The idea of modifying cars by adding extra bodywork, including lower and larger bumpers, additional side panels, also known as “side skirts”, and other features such as hood scoops and spoilers, actually started in the US way back in the early years of the 20th century. It seems that as soon as our cars were being mass produced, owners were keen to start looking for ways to modify and personalize their vehicles.
It is in Japan, however, that the idea of creative and over-the-top body kits has really taken off. Street racers in Far East cities have embraced this particular modification, and have taken it way further than those early pioneers could have ever imagined! From crazy colors to oversize body panels, Japanese body kits would stop traffic in the US. The fad even has its own name, bosozoku, taken from the motorcycle gangs of the 1970s and 80s.
In other countries, however, body kits are more commonly used to make mediocre cars look better – and this doesn’t always work. On the other hand, some drivers take great classic cars and completely destroy them with unnecessary body kits. If you are going to spend serious cash on additional bodywork and modifications for your vehicle, then you have to be sure that the end result is going to be better than the way it looked when you bought it…
19 Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is another classic car which still bears many similarities to its earliest incarnations, from all the way back in 1965.
Well, apart from the Ford Mustang in this picture, which, thanks to its over-the-top body kit is barely recognizable.
It appears that this car has been covered in a body kit shell, making the vehicle look wider and longer than usual, as well as adding the ultra-low side skirts and front bumper which will make it nigh on impossible to drive over speed bumps without scraping that eye-catching paint job. The classics are classics for a reason, and this Mustang has certainly not been improved by these modifications.
18 Cadillac Escalade EXT
Providing definitive proof that wealth doesn’t always equal class, the modified Cadillac Escalade pictured above is owned by Jersey Shore star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi. Leaving the outrageous color scheme to one side for a moment, the body kit mods on this luxury SUV do little to improve its appearance. In fact, the lowered front bumper doesn’t even look as though it fits properly to the original fender, and is certainly not as attractive as the original design. In fact, the whole mod has ended up making the Escalade, which sells for at least $75,000, look pretty cheap.
17 Audi TT
The ludicrous body kit on this Audi TT is nothing more than automotive vandalism. Since its launch in the late 1990s, Audi’s popular and effortlessly stylish sports car has won plaudits and awards for its design.
So why the owner of this particular model felt the need to cover up all that beauty with a ridiculous body kit is unfathomable.
The kit has completely changed the shape of the car's front end, as well as making the car itself appear lower and wider. If the body kit wasn’t bad enough, they have also given the car a ugly paint job, complete with a colored stripe that would look more at home on an American muscle car…
16 Nissan Juke
The Nissan Juke is a subcompact crossover SUV from the Japanese auto manufacturer – not the usual kind of car which is usually modified with body kits, which probably goes some way towards explaining why this particular model looks a little odd. SUVs, after all, are supposed to be able to drive over rough and ready terrain, but these lowered side skirts would make off-roading an impossibility. A subcompact SUV, as the name implies, is also designed to be more maneuverable and small enough to park in city lots. The body kit on this Nissan Juke just adds bulk to the vehicle, making a mockery of the subcompact tag.
15 Chevy Camaro
Cars don’t come much more classic and timeless than the glorious Chevrolet Camaro. And yet someone has chosen to modify this particular model with an unattractive and very unnecessary front bumper, hood ornaments and wider rear wing.
The best thing that could be said about this monstrosity is that at least the Camaro is one of the more recent models; imagine if someone had butchered a stunning Chevy from the 1960s or 1970s?
That super-low bumper also looks as though it is going to hit every speed bump and pothole going, leaving the probably expensive body kit covered in scrapes and scratches.
14 Mercedes C-Class
The Mercedes C-Class has quickly become one of the German auto manufacturer’s biggest success stories. The series of compact executive cars have been in production since 1993, and have regularly racked up sales of 80,000 vehicles per year in the US alone. The combination of efficient German engineering and exquisite modern design is a classic, and so there is no good reason why anyone should mess with that winning formula – and yet the owner of this vehicle has chosen, for some reason, to mess with the best, adding a front bumper body kit as well as a set of rather ostentatious tires.
13 Ford Mustang GT
The pony car is a very special class of cars, born and worshipped in the USA. And the Ford Mustang is certainly one of the best pony cars out there, as well as one of the most successful.
In fact, the Mustang has been in production constantly since the mid-1960s – a heritage that few vehicles can match.
The Ford Mustang GT above has a long and successful history behind it; history that someone has chosen to mess with by adding an over-the-top body kit, in the form of a wider rear, side skirts, and a larger and lower front bumper. The classics are called that for a reason, and messing with the classics is a bad idea.
12 Ford Focus
The Ford Focus, known as the Ford Escort in the US, is hugely popular with the so-called “boy racers” in the UK. These young men have a tendency to buy cheap, basic cars, before spending hundreds of dollars on modifications to improve both the car’s appearance and its performance. Aside from the fact that this Ford Focus is in a rather unattractive shade of mustard yellow, the owner has also decided to add a rather unorthodox body kit, with the addition of a rear spoiler and front bumper. The fact remains that the Ford Focus is a simple and unimpressive car, no matter how much these boy racers spend on modifications.
11 Volkswagen Beetle
Vehicle design doesn’t come more iconic than the Volkswagen Beetle. It is hardly surprising that Germany’s VW has managed to perfect car design with their Beetle, given that the popular automobile first rolled off the production line all the way back in 1938, before manufacturing finally ended in 1993.
