Don’t Waste Your Money on These 9 Unreliable Car Products
Many people spend a large amount of time driving, and while the main function of a vehicle is to facilitate transporting people from place to place, this public activity is one where consumers can flaunt their individuality while traveling among the masses.
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The car accessory market makes up a significant part of the overall automotive industry. There are accessories that boost a vehicle’s performance, fuel efficiency, safety and security, but there exists a huge market for purely cosmetic auto add-ons that add no value to a car. Not only are many impractical, but they’re cheap and chintzy too.
Here are nine examples of unnecessary and unreliable car products that are never worth your money.
1. Headlight Eyelashes
Drivers routinely assign personalities to their cars. In fact, some people buy cars that have front “faces” that look like themselves, according to a decade-old study by psychologists at the University of Vienna.
Then there are the few that affix cheap plastic headlight eyelashes to their cars, which are quirky and harmless (possibly inconvenient and damaging if they come loose a lot) but for some reason, loathed. According to a survey by UK used car supermarket, CarShop, 72% of respondents said that headlight eyelashes were their most hated car accessory, followed by fluffy dice and noisy exhausts.
2. Wide Body Kits
Wide body kits have been a popular choice for years for gearheads wanting to enhance the performance and appearance of their car. Considering that whole body kits can cost $10,000 or more, and single component kits like front bumpers and rear panels can cost $500 to $1,000, these are pricey and needless auto mods that do little for performance and appeal to few people outside of show-offs.
3. Fake Hood Vents and Scoops
Popular and cheap, stick-on vents and scoops won’t make you popular but will make you look cheap. As Cheapism notes, real hood scoops improve airflow through the vents and increase the efficiency of heat and air conditioning systems, but bolt-on or stick-on vents and scoops serve no purpose and won’t fool anyone.
4. Car Bras
Bear in mind that we still talking about cars here. Trying to upscale your front end by fitting it with a bra will probably result in the opposite of what you intend. Placed on cars in the name of protection, bras allegedly preserve car nose paint from scratches, high-speed bugs and chips from road objects.
However. they are an expensive and unnecessary accessory that tend to collect dust, dirt and water underneath, and can actually damage section of paint you’re trying to guard. Additionally, as Wealth of Geeks mentions, “Once the cover becomes loose, it will flap against the car and ironically, cause damage and chips to the paint.”
5. Unnecessary Lights
Changing your break lights to strobes, installing underglow lighting, adorning lights to wheels…all are eye-catching but potentially confusing and illegal depending on where you live. They can be cheap or costly — self-install kits that can be bought at Walmart or you can spend hundreds or thousands to get modified lights installed — and attract the wrong kind of attention.
6. Rim Spinners
There’s no denying cool look of bona fide chrome car spinners whirling long after a car has come to a stop. Quality, well-built spinners are eye-catching accessories that can add a touch of style to any ride, but are most frequently found on large SUVs or heavily tuned-up cars.
Plastic spinners, on the other hand, are almost always trashy looking and unreliable, breaking easily and spinning randomly. You’d be better off going for laughs and gluing dollar-store fidget spinners to the centre of your rims — they’d be less expensive and just as reliable.
7. Scissor Doors
If you have a car that can support the weight and design or scissor doors (or vertical, Lambo or suicide doors, as they are also called), you’ll be able to raise your car’s doors — and possibly your social status — vertically to imitate the dramatic design of Lamborghini vehicles. They aren’t unreliable, but they can cost a fortune, can impede access and egress (especially in an emergency rollover) and can be utterly useless when parking in certain indoor parking lots.
8. Turbo Whistles
Aftermarket turbochargers, which increase power and fuel efficiency, are a luxury preferred by people with extra cash to spend. While singles can cost between $500 and $2,000 and twins between $1,500 and $4,000, many drivers buy the cool whistle sound, which is about as useful as drilling holes in your muffler to make it sound “mean.” Screw-on turbo whistles are only about $10-$20 but many sound fake, not authentic.
9. Hitch Safes
Car or truck hitches or hitch lockboxes are valuable, making them attractive to thieves. Having a secret place to hide your valuables while out fishing, hiking, boating or camping is a good idea. But placing your money, credit cars and keys in a safe outside your vehicle makes little sense, especially when you can put these personal valuables in a locked glove compartment inside a locked vehicle. Or you can put them in your pockets. Like all exterior car parts, hitches are susceptible to dirt and mud and road salt, and combo and key locks can corrode or seize.
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