Anything But Coffee

Sometimes I just can’t understand what is going through a persons head when they decide to customize their car. At times it seems like some people just can’t decide on a central theme for their car or or just want to put as many accessories as they can to the point where its just ugly.

What gets more on my nerves is when people take aftermarket parts for a Nissan or Toyota and put it on a Honda or Mazda.

Sadly, a lot of people seem to just go overboard with fixing up their cars instead of taking the time to plan it out right and make it look nice.

Below is just an example I see often in my complex and decided I had to take some pictures of it.

Notice the ugly roof rack, non fitted GReddy lip spoiler, a 5 zigen intercooler which doesnt exist, cheap foglights which now has one covered by the repositioning of the license plate with the cool Mugen license plate holder and what really kills me is the damn Soshinoya stickers.

Randy Home aftermarket parts, Honda, soshinoya sticker

Seriously, I am really starting to hate seeing Soshinoya stickers on all these Hondas out here in California.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all about customizing your import and I love JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) parts but there is a time and place for everything.

There is a right way and a wrong way to fix up your Honda Civic or your Acura RSX. If you are going to go the JDM route be sure you do your research and know what you are putting on your car.

Just because a part comes from Japan doesn’t mean that you need to put it on your car and claim you are “soooo JDM”.

Case in point are the Soshinoya stickers. These yellow and green arrow like stickers are popping up everywhere in California on Honda’s and Acura’s but what pushed me over the edge today was seeing one of the Soshinoya stickers on the rear of a freaking Saturn! What…don’t believe me? Well here’s some proof.

Yup that’s right, that is a USDM General Motors owned Saturn with a Japanese Sticker on it.

Now let’s talk about what the purpose of the Soshinoya sticker is in Japan. This literally is a sticker that is used as a warning to other drivers in Japan to symbolize the driver’s level of experience, and this specific one is the “New Driver” decal.

This means that who ever is driving with this on their car isn’t that experienced and will probably crash into you if you drive to close to them. These are actually issued by the Japanese government.

Why would anyone, especially one who’s trying to show hes a “bad ass import racer“, want to show off that they have little to no driving skills??? Better yet, I have even seen people driving around with the Koleshiya Elder Driver sticker seen here:

These Koleshiya stickers indicate that this driver is elderly and like the Soshinoya, is a danger to drive next to.

It just goes to show that just because something is trendy or is JDM doesn’t mean that it should be put on your car.

At least do your research and find out what it’s purpose is so you don’t look like an idiot when someone who actually knows what those emblems represent starts to ask you and all you can say is “well it looks cool, it’s soooo JDM”.

Randy Automotive, Home Honda, Import Racing, JDM