The appearance of the Beetle may have changed and modernized over the years, but the VW Beetle is still absolutely recognizable – even with that unfortunate front bumper body kit.
As the old saying goes, you can’t improve on perfection, and the owner of this particular car would have done well to remember that advice.
10 Mazda RX-8
Mazda may not have the heritage of Volkswagen and their iconic Beetle, but the Japanese company is well known for its sporty roadsters with their smooth and curvy lines. Why you would buy a Mazda RX8 and then add the body kit in the image above is something of a mystery. The aggressive hood and bumper, as well as the sharp and angular side panels, make this particular vehicle almost unrecognizable as a Mazda – even if that famous “Zoom, Zoom” is still under the hood! Perhaps the finished article will look more attractive, but covering up those Mazda curves is something of a crime against motoring!
9 Honda Civic
The Civic is one of Honda’s longest-running production cars, first appearing on our streets back in 1972 and still being made today.
It is enormously popular with fans of car modifications – thanks to the fact that it is relatively cheap and provides a good basic platform for cosmetic and engineering improvements.
This particular Honda Civic has been modified with a ridiculously low front bumper and side skirt body kit, probably in a bid to make it look as though the suspension has been lowered. However, this kind of addition will do little to improve the actual performance of the car.
8 Nissan 240SX
The wide and low body kit on this Nissan 240SX makes this usually stylish and smooth sports car almost unrecognizable. Gone is the distinctive rounded hood, to be replaced by a much sharper – and lower – front bumper body kit, not to mention those road-scraping side skirts. The Nissan 240SX is a gorgeous car in its own right – these over-the-top modifications add nothing to its appearance or its performance. The Nissan engineers of the 1960s who first developed the classic Nissan Fairlady, the early incarnation of the Nissan Z cars, would be horrified to see what had become of their creation.
7 Mini Cooper
Perhaps second only to the Volkswagen Beetle in terms of iconic design, the Mini is the quintessential British car. You just have to see one to be reminded of Swinging London in the 1960s.
Not that the Mini in the image above would have felt at home in the 1960s, although it’s unusual front bumper body kit would certainly have ensured that it stood out amongst the crowd!
As with the modified Beetle, there are plenty of Mini aficionados who would question why on earth anyone would want to mess with such an iconic design in the first place – especially when the body kit doesn’t really add anything to the car’s appearance.
6 Mercedes CLA
The modifications to this Mercedes CLA push the previous Audi TT close for the title of ugliest body kit, especially when you add the go-faster stripe and the custom rims into the mix. These are the kind of mods that would look almost at home on a more basic car, like the Honda Civic or the Ford Focus, but when you buy a Mercedes CLA, you are buying a piece of exquisite German engineering, not a fixer-upper. The CLA may be one of the cheapest Mercedes on the market, but that doesn’t give owners carte blanche to make unnecessary and unattractive modifications.
5 Porsche 911
If you were the kind of kid who had posters of sports cars on your wall, then there’s a very good chance that the Porsche 911 featured on one of those posters.
First made in 1963, it has retained much of its original styling over the decades, with just a few tweaks and changes to appeal to 21st-century drivers.
It might be difficult to believe, but the vehicle above is actually a Porsche 911 – you may just be able to spot some of the familiar design touches underneath the body kit, including the outrageously large rear spoiler, and that orange paint job.
4 Volkswagen Golf
Another car beloved by the “boy racers” of the UK, the Volkswagen Golf is a cheap and cheerful starter car, ideal for young drivers who have just passed their test – and the victim of some horrific modifications over the years. No matter how wide the body kit you add to your Golf, or how unnecessarily large the spoiler is that you stick on the rear, it is still a basic Volkswagen underneath all those bells and whistles. Considering how expensive some of these body kit modifications are, the owner of this one might have been happier just selling his Golf and buying a better car.
3 Dodge Challenger Hellcat
From a car beloved in the UK and Europe to one that is an all-American creation, the Dodge Charger Hellcat. Even the name summons up images of aggressive styling, roaring engines, and some serious speed – and you’d be absolutely right.
The one thing the Hellcat doesn’t need is the extra weight from body kits and other modification, which after all are only going to slow it down.
This ultra-low rider might look the part in a still photo, but the widebody kit would be a nightmare to handle. When it comes to the great American muscle cars, less is definitely more.
2 Lexus GS
Compared to some of the modified cars on this list, the Lexus GS doesn’t come cheap. In fact, starting prices for the executive vehicle start at around $50,000. Why anyone would spend that amount on a vehicle, only to alter it with ugly modifications and body kits is a mystery, but this is what has happened to the poor Lexus in the image above. The front bumper body kit looks as though it would be more at home on a street racer, rather than a luxury sedan, and won’t do anything to help the car’s resale value when the time comes to sell it on.
1 Nissan Micra
The Nissan Micra, on the other hand, is about as cheap as you can get – which goes a long way towards explaining why it is popular with younger drivers who are keen to spend their hard-earned cash on expensive modifications. The Micra’s most successful market is Europe, and Japan where it is known as the Nissan Cherry, and boy racers love to spend their time and money adding increasingly over-the-top modifications to their bargain wheels – including additions like the front bumper, side skirts and pointless spoiler on the model above, not to mention the heavily tinted windows which would be more at home on a celebrity’s SUV.
Sources: Thedrive.com, autoweek.com, digitaltrends.com, edmunds.com, audiusa.com