Fake exhaust tips? Yes, you heard that right. What even are they? Good question. There are many questionable automotive and motorcycle trends that have taken off in recent years, but fake exhaust tips might be the worst of all. Not only are fake exhaust tips terrible, but real exhaust tips can sometimes be faulty and cause issues - like the Ford Explorer exhaust making drivers sick.
These add-ons are the epitome of pointless, tacky, and redundant design. The added fact that they are somehow not disappearing into the large wormhole of trends to be forgotten is even more worrisome.
There are so many cars out there on the market today whose rear bumper features exhaust-like decorations or ornaments. However, the sad thing about this decoration, is that in most cases, these cars end up looking much worse and cheaper than before - due to the fact that one exhaust tip is less sporty looking, pointing at a weird angle, and pokes out behind the car.
Further, what happens when it is cold? No air or steam is going to come out of this exhaust tip because you guessed it, it is fake. When fumes are only coming out on one side of the car, you can pretty easily tell one is fake. Not only does it just look terrible and bring down the value of the car, there are some instances out there of small cars with giant exhaust tips, making them look ridiculous and like they belong in a circus.
Let's keep talking about why fake exhaust tips are the worst automotive trend today...
Are They everywhere? Yes, They Are.
This exhaust tip design comes in various levels, forms, and shapes - and they are all terrible. The first case of this egregious offense was in the first-generation Lexus IS-F. Just looking at this car, you would think it is a luxurious and high-end car that just had two pipes vertically stacked on either side of the car.
However, if you dared to get closer to this vehicle, you would see that the bottom of each (fake) exhaust tip wasn't actually connected to the vehicle or anything at all. Yikes.
Noting this, if you compare most luxury cars that are on the market today you will see that the fake exhaust tips run rampant - and that they aren't connected to anything other than the rear bumper, rendering them useless.
These fake exhaust tips like to be seen as a sporty addition to a car, but instead, they come off as tacky and not endearing.
Rear Bumper Placement - Yikes
Audi and Mercedes-Benz might be the worst offenders of using fake exhaust tips in their cars - and keep in mind, these are high-end and luxurious cars that are cruising down the street with fake accessories hanging off the back. Nothing depreciates the value of a good car like fake exhaust tips, trust me.
Audi launched the S6 in late 2019, it has a sporty look and feel and is stylish, and sleek - with one fault. It has the worst fake exhaust of any car that is currently in production, according to us.
On some models, you can easily see a fake exhaust tip, because they look to be somewhat glued on or haphazardly stuck onto the back of the car. However, with the Audi S6, they have gone the complete opposite direction - but to no avail.
If you somehow get close enough to this Audi S6, you can see that the exhaust is actually placed well behind where the fake exhaust has been positioned on the rear bumper of this car. Not only this, but Audi has even gone so far to cut out the bumper around them - yikes
Obviously NOT Real
On some models, we swear the manufacturers do not even try to hide the fact the exhaust tips are fake. We have seen some shocking cars, like the Skoda Octavia vRS, that has blatantly fake trims. Not only do they look fake, but on the diesel model, only one side of the vehicle has a black box behind the trim. We gotta say, if you are going to use fake exhaust tips combined with real exhaust pipes, why would you only place them on one side?
Using fake exhaust tips not only makes high-end cars look surprisingly cheap, but the lack of any function makes them just silly to add to cars. Why would you add something that makes a car look worse, doesn't add any value to the vehicle, and is noticeably fake - recognized by both car aficionados and regular pedestrians alike.