And before you go out there and buy your favorite car person,
their favorite car gift, today we got seven gifts not
to give that car person.
They're gonna hate it.
Find out right now.
["Merry Christmas"]
Hey, what's happening?
How are you doing today?
Thank you so much for being here and Merry Christmas
and happy holidays to you.
It is that time of year.
It is Christmas time right now.
And if you're thinking about like what to give as a gift
to maybe me, well, I always take cash.
It's always good, you know, gift cards, whatever.
Or just a big thank you.
Hey, listen, if you wanna get me anything,
all you can really do is just subscribe to the show
and that would be an amazing Christmas gift to me.
Thank you so much.
But seriously here, if you're gonna gift somebody
something that is a car guy
and you don't really wanna screw that up,
but if you weren't a screw it up,
I have seven of the top gifts you do not.
And I repeat, do not wanna give a car guy this Christmas.
So the top seven things you do not wanna give
as a gift or get as a gift
if you're a car enthusiast or a car person.
These are them.
Here we go, starting off with the number one on the list.
And that is if you're gonna give them some kind of like
fuel shark or some kind of similar science gadgets.
And what are these things?
Now these things are basically devices.
They often plug in some kind of like 12-volt socket
and they promise to save gas or boost performance
through pseudo science.
What?
And with no actual, actual effects really happening here.
I'm guessing these things are like miniature,
like the miniature turbos or some kind of like plug
into something or whatever.
No true like car person really is gonna buy anything.
It's like a, you know, a pseudo science gadget thing
you plug into your cigarette lighter or whatever
to help boost your performance.
I don't think how these things even work.
Do they even work?
I don't know.
I just know that if you are a real true car
enthusiast and you get one of these like fake
like fuel saving devices that plug into something,
you know, like a cigarette lighter kind of deal,
I can't imagine that they work.
And you're probably like, oh gee, thanks.
This is perfect for my white elephant gift.
I'll give out later.
Okay, moving on to number two.
Now this one, I mean, it's okay.
Cause I wear a lot of swag.
I wear a lot of car t-shirts.
I've, every time I go to the Shelby place up in Vegas,
I, you know, spend forever at the gift shop
picking out the perfect t-shirt I want to buy
or a few different t-shirts when I'm there.
So this is actually low quality generic branded apparel.
Now, when they say low quality stuff,
we're talking like maybe stuff that was made at like
one of those like, you know, tent sale swap meet style
kind of like t-shirt stuff.
If they have say a Chevy Corvette or Chevy, whatever,
and they, you know, you get them some kind of like
generic Chevy t-shirt, you know, it's,
I think it's okay.
It's on this list because probably because, you know,
maybe a t-shirt featuring their, you know,
favorite car logo might seem like a good idea.
But if the fabric is cheap or the graphic like cracks
and fades, you know, we wash it a few times
and then poof, it's gone.
It's like all faded and crap looking.
Then it becomes basically like, you know,
something you, you know, sleep in really is what it is.
It's not really a shirt you wear out anymore
or if like a shrink, I've had, you know,
some t-shirts I bought that weren't really
of the greatest quality and they shrink up
to like nothing.
And now it's like, what do I do with these things?
I know I give it to the kids and the kids have some
of my shirts and sweaters I've bought
that were pretty much low quality stuff
that were car related stuff that doesn't quite
fit me anymore.
So that is number two.
Okay. Moving on to number three.
And that is these universal fit accessories.
You know, some of these like these generic
like steering old covers, maybe the generic
like seat covers to say they fit everything.
Or I know how I like those floor mats.
You see these floor mats and say,
oh, these floor mats are custom made
for every single vehicle.
One size fits all, they're good.
They fit every single thing.
Well, the problem is they rarely,
like rarely actually fit well.
They're not really designed for that particular vehicle.
And they also kind of look cheap.
Like if you are a car enthusiast,
you probably don't want like cheap feeling material
in like your car.
