Best First Aid Kit for Cars: Your Essential Guide to Roadside Safety

Finding the best first aid kit for your car might be a bit more challenging than you think. There are dozens of plausible scenarios for having a comprehensive emergency medical kit in your car. 

I’ve compiled a list of the best-rated first aid kits for your car that provide the most comprehensive care for the best value. I’ll show you why they’re the best choice, and I’ll also reveal where they fall short.

Reviews of the Best First Aid Kits for Cars

Best Overall: Elite Tactical Trauma Kit #3 

The Elite Tactical Trauma Kit #3 is the perfect starter kit to build on. It’s by far the most comprehensive of all our options. To start, the bag itself comes equipped with cushioned shoulder straps that make carrying this eleven-pound load an easy task when required. 

The straps are adjustable, providing customizable comfort and support. There’s also plenty of extra room within the bag to add additional items according to your personal needs.

Check Prices on LA Police Gear

This is a multi-person first aid kit (MFAK), so you have plenty of supplies to treat victims of a car wreck or natural disaster.

The reusable equipment, such as the blood pressure cuff and stethoscope, are not the best quality, but it’s a good beginning and helps round out the contents of the bag. It’s always something you can upgrade down the road if you want to.

The Elite Tactical provides all your standard-issue first-aid products, including Band-Aids, ointments, tapes, sterile gauze, trauma dressings, ace bandages, and antiseptic wipes. Plus, it provides a few life-saving items, such as a latex tourniquet, oral airways, and emergency blankets. 

This comprehensive kit offers an ample selection of medical supplies for most emergencies, including advanced first-aid options. It further sets itself apart with a few unique items not typically found in standard first-aid kits:

• Tongue depressors
• Cervical collar 
• Scalpel and blades
• Instant ice packs
• Abdominal pads
• Ammonia inhalants
• Sutures

However, it’s missing two crucial pieces that I always carry in my med kits: Israeli bandages and chest seals. And it definitely needs an upgraded tourniquet. 

Pros:

• Treats multiple people
• Includes rare trauma items
• Space for extra gear
• Padded shoulder straps

Cons: 

• Larger, heavier bag
• More expensive than others
• Missing Israeli bandage and chest seals

---

Best Budget: RHINO RESCUE IFAK Trauma First Aid Kit

The Rhino Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) packs plenty of quality medical gear at a very affordable price, making it our best-rated medical kit for those on a budget. 

The case is extremely well-built with highly durable 1000-denier nylon and features two-way zippers for easy access. It also has a buckled strap to ensure the kit stays closed until you open it. 

The Rhino Rescue is small enough to fit inside a larger bag, or you can use the MOLLE webbing to mount it to another pack if you have to leave your vehicle on foot. It also features two D-rings for a shoulder strap.

Check Prices on Amazon

I really love that this kit comes with a universal adjustable backing that easily attaches to the back of any vehicle headrest, ensuring that it’s always within arm’s reach. Add a seat belt cutter and glass breaker, and everything you need is right at your fingertips.

There’s even a first-aid guide to help you out. 

The Rhino Rescue features a military-grade combat application tourniquet and an Israeli bandage. It comes with basic advanced trauma gear, including an emergency blanket, an open airway device, and compressed gauze for wound packing. 

It offers burn dressings, as well as adhesive, triangular, and elastic bandages. There are not, however, any basic over-the-counter (OTC) medications included. Nor are there any chest seals.

The pack features a tri-fold design and all the items are individually compressed and packaged with airtight seals. Unfortunately, the Rhino Rescue doesn’t have a lot of extra room, so you won’t be able to personalize it too much. However, it should be easy enough to add your minimum requirements.

Although this pack doesn’t contain a lot of everyday first-aid bandages and ointments, it’s much cheaper to add those things to your emergency medical kit than to upgrade a basic first-aid kit with tourniquets and blood-clotting bandages.

Pros: 

• Israeli bandage
• Combat-action tourniquet
• Extremely durable case
• Includes first aid guide
• Budget friendly
• Durable waterproof bag

Cons:

• No chest seals
• No OTC meds
• Limited basic wound care

---

Best for Traveling: Popular Mechanic Auto Medic

The Auto Medic comes complete with a barf bag, seatbelt cutter, light stick, and glass breaker, making it the perfect first-aid kit for your cross-country adventures. The durable bag is rugged and water-resistant. It’s small enough to fit in your glove box or under your seat, and it even has MOLLE attachment capabilities.

This kit provides all your essential first aid for minor scrapes and wounds and is more than capable of handling most non-life-threatening injuries. It’s designed to treat one to two people.

It has all your basic OTC medications for everyday ailments that you’d ordinarily find in your medicine cabinet at home:

• Pain relief
• Antihistamine
• Allergies
• Anaphylaxis
• Cold & flu
• Nausea
• Heartburn
• Upset stomach

It also features some advanced care capabilities for controlling bleeding, mending minor burns, and treating wounds with antibacterial and antiseptic ointments. 

Check Prices on My Medic

It offers triple antibiotic ointment, sting relief, hydrocortisone, oral pain relief, and chamois butter. For advance gear, you get a tourniquet, emergency blanket, and CPR shield. You even get a first-aid and survival book. 

While this isn’t the most complete first-aid kit, it provides all the essentials with a few life-threatening upgrades. The bag is water resistant and each packet is individually sealed, so you won’t ever have to worry about the contents getting wet. 

