[cpbopanna]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

how come all of you forgot to add the Reverse Horn ?

... and amplified to the extent that even a deaf man can hear it.

Probably that is the intention?

With the ambient noise so high in cities these days, it would require a hooter to make some one aware that a car is backing up!

Better to get disturbed by the irritating noise (and step away), rather than get knocked down by an (unseen) reversing vehicle!

[haria]

Interesting thread!

My pet peeves include :

1. el cheapo (and unknown/untested) perfumes. These leave some pretty horrible odour in the car. My colleague keeps experimenting with these stuff and it is sheer torture to go in his car

2. Non-Standard colour indicator lights. I have come across: white , bluish-white and Green (yes, Green!) indicator lights. Confused the hell out of me.

3. The array of lights which light up the rear of the car with fancy styles - especially during breaking.

4. Multiple sets of head lights - Sometimes close to 8 or 10 lights in front. Absolutely blinds you and you are forced to break/stop. (I have come across many such vehicles while going to tirupathi from bangalore - after chittoor)

5. Slowly accumulated junk/waste items. This one just creeps upon you! Often surprising what all gets collected over some time. I added couple of umbrellas, chappals, change of cloths, a tarpaulin , whole lot of unnecessary tools, etc. over a period of time. Umbrella's for a rainy day - yeah and it hardly rained last year in Bangalore , and it is summer time now! :-)
Change of cloths for the gym - which I stopped going 3 months back :-). Nowadays, I routinely check the cars every month and remove all non-essential items from it. We did this exercise with my friend's scorpio and we got an unbelievable 40 to 50kg of stuff, which was not used for at least 6 months. Unloading these junks would definitely improve the performance of your car

6. Long and dangerously swaying radio antennas. If it gets caught in some overhang and gets released, person coming behind will get a nasty hit with the darn things.

[jeeva]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

how come all of you forgot to add the Reverse Horn ?

Not just the single beep one, but the reverse horn which comes with a fusion of
- Ambulance siren + Fire engine siren + Disco beat + Burglar alarm + DJ fusion mix All combined in one single package and amplified to the extent that even a deaf man can hear it.

Absolutely. This sums it up pretty much!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cg2YLcB5xk

[Thanga_RS]

Modifications are good, unless and untill you know what you are doing and does not hamper the functionality it is supposed to provide.

Don't like Chrome? Go ahead and wrap it with black colour as, any part made with chrome are just for that extra bling factor, if not necessary you can go ahead and mask that up. But headlamps and tail lamps? Think again.

Tail light and Headlight smoking/wrapping:
Manufacturers and designers start bashing each other as to provide a more a stylish design which is easier to manufacture and provide more illumination with the space withing which the designer has decided. And here we are adding tints to headlamps and tail lamps reducing the throw of light, just to make it look cool. LED tail lamps do provide good visibility despite being encased in a smoked casing. It is not the case with halogen bulbs, which struggles to provide enough light.

Below are the images taken from google, but I am sure many would have noticed this in real time that halogens are not visible when looked from distance.
LED tail lamp:




Normal halogen tail lamp:




In my opinion accessories which which aids you without disturbing the public on road made with proper understanding the use of that product is always welcome.

If my stock car does not provide enough light throw? I will be more than happy to swap it with a pair of heal lamps/bulbs which are safe for the people around me my car. I do not find any problems with it. If you opt for higher wattage bulbs as you might be doing lots of country side driving where there are no proper street lights feel free to upgrade it and not use it within city limits and while there is oncoming traffic.

[roadrunner_nv]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

how come all of you forgot to add the Reverse Horn ?

Not just the single beep one, but the reverse horn which comes with a fusion of
- Ambulance siren + Fire engine siren + Disco beat + Burglar alarm + DJ fusion mix All combined in one single package and amplified to the extent that even a deaf man can hear it.

Not to mention the pressure horns with infinite decibels and a torn exhaust that makes it sound like a million miles faster than what it is.

Something that really irritates is the high intensity headlights with the selector lever permanently on high beam.

How I wish I could fit a concave mirror on the rear of my car to give a taste of their own medicine to anyone who follows me with a high intensity high beam (No offence meant but XUV owners are the most irritating kind here)

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by vikash49

Attachment 1612656
Not only do they drastically reduce the light throw and visibility, but are also an absolute eyesore

Looks like bathroom/sewer drainage grills

[//M]

The Royal Enfields on our roads with the headlamp grille look plain ugly.

Sadly there are so many of these examples around. Reference Pic




Looks like a Rottweiler Mouth Mask to me everytime I see one such Enfield. Reference Image

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by //M

The Royal Enfields on our roads with the headlamp grille look plain ugly.

Sadly there are so many of these examples around.

These are purely functional against the stones and rocks thrown up by traffic ahead of the bike. Especially useful when travelling on our dear Indian roads with all the wayside construction and loose concrete jelly that abounds.
This again is a pretty functional accessory in my opinion. Certainly NOT to be part of the Avoidable List!

[VinodDevil81]

Originally Posted by cpbopanna

Probably that is the intention?

With the ambient noise so high in cities these days, it would require a hooter to make some one aware that a car is backing up!

Better to get disturbed by the irritating noise (and step away), rather than get knocked down by an (unseen) reversing vehicle!

I agree with that partially.But if that is the intention, then atleast there should be some uniformity in the sound pattern of such reverse horns for all vehicles.
That would atleast help us to know that it is indeed a car backing up and not something else.