I remember a while ago, I mean,
long time ago that I think about it,
probably in the 90s, maybe, yeah,
like late 90s really is when they had the carpeting
on the dash was all the rage.
Of course there were companies that sold
like generic ones or whatever like this,
but there were one companies that were actually like
designing them for particular cars.
Like it was custom made, custom fit for your car.
It was like Velcro Don or something like that,
but it was on the dash of your car.
And I remember everybody had them on all their cars.
It was kind of a cool thing to do is like,
you had this carpeting, like it wasn't like plush carpet.
It wasn't like, you know, shag carpet.
It was like a thin, like really low,
like carpeting kind of fabric on your dash.
And that was kind of a thing here.
So basically they're saying is that don't buy anybody,
anybody who was a car enthusiast,
cheap fitted universal fit things for their vehicle.
Because I think that a true car guy
who's got like say a particular Corvette,
a particular BMW, they would rather have, you know,
things from BMW or from Chevy for the Corvette
that are specifically designed for that particular car.
So it fits perfectly.
Okay, next up we have moving on to number four.
We are moving into the novelty gag gifts.
What?
Oh, I know what these are talking about.
They're talking about ever seen like a big like lifted
truck and hanging off like the back bumper,
hanging below, what do you see?
You see some truck nuts.
That's what I'm talking about.
Good old fashioned truck nuts hanging off
the back of your bumper.
Those kind of things are funny.
They're fun.
They're probably more of a white elephant gift.
But if you have a big truck
or you have a lifted truck, I have a truck.
Do not get me truck nuts on the back of my truck.
I could not imagine hanging those off the bumper
on my truck.
Truck nuts, come on.
Those are all gag gifts.
And I get that to be fun and be funny,
but don't take it seriously.
Don't make it like the thing you're gonna gift somebody.
Truck nuts, come on.
I mean, once you really hate the person,
I don't know maybe, you know, like something,
it can be your thing.
I don't know.
Maybe you guys get along that way
and it's your whole funny thing.
You give each other funny gifts, things like that.
I could totally see that happening,
but or maybe like those joke like decals
or it's like the one person peeing on the other vehicle,
like the Chevy peed on the Ford
and the Ford peed on the Chevy or whatever,
things like that, stickers like that.
I've gotten some stickers like that once
for my cars before.
And it's funny because when I get stickers as a gift,
I rarely ever like put them on anything.
And I think about it.
Like I'm not a big sticker guy.
I kind of used to be,
but maybe that's like a younger person's thing
is to put stickers on everything.
I don't really do that anymore.
I used to, not so much anymore.
And when I did put stickers on my trucks and cars,
they were pretty much like the parts I have installed
on the car, kind of like part stickers,
that kind of stuff, but that was pretty much it.
So, all right, moving on to number five.
Now this one, I've gotten a lot of these gifts.
I'm sure you have too.
And that is incompatible or useless tools.
If you've ever gone to like the dollar store
or you've ever gone to one of those like bargain bin baskets
at like any shop right now during the holidays for Christmas,
you'll see a lot of these like,
quick gift ideas for guys who work on cars
or guys who need tools.
And a lot of these are just basically like,
they're just super cheap, super cheap tools.
And no true car guy really ever uses those on their car.
I mean, this little gadget is a screwdriver,
a socket, it's a wrench, it's got all kinds of things.
And it like has a flashlight built into the thing
all the once and it fits your pocket.
Check this out.
And it was only five bucks, you know what I mean?
Like nobody really actually uses a wrench on a car.
They really don't.
They're more like just something
going to give somebody who's got a car.
Oh, I'm going to give this person, you know,
this cute little like tool thing because why not?
It's five bucks.
I found it at the checkout counter at the store here
and they like cars and this thing, you know,
it's a tool kit.
So I guess you use it to make work on cars.
Yeah, makes sense, I guess.
So, but if you are a car guy and you get this,
it goes in some junk drawer somewhere.
And then when you move, you realize,
oh, I actually have this thing.
Oh yeah, I remember I got this for Christmas
like four years ago.
