Has chrome trim fallen out of fashion?

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Emergency-Bit-6226@reddit

No, chrome window trim, chrome badging, bright polished aluminum or silver wheels, it just has to be built right. Black and darker gray or silver is very hot right now though and has been for awhile

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EVE_Burner_Account@reddit

Has been old person spec for a while now

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Chrome is one of those things that a minimal amount on the right vehicle looks great! But anything added from AutoZone looks tacky. All blacked out or deleted with black rims is getting tired IMO. Just a touch of chrome, like a pinch of salt on a good meal, can do wonders.

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RobertNeyland@reddit

Chrome accessories added on to modern cars looks tacky as fuck, but a classic vehicle from the 1950s that is cleaned and polished up really pops when contrasted to all those beautiful deep paint colors (which contained heavy metals unfortunately) that were used in that era.

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K-Rimes@reddit

Chrome to me, was always associated with 70s classic cars, Harleys, old dudes and their trucks, and people with poor taste buying random "dress up" parts for their Altimas from AutoZone. Personally I think it looks really tacky on newer cars.

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RobertNeyland@reddit

>Chrome to me, was always associated with 70s classic cars 1958 was the peak for chrome trim. Go check out some photos of a 1958 Buick Roadmaster or a Chevy Impala.

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Of_Sand_and_Foam@reddit

VW Arteon has really good chrome accents imo

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protect-positivity@reddit

Plastic chrome = trashy, terrible, and people should stop putting it all over their pickups Metal chrome can really elevate a vehicle though

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Patient-Light-3577@reddit

Especially along the bottom of the doors on their rusted out Chevy. Or any truck for that matter.

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Total-Improvement535@reddit

I’ve got an old Crown Vic and it’s got chrome rocker moldings trailing the wheels on the quarters. I love the look of it

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thehomeyskater@reddit

Based

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dodadoler@reddit

On clothes yes

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RavedBlitz@reddit

Yes, for about 40 years now.

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CMDR-LT-ATLAS@reddit

Yes. I hate it

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cans-of-swine@reddit

I've thought of chrome as old person trim for at least 20 years.

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Tony-cums@reddit

Agree. Hate it.

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TiFist@reddit

Was gonna say-- blackout trim is nothing new.

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Intelligent_Part101@reddit

And boy is blackout looking tired now. What's old is new--chrome will eventually return.

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One_Evil_Monkey@reddit

My '88 GMC S15 Jimmy Z71 (YES you could actually get the Z71 Off-Road package on S10s/S15s back then- not many folks know/knew about it)... mine also has the Gypsy package (which was similar to the S10's Sport package) and that was: The chrome trim around the tail lights was black, door handles and locks were black, chrome mirror backs were black. Chrome bumpers were body color. Headlight bezels and grille were body color. Looks good on an all black vehicles. Other colors, not quite so much. "Sport" appearance type packages have been around for over 30 years, in some cases, they actually cost *more* for the "chrome delete" option. Now it's basically standard not to have much if any chrome.

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FlintHillsSky@reddit

I’m getting pretty tired of the uninspired black on black look of a lot of chrome deletes.

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wowjimi@reddit

Also because it's a toxic chemical so manufacurers have to go through regulartory bs, so it is not worth the trouble

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CockroachVarious2761@reddit

Sadly - yes; everyone now wants their car to look like they are old order mennonite from Lancaster County - PA. YEA, I grew up and still live in LancCo - where the older order would buy new cars that came with chrome bumpers standard and they'd paint them flat black. Given that background I will never understand the "all black" trend in cars today. I seriously think the auto-industry has created this by limiting colors and therefore saving themselve money by not having to produce as many options - I believe Henry Ford himself was quoted as saying something like "You can have any color you want, as long as its black".

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SailingSpark@reddit

I grew up in the 80s when the monocolour "eurolook" came out. I personally never cared for massive amounts of chrome and I hope the excess of the 50s, 60s, and 70s never comes back.

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RumorsOFsurF@reddit

Factory chrome is good, 99% of aftermarket chrome is that Autozone bullshit. I'm old school. I'd rather have chrome trim than blacked out everything. To me black trim looks like a poverty spec work truck, especially if the truck is white.

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wpmason@reddit

I fell in love with 2nd Gen Dakotas and 1st Gen Durangos in large part because they eschewed trim. That was in 1997/98.

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puskunk@reddit

It is. I used to work in a car factory and one of my jobs was keeping the rear SUV window surrounds supplied. We sold far more stainless and blacked out window equipped than we did chrome.

