Bras or front end protectors.
Rear window louvers.
Bras or front end protectors.
Rear window louvers.
stan said:Not sure if I'd call it a trend, and surprised no one else mentioned....ashtrays. Front and back, of course...
My wife commented when her mom filled her car ashtray she dumped it out in a grocery store parking lot. That was a common thing you saw all the time - piles of ashes and cigarette butts in the Kmart parking lot.
Ok,I will go there, cd players and cassette players. I have a ton of them and can't play them in any of my newer cars.
I'm back...
I forgot about tail fins, and don't forget the pastel colors of the same era.
I've posted this before, a good example and a twin to my first car.
Going on, dog dish hubcaps on steelies, or the fancier version, chrome reverse and baby moons.
Fuzzy dice. Little plushy dogs that rode on the package shelf behind the back seat. Their heads would bob up and down, precursors to bobble heads, and sometimes they had light up eyes that flashed individually with the turn signals.
Custom horns that played tunes like la Cucaracha and Dixie.
I could go on all night if I had a JC Whitney catalog! Not that I would want to.
APC (American Products Company)
These guys were THE definition of 00's boy racer bolt-on garbage. A bunch of chintzy cosmetic stuff and pot metal CAIs. They stuck around for a while during the NOPI Nationals/Fast & the Furious 1 era. Pretty quickly become synonymous with "crap" in the parlance of those times.
Ironically, for how pervasive they were back then, I could barely find any images of their stuff on google.
Kamei air dams
Pirelli P slot mags
Sisal floor mats
Ansa 'performance' mufflers
Colored, straight, vertical, hideous bug deflectors
Turbo_Rev said:APC (American Products Company)
These guys were THE definition of 00's boy racer bolt-on garbage. A bunch of chintzy cosmetic stuff and pot metal CAIs. They stuck around for a while during the NOPI Nationals/Fast & the Furious 1 era. Pretty quickly become synonymous with "crap" in the parlance of those times.
Ironically, for how pervasive they were back then, I could barely find any images of their stuff on google.
We used to say APC stood for Autozone Parts Counter. You're bang on with the description.
They were replaced with every car accessory sold on Amazon.
Custom vans and my personal fave.... conversion trucks.
Spinner hubcaps.
Can't remember the last time I saw The Club in use anywhere.
Rich Corinthian leather.
Puddy46 said:Can't remember the last time I saw The Club in use anywhere.
Kia's and Hyundai's with key start.
Anti-theft slide-out and removable face head units. Around the time when I got my license, you'd see people in the mall toting their Kenwood like a tiny clutch in one hand while checking their beeper with their other hand.
I still do this with one of my cars depending on where I'm at. Aging my head unit but it's a quality piece.
Huge subs and boxes for sound systems used to be huge, that seems to have contracted. Probably too many got stolen or were too expensive and complex for people to want to keep up with the expense.
As with above. I have a 2001 Toyota Sequoia with a 2001 style aftermarket head unit and a 2001 style sound system with a big sub box, amp, etc. Feels like high school everytime I hop in it and I love it.
Neon chassis lights on cars.
Its migrated to lifted 4x4 wheel wells.
Yea just as imports were a fad in the 90s/00s with the neon and hot rods in the 80s, it's migrated to lifted trucks.
We have purple lights all over our champcar for night racing. One of the big honchos at Champcar who has seen this car dozens of times, finally noticed it and lost his E36 M3. It was comical how much he hated the purple and had a toddler style meltdown, saying he wouldn't pass our car for tech unless we got rid of it LOL.
White-faced gauges.
(I think. I haven't looked at new cars in a bit, so maybe they're still a thing.)
This is what high school parking lots smelled like in the 80s:
Noddaz said:Spinner hubcaps.
That's what I was going to post... and also another example of VW being behind the times, since they still sell "dynamic" center logos.
Noddaz said:Spinner hubcaps.
I remember once when I was a kid I was going into the mall with my parents and there was a blinged-out 1st gen Escalade out front parked in the fire lane just showing off :) The thing had a crazy sound system, Lambo doors (that were open of course), and huge spinners. The guy even had graphics on the side that called out the size of the wheels (22" if I remember correctly).
Indy - Guy said:Dual wiper blades
We sold so much of that crap when I was working in an auto parts store. The wipers, the little wings for them, boots to go on the arms. Almost all in bright neon colors.
John Welsh said:From before my time of actually driving but in those impressionable years before driving, it seemed every "fast car" had Hi-Risers or generally was "Jacked up" in the back giving it a drag racer look.
I remember a lot of lift shackles and red-painted diff covers from when I was a kid.
Truck nutz seem to have pretty much gone away, at least around me. Used to see them all the time.
hamster said:Bras or front end protectors.
Rear window louvers.
Clear films seem to have replaced bras.
I am considering a set of louvers for my mustang, instead of tinting the rear window. Just need to justify the expense of the old school aluminum ones over the over-stylized plastic ones that are a lot cheaper.
ddavidv said:Kamei air dams
Thought this was great. Listen, if you put a spraybomb in my hand, ANYTHING is paintable.
Modified cars in general. Other than lifted trucks, I don't see too many cars that appear or sound obviously modified. I'm guessing that the price of new/used cars have put a damper on that and that many young people who would have been the culprits of those badly modified Toyota/Hondas/Mazdas no longer have an interest in the scene. If they have to choose between having a car, going to college, or getting an apartment, the car is frequently going to go in the back burner.
hamster said:Rear window louvers.
Just yesterday I marveled at something modern with rear window louvers. Maybe they're coming back?
paddygarcia said:hamster said:Rear window louvers.
Just yesterday I marveled at something modern with rear window louvers. Maybe they're coming back?
I think Lamborghini restarted it, you definitely see them on Mustangs.
There are definitely still modified cars. I just got back from Miatas At The Gap, and the modified Miata is still going very strong with the younger demographic.
You'll need to log in to post.
