The urge to customize your car is undeniable for any car lover, with endless possibilities for tweaking your ride, but before the internet, finding parts meant digging through shops or catalogs, and even then, it was easy to waste money on upgrades that offered little to no real benefit.
Today, with the vast marketplaces of Amazon, eBay, and countless online forums, the sheer volume of aftermarket parts available can be overwhelming. While there’s a genuine satisfaction in making an upgrade that truly adds value—like a well-engineered engine boost for more horsepower or a retro-styled Bluetooth stereo for modern convenience in a classic car—the landscape is also rife with modifications that are frankly a complete waste of time and money.
Car manufacturers invest heavily in engineering, so adding poorly designed aftermarket parts risks disrupting that finely tuned system, potentially causing safety issues, reducing durability, hindering usability, and even significantly lowering your car’s resale value; therefore, let’s explore some upgrades you should reconsider before hitting ‘add to cart’.
1. **Stick-on Car Components**Ah, the classic attempt to inject some high-performance swagger into a mundane ride. We’re talking about the ubiquitous stick-on car components: fake vents and scoops, blatant knock-off performance badging, and the ever-present faux carbon fiber trim. They promise a sporty aesthetic, but in reality, they deliver absolutely nothing more than a temporary—and often regrettable—visual illusion.
Consider the genuine articles for a moment. Automakers like Subaru design high-performance models such as the WRX STI with functional hood scoops, specifically engineered to grab more air for a reason. The mid-engine C8 Corvette features scoops behind its doors for a similar, very real purpose. These are not merely decorative; they serve a critical function in performance and cooling. The $15 stick-on hoodscoops you can snag on eBay, however, are purely for aesthetics and nothing else.
These doodads are literally stuck onto your car with adhesive, and that’s precisely where their utility begins and ends. They just sit there, offering no practical benefit, until one day they either get ripped off by highway speeds or are intentionally removed, leaving behind a sticky, unsightly residue that’s a pain to clean. It’s a fleeting fantasy that quickly turns into a sticky mess.
Another egregious money-waster in this category is the knock-off automaker badging. We’ve all seen the $12 ‘M’ badge online, attempting to convince onlookers that a humble 325i is, in fact, an M3. Let’s be unequivocally clear: this badge does not come from BMW, and it delivers precisely zero performance benefit. It fools no one, save perhaps the owner themselves, into believing there’s a high-performance machine lurking beneath the veneer. The substantial price difference between a standard 3 Series and a true M3 isn’t just for the badge; it reflects a high level of engineering development, specialized components, and genuine performance capabilities.
And let’s not forget the adhesive-based pretend carbon fiber trim. For a mere six bucks, you can acquire plastic pieces designed to mimic carbon fiber, which you then stick around your dashboard’s HVAC vents. It’s an illusion that’s cheap, tacky, and instantly recognizable as fake to anyone with even a passing knowledge of automotive materials. Seriously, save your money and invest in a quality latte instead; it’ll provide far more satisfaction and won’t diminish your car’s credibility.
2. **Wrong-Sized Wheels and Tires**There’s no denying the visual impact of a high-end Porsche 911 riding on large, 20-inch wheels wrapped in sleek, low-profile tires. This look is incredibly popular, and for good reason: it adds a certain visual punch, and crucially, in the case of a Porsche, those wheels and tires have been meticulously engineered to deliver exceptional levels of performance and have been precisely designed to fit the car’s wheel wells without issue. This is engineering at its finest, where form meets function seamlessly.
However, this carefully calibrated balance completely vanishes if you decide to slap a set of those same 20-inch rims onto, say, a Honda Civic. Suddenly, you’re not enhancing performance or aesthetics; you’re introducing a litany of problems. You run a very real risk of the tires rubbing against the wheel wells, causing damage and creating an unpleasant driving experience. Furthermore, the associated low-profile tires, when paired inappropriately, will inevitably lead to a significantly harsher ride quality, transforming your comfortable daily driver into an unforgiving bone-shaker.
Beyond the ride quality, these tires are far more prone to damage. Their reduced sidewall height offers less cushioning, making them susceptible to punctures, bubbles, and outright failures from potholes or road debris. In the particularly dangerous scenario of stretching tires that are too small over oversized wheels, you dramatically increase the odds of epic, potentially catastrophic, failures on the road. This isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about safety and durability.
Let’s not overlook the financial implications of such a misguided upgrade. A decent set of four name-brand 20-inch wheels will set you back at least $800, and even if you opt for low-cost tires, you’re looking at another $400. That’s a significant chunk of change for an upgrade that actively degrades your driving experience and introduces a host of potential problems. It’s a costly lesson in poor judgment.