And that is that.
So don't get anybody these weird,
like weird knockoff tool kits.
You know, I remember this one on TVHSC
where it was like, it's called like something
like any socket socket kind of thing
where it had this teeth that kind of like,
maybe it was a spring loaded kind of deal,
but somehow like it formed around any nut
and you probably saw infomercials for things like this.
That's the kind of stuff we're talking about here
because that's the kind of stuff you find
at those little quicky counter, you know,
they've seen on TV kind of places
or seen on TV, you know,
end caps at some of these stores,
you know, gadgets like that, no true car guy
probably will ever use those.
So it's best to say, do not give those as a gift.
Okay, moving on to number six, what do we have here?
Now this gets into like the car wash,
like I don't say car wash,
but like if you go to car wash
and you're waiting in line for your car to be finished
and as you kind of like wander around
the little store at the car wash,
what do you see a lot of?
You see a lot of these like branded air fresheners
and like super cheap key chains, stuff like that.
It's just like, you know, useless stuff.
It's whatever, you know, it is what it is.
Like I'm not a big air freshener guy.
In fact, when I go to the car wash
and they do give me a free air freshener,
I usually stick in the door jam and I never use it.
It just goes in there and like
kind of a whole collection of them.
So one day at work,
I like dropped like 10 of them off
on the kitchen break room table
and said, free, everybody take one, go right ahead
because I wasn't using them.
They were like just like piling up.
But I felt so bad, you know,
turning them down to the guy would give them to me.
I'd be like, yeah, I'll take a free air freshener.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it, you know?
And then I just put it in the door jam
and then eventually I just give them away.
But I don't think that two gar guys
really want like cheap like key chains
that are kind of cheapy and kind of like plastic, whatever.
Oh, this guy drives a Corvette.
I'm gonna get him a cheap Corvette, you know, key chain.
It might even be the Corvette he has.
It could be like a total different brand Corvette
different color, but it is a Corvette quote unquote.
And it's like this cheap little plastic key chain
probably breaks, you know, in one second.
Then I don't know if the guy really wants to use that
if he's got a vintage Corvette.
I mean, there's certain sense and certain like key chains
and certain things that car guys are really into.
And if they're really into this one thing,
I mean, you really gotta know your guy that is a car guy.
You gotta really know what they're into,
what a car they have, things they're really into.
And I remember that I've gotten gifts for my Z
that although they were for the Z,
but they really weren't for my particular Z.
They were for a different version of the Z,
which I guess it's fine,
but I just thought like be kind of cooler
if it was for my particular Z, my 370Z,
not some other model.
But hey, I guess, you know, to them a Z is a Z
and I was thankful for it anyways,
but a true car guy knows what they like.
And they probably, you probably should know
what they like too,
because you probably should know who they are
and what they're into and what a car they drive.
And if you are that car guy, you know, it's up with that.
You know, you would not like
putting kind of like crappy key chain on your car
or anything like, you know, those fuzzy dice hanging
from the window from the river mirror.
Who does that?
Did somebody do that anymore?
That a thing?
I don't think it is.
And moving on to the final and number seven worst gift
to give a car guy this Christmas
is those drive and dine car caddies.
You know, those trash can things, organizer, things like that.
Like, you know, I guess they're practical items.
Yeah, I mean, you know, they are designed
for like eating in the car and things like that.
I guess, but a real true car guy
is probably not going to be eating in their car.
Their car is probably not their road trip car.
It's probably their special car they have usually,
not always, but usually.
And so, I mean, these like trash can, trash bag things
are fun and all, but a car guy like myself
who really values the other car
and try to keep it clean like all the time
that they probably wouldn't even bring trash
into their car in the first place.
That wouldn't even be a thing.
So they wouldn't be eating in their car,
throwing trash everywhere in their car.
That's the thing about cars, let me tell you.
I mean, I've been a lot of different people's cars
and some people's cars are so ridiculously filthy
that yeah, I would see, get them like five of these things.
