It’s impossible to walk around the SEMA show and not experience a plethora of emotions. We see cars we love, cars we simply don’t understand, and some cars that make us sick to our stomachs. Which particular trends in vehicle customization do you think need to go away right now? Let us know in comments.
Where to begin. Lately I’ve seen a lot of STI style hood scoops on Civics. Why?? The Top Fuel wings also need to go. Do these idiots not know that if the wing even worked it’s not providing downforce on the DRIVE WHEELS???
Wheels larger than 17″
Any Rear Spoiler
My current automotive pet peeves:
* SUVs
(enough is enough already… can we go back to cars please)
* Jacked-up trucks that never see mud
* Ludicrous wings
* $3+ gasoline
* Infatuation with HP numbers… for the sake of HP numbers.
(Power is important, but only a part of the overall package. Handling should come long before horsepower)
* The shocking lack of Diesel engine options for CAR buyers in the USA.
* Automatic Transmissions.
(I’d rather have a root canal than drive a slushbox)
* The shocking lack of proper driver training in the USA.
* Prius drivers going 4 mph under the limit in the left lane.
(WTF is up with that anyway… do the speedos in those things read fast or something?? I swear I see this *every* day.)
*Diesel fuel more expensive than gasoline.
(I recall when it was half the price of gas!)
* Car Dealers
(I’d rather cut my own head off than deal with another sleazeball car dealer. I can’t wait for amazon.com to sell cars.)
* Tarted up Fords badged as Jaguars.
(XK & XK, yes! X-type and S-type? Sir William is spinning in his grave at 5500 RPM.)
* Saab’s “Born from Jets” baloney advertising.
* The demise of the straight-six engine.
(FWD on one side and V-* marketing on the other… classic squeeze play.)
* Conestoga wheels and rubber-band tires
(Prompted by your image above of course)
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
Spinners. Huge wheels. Donks and the like. Picnic table rear wings. SUVs. Crossovers.
Blind Spot Devices. Can’t we turn our heads anymore? Oddly enough it’s the high end cars that are starting to offer these “aids”. Anyone notice how outragiously huge the side mirrors are on that Lexus “IS” series? Shoot, what a waste of money. Why can’t both side mirrors be Convex? End of story.
Wheels that are completely out of proportion to the vehicle they are on. Some cars look ok with 20’s on them, others don’t. They do not belong on any car produced before about 2005. Now there can be exceptions to this, but a classic muscle car is an absolute no no!
I’m with Raven. Any wheel larger than 17″ is just serving as an extension. And save your breath, you can fit all the brakes you need inside a 17″ wheel.
Fart cans on civics, corollas, sentras, eclipses, etc. Please, just stop. They sound horrible.
Cell phones and Amish wheels!
Mullets and Camaros. I haven’t seen a single mullet luxuriously draped over the hood of a new Camaro. I also see no sign of T-tops specially engineered to suck mullet hair out of the car and over the rear windscreen.
Maybe they’re trade-secreting it. Mullets are one thing the Japanese have never been able to master. We don’t want to loose to them on that one too.
@ Robert W.
A rear wing is not only for downforce on the drive tires. It provides down force while turning the car as well. Granted you must be going fast enough through the corner.
I would like to see the end of the “actual demonstration” commercials for Toyota, Nissan, Ford trucks. I don’t care what Ford says, you can’t stop a C130 if it is going any more than 2mph.
Notice in the Nissan commercial how the frame is attached to a chains that are connected to the train by one link. Obviously the link will break before the frame bends. And who drives their truck upside down with a bike in it!? Idiots!
GM should parody these guys like thy are doing to themselves with the Malibu commercials.
