You may customize your automobile as you want since it is yours. However, just because you can add an accessory to your car doesn’t mean you should.
Cars are perhaps the most costly item most people possess, excluding a home. Naturally, there are no set costs. After you leave the lot, you have to worry about insurance, bills, petrol, and upkeep.
Many of us like taking the finest possible care of our automobiles because we have that obligation.
That might entail a consistent washing and waxing routine, the use of a certain fuel, or a strict maintenance plan. Or it can include enhancing our vehicles with flourishes.
It’s nothing new, really. Automobile aftermarket is a multi-billion dollar sector of the economy. Additionally, there are others that operate scams because there is money to be made. There is a staggering amount of garbage out there, ranging from décor to gasoline additives. And regrettably, a lot of people are willing to purchase it without hesitation.
Some products are good yet frequently misapplied. Others are worthless waste. And even a little bit can harm your automobile, which will ultimately cost you more money. All three have been sampled.
These 25 automobile accessories are a terrible waste of money.
1. Oversized Spoilers
Only when necessary, spoilers provide an aerodynamic purpose by “spoiling” air currents that cause drag and turbulence. They only add weight to the automobile when they are entirely decorative. Additionally, when they get enormous for no apparent purpose, they become little more than unsightly police magnets that can actually harm performance and aerodynamics.
2. Fake Performance Badges
Those who believe they can posture their way into a high-performance vehicle by just placing a sticker on an ordinary make are among the saddest types of drivers. It’s possible to spot an AMG logo on an obvious entry-level Mercedes or a sticker intended to fool people into believing a plain BMW is a fictitious M3 hatchback.
Though it’s difficult to guess who exactly badge posers intend to mislead, don’t be a fool by joining their ranks.
3. CDs in the Rearview Mirror
Some car accessories might be both free and useless at the same time. It’s a persistent myth that placing a CD or DVD in your rearview mirror would somehow interfere with and deflect police radar, rendering your vehicle invisible to officers using radar guns. No, it won’t. It’s a long-debunked urban myth, and since law enforcement is aware of it, you’ll probably stand out even more if you mention it.
4. Anything in the Rearview Mirror
It may be illegal to hang anything in your rearview mirror in some areas since dangling items can impair your eyesight, even if you aren’t trying to purposefully thwart authorities with an evident and ineffectual disc.
Innocent objects like air fresheners, super-cute fuzzy dice, rosary beads, and even handicapped placards—which you should take off whenever you aren’t parked—fall under this category.
5. Cupholder Swivel Trays
If you want to eat fast food while driving, you can spend $15 on a cheap device that converts your console cup holder into a swivel tray, but you shouldn’t. First off, it’s probably not a good idea to travel at 65 mph while holding an elevated, swiveling mini-dining spread 8 inches from your face.
On websites like Amazon, many of the leading brands also receive negative ratings for being shoddy built, ill-fitting, and wobbling. The likelihood that you will ultimately lose your burger and fries after a quick turn or an abrupt halt is about 100% if you use it frequently enough.
6. Imitation Chrome Spinning Rims
Spinning rims with real chrome are not for everyone. Even though you would never want them on your own car, they are unquestionably fantastic despite being noisy and showy.
However, plastic knockoff imitations are never amazing, are always ugly, and seldom spin properly. Even though they are far less expensive than actual spinners, which can potentially cost hundreds of dollars per wheel, they are not still worth the money. Nothing is better in this situation.
7. Steering Wheel Work Tray
There will never be a time when working in the front seat of a car is optimal. That won’t alter whether you spend $20 or more on a tray that mounts to the steering wheel. It’s difficult to envision this single-use piece of plastic doing anything other than adding to automobile clutter for the most of its life given the numerous and various places you may stop to lean over a laptop.
8. Performance Chips
Prosecutors issued a warning against the popular $69 GForce Performance Chip as early as 2015, claiming it was a deceptive gimmick. So-called performance chips continue to make the same claims that they would increase fuel efficiency, lower emissions, and even give automobiles more horsepower nearly five years later. Although they have been known to activate check engine lights and void warranties, they are unlikely to perform any of those things.
9. Fuel Line Magnets
One of the numerous gadgets that promises to improve fuel efficiency, lengthen a car’s miles per gallon, and save drivers money by utilizing science to modify gasoline molecules in some way—in this example, by producing a magnetic field—is the fuel line magnet.
Fuel line magnets have been used since the 1980s, however despite manufacturers’ exaggerated promises, several investigations have revealed that the devices have no effect on fuel economy.
10. Fuel Ionizers
Another category of allegedly fuel-saving items that have been exposed as a scam is fuel ionizers. They’re touted as producing a “ionic field” that does sciencey things to gas on a molecular level to help it burn more fully by adding one to the fuel line between the injector and the fuel pump.
In actuality, whether ionization occurs or not, current fuel injection systems spray a very thin mist of fuel into the combustion chamber, with almost none of it being lost.
11. Vanity Shift Knobs
You can decorate your shift knob with just about anything, including a smashed PBR can or a piece of “Jurassic Park” mosquito amber, ranging in price from the traditional $20 eight-ball to a $85″ hand grenade. But in reality, unless you’re dealing with a carefully preserved old automobile, vanity shift knobs rarely offer character. The majority of these knobs are outdated and childish, which might prevent appropriate shifting.
12. Intake Vortex Devices
Intake vortex devices rely on drivers’ ignorance of how modern engines function, like so many other fuel-efficiency items that make bogus claims.