I feel a normal intermittent buzzer is more than enough for this purpose.( if at all, one is required.)

Here we have all sorts of reverse horns ranging from the generic beep-beep buzzers to loud ambulance sirens.

Most irritating reverse horn is the all-in-one type that has a combination of literally all disturbing sounds like burglar alarm, police siren, fire engine and what not!

Equally disturbing is another type which loudly plays the tune of some popular film songs in a shrill pitch.
Some common types are those with old airtel-ad jingle music and the dhoom theme music.

If you are highly patriotic,you have the option of getting "Saare jahaan se accha" musical horn instead of film songs!
For those who are spiritually inclined, they have a wide range of religious musical reverse horns to choose from.

Can't understand why some people see their reverse horns as their public facebook profile.
Just by reversing the car, they are publishing their musical and religious preferences openly and forcing it upon others in the most irritating manner!

I have felt the same with mobile ringtones of some co-workers, that I used to hear at my previous office during working hours.

[Grace]

What about hanging gods of India?
Theres a orange hanuman dangling from the IRVM / fake fern grass/ plastic money plant are all an eyesore
I lately see One side profile of face of Hanuman on rear windshield on local taxis, chatted up the driver and they claim the artwork has a cooling effect (You think i believe this ?)
Theres a shiva parvati complete photo frame fixed on radiator grills. Some body please explain roll up of piece of black rope on bumper
Coconuts wrapped in piece of red cloth dangling under bonnet.
Lucky charms of Lemon,Green chilly and an occassional red/orange chilly in a string dangling outside of the car. They may not be accessories however they nevertheless sullify the OEM looks of an automobile.

Reversing horn : "Excuse me, this car is backing down". The tuk tuk sound was good enough though

Did anyone think of bear (or whatever its made of ) hairy covering on dashboard? Or could be faux pas deer skin.
Then there are also drivers experience with love on shiny stickers(I read one such and ROFL) "When Pocket empty,Girl friend 420".

I personally dont mind peoples name mentioned on the rear windscreen, especially if Sneha or Ragini's mobile number is also mentioned.

Personally abhor blue LED on number plate and wiper washer bolts'.

Pardon my ignorance, but do we have a thread for posting fake Team bhp stickers? I would win a national award for posting as many.

Other pet peeves are stickers on "Maa ki Duaa", favourite bollywood stars and their short dialogues maybe like "Tera kya hoga Kaaliya"?
University of Kansas - Do they advertise education by giving out bumper stickers.

offtopic: 4X4 sticker on yellow plate Sumos and Marutivans,


Andy

[Ananthc]

While the below is not an accessory it does fall under the category of stickers. The usage of "Government of India" , "Police", "Army" etc stickers put on private vehicles where the owners or owners distant relatives work for government. Looks like they are only trying to state that they own the roads and traffic police or public should not stop them!! VVIP racism at the best! I believe government should pass an order that any private vehicle carrying these kinds of stickers would be automatically confiscated and made as government property! Atleast government will own more vehicles without zero investment!

[sgiitk]

@Ananthc; Over here we often see Press stickers, in the hope of avoiding the cops. The same purpose. I have even seen this sticker or tag on vehicles of people who have no links with the media for a few generations, at least. They say, it deters the cops from stopping them for a 'shake down'.

[lollapalooza]

The one which I learned the hard way was floor lamination. We got it in our Jazz a couple of years ago thinking it will make the car floor easy to clean. What it has done instead is make the floor very smooth. And that means the floor mats move around as you move your feet. This happens with both the stock Honda mats and 3M noodle mats. And that's very irritating (to say the least) when it is the driver side floor mat.

Definitely avoid.

[On the Move]

Not sure if highlighted before, but there's a new fashion in Mumbai of adding continuously flashing red and blue LED lights at the rear of bikes/autos that is very irritating to be the least, but more than that distracting and confusing. not sure what is the intent of this.

I get it when bicycle riders have a flashing red light behind the seat (that to not flashing at high frequency, just subtly), understandably since they do not have luxury of big bright tail lamps, but bikes and autos catching on the fever and using cheap and fast flashing lights is not at all cool and more than a signal to the rear driver, irritates him to the core.

Still out of curiosity, i asked one of the cool biker, while at a traffic signal, of its purpose, he responded they appear cool to him. I asked him if he has ever seen it on his bike and he was quite surprised and taken back by the fact that he had not seen these lights again after install.

Another fancy item, probably not so much harmful (assuming the fitter did not mess up the internal core electrical while fitting these), are the 'Fast & Furious' styled red/blue/yellow/green lights under the door handles, or the below the car/bike/auto, or LEDs enclosing/highlighting the real windshield, except that they are clearly cheap Chinese aftermarket jugad and look outright cheap. Not sure if the lights under the door handles can give an electric shock while opening the door (not had an occasion to try one, but always had that doubt ).

[Alfresco]

Originally Posted by GTO

1. Brand name stickers on your car when you don't even have those parts installed (e.g. Brembo, Bridgestone, Mugen stickers on the side). What's even worse is seeing a 'Ralliart' sticker on a Maruti (or any non-Mitsubishi)!

Reminds of the very popular "16 valve DOHC" stickers on 3 cylinder Maruti vans!

AT cars were allowed as an import many years back for people with partial disability. The cars used to come with a rotating knob on the steering wheel for use of people having only one arm.