Is Your Car Hip or Hideous?

Matte Paint

Depending on your age, and possibly your taste in movies, flat-black paint schemes recall either 1950s hot rods or Batman's Tumbler assault vehicle from "The Dark Knight." Either way, they're both cool reference points. The flat-black look works best on anything low-slung and muscular, such as the Dodge Challenger or Bentley Continental GT, or with off-road and vaguely military-looking vehicles such as the Jeep Wrangler Safari or Toyota FJ Cruiser. Just refrain from going overboard with jet-black window tints and murdered-out metalwork.

View Slideshow:  Real Off-Road Warriors

Gull-wing / Scissor / Butterfly Doors

Consider gull-wing, scissor or butterfly doors to be the leather pants of aftermarket car mods: It's a look you probably can't pull off, but if you can, you're a rock star. By all rights, this mod should fall in the "don't" category, especially considering that we mostly see gull-wing, butterfly or scissor-door kits applied with galling results to old and cheap Japanese hatchbacks. But if your ride has the right profile — a retro look, sleek and low with a long bonnet, like this Porsche 928 — a set of flip-up doors can look amazing.

Read:  Evolution of the Car Door

Motorsports Livery Skin

Car wraps, or skins, allow you to change the look of your car relatively easily and inexpensively, adding the effect of, say, a matte paint finish or, even better, a full-on motorsports livery to your daily commuter. A word of warning, though: This mod works best on models that already have some rally-race pedigree, such as a Subaru Impreza WRX, MINI Cooper or Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

Compare: Subaru Impreza WRX vs. MINI Cooper vs. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

Carbon-Fiber Bits

Carbon fiber has become such a hot material that its signature houndstooth-like pattern is now a high-end design element in its own right. But as with any designer calling card, it's best to use carbon fiber sparingly. Skip the full carbon-fiber hood for a subtle touch peeking out from a front diffuser. A bit added as the housing of custom side mirrors or as an interior dashboard panel will not only look slick, but will do all the things carbon fiber does — namely, cut weight and add rigidity.

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Retrofit Gauges

Speaking of dashboard improvements, don't forget that the design of the most beautiful cars pays as much attention to the interior as to the sheet metal. Here's a slick touch: Retrofit vintage car gauges to your modern machine's electronic movements. Swapping out the stock instrument panel on your 2010 Corvette Z06 with the gauges from a 1962 'Vette All American is a good deal more custom, and far more notable, than a set of flash rims.

View Slideshow:  Special Edition Cars

Metal-Flake Paint

Sure, if you spring for some purple or yellow metal-flake paint that makes your low-riding Lincoln Navigator look like it was conceived in Candyland, everyone will stare at your ride as you roll by. The same can be said if you light it on fire, and frankly, if you opt for the former we're going to hope for the latter.

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Side Skirts

We hate to break this to you, but if you don't have any NASCAR events on your work schedule, your ride probably doesn't need the downforce and cornering stability provided by racing-style side skirts. In fact, unless you're a dedicated track-day enthusiast, this goes for your whole setup: lip kit, rear spoiler, hood scoop. Stop playing dress-up with your car.

View Slideshow:  2011's Best Pace Cars

The Wrong Skin

We've already extolled the virtues of certain car wraps, or skins, but notice that when we did, we were talking about the "right" skin. There are oh so many wrong skins, and unfortunately, these are what we see most often: cars wrapped fore to aft in neon-green alligator skin, or with the Louis Vuitton "LV" monogram splashed conspicuously across every square inch of a Chevy Caprice — the last place you'd expect to see the logo of a famed French luxury house.

Bing: Vehicle Skins

Massive Exhaust

On the right car, a unique exhaust can act as a signature design element and add to the overall look of the vehicle, not to mention help maximize performance. Take the striking center-mounted quad exhaust on the new Pagani Huayra, for example. But please don't take — or, God forbid, go out and buy — a massively oversized, coffee-can-shaped exhaust and apply it to your ride. We know it's supposed to add a touch of performance cred to your car, but it's not really doing anything for your 1997 Honda Civic, except making the 4-cylinder sedan sound like it has consumption.

Compare: Honda Civic vs. Ford Focus vs. Mazda Mazda3

Super-Cambered Wheels

As with many insane trends, we have our friends in Japan to thank for super-cambered wheels. They are part of a movement called "VIP style" that was purportedly popularized by Yakuza gangsters. It essentially means modifying large, rear-wheel-drive Japanese luxury sedans by lowering them, adding front lip kits and large rims, and tweaking the wheels with so much negative camber that the car becomes not only dangerous to drive, but looks as if it had been dropped from a tall building.

Bing: Custom Car Trends

Josh Condon has covered everything from nanotechnology to champagne and caviar for the likes of The New York Times, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Cargo and RL Magazine.

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