M A K E I T S H I N I E R — On my daily walk around town today, I saw several examples of what I call, Too Much Dealer Trim. You know what I mean! Nice cars that for some reason or another, have 'chrome' plastic B pillar inserts, similar shiny wide rocker panel trim, gold packages, and not-willing-to-die-yet, fake convertible roofs.
I saw a 2-3 year old Lexus LS460 or whatever the level is just beneath the full-zoot 600. Beautiful charcoal color, aftermarket-but-not terrible aluminum wheels, and a 6 inch wide piece of obviously chromed plastic B pillars. Whatever their purpose they would have looked cheap in a dollar store. I also noticed an older Benz S class with those gaudy 'chrome' wheel well trim sets, the ones designed to cover the rust that affects so many Benzes of this period. Another Lexus, an older RX, featured not only the gold package, but at least six inches of flat bright 'panels' along the door bottoms. The most grievous example of TMDT was a last generation Cadillac CTS, the first chiseled sports sedan from that venerated GM division. This particular CTS, a navy blue example, was topped by a "canvas" convertible roof, fake top bows and all. Popular in the late Seventies, on the Bill Blass Mark Vs and cars of that ilk, this is one particularly nasty dealer option that needs to go away now, lol—in my humble opinion of course, as always!
Perhaps these are the contemporary version of curb-feelers, necking-knobs and traffic light viewers of our parent's generation, perhaps they're just another way to part that all-mighty dollar from its eager-to-be-parted-from owners. Leave those nice cars alone. In most cases, the original designers know best. Being noticed is one thing, but it has to be for the right reasons! : )
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