Accessories I have known and loathed
While waiting - seemingly interminably - for an electrically powered front seat to move forward sufficiently to allow legroom for a tall rear passenger, I realised that some people pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for them.
And this is despite them being slower than a simple slider mechanism, and the fact that the electric motors, cables and rails often prevent rear passengers from taking a few extra centimetres of space by sliding their feet under the seat.
Then there's the weight. Two electric seats add about 50kg to a car with all their mechanical bits. They're a lose, lose, lose item as far as I'm concerned.
Like spoilers. You'd need to be doing far more than our legal open-road speed limit to gain any beneficial effect from add-on aerodynamics in terms of meaningful downforce or what is sometimes known as "negative lift".
So it would seem to me that a car with such a "sporting" kit attached to it - assuming you'd take the skirts and valances to go with the biplane that appears to have crashed into your bootlid - adding 40kg or more to its weight - would actually be slower than a car without such appendages.
And that's without taking into consideration that kerbs, potholes and manhole covers could smash them to bits without too much trouble.
Nah, spoilers are naff, expensive, heavy and useless.
In order, I'd rate the following as my personal worst accessories, or devices I could do without:
1. Power seats - slower, heavier and less convenient than standard items.
2. Spoilers, skirts and valances - stupid to look at, heavier and probably slower than doing without.
3. Wire wheel covers - wobbly, naff and don't fool anyone.
4. Dealer stripes - you know, the brush-stroke type that they think "improves" a car on the yard.
5. Stupidly low-profile wheels and tyres - can give you a nice harsh ride and bouncy responses on bumpy corners just so your car looks "good". Sometimes the car-maker does know better than you do. These are even more pathetic when on an SUV.
Have you any pet hates?
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i know they have their place, like when youre driving on your own and need to wind down the passenger window but i actually prefer good ol wind-ups, quicker and less chance theyll cost you a fortune when they break down...
i think the whole electric-everything just went way overboard ... the early jap imports come to mind
Hearing you on the power seats. My father recently purchased a Jaguar with this feature. When he turns off the ignition, the power seat automatically moves back to let him get out of the car but traps the legs of the back seat passenger! The car has automatic positions for the driver's seat, mirrors and steering wheel in a memory, so if you are a new driver you have to programme in all this info before you can leave the driveway.
HSV kits on V6 commodores lol, it just screams "i dream of a v8" and they look stupid
Pet hate: People being unnecessarily negative just because they can and have a soap box from which to do so.
Every time I see those "bullet hole" stickers plastered on a car I cringe. What are you trying to say? "I live dangerously, so I like being shot at while I'm driving"? Come on guys, I'm sure if someone actually shot at your car you would crap your pants.
Dealers often put the stripe decals on cars to cover up scratches and blemishes.
As for worst accessories, you can pass the additional guages on the dashboards of cars.
Sure in your top of the line performance or racing car, an oil pressure gauge and rev counter is important, but in your clapped out 1985 Nissan Sunny... not so much.
Those stupid little blinky orange lights they put on the corners of all cars and now on the wing mirrors too. No idea what they are for, but sometimes I put them on by mistake when I go to flash my head lights at a fellow speeder.
"phusssh" turbo's......
#5 - Most performance cars will come with so called "stupidly low profile" wheels. In this case I do believe that the maker does know best wouldnt you say?
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I'm with you on the spoilers. The ones that are factory fitted and low enough to look like they may be of some sort of aerodynamic benefit are fine, but the higher ones are just stupid. They look like a handle on the back of your car to push it along with.