Why do German/luxury cars not have mudflaps

Out for an errand on my motorcycle, I noticed that BMW, Mercedes & Audi cars (sedans & SUVs), did not have mudflaps. But I did see them fitted on a Vento.

BHPian Mortis recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

So today I was on my bike for an errand and the road was a bit wet. The car in front of me was throwing up a lot of water spray from the rear tyres. It was a BMW and I noticed that there weren't any mud flaps at the back. What really got me thinking was that there was another BMW a little further ahead and it too did not have mud flaps fitted and was also throwing up a nice rooster tail of water.

For the rest of an hour I kept an eye out and all the imported Germans - BMW, Merc and Audi - both sedan and SUV models did not have mud flaps at all. In fact, even the VW T-Roc and Tiguan were flapless, however, a Vento did have them. The cheapest "common" car that did not have flaps was a Nexon EV but this might be an anomaly as mud flaps do exist on the ICE models. All the other regular cars had mudflaps. The only non-German luxury car I came across was an Evoque which DID have mudflaps.

Not the biggest sample size or longest time period I know but still it's good enough and consistent I guess.

I would like to know why these cars don't come fitted with them:

• Is it a German thing?
• Is there no provision to fit them?
• Do manufacturers avoid them to improve aerodynamics or something?
• Do the additional mud flaps on these imports cost some ridiculous price like a lakh each or something which is why customers avoid them? Or maybe they are priced lower but still, a decent amount and customers are too cheap to pay 10k on a 50L car? Somehow I doubt that.

I would also like to know if mudflaps are mandatory in India and if not why aren't they?

Looking forward to an interesting discussion.

Here's what GTO had to say about the matter:

The last luxury car I saw with mudflaps was the W124 Mercedes, lots of them with mudflaps. But that is indeed a good observation. I don't believe I've seen any modern Audi / BMW / Mercedes with mudflaps. And they won't look good on these cars either. Imagine the 530d with its 275 mm rear tyres - how thick will your mudflaps be!

Here's what BHPian CEF_Beasts had to say about the matter:

Having a BMW, while delivery I asked specifically for the mudflaps to be fitted on the car. The SA told me no one fits them and neither does he recommend them, even though they are available as accessories!

I’m actually planning to get them fitted, because once the tyres had to go over some fresh concrete water and the plastic cladding was ruined, had to spend 2 days cleaning the cladding properly. The concrete colour (light-grey) just wouldn’t leave the cladding.

Would like to apologise as a fellow BMW owner for not having mudflaps and causing inconvenience. Will get them fitted as the earliest.

Here's what BHPian jkrishnakj had to say about the matter:

When I took the delivery of my A6, I actually asked them. I’m told that though it’s available as an accessory, it is not recommended because it’ll end up breaking very soon. Within a day of driving, I recognised that it’s indeed prone to damage over our lovely Bangalore roads.

Here's what BHPian shankar.balan had to say about the matter:

Never thought of this ever. But it is true that my Mini Cooper doesn't have mudflaps and nor is there any provision to fit mudflaps.

Maybe as an entry-level sports car which is more meant as a summer joyride car, they never planned for mudflaps. In my case, the mechanic's advice is also to try and avoid driving that car in the heavy rains and basically don't drive through flooded roads etc in it. And in a way it makes sense. One can't enjoy that car much in heavy rain.

My Gypsy has rear mud flaps but there is no OEM provision for front mudflaps. One has to drill some holes into the wheel arch and mount the mudflaps.

My Thar has mudflaps but they are very small plastic ones.

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