Peace
Large crome rims, rims with the centre spining,body kits that change the profile of the car,large suvs,front wheel drive cars,
large suvs any suvs beside the real ones build for tough terrains. why would i need a car that spend more fuel than a jet and is not even good for a picnic. not good for road not good for shopping….
just look the bmw x3. can’t go off-road it’s not good for the road it’s not spacious it is ridiculously ugly it cost the same money as 5th series and just doesn’t have a logical point to exist.
and now ferrari is planing to build a suv which will be fastest one in the world????????? why, who needs it? it’s like porshe cayenne……..
if you need an off-roader get a range rover. if you need a truck rent it. some people said bigger is better? no no no luxurious is better good performance is better good capacity is better good fuel economy is better good looking car is better. stop building toys that nobody need it.
Car balls! These were mildly amusing when I first saw them but now I just feel bad for the people who put these on their cars, especially the ones with four or more, nobody should have that many balls!
Dido on the poor excuse for drivers Ed in the US.
Hummers that aren’t really Hummers can piss off too!
Seems like most here are missing the point of this post entirely. This is tuner trends, or customization trends you want to see gone, not anything remotely automotive.
My pet peeves are spinners, donks, and wild body kits that are purely for looks with no functionality. That being said, more power to every 20 something, ball cap askew, up to his eyeballs in debt “enthusiast” who just wants to make his ride his own.
All of these are obvious trends that need to die. The trend that everyone is missing is the slap on, maserati quattroporte-esque , three hole stickers which are placed above the front wheels. Also, crossover vehicles.
What about the stick-on Buick style port-holes on anything but a Buick? Actually, I think they are stuipd on Buicks, but yesterday I saw them on a Cavalier. A 1988 Cavalier.
William Patrick got it. Car balls. Those things are ridiculous. Why in the world you want to strap a pair of those to the back of your truck? And why could anyone possibly want to put even more than one pair on? They’re ridiculous.
Anything that says Type R that isn’t.
Think about the idiots with the car “balls”.
1. You had to go into a store to buy a pair of balls.
2. Your balls are made in china of cheap plastic.
3. You had to get down on your knees and cup the balls while attaching them to the pickup truck your wife made you buy, you loser.
- rims, especially the black ones, with shiny ‘lips’.
- too much tint on windows
- rims bigger than 19″
- spinners
- white people, especially soccer moms driving ‘pimp’ed-out Escalades
- cars with rear spoilers that should not have them
- exhausts with a diameter bigger than 3″
Clear/Altezza-style tail lights - To every car brand out there: Can we stop copying Lexus just for a while please?
Chrome rims - Gross.
SUVs - The most stupid vehicle out there.
Another - calling wheels ‘rims.’ Wheels have rims, as do coffee cups and meteor craters, but they are not rims.
Ditto on the balls thing.
I am fed up with farting exhausts and radios that make the cars’ loose parts rattle. I also hate it when people call wheels ‘rims.’ Oh and why do people drive cars laying down?
I agree that driver education needs to be improved in the US.
I saw a pimped out Eldorado from about 1981 yesterday, and it was refreshing. And when I say “pimped out,” it was with big sidewall tires, and chrome wheels that were still in proportion to the rest of the car.
The good news? Well, I recall when every high school chump with a few extra bucks jacked up his Chevy or Ford, put in a cherry bomb, and that was stupid. It’s just the opposite of “slammed and coffee can’d.”
So all the stupid customizing today will eventually change too. Now the bad news. It’ll be replaced by something just as stupid.
Stick on portholes…
This new trend of IS-F fenders…
SUVs, SUTs…
Tricked out Crown Vic’s roll’n on 22″+ (w/”rimblems”), bass thump’n, trunk rattl’n, while baby mamma not receiving child support…
Finally, a chance to vent. LED windshield washer nozzles, aftermarket tail lights, clear corners, 2 19″ rims in front and 2 stock steelies in the back, ridiculous mufflers rotted off their hangers, poorly painted interior pieces. I used to enjoy the aftermarket scene but it occurs to me now that if you are driving a rusted out 1988 accord wagon with 20 inch rims then your priorities are extremely out of whack and I am not impressed.
