These are your worst car holiday gifts – Jalopnik

Christmas has come and gone, and now it’s the new year. We’re celebrating this occasion by reminiscing about some of the worst car holiday gifts our readers have ever received. When I posed the question earlier this week, I shared the anecdote about how my parents gifted me a truly hideous steering wheel for racing video games. It’s certainly inspired many of you to share the bad gifts your parents gave you, whether they were overly complicated toys or cars that needed expensive repairs.

Don’t worry, almost all of the vitriol is aimed at retailers who push people to buy terrible products for their loved ones who are car enthusiasts. While we would all love to receive a thoughtful gift, it is unlikely that it will find its way naturally to the right person. It has gotten to the point where many would rather have a gift card or cold, hard cash. Without further ado, these are the gifts we wouldn’t give to our worst enemies:

Pretty much any “car wash kit” or similar, most contain 90% products I would never use.

Submitted by: cintocrunch1

All those stupid multi-function “tools”.

One year my wife bought me a ratchet wrench that had about 8 different sizes, all in one. So you almost always got the right size, right?

Only, to cram so many sizes into each end of the key, the heads were so big that it barely fit into any space. It’s still in my toolbox, but I don’t think I’ve ever used it. Been there probably 20 years.

Submitted by: Stillnotatonia

Car air fresheners, especially those that clip into the vents. I had to go, “oh that’s nice,” and put them in the closet because I don’t want my car smelling like synthetic strawberry.

Submitted by: Alf Excited

My father gave me his 1973 SAAB Sonett III. It took me 3 years of weekends and $13,000 to restore it to a running car. It regularly needs an impossible-to-find part to keep it running, and it sits there for months while I search for it online for hours. A gift… but I still have it. I have to hear my wife complain about it taking up space every time she walks past it in the garage. So that advantage is there…

Submitted by: Old_SLAB_Guy

Christmas 1990. Days of Thunder had just been released that year. All my extended family knew about me was that I loved NASCAR. I received approximately 7 Monogram Days of Thunder 1:24 model kits. I was 10 years old and not a modeler. I still have a few from the factory plastic in my closet. Waiting for those eBay earnings, but so far they’re only at about $40.

Submitted by: Michael Tonelli

Almost all of them. So much junk is packaged and marketed as gifts for car enthusiasts, but it’s all just cheap junk. Emergency kits that include jumper cables with thin wires and crappy clamps, ratchet/socket wrench sets made of metal that break with the slightest real force, tire inflators that struggle to inflate a pool toy, etc. Any real car man/woman has already spent a lot of money on quality tools. And don’t get me started on those emergency glass break hammers that no one would ever need, let alone have the means/access to grab/use effectively if their car sinks into a dark, cold pond.

Submitted by: BuddyS

Don’t buy them anything, just like a hobby. Give them cash or, if you really must, a gift certificate to a place they shop often.

Buying a gift for a car or tool lover usually results in some kind of terrible tool or gimmick from AutoZone.

Submitted by: nopar