10 Best Steering Wheel Toys For Toddlers: 2024 Picks

The bright and cheerful VTech Turn and Learn steering wheel toy has three modes of play for a trio of similar yet unique learning experiences.

When your child presses the horn in driving mode, they will hear such phrases as “green light, let’s go,” “yellow light, slow down,” and “red light, stop.” This is not only fun but teaches colors and gives a basic understanding of the concept that green means go ahead and red means stop.

Your little one can push and pull the gear shifter, flick the indicator lever up and down, adjust the side mirror, and slide the smiling puppy friend back and forth across the dash. There’s plenty to do and much to learn, all packaged into a budget-friendly steering wheel toy.

This toy from Best Learning offers several unique features and fun interactive options.

Along with functioning as a steering wheel, the Best Learning Steering Wheel spins like a top on a hard surface, which causes much giggling in our home. Along with the standard color and shape learning opportunities, this steering wheel teaches about emotions such as surprise and joy.

If the wheel is inactive for more than a minute, it shuts off to save the battery. For child-song-weary parents, you can have the steering wheel toy play the tunes without the vocals, and there’s a volume control switch that makes us really happy!

A realistic steering wheel for curious little tots, the Melissa & Doug Vroom & Zoom steering wheel has all the functionalities needed to stimulate the hand-eye coordination and provide overall mental stimuli for your learning toddler, all while enjoying this pretend-play toy. This steering wheel is mounted in a wooden dashboard with light buttons, sound effects, and movable components, including a scrolling GPS that would make the ride of a would-be drivers explorative.

As early as kids, they will already know the parts of a vehicle such as gear shift, horn, radio, adjustable A/C vents, signal, hazard, and headlight indicators to name a few; truly, there’s enough to keep babies amused, making it a worthwhile purchase.

My youngest son adores Paw Patrol and is a fan of Chase in particular, so although it’s more of a handlebar toy than a steering wheel toy, this one was a shoo-in.

Fearless Paw Patrol leader Ryder encourages your child to try the steering toy in ATV, hovercraft, and snowmobile modes. In addition to Ryder’s voice calling the pups to action, there are over 200 phrases, melodies, and sounds.

These include instructions such as “honk the horn five times.” The number of potential sounds, songs, and phrases means you do not have to repeatedly listen to the same five comments. It also has volume control, making it adult-friendly while still fun for kids.

With its classic John Deer green coloring, this is the best steering wheel toy for kids who enjoy farms and farm vehicles. Rather than making standard engine noises, you’ll hear the dulcet tones of a deep rumbling tractor engine.

The chunky key makes a satisfying clicking sound when turned, as do both levers. Press the buttons, and you get tunes to drive along to. And the indicators light up and flash for a more authentic driver experience.

The Color Tree ride-on steering wheel toy converts from a floor-based, toddler-focused toy to a taller, sit-on toy for older children. Both forms have the same functions. The only difference is that your toddler can sit and play on the floor, and your older child can sit on the stool to play.

The steering wheel is mounted on a dashboard with a faux display screen. Choose from three scenes, and as your child turns the wheel, the car on the screen moves in the same direction. The display is low-tech, with a repetitive scrolling image, but it’s ideal for kids and has the benefit of not feeling like a screen-based electronic toy.

In seated mode, there’s a lower section with a brake and accelerator for an authentic driving experience.

The KiddoLab My Little Driver steering wheel toy is designed for babies under a year old. The bright fabric around the outer wheel comprises three different fabric designs for lots of colorful visual stimulation. Also, it is soft and easy for a baby to grasp.

The plastic center has two “blinker” lights, a cute frog mirror, and a pair of dials to ensure you don’t run out of gas or break the speed limit. Your child cannot remove the key, so there are no worries about it becoming a choking hazard, and it makes a satisfying clicking sound when turned.

The Playgro steering wheel toy is like a small plastic dashboard that can be attached to your stroller’s front bar.

The toy has a basic wheel-in-a-dashboard setup. It includes a horn in the center that squeaks when you press it; a simple key, gear shift, and blinker set-up; and a spinning ball with little beads inside it.

Left and right arrows flash when you play one of the two tunes, and a wiggly bar across the top holds a pair of teething rings. We found the rings impractical as your baby has to lean forward across the dashboard at an odd angle to gnaw on them.

We loved the concept of this interactive “satnav” steering wheel toy from CASDON. With its interactive GPS-style display, kids learn to recognize left from right as they react to spoken instructions such as “turn left.”

Your child can choose a destination from four options, and the navigator voice combined with light-up arrows will direct them to the location. The arrows on the screen react to the direction the wheel is turned, blinking if the child makes a wrong turn. The voice praises them if they choose correctly.

This fun steering wheel toy includes buttons to start/stop, slow down, speed up, or beep the horn with a variety of fun sounds.

Because of the tall stand on the product, it can only be comfortably used when sitting on the ground, so your child will need to use it in the vehicle or while seated in a chair at home. It doesn’t fasten to anything, so it needs to be supported by your child’s legs in order to stay in place. This positioning may be difficult for younger children to manage.

The Facaily Portable Steering Wheel is a fun toy for toddlers that includes suction cups, so it’s possible to attach the toy to a tabletop, highchair, or stroller tray. With a speedometer display and 11 buttons for music and sounds including ambulance, police car, and firetruck, it is entertaining enough for most toddlers.

However, although this steering wheel toy is marketed as a good option for use in a car seat, it only partially fulfills this role.

This is because there’s only a vague pair of hooks on the rear of the steering wheel, so you have to source a strap or have a back-of-seat storage fixture already in place for this to work. Then when you have the steering wheel in place, a child securely restrained in a car seat has no chance of reaching the wheel.

Also, the toy is labeled as appropriate for kids 3 years+, which is a reflection of the safety of the toy rather than the cognitive development stage. The functions of the toy are something a younger toddler would enjoy more.