The Ten Most Worthless Car Mods

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Vinyl wraps and aftermarket wheels are one thing, but these ten car mods take wasting money to a whole ‘nother level.


10.) HID Bulbs In Reflector Lenses

Improperly installed HID headlights are not only dangerous to other road-users, they usually don’t even improve road visibility by a measurable margin. The light beams are scattered, blue or purple and often not even wired properly, which leads to dim headlights. C’mon people, do it right.

Suggested By: The-Guy-They-Warned-You-About, Photo Credit: Brett Levin via Flickr

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9.) Headlight Eyelashes

Don’t put “eyelashes” on your car. Your car is not anthropomorphic. It doesn’t need facial expressions and it doesn’t have eyes.

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Suggested By: As Du Volant, Photo Credit: Volkan_83 via Flickr


8.) Fake Brake Caliper Covers

Brembo brake calipers tend to be great, but if your car doesn’t have them, you probably shouldn’t pretend to have them by gluing on. What’s the point? How much better do you really think it makes your car look?

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Suggested By: clutchshiftington, Photo Credit: MGP Caliper Covers


7.) Smoked Lights

Tinted lights make them less visible, less usable and if nothing else, cheapens and almost always detracts from the overall look of the car. Have fun with the police report and insurance companies when you get rear ended because the other party couldn’t see your brake lights.

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Suggested By: Simcik, Photo Credit: Jeremy via Flickr


6.) Bullet Hole Stickers

Why would you want people to think your car has been shot at? It doesn’t mean the car is more durable or cooler. You just look like a fool.

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Well, unless you have an Aston Martin like that guy in the picture above and you want to display your inner James Bond. Wait, no. It’s still not okay.

Suggested By: Vintage1982Benz, Photo Credit: Supermac1961 via Flickr


5.) Stick-On Vents

I can’t blame stores like Autozone or Pep Boys for selling these stick-on vents, because they know that they’ll sell. But I can blame the tasteless consumers that buy them. Stop ruining your cars!

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Suggested By: carcrasher88, Photo Credit: Challenger Talk via Jalopnik


4.) Intentional Rust

Especially popular among the VW enthusiast community, the new thing all the cool kids are doing nowadays is intentionally rusting body panels on their cars for that perfect vintage look. But if you’re a “smart-consumer” you might consider the resale value friendly option, the rust-wrap (shown above).

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Suggested By: cstealth, Photo Credit: Wheels ON via Flickr


3.) Spinner Hub Caps

What’s worse than normal spinner rims? Spinner hub caps. Maybe since these aren’t actually part of the wheel itself, they can just spin themselves away?

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Suggested By: Diesel, Photo Credit:


2.) Fake Performance Badging

If you don’t want to pony up the extra cash for an actual performance model, why slap the badging on your car? Almost anyone that you might try be “impressing” would be able to notice that your E46 325i sedan isn’t an M3.

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Suggested By: sm70- why not Duesenberg?, Photo Credit: Doug Demuro/Jalopnik


1.) Aftermarket Scissor Doors

Though the popularity of this mod has decreased in recent years, there is still an abundance of cars out there fitted with aftermarket scissor doors. It won’t make your car faster, it won’t make your car cooler and it won’t make your car more stylish. What it will do is lower your chances of quickly escaping your car in the event of an accident, make your car heavier and make your doors more complicated and less reliable.

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Suggested By: SolamenteDave, Photo Credit: LSD via Jalopnik


Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day’s Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It’s by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!

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Top Photo Credit: Rex Gray via Flickr