SUVs driven by soccer moms or by guys with small pee-pees.
SUVs driven by people that actually need the space and 4×4 ability get a pass, everyone else “out of the pool, NOW!”
Oil is heading towards $100 a barrel, today. SUVs need to go bu-bye already…
-Big SUV’s and giant pick ups. MPG and safety threat to others is why they should go.
-Mid size cars with more power than their non- enthusiast owners need and in most cases not enough handling and brakes to go along with it. Better MPG instead of ever more power in the average car seems like a no brainer with gas at $3.00 …
Wheels over 19″.
Heavy - lighter is the way to go. Go ask G. Murray if you don’t believe.
Huge or wide wheels - what happened to balance, turn-in, feel, minimizing rotational weight or just good good sense/taste?
Unique whips - installing car stereos for the stars. Great job, boys.
Stupid Huge HP without the chassis to back it up - looking in your direction, Mercedes, Brabus et al.
Loud thumping whumpa-whumpa music accosting me at the red light - my only revenge is knowing that such low-frequency noise will surely annihilate the morons eardrums over the next few year.
The IRL.
Stupidly tuned cars - its a balance you nitwits.
-A flatulent 3-inch exhaust on a wheezing normally aspirated 1.8l. Brilliant idea.
-$3,500 worth of wheels or stereo on a $1,500 car. makes perfect sense.
-Bolting on a colossal turbocharger and not touching brakes or suspension - splendid. How about “Make it stop, make it turn, and then make it go fast.”
A majority of NASCAR (it should at least be hobbled if not killed).
Drifting as a form of motorsport. Unless you are talking about Gilles Villenueve in some demon of a Ferrari, don’t make me laugh.
I’d have to go with “altezza” tail lights. when the average Mercury Montego is sporting them, you know the trend must be axed.
Pickups with American flags, ribbon magnets, Calvin pissing on a logo, Confederate flags, and “W” stickers that apparently suck the IQ directly out of the drivers head.
Farty coffee can exhausts on cars with auto transmissions. Stoopid!
My single biggest peeve right now is probably the monster rims wearing rubber bands. I live in California… our roads just aren’t that smooth. On the upside, I’m looking forward to seeing some looser with a shattered big-rim pulled over beside the pothole that did him in.
Also, whoever wants gas prices under $3… go screw yourself. I hope that gas prices double if not triple. Given the current trend of the American dollar that seems eminently likely. The environmental benefits around encouraging more fuel efficient cars are obvious. I love the idea of getting the retards into smaller, lighter cars. I’d really rather it was a Focus than an F150 flopping around out of control and trying to kill me on the highway.
Calvin pissing on whatever; rimblems; fart cans; ribbons of any kind; modded diesel trucks that belch out jet black clouds of exhaust when floored. These are few of least favorite things.
1) People who bitch about SUVs just because they can’t imagine that ever needing one. I can’t imagine needing a pacemaker either, but you don’t hear me bitching about it.
2) Any kind of “poser” stickers, including; a) portholes, b)bullet holes, c) performance parts you don’t even own, d) police “affiliation”, and e) any nameplate on a CUV that indicates some kind of ruggedness, truck or off-road heritage.
3) Any accessory that is worth more than the gross value of the vehicle alone, aside from pure show cars.
4) DRLs with poor education on their use — DRLs should not be used after dusk or in rain people!
@Adam W - If people started wearing pacemakers as fashion accessories, which is how the vast majority of SUV owners treat their vehicles, I’d think that was stupid too.