Seriously, get them like five of these things
for the regular person that has a messy car.
Yeah, get them these like trash can,
like thingy bobbers that, you know, hang over the seat
or fit in the cup holder, however they work.
Things like that.
I totally can see somebody who literally works in their car,
lives in their car, eats in their car all the time.
Yeah, totally get them that kind of stuff.
That would be something they would need to get, you know?
But if you are shopping for someone
who is a particular, a car guy that has a particular car
that they take to like cars and coffee, they show off.
You know, they got pictures of their car on the wall
and they keep in the garage under cover.
I do not think they're taking trash into their car
unless they absolutely have to.
For some reason, if they do, they're very first second.
They're very first second.
They have a chance they're throwing it out
and cleaning their car out and vacuuming it out immediately.
And there you have it.
And coming up next will be the top seven things
that you probably should get a car person.
If you're a car person, you probably want these things.
Listen on the very next episode
and once again, Merry Christmas
and don't forget to head on over to coolcarswithchrist.com
where you can listen to all the episodes,
subscribe to the show, leave me a message
and links to all my social media
are all right there at coolcarswithchrist.com
and I will see you on the very next episode.
About this episode
A holiday-themed guide highlighting seven gifts to avoid when shopping for car enthusiasts. The host humorously debunks popular but disliked items like pseudo-science fuel savers, low-quality branded apparel, universal-fit car accessories, novelty gag gifts like truck nuts, cheap or incompatible tools, tacky keychains and air fresheners, and impractical car trash organizers. Emphasizing the importance of knowing the recipient's specific car and tastes, the episode mixes personal anecdotes with practical advice. It sets the stage for a follow-up episode on ideal gifts for car lovers.
๐ Happy Holidays and welcome to Part 1 of our Cool Cars Christmas Special! ๐
Before you head out to buy a gift for the car lover in your life, STOP and listen to this episode โ because not all car gifts are created equal. In fact, some are just... downright awful.
In this festive and fun-filled episode, Chris breaks down the 7 worst Christmas gifts you could give a car enthusiast. From cheap swag to cringey gag gifts (weโre looking at you, truck nuts), youโll learn exactly what to avoid if you donโt want your present tossed in the glove box and forgotten forever.
The truth about โfuel-savingโ gadgets and why theyโre total junk
Why low-quality car apparel is a fashion (and fabric) fail
The universal-fit myth โ and how it kills the vibe in any ride
The kind of tools nobody wants in their garage
And much more!
Whether you're shopping for a gearhead, a car collector, or someone who just loves their ride, this episode is your holiday gift guide of what NOT to do.
๐ Stay tuned for Part 2 โ where Chris shares the 7 BEST gifts to buy a car enthusiast, coming just before Christmas!
๐ Links & Resources
๐ Full archive & bonus content: coolcarswithchris.com ๐ฌ Leave Chris a message or suggest a topic ๐ฑ Follow on social: All links at the website above ๐ Share this episode with your favorite car-loving friend
If you're shopping for Christmas gifts for car lovers, it's important to avoid the worst car gifts that can make even the most passionate car enthusiast cringe. In this holiday special from the Cool Cars with Chris podcast, we dive into bad car gift ideas, including cheap car gadgets, fake fuel savers, low-quality automotive apparel, and universal car accessories that don't actually fit. Whether you're looking for gifts for gearheads, automotive holiday gift guide tips, or just trying to find what not to buy a car guy, this episode is packed with helpful advice. Weโll cover everything from gag gifts for car guys and junk car tools to novelty air fresheners and in-car trash bins. If youโre searching for the best Christmas gifts for car enthusiasts, make sure to start here so you can skip the junk. Learn what real car collectors, performance car fans, and automotive DIYers actually wantโand what they definitely donโt. This episode is perfect for anyone buying holiday gifts for auto enthusiasts, especially if you're new to the world of car culture, modding, or garage life. Itโs a fun, festive, and informative car podcast episode for the holidays that will steer you in the right direction this Christmas.
