#AutoAccessories

Did you make it out to the stores today? If so, we hope you’ve made it back home free of injuries. If you’re still in the thick of it, perhaps bartering with a stranger you’re a little bit scared of, well, best of luck.

No doubt some of you belong to that ambitious crop of Americans who valiantly fight off a food coma and struggle across floors flick with cranberry sauce, gravy and some sort of mashed root vegetable concoction to find your jacket and car keys on Black Friday morning. The sun hasn’t peeked above the horizon, but there’s deals to be had. You can smell them — that heated seat cushion that plugs into the cigarette lighter, cupholder vape dispensers, you name it — and no threat of long lineups, physical violence or crushing disappointment will deter you from achieving a Black Friday personal best.

So, we want to know: what automotive accessory lured you out of a warm home this morning?

After/Before
Image courtesy of tofugu.com

I hear the SEMA show was last week. You know the SEMA show, right? It’s that important aftermarket manufacturers’ show held each autumn in Las Vegas where various companies try to pitch their products to customizers and retailers. Like all good automotive trade shows, SEMA features hundreds of companies and dozens upon dozens of custom vehicles. The fancy, hand-built cars draw people to the displays and form a pretty canvas on which a company can display its wares. But like any fashion show there is a hidden truth. The special parts on this or that big-name builder’s hot rod won’t have the same effect on your own, more mundane vehicle. No, for most of us beauty is an illusion; the phrase “lipstick on a pig” exists for a reason.