Things to go…
-pimped out, rusted out cars
-huge wheels on suv’s and pickups
-lowered suv’s and trucks
-severly lifted trucks and suv’s (not as bad as it used to be)
-wheel size fake diamond emblems
-spending more on the rims or the stereo than the car
-fart can mufflers
-aluminum bolt on spoilers
-pimp my ride style modifying (i.e. monitors under car, monitors in trunk, fish tanks in car, etc)
-spinners
-wheels that force the owner to jack up his car in order for them to fit (see it a lot on 70’s and 80’s cars…looks ridiculous)
-fake emblems (type-r, GTR, etc)
To all of you saying other stuff that needs to go…
-wings on fwd car are still functional
-wide wheels help with handling
-big wheels with “rubberband” tires helps with mileage, if you keep it realistic…aluminum rims weigh less than the tire itself (also helps with performance for the same reason)
-body kits aren’t terrible, some people like their car to look unique (if they wanna spend a bunch of money to make their car look like that, that’s their choice) what I don’t like with body kits is people that do it to a piece of crap car that’s rusting out, or people that don’t do it right and it looks like the panels are going to fall off.
-with the black wheels with shiny rims…it’s called anodizing, and on some cars it looks nice. I have an 85 fiero gt black with silver stripes and silver factory ground effects, black wheels with silver rims looks good with the car.
Last but not least, customizing is a way of life for a lot of these people. i love messing with my car, and i fI had the money to get into it, I would start designing my own fiberglass panels. I have the software to plan it out, and I have most of the no how, I just don’t fiberglass enough, and don’t have the money for the supplies to get good enuogh.
@Andrew
are you from Texas?
The gas prices right now aren’t hurting these people with tricked out hummers or anything. It’s normally the well indowed people that have them, so all higher gas prices will do is get rid of the trucks and suv’s owned by people that truely need them. It will also raise prices of everything at the stores, because it takes gas for these products to get there. Milk has already sky rocketed. People on the bottom of the income level will now be screwed, because they’ll barely be making enough to pay for the gas to get to work.
Gas prices rising will only hurt our economy, it’ll make that gap between high income and low income families much bigger, and will send all middle class people to lower class.
The only people I know of that think like you either own oil fields or didn’t graduate from high school. So, which are you?
I agree with Dustin. I really did not disagree with much from this thread except for the wayyyy off-base comments from Andrew about wanting to see gas prices double or triple. So you want to hurt uneducated shmucks by driving the working man to the poor house? You go screw YOURself.
Wheels over 18″, big-ass wings, and spinners.
As for the looks of a Vehical , to each his own . I know that in the 60s we had gas wars and 2 dollars in my dodge would last all week at 16 cents a gallon . We didn’t care about gas mileage , those numbers tell enough when you are talking about a 17 year old boy with his new licence . A new Vehical hit the market a few weeks ago and even the Consumers Magazine thought the gas mileage on it was great . The new Nissan Rough
gets 27 mile to the gallon at best and we all know how much we can trust advertised gas mileage . 27 miles to the gallon is great ? on a vehical half the size of my old 50 Dodge with tired Fluid Drive ? When are we going to stand up and stop buying all this crap the auto makers put out there and force them to sell high gas mileage cars and truck that still look good ? I have done nothing myself for the last 10 years but buy new vehicals , 7 to be exact . Last week I decided no more . I drive 75 to 100 thousand miles a year and yesterday I bought my first old truck in 30 years . I will recondition it and make it as fuel efficient as I can and to hell with the manufactures till they get the point ………….if ever .
I concur with Dustin… What I find most annoying trend-wise are, as mentioned but not so stated, people spending money to upgrade their cars without making them presentable and roadworthy first. Having a crummy bass-oriented sound system which makes your rusted car fall apart and exhaust systems that sound like lawnmowers are poor investments, and are ones that would have to be re-done when the car that wasn’t taken care of falls apart.
As for new car trends (I know it’s off topic but I feel it should be mentioned) in terms of design is the sheer lack of visibility manufacturers are allowing in their cars for the driver, i.e. Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger and Magnum, Hummers, etc, the cars with short greenhouses, high beltlines/shoulders, and too-small mirrors, coupled with lazy drivers using their cell phone and not paying attention to D R I V I N G and being safe and courteous.
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