This is the perfect first-aid kit for road trips, family vacations, and camping trips, especially for those that suffer from car sickness. And the bag leaves plenty of room for upgrades. 

Pros:

• Comprehensive minor first aid
• Affordable
• Contains travel necessities
• Water-resistant

Cons:

• Limited advanced Care 
• No Israeli bandage
• Needs compression bandages

---

Best Individual First Aid Kit: MyFAK

This is the best-rated medical kit for outdoor adventurers to keep in their cars. Whether hiking, backpacking, or kayaking, this is a complete comprehensive kit that’s small enough to carry in your hand, over your shoulder, on the belt, or even attached to your backpack. 

I love the quick grab-and-go velcro backing that lets you mount it to your seat while traveling. Then, just rip and go off on your adventure. 

Check Prices on My Medic

It’s also organized very nicely, with several panels of medical supplies tucked into pockets on each panel. This helps you streamline all your gear just the way you want it. 

The pouches provide generous elasticity for adding and upgrading your supplies. But you also get quite a bit of advanced-care items right out of the gate:

• Tourniquet
• Hemostatic blood clot dressing
• Emergency pressure bandage
• 1 child airway tube
• 1 adult airway tube
• 2 chest seals

You get all the standard first aid for cuts, bruises, scrapes, stings, and itching. There’s a blister pack, an OTC med pack, a small sprain and fracture kit, a burn kit, and a superwash for flushing and irrigating wounds. 

MyFAK also provides glucose gel, a small hydration pack, a light stick, an emergency blanket, and a paracord, making it the ideal kit for all of your outdoor adventure and survival needs. 

A particularly neat feature of the MyFAK is that all your mod packs contain a QR code that you can scan for quick and easy reordering. You also get a free digital download of the Stay Alive Survival Guide. 

While this kit is extremely well-rounded, the portion sizes are rather small. Still, this kit contains all your essential first aid needs and many quality life-saving items, so it’s a good starter kit that requires very few add-ons. 

Pros:

• Tourniquet
• Chest seals
• Hemostatic dressing
• QR scan refills

Cons:

• Expensive
• Small portion sizes
• No Israeli bandage

---

Best Tactical First Aid Kit: EVERLIT Advanced Emergency Trauma Kit

When thinking in terms of survival situations, I like the EVERLIT Advanced Emergency Trauma Kit. Created by military veterans, this kit is ideal for your natural disasters, SHTF scenarios, emergencies, bugging out, or getting home. 

As the name implies, this kit is all about emergency trauma and is specifically designed for severe trauma triage. When thinking of the best first-aid kits for your vehicle, car wrecks are always the first thing that comes to mind, and that’s where this kit shines.

Check Prices on Amazon

Made from 1000-denier reinforced nylon, this kit is sturdy and meant to last. It has a rear MOLLE panel with a tear-away mount for rapid deployment.

It also has a unique trifold layout that lets you display all of its content simultaneously for easy access to all your medical supplies. The removable velcro pockets make for quick extraction in an emergency. 

Rather uncommon, it comes with a military combat tourniquet, an Israeli bandage, and chest seals, so you won’t have to supply or upgrade these lifesaving devices. 

Where most med kits only give you small finger splints, the EVERLIT Advanced kit also provides a whole three feet of splint roll for major mobility injuries. Plus, you get the triangle bandage and elastic wrap, so you have everything you need to secure just about any bone fracture. 

You also get an airway device, thermal blanket, abdominal pad, and burn dressing. You’ll find a variety of bandages, wipes, and gauze for treating minor cuts and abrasions, but you won’t find any OTC medicines or medicinal ointments. 

Pros:

• Superb advanced first aid options
• Super lightweight
• Great value

Cons:

• Missing basic first aid

---

Buyer’s Guide: What Should Your Car First Aid Kit Contain?

Every type of first aid kit should be somewhat personalized to meet the needs of you and your family, as well as your location.

An urban kit is likely to look very different from a rural kit. At the very least, these are the things the CDC recommends you should have in your first aid kit. And here are the things that we at Primal Survivor recommend for a bug out bag first aid kit.

While this is not an exhaustive list, let it serve as a guide to some of the most common items that should be included in first aid car kits. Whether you’re bugging out, vacationing, or adventuring, your car kit should contain items for dealing with these major life-threatening issues:

• Bleeding out
• Airway obstructions
• Mobility injuries
• Burns
• Hypothermia
• Shock

Here are some items you should look for in a comprehensive first aid kit for your car. 

First Aid Tools: 

---

Wound Cleansing and Prep:

• Saline wash
• Antiseptic/alcohol wipes
• Small gauze
• Cotton-tip applicators

---

Bandaging

Read more about the different bandage types.

---

Medicines:

Read more about which medicine to stock up on.

---

Trauma:

For more detailed information see:

• When to apply a tourniquet
• Top rated tourniquets
• Israeli bandage vs tourniquet
• Best trauma kit
• IFAK contents list

---

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for the biggest bang for your buck, the Elite Tactical Trauma Kit has a lot to offer for a reasonable price. Since it’s also made for multiple people, you shouldn’t have to replenish it too soon. 

If you’re on a budget, though, you can get a decent trauma pack with the Rhino Rescue, and supplement your basic first aid out of your home medicine cabinet.

Start with what you’re most likely to need the most during your travels, and then gradually build it into a fully comprehensive first-aid kit for your car.