Top 3 Silly Automotive Trends.

There are some pretty lame automotive design trends. For 2011, I hope these things die and never reemerge, but I doubt it'll happen because people keep eating this crap up! But that doesn't mean I can't complain about it

So here is my list of "Top 3 Silly Automotive Trends."

3. Gratuitous Vents and Chrome

Fake gratuitous vents are lame. They don't do anything, and so are useless plastic chrome bits. I'm not a design Nazi who believes that there is only one way to build the exterior of a car, but really? Fake vents? Plastic chrome bits?

Ummm.... No.

Electroplating metal with chromium used to be a decorative but practical way to make exterior bits more resistant to corrosion. Now it is for cheap tasteless POS plastic components, probably approved by some idiot who was looking to fix some fundamental stylizing element issue with a budget of only $2 dollars.

2. "Sport" Pedals

"Sport" pedals, a new favorite amongst "Sport" models of passenger cars, are neither sporty, or safe. In other words, they're just stupid. Pedals are important functional components of a car. They should be safe, not stylized.

Besides for dumb car buyers and silly "VTEC just kicked in yo" types, no one else pays any attention to pedals - except for when their foot slips off after getting in the car on a rainy or snowy day. Pedals need to be slip resistant. That means they should be covered with a rubber-like substance, and textured to be as rough as possible. A boring black pedal is cheaper and safer, and the car manufacturer wouldn't have to worry about drivers getting into unintended acceleration events, and finding a hack product liability lawyer to dig the deep pockets.


1. Unnecessarily Large Rims

Nothing screams "I suffer from micropenis, hypogonadism, and gynecomastia" than unnecessarily large rims. Large rims are the automotive equivalent of Viagra®, only ineffective and completely stupid.

Large rims are stupid because they add unnecessary weight, do not necessarily improve grip, and definitely harms performance and fuel economy. It is one thing to increase rim width for added grip on dry conditions or increase rim size to allow for larger disc brakes and calipers, another thing to just make rims increasingly large because of "looks" better.

Lighter rims provide less unsprung weight for the suspension to handle, and therefore engineers can more easily perfect the balance between comfort and performance in any given car. But unfortunately,

My owner has a small penis!

automotive designers, who don't always listen to engineers, are increasingly looking to improve the appearance of new cars by selecting huge rims.

One of the worst offenders is the Infiniti FX50, which has absurd 21 x 9.5 inch rims. Each OEM rim and tire weigh about 74 lbs. That is a lot of weight to get turning and move with the suspension, and really quite stupid.