The claim that automobiles can benefit from accessories like intake vortex devices, which work to change how much air enters the combustion chamber, ignores the reality that modern vehicles already depend on sophisticated computers to continually modify airflow to meet fuel intake and vice versa.
13. Hydrogen Generators
The premise behind this kind of fuel-efficiency gimmickry is that hydrogen is a more potent fuel than gasoline. Even if there is some validity to such notion, it is just not applicable to automobiles.
According to hydrogen generators, hydrogen is produced by isolating oxygen from the water supply of your automobile and diverting it to your fuel supply. The type of electrolysis equipment utilized for this has the drawback of only producing minute quantities of hydrogen. They use your alternator, which they put under a great deal of stress, to drain power from your car’s electrical system in order to do this.
14. Fuel Vapor Injectors
The idea of fuel vapor injectors doesn’t hold water with individuals who understand how engines operate, much like the other ‘fuel-enhancing’ gadgets. The most you can expect for with this fuel-vaporizing device is performance that is similar to what you would have gotten from letting your factory-installed fuel-injection system handle the heavy lifting.
The worst case scenario for a fuel vapor injector is that it will cause your engine to run “rich,” with too much fuel and insufficient air. When it comes to so-called fuel enhancers, consider this: If manufacturers could install these components at the factory and still achieve significant fuel savings, why wouldn’t they do so?
15. Racing Engine Simulators
Any arcade in America will let you to indulge your desire of operating a race vehicle for a few quarters. That’s a lot better result than spending $40 on a sound simulator, many of which are poorly built and end up serving as nothing more than a diversion.
Adding sound to ultra-quiet electric engines can improve safety. However, it is unnecessary to drive a Camry that has been modified with a device that emits the recorded sound of a Shelby engine. Additionally, it consumes a lot of energy and, like bogus performance badges, is really depressing.
16. Antenna Toppers
The use of conventional automobile antennae is fading away. But as long as there are still any, vehicle knick-knack producers will continue to produce and market items you can set on top of them.
Antenna toppers come in various sizes and styles, frequently for less than $10, and range in design from macho-looking bullets to smileys that resemble emojis. But that does not imply that you must purchase one. None of these improve performance in your automobile, but they could harm your antenna and deteriorate radio reception.
17. Anti-Static Straps
Anyone who has ever experienced a shock after opening their car door is aware of how uncomfortable and unsettling it can be when static electricity is released. However, putting rubber straps with conductive elements incorporated in them that hang from the undercarriage and make touch with the ground almost surely won’t be able to stop it.
The majority of what anti-static straps give is a foreign item dragging on the road every time you drive, despite their claim to eliminate static electricity by grounding the car.
18. Car Bras
Car bras are designed to protect the front end of a car from dents, scratches, and flying insects while also giving it a sleek, aggressive appearance. Regardless of how you feel about their aesthetics (they’re ugly), they’re just not useful. They gather moisture, filth, dust, and debris, all of which can be abrasive to the paint’s surface that is protected behind this pointless, unattractive addition.
19. Lambo Doors
If the vehicle is a genuine Lamborghini, vertically opening Lambo doors are among the greatest features a vehicle may possess. However, you are over-accessorizing if you spend $2,000 on a wing-door conversion kit to add vertical doors to your Honda Civic.
Additionally, you’re probably making your automobile less safe in case of an accident by squandering money that might have been used as a down payment for a better vehicle.
20. Neon Underglow
Your car’s underside has neon lights that give it the appearance of floating on a bed of softly colored light, giving it a spaceship-like appearance. Additionally, they provide authorities in many parts of the nation a pretext to stop you and write you a ticket.
State and local governments have different underglow rules, but regardless of where you are, there is probably some variation of these lights that is prohibited. The purpose of neon underglow is to draw attention. It frequently does, but the attention is the wrong sort.
21. Wheel Lights
Neon wheel lights are intended to draw attention, much like underglow. The eyes they’re most likely to notice belong to police officers, just like underglow. Neon wheel light regulations vary greatly from state to state, making it virtually hard to be in compliance wherever you go. Wheel lights are prohibited in several locations in any form.
22. Hood Ornaments
Hood decorations were formerly widespread and elegant, but today they are out of date, unnecessary, and mercifully rare. Hood decorations date back to the time when unsightly radiator caps protruded through the hood.
A major contribution to hiding an eyesore was made by traditional ornaments like the Jaguar the manufacturer fitted or vanity ornaments like skulls or eagles. On the sleek hoods of current automobiles, though, they appear out of place and gaudy.
23. Whistle Tips
Metal fittings that are welded into your exhaust pipe called whistle tips. They unnecessarily increase the noise level of an otherwise typical automobile by driving the exhaust into a narrow passageway.
Soon after they started to appear in the early 2000s, California prohibited them (appropriately), and other states soon followed. They attract traffic stops even if they are permitted where you reside, and you risk receiving a penalty for breaking a municipal noise regulation.
24. Rain-Sensing Windshield Wipers
The majority of rain-sensing wipers aren’t quite up to the task just yet, despite the fact that they seem like a decent idea and are certain to improve significantly over the next few years.
Even in the absence of rain, their sensors may activate the wipers. Additionally, they may accelerate or decelerate more than the driver would want, and they may cause complacent drivers to forget to turn on their headlights when the wipers come on.
25. Fake Hood Scoops
Even if it’s a bold statement, phony hood scoops may be sadder and less genuine than false performance badges and engine sound emulators. For engines that are turbocharged or supercharged, hood scoops provide additional air intake. It never looks nice when you bolt or attach a fake scoop to your hood for no other reason than that it looks cool.