Unpopular Opinions- Cars in General

  • Thread starter Turbo
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LEDs on cars look tacky and cheap.

To a certain extent I'd agree, but only when they've been retro-fitted to older cars that never came with LED's. Then it most certainly does look tacky and cheap, as it just looks out of place as the car never came with them. One example I can think of was when I saw a Mk4 Golf that had been retro-fitted with LED's and it really didn't work.

Although on current "modern" cars I have no issue, they look perfectly fine, guess it's because they've been built into the design so they work, that and the fact they're virtually everywhere so it's become the "norm". I think Audi are the best at this, as their design of LED's look rather stylish and elegant, works very well IMO.
 
Although on current "modern" cars I have no issue, they look perfectly fine, guess it's because they've been built into the design so they work, that and the fact they're virtually everywhere so it's become the "norm". I think Audi are the best at this, as their design of LED's look rather stylish and elegant, works very well IMO.
I agree with this actually. I really only found it tacky looking to see LEDs on older cars myself, but on new cars that came with it stock; it looks fine. I also like how LEDs look on the Audi models nowadays.
 
The design of the BMW M6 is average. -James May

average. Average. AVERAGE. AVERAGE.

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=\=


AVERAGE.
 
Wire wheels can look good on many cars.
I tend to think wire wheels look hideous on on any car launched after about 1965, current Morgan 3 Wheeler excepted. There's no 60s-onwards car on wires that can't be improved by fitting non-wires.

If you've got pictures of exceptions though I'd be interested to see them. And then tell you why you're wrong :D
 
Still looks awesome, though.

Not yet, give it a liitle longer to mature. It looks better now as a 10 year old shape than it did new. The same goes for the same generation 5 Series.

But getting overtaken by one at full chat is an amazing sight and good on the ears. Even my mom, who isn't a car fan, at all, loved it.
 
Makes for an interesting potential "unpopular" opinion, actually. In general, I think Bangle-era BMWs have aged very well indeed. The E60 5-series and E63 6-series look great today, the E65 7-series is nowhere near as ungainly as it looked initially, and the E90 3-series looks fantastic in the right trim - ideally as the blistered-arched M3, but if not that then something like the 320si. Potentially better post-facelift too, with the more sculptured bonnet.

The Z4 - E85/E86 roadster and coupe - looks great too. The coupe particularly, which is probably one of the best-looking cars BMW has ever built (is that also an unpopular opinion or am I not insane for thinking that?)
 
LEDs on cars look tacky and cheap.

Around the early 2010s... They were pretty tacky.

The E-Class looked like a cheap aftermarket stick on.
2011-mercedes-benz-e350-cabriolet-headlight-led-running-light-and-wheel-photo-334348-s-1280x782.jpg


2012 or so, Lexus thought: "We need to join that!" Though, I've kind of grown to like it....
2012-lexus-is-350-rwd-sedan-headlight.png
 
I don't find the Mk1 Focus ugly. Everyone I talked to thinks it's an ugly car, but I like the design. I think it looks happy, like it's excited about something, but in a calm manner.
Never heard people describe it as ugly, so perhaps that's a US/Europe difference thing. Over here it replaced a string of fairly bland Escorts so it was probably more gratefully received.

I'm not sure how well it's really ageing, in non-RS or ST170 form at least, and it's not helped that most Mk1 Focus on UK roads now look quite sorry for themselves. But it's not a car I've ever considered ugly. With one or two exceptions, Ford's styling was in quite a good place in the mid to late 1990s.
 
Loud aftermarket exhausts... Not sure if it'd be an unpopular opinion, but since I hang out with the tuning crowd, I'm always seeing them shout on social media: "if you don't like my loud exhaust, I'll rev it even more!"

I find very few cars in my area that are modified to sound good... Even then, it's annoying as 🤬 when they have to race around or do burnouts in the middle of the night. Sounds good on my friend's 240SX with a 1JZ-GTE. (They at least know how to be respectable in a neighborhood) But when it's some local idiot with a stock Cobalt and a fart can racing around. Just no. Or a ratty pickup...(which there are a lot in my local town)

Always bragging about how awesome their car sounds. But they should see how it feels to be woken up in the middle of their sleep by some V6 GMC Sierra revving that sounds someone's throwing a bunch of empty cans down a flight of metal stairs....
 