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Alarmed_Champion_302@reddit

When chrome is in in bathrooms, its out in cars. When chrome is in on cars, its out in bathrooms. Presently chrome is in, in bathrooms.

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KittiesRule1968@reddit

No

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iAmAsword@reddit

My 2011 had some chrome trim on the belt moldings, one of the first things I swapped out to black.

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itchybiscut9273@reddit

Cars are not designed in a way now where chrome would look nice. Chrome needs straight hard lines to really look good, most cars now don't have anything of the sort on them.

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JRayMaySayHey@reddit

They switched to chrome plastic to save money and weight and it peels in a year or two and they have to replace it, so yeah, they stopped using it

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captstinkybutt@reddit

Chrome has always sucked. Idk why people like it.

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insanecorgiposse@reddit

A major problem for chrome trim, if someone hasn't already mentioned it, is the enormous environmental damage the restoration and replating process causes. The cost of remediation is so high that all the old timer rechroming outfits have closed or retired because they cannot afford to meet the environmental regulations or cost of hazardous material handling insurance.

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Gunk_Olgidar@reddit

Chrome comes, chrome goes, murdered out comes, murdered out goes, body color comes, body color goes. Do whatever you want with your car to make it your own.

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Neat_Telephone_2525@reddit

It looks awful on the denali trucks and decent on the powerstrokes

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teethalarm@reddit

Chrome looks cool on older cars that were designed with a certain aesthetic in mind. I think it also looks cool on certain motorcycles and semis when done thoughtfully. But other than that it's basically just more surfaces to reflect sunlight and blind you.

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TellemTom@reddit

I think it’s entirely dependent on context. It can be period correct, horrid, sometimes both.

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jack-t-o-r-s@reddit

Chrome is awful. *INTERIOR* chrome will make me drive a Yugo instead.

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that_guy_who_builds@reddit

When I see anything post-198X with anything that appears to be newer chrome, a lot of negative thoughts cross my mind regarding the owner's capacity for sound decision making, and overall taste. It's not to be mean, but it is my biggest vehicular ick.

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HighGroundIsOP@reddit

Famous auto designer Ian Callum declared chrome was dead about 15 years ago. He was right…as it has steadily (steeply?) declined since then. At some point it will make a comeback, but the rise of shiny piano black exterior pieces has definitely taken its place.

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Equivalent_Thievery@reddit

I've disliked it for a long time. Not only is just plastic, it's a shiny surface to reflect sun in your eyes.

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popejubal@reddit

I have a few chrome-like surfaces inside my car and I’ve considered using plastidip or something similar to de-chrome them exactly for that reason.

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smthngeneric@reddit

Anything but plastidip. I hate that shit. Get a small bit of black wrap or something it'll look way better

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joestradamus_one@reddit

Only one exception, old classic 50's cars. Everything else, chrome is trash in my eyes.

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f700es@reddit

Yes, it's for old men. I'm 54 and no more chrome unless an old 60's car and then I still might not do it.

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Captkarate42@reddit

I think any chrome colored plastic has generally always been seen as absolutely awful by the car community. I don't mind it if it's actual metal on an old classic, but it's pretty much been all bad since the 80s.

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honkyslonky@reddit

Yea and apparently fake grilles with their own zipcode are in instead

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Heavy_Gap_5047@reddit

I'll take some tasteful chrome over those ugly "grills" every time.

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OkCartographer175@reddit

It's the easiest mod in the world. For people who are new to modding cars, it's something they can easily do. They just buy some vinyl wrap and apply it over the chrome. It makes their car look different, whether they go with body color or black or whatever, it's just something different that makes them feel like they made their car unique/different. It's also a mod that no one hates on, so people who care about what others think still feel safe doing it without risking listening to people telling them they "ruined the car" with their mod. It's easy to remove if/when they sell the car or decide they don't like it. In short, it's a $50 mod that is easy to do, easy to undo, provides a little bit of an "I did a thing" feeling of pride, and no one will give you shit for doing it.

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7eregrine@reddit

I've always hated Chrome. Not even kidding one if the deciding factors when I chose my 16 CX5 over the Cheerokee abs CRV. No fake chrome around the windows. I despise that. But Chrome isn't dead. The MAda and Volvo subs I hang in like thier chrome.

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Heavy_Gap_5047@reddit

Yes, but I still like it.

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nostradumbass7544678@reddit

The only chrome on the exterior of my car is the badges. Even my lugnuts are black. I think it looks great.

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rudbri93@reddit

You could order 'shadowline trim' on my '91 3 series that blacked out some of the chrome. Its been common for a while.

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