Now, let’s pivot to the other end of the spectrum: knobby all-terrain tires fitted to vehicles that are primarily daily drivers. These types of tires are absolutely essential for specific applications, providing superior grip and traction in unpaved settings, such as off-road trails, mud, or deep snow. They are designed for rugged conditions and excel where standard road tires would fail. They serve a legitimate and vital purpose for serious off-road enthusiasts.
However, when your truck—say, a Black Widow F-150—is adorned with 20-inch rims mounted in massive 35-inch all-terrain rubber, and its primary duties involve shuttling kids to school and embarking on highway road trips, those specialty tires become nothing more than an expensive liability. They offer no practical benefit in these scenarios. Instead, they will wear out significantly faster than their regular all-season counterparts, generate excessive road noise, and likely reduce your fuel economy due to increased rolling resistance. Your car’s manufacturer designed it with a specific wheel and tire setup that optimizes its performance, efficiency, and longevity for its intended use. Don’t waste your money trying to ‘upgrade’ it with components that are wholly inappropriate for how you actually drive.
3. **Aftermarket Body Kits**If you’re looking for a surefire way to take a perfectly good car—especially a classic—and actively destroy its value with modern, often poorly conceived, upgrades, then fitting an aftermarket body kit is a top contender. The truth is, adding a generic body kit to almost any car is highly likely to have a negative impact on its resale value. These polarizing modifications are simply not for everyone; for every enthusiast who might appreciate the look, there are ten potential buyers who will be immediately turned off, seeing it as an expense to remove rather than an enhancement.
Beyond the aesthetic and financial hit, there are significant practical drawbacks, particularly with cheaply made body kits. That extra-low front fascia, a common feature of many aftermarket kits, is incredibly vulnerable. The first time you encounter a seemingly innocent speed bump, a steep driveway, or even an unexpected dip in the road, that flimsy fiberglass or plastic is highly likely to crack, shatter, or otherwise fail, leaving you with costly repairs and a visibly damaged car. Body kits themselves can easily run into thousands of dollars even before installation and paint, making these potential damages even more painful.
This isn’t to say all body kits are inherently bad. Far from it. But the key distinction lies in their design and purpose. If you’re going to consider a body kit, you should stick with factory-fitted versions, or those meticulously engineered by reputable performance houses. Take the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, for example. That car is literally laden with aerodynamic additions—massive wings, diffusers, and specialized fascias—all carefully designed to improve airflow, increase downforce, and enhance efficiency when the car is pushed to its limits on the track at high speeds. This intricate design is the result of untold hours of wind tunnel testing and precision engineering by experts. It’s a functional work of art.
However, slapping a replica ‘The Fast and the Furious’ style body kit onto your everyday Toyota Corolla is not, by any stretch of the imagination, ‘the same thing.’ There’s no performance benefit, no aerodynamic improvement, and certainly none of the engineering pedigree. What you get is a car that looks like it’s trying too hard, often with ill-fitting panels and questionable durability. The money spent would be far better allocated to genuine performance upgrades or simply maintaining the vehicle in its original, well-engineered state.
4. **Aftermarket Scissor Doors**Aftermarket scissor doors—often affectionately, or derisively, known as ‘Lambo doors’ due to their association with Lamborghini—are an even more intense and often more regrettable modification than a generic body kit. When developed and integrated by a major auto manufacturer like Lamborghini, these iconic swing-up doors have their place. They are a signature design element, built into the vehicle’s original architecture, and engineered to function flawlessly as part of a high-performance, exotic package. There, they are a statement of extreme luxury and engineering.
That said, the notion of dropping over a thousand dollars, or often much more, to bolt scissor doors onto your Chrysler 300C, or any average sedan, truck, or SUV, is a fundamentally misguided endeavor. While they might look ‘cool’ in the abstract, their coolness factor quickly evaporates when they look horribly out of place on a vehicle that was never designed for them. The visual dissonance is often jarring, instantly telegraphing an aftermarket hack rather than bespoke elegance.
Beyond the aesthetic misstep, the functionality of aftermarket scissor doors is a stark contrast to their OEM counterparts. Factory-fitted scissor doors are typically motorized and elevate smoothly and effortlessly with the press of a button. Aftermarket modifications, however, rarely offer this level of sophistication. Instead, the driver must often manually lift the heavy doors into their upright position, a process that is not just a huge hassle but can also be quite strenuous and awkward. It turns a supposed ‘enhancement’ into a daily chore.