Agree with that one. Loud exhausts can be quite exciting on a deserted road - provided they actually sound good and aren't just loud for the sake of it - but I find loud exhausts pretty embarrassing if you're just cruising around town. Even if you have the best intentions in the world and your car actually sounds good, to residents and bystanders it's nothing more than noise pollution.

To that I'd also throw in modern vehicles that keep their exhaust valves open on startup and during the high idle warm-up phase. Again, however good the car sounds, it's just a way to piss off your neighbours. I don't hate my neighbours, but even if I did I still wouldn't want to pointlessly antagonise them with unnecessary noise.
 
Agree with that one. Loud exhausts can be quite exciting on a deserted road - provided they actually sound good and aren't just loud for the sake of it - but I find loud exhausts pretty embarrassing if you're just cruising around town. Even if you have the best intentions in the world and your car actually sounds good, to residents and bystanders it's nothing more than noise pollution.

To that I'd also throw in modern vehicles that keep their exhaust valves open on startup and during the high idle warm-up phase. Again, however good the car sounds, it's just a way to piss off your neighbours. I don't hate my neighbours, but even if I did I still wouldn't want to pointlessly antagonise them with unnecessary noise.

Reminds me how much I hear those people who modify their cars complain about people calling the police on them. These are the same people who will stab their throttle on any road that is slightly straight. Even if it is in a neighborhood. Unfortunately both the streets at my parents house and my apartment has a "perfect drag strip."
 
Agree with that one. Loud exhausts can be quite exciting on a deserted road - provided they actually sound good and aren't just loud for the sake of it - but I find loud exhausts pretty embarrassing if you're just cruising around town. Even if you have the best intentions in the world and your car actually sounds good, to residents and bystanders it's nothing more than noise pollution.

To that I'd also throw in modern vehicles that keep their exhaust valves open on startup and during the high idle warm-up phase. Again, however good the car sounds, it's just a way to piss off your neighbours. I don't hate my neighbours, but even if I did I still wouldn't want to pointlessly antagonise them with unnecessary noise.
This is why I can't drive my 912 to work. It has a factory Leistritz sport muffler on it, but pretty much all the packing has come out of it so now it's more of a hollow can with 4 holes in it than any sort of real muffler. Combine that with the need to start it at wide-open throttle and rev it past 3k before it will settle back to a cold idle of 1200 means that leaving my house in the wee hours of the morning with it isn't really an option. It sounds great, but it also sounds a lot.

The Supersprint setup on my daily is a lot better. Loud when you want it to be, but you can get out of the neighborhood without everyone knowing it too.
 
This is why I can't drive my 912 to work. It has a factory Leistritz sport muffler on it, but pretty much all the packing has come out of it so now it's more of a hollow can with 4 holes in it than any sort of real muffler. Combine that with the need to start it at wide-open throttle and rev it past 3k before it will settle back to a cold idle of 1200 means that leaving my house in the wee hours of the morning with it isn't really an option. It sounds great, but it also sounds a lot.

The Supersprint setup on my daily is a lot better. Loud when you want it to be, but you can get out of the neighborhood without everyone knowing it too.

I only saw a 912 once and it was really loud. Louder than a 911 even. I was genuinely surprised on how loud it actually was and has been one of my favourite cars since.
 
Personally I just thought the bug eyed Integra looked a little odd and dorky, just looked out of proportion with the rest of the Integras design. Something the face-lifted front end addressed, as the change to rectangular headlights made it look meaner and generally better looking personally.

Whilst were on the subject of aesthetics, I don't think the 3-Series Compact looks ugly or particularly ungainly in either E36 or E46 form. Especially with the E46 Compact, which seems to get some flack for being particularly ugly, but I don't really see it, personally I like it's proportions, same with the E36 Compact. In fact the E46 Compact looks particularly good in top level trim like the M-Sport trim, where it looks quite menacing in darker colours.

BMW  E36 Compact.jpg
BMW E46 Compact.jpg


But then again I've always liked the Compact, suppose you could say it's "a guilty pleasure" of mine.
 
Personally I just thought the bug eyed Integra looked a little odd and dorky, just looked out of proportion with the rest of the Integras design. Something the face-lifted front end addressed, as the change to rectangular headlights made it look meaner and generally better looking personally.
I honestly think the bug-eye lights look more natural on the Integra while the rectangular lights just look tacked on and don't really fit with the sloping body lines. The front bumper isn't doing it any favors either.
 

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