While many car accessories can help add personality and style to your ride, some can just make you look like an idiot.
From car eyelashes to bullet hole decals, there are a lot of stupid accessories that you might decide to stick to you car. So, to find out the worst offenders, we asked you for some of the dumbest automotive accessories out there.
Here are some of your top responses.
“The front fascia protective ‘bras’. Sure, they protect against rock chips and whatnot, but unless you are really trying to eek out that extra $10 on trade-in for a flawless front end, it’s far too ugly to justify having one installed.”
Is it worth driving round looking like an idiot to prevent a few chips on your front end? I don’t think so. And, while you try and protect your hood from stone chips, your new car bra might end up rubbing the paint off anyway, negating all your careful work.
Suggested by: regnis78
“Truck Nuts. *mic drop*”
By far, the most popular suggestion for the dumbest automotive accessory, and I’m sure everyone can see why. Anyone that straps these to their daily driver clearly has fewer brain cells than their truck has nuts.
Suggested by: @AtlantiCat99 (Twitter)
“Possibly controversial take: ‘In Loving Memory Of’ decals
“Not trying to be insensitive, but I don’t get it. Did you buy the vehicle with settlement money from their wrongful death suit? Was it their vehicle and you inherited it? Did you have them cremated and turned into the rear window glass?”
File these memorial stickers alongside stickman decals, family stickers and any other attempted sentimentality on the rear end of your car.
Suggested by: timbales
“Fuzzy steering wheel covers. I can’t imagine how that affects handling, plus I could see it getting gross really quickly.”
A true classic of the automotive accessory, the fluffy steering wheel cover. A clear indicator that you pride comfort over control, and that you probably say the unicorn is your favorite animal. Often paired with headlamp eyelashes.
Suggested by: mad-anthony
“Those terrible looking stick on chrome fender vents.
“If you’re standing 50 feet away and close one eye they look good.
“Then there’s always those people that put 30 of them all over their car in random places.”
Stupid stick-on vents that try and mimic the classic Maserati gills shown above are about as useful as a teapot I once bought with a sealed up spout. You’d be much better spending your dollars on a chocolate fireguard instead.
Suggested by: Bobby James Toyoda (Facebook)
“Spinners. The spinning rims were a pretty awful accessory and the trend even made its way down to the accessory aisle at Walmart. Lots of the marching band kids at my school ironically put them on their shit boxes and that was actually pretty funny.”
Ah spinners. I’ll admit, the first time I saw spinners on a car it blew my little mind – the car wasn’t moving, yet its wheels were. Magic. After 20 years and a bit of life experience, I now know they aren’t magic, they’re just dumb.
Suggested by: pmb2012
“Using beer machine tap handles instead of shift knobs for your manual transmission shifter.”
A tap handle shifter is the easiest way to spot the people you should avoid in your local bar.
There was also an honorable mention for metal shifters, which become a burn hazard in summer and can leave your hand stuck to your car when the mercury drops below zero.
Suggested by: Hector Betancourt (Facebook)
“OK, hear me out, ‘overlanding’ accessories on a Subaru Outback.
“Take a reasonably competent AWD vehicle with a small engine that gets decent gas mileage for its size, rides really well on roads, on gravel and on freeways.
“Now, (literally and figuratively) jack it up. Add bigger heavier tires and a lift kit that spoil the ride and add weight. Add a big heavy basket rack and lights and a roof tent and a shovel and traction boards to the top, adding even more weight where it will hurt handling the most. Now, add a bull bar to the front with more lights, big heavy skid plates and a full size spare on a complicated and heavy bolt on rack on the back. Add a couple jerry cans and a custom propane tank holder to that and...
“Congratulations! You’ve now ruined everything that was good about your outback and built what is basically a Jeep Cherokee that’s worse in every possible way. Your Outback is now 1,000 pounds heavier, rides worse and the gas mileage has completely tanked. Woohoo overlanding!”
I’m not going to argue with that, are you?
Suggested by: buckfiddious
“Giant metal brush guards on pickups. They are not useful on the road and putting an extra several hundred pounds ahead of the front axle worsens the already terrible weight balance of the vehicle.”
Someone tried to argue that these were great for when you accidentally hit a deer. You ever tried, I dunno, not hitting a deer?
Suggested by: Tom Pike (Facebook)
“Any of those plug-in gizmos that are supposed to increase your fuel mileage but don’t. Like the Fuel Shark – a buttplug-looking gadget that only increases your gullibility and lightens your wallet.”
If anyone that loved their Fuel Shark wants some snake oil, unicorn tears or a blue whale’s molar, let me know.
Suggested by: will-alib