Motoring Fads

[steveindenmark]

The number of guys that were squashed under their cars. Usually on a Saturday morning. Caused by people leaving cars on jacks and not propping them up correctly. That was often in the newspapers.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

The number of guys that were squashed under their cars. Usually on a Saturday morning. Caused by people leaving cars on jacks and not propping them up correctly. That was often in the newspapers.

We still see them, but not often
If we do, it's more a case of when changing flat tyres................... if 'your' car still has a spare, & not a can of silly gunk

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Stretched tyres are still a thing & I still don't understand them, they look crap & are bloody dangerous, also lowering a car to the point where the only suspension is the 45 profile tyre, the ride must be unbelievably shite.

Just why? You couldn't drive that around here.

View attachment 551155

It's still an odd fad around here
There's a couple I regularly see go past the house, accelerating (!?!) between speed humps, then crawling over, whilst the mobility scooter they've just overtaken goes past

Daughters b/f has a Golf 2, but not quite that low (but he still takes care over humps, & can't park directly on the 9 foot wide pavement outside our house - he has to come up the drop-kerb!)
It replaced his MGB-GT, the G2 is lowered & on 'banded' steels - where the tyres look more like they belong on a go-kart
Together with an odd camber.........

Re; 'Rubber band tyres'

I've had the sad opportunity to go in a few

First was a long time ago, a mk3 Escort on something ridiculous that clattered/shook/thumped over even white lines
It made the 2A Light-Weight I once had seem like it was on air-bags!!!

The other other memorable one, was driving a B*W X5 for less than a mile
That was godawful; pimp-mobile wheels/tyres, & sports-seats - that meant you were looking through the steering wheel & peering over door cappings
That X5, was probably the most horrendous thing I've driven... even worse than this, (roughly 25 years old, when I took the pic
(some of us were on a winter-rota, to be on-call, to plough/grit the service-roads/ambo-bays & car-parks)

 

[figbat]

The Turbo Charger was a bit of a fad though in the 80's early 90's. I mean, TURBO would often find it's way in big letters somewhere on a car with it back in the day. I had a Volvo 480 TURBO. I also had a Rover 800 Vitesse TURBO for about 6 weeks. I know turbo's are around today, probably in greater numbers but no one cares. In those days it was huge. The rover 200 had a turbo model for heavens sake!

You'll struggle to find an engine these days that isn't turbocharged, hence why it's no benefit to call it out. Same goes for "FUEL INJECTION", "16 VALVE", "DOHC" and various other badges that were once seen as differentiators. Cars don't carry any markings indicating their engine size any more either.

 

[gbb]

Well MK2 Escorts were....

And Minis...proper minis that is.

 

[Jody]

Pops and bangs remaps. The sooner people get bored with this fad the better.

 

[Ian H]

The Turbo Charger was a bit of a fad though in the 80's early 90's. I mean, TURBO would often find it's way in big letters somewhere on a car with it back in the day....

The cheaper version was the "Turbo" badge, available at all branches of Halfords and easily stuck on the boot yourself. Always unconvincing on any car.
The modern equivalent is the "M Sport" badge or painted grille fins, as seen on just about all battered, low end diesel BMWs.

I remember the even earlier 'DISC BRAKES' warning stickers.

 

[Drago]

The current MINi Clubman is 21cm longer than the old Austin Maxi.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

The current MINi Clubman is 21cm longer than the old Austin Maxi.

What does that mean?

 

[mickle]

Car stylists are incorporating fake 'diffusers' under the back of modern cars to visually break up their enormous rear ends. Including on SUVs and 4x4s. Also fake vents. The current Honda range being the worst offenders. But my favourite pet hate is the current trend for titifying exhaust tail pipes. Mercedes are terrible for it. All swoopy shapes and chrome trim. Forgetting - that this is where the sh!t comes out. The equivalent of bejazzling a bum hole.

 

[fossyant]

Car stylists are incorporating fake 'diffusers' under the back of modern cars to visually break up their enormous rear ends. Including on SUVs and 4x4s. Also fake vents. The current Honda range being the worst offenders. But my favourite pet hate is the current trend for titifying exhaust tail pipes. Mercedes are terrible for it. All swoopy shapes and chrome trim. Forgetting - that this is where the sh!t comes out. The equivalent of bejazzling a bum hole.

And fake exhaust ports - Merc being one, when you look under the car, there is an exhaust tail pipe pointing down, hidden away from the fake exhausts.

One of my favourite past times on my MTB is overtaking cars on a local 'unadopted' road that's full of potholes - even 4x4's are useless.

 

[Gunk]

silly gunk

You called? 😜

 

[Blue Hills]

Kevin and Tracy in blue vinyl on top of screen. Furry dice. Manual chokes.

Manual chokes weren't exactly a fad though were they?
I thought they were needed - at the time.
I well remember my Dad's Viva and the system I was supposed to use to get it started.
Never quite knew if I'd come out of the cinema to find it wouldn't start.
Supposedly you risked "flooding the engine", whatever that was, if you overdid it in your desperation to get home.

 

[Blue Hills]

Anti static rubber strips

you mean the things that trailed on the floor?
Weren't they supposed to stop folk getting sick from some mysterious issue?

 

[Blue Hills]

I don't think I imagined/dreamed this.
I seem to remember that when I was very young, sometime in the 60s, there was a brief fashion for putting stickers on your car (usually the rear window I think) that made it look as if you had bullet holes in it.
Suppose it was supposed to make it look as if you had an exciting life in your underpowered runabout, running roadblocks or something.