More critically, aftermarket scissor doors introduce significant safety and practical problems. Imagine trying to open these doors in a low-clearance parking garage or a tight spot; the angle of ascent can make entry and egress exceptionally difficult, guaranteeing awkward moments and potential dings. In the grim event of a car accident, particularly if the vehicle rolls over, aftermarket scissor doors can become a severe safety hazard. If they jam or cannot be fully opened, the driver or passengers might not be able to get out, potentially trapping them inside the vehicle during an emergency. Known for being heavy and notoriously hard to open, these wacky car upgrades offer little benefit and a host of potential downsides, not to mention the possibility of unfortunate parking garage fails and strained muscles. This is one modification where aspiration far outstrips practical reality.
5. **Aftermarket Spoilers**When it comes to enhancing your driving experience, some tech gadgets genuinely make an old car feel new and offer practical benefits. Think smartphone cradles for hands-free navigation, integrated Bluetooth systems for modern connectivity, or head-up displays for keeping your eyes on the road. Aftermarket spoilers, however, fall into a completely different category. More often than not, they will only succeed in making your old car look silly, creating annoying visibility problems, and potentially introducing post-installation woes like water leaking into the trunk, which no one wants.
Just like body kits, the function of an OEM spoiler is paramount. Factory-fitted spoilers are carefully designed and integrated. On high-performance cars, they can increase downforce, providing better grip and stability in track settings. For more pedestrian applications, a subtle OEM spoiler might improve airflow in the name of efficiency. Many new cars do indeed come with rear spoilers that are purely cosmetic, and it’s easy to understand why folks might be tempted by a bit of DIY action to mimic that look. But there’s a crucial difference: factory cosmetic spoilers are installed in a controlled setting with industrial-grade materials and precise engineering, minimizing the risk of issues.
That $82 wing spoiler from a big-box store doesn’t compare to professional options and often comes with ridiculous claims about fuel efficiency or performance, which are baseless and just a way to take your money; plus, installing them often means drilling holes that can lead to rust and leaks, creating costly problems.
Of course, you *can* spend significantly more, perhaps nearly ten times as much, on genuine carbon fiber aftermarket spoilers. They come in a dizzying array of styles, from massive wings and ‘basket handles’ to manually-adjustable and ‘duckbill’ varieties. But here’s the kicker: the material cost or the specific style doesn’t change the fundamental issue. Aside from a highly subjective and often questionable personal aesthetic preference, an aftermarket spoiler remains one of the worst car upgrades you can make when it comes to wasting money. If it’s too big, it ruins the car’s entire appearance and adds unnecessary weight, becoming nothing more than a poorly conceived visual burden that offers no real-world advantage.
6. **Slammed or Jacked-Up Suspension**The modification of a car’s ride height is a modification many enthusiasts consider, whether it’s for a purely aggressive look or the promise of performance gains. Lowering a car can be done in various ways, ranging from the truly budget-conscious—like crudely chopping a couple of inches off the factory springs for minimal cost—to spending around $90 for a set of aftermarket lowering springs, or investing upwards of $1,500 on high-quality coilovers from reputable aftermarket manufacturers. It’s important to understand the distinctions within these options.
Investing in high-end coilovers from reputable brands can be beneficial for track enthusiasts seeking a highly adjustable suspension for better handling, but simply lowering your car’s factory springs is almost always a bad idea.
This kind of cheap lowering scrambles the intricate factory engineering work that carefully paired the springs with the dampers. Automakers spend countless hours calibrating these components to work in harmony, providing optimal ride quality, handling, and safety. When you disrupt this balance with ill-matched springs, you open the door to all kinds of unexpected issues. The most immediate and noticeable consequences include drastically poor ride quality, transforming every bump into a jarring experience, and a significant hit to your vehicle’s resale value. Furthermore, slammed cars, especially those lowered incorrectly, are more likely to experience increased wear on other critical components, most notably the tires, leading to premature replacement and additional expense.
On the other hand, lifted suspensions for trucks and SUVs can be a legitimate upgrade for serious off-roaders, increasing ground clearance and accommodating larger tires for challenging terrain, much like high-end coilovers for performance cars.
However, if your lifted vehicle is primarily destined for daily driver duties—commuting, grocery runs, and highway travel—then you’re better off not bothering. Full suspension lift kits can be incredibly costly, ranging from as little as $1,000 to an eye-watering $20,000, and often involve replacing most, if not all, of the factory suspension system. Aside from potential wear issues on driveline components, jacked-up suspensions introduce a host of practical problems. Entry and exit become a difficult climb, ride quality often degrades significantly on paved roads, and navigating parking garages or drive-thrus can become a literal headache due to reduced clearances. For the vast majority of drivers, this kind of car upgrade is an expensive and largely unnecessary modification that offers more drawbacks than benefits.
