialists in this area. But lighter and more convenient than a big leisure battery is a moulded plastic portable power pack that has tons of features including a three-pin socket. Such mini ‘power stations’ cost around £100 and can easily be stored in the corner of a car boot. You might even consider buying a small, basic, petrol-powered generator for about the same money. But they can be noisy and of course, they must never be operated inside a vehicle. Honda generators are quieter but very expensive.

It’s now possible to spend a hard day driving, then an evening preparing a hot meal in your car, watching TV, grabbing a chilled drink, taking a warm shower, drawing the blinds, then switching on some soft lighting before retiring for the night on a bed inflated by an on-board air compressor. There are even ‘vehicle loos’ of varying price and effectiveness.

I wonder how long it will be before people who can’t afford houses and the enormous gas, electricity, water and council tax bills that go with them will be setting up home sweet home in their modest but well equipped cars and vans. After all, thanks to the likes of Motorworld, Maplin and Halfords, they can now be kitted-out with many of the essentials, luxuries and power sources we need in our everyday home and office lives.