Sport Compact Appearance Add-Ons

It's hardly a secret that the hottest segment of the car market right now is sport compacts, like those seen in last summer's movie hit "The Fast and the Furious." No surprise, then, that bolt-on items for these pocket rockets are in huge demand. According to the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), which has tracked this niche since 1997, retail product sales topped $1.5 billion in 2001.

Rims and Bands You name it, you can buy it—and bolt it on.
For the compact enthusiast, these products fall into three basic categories: appearance, engine compartment and audio/electronic. SEMA's International Auto Salon in Long Beach, a California version of the Tokyo Auto Salon, recently displayed the latest offerings of these mods for just about every make and model, such as the new Toyota Matrix, the ever-popular Honda Civic, Mazda's MP3, Subaru's WRX, Ford's top-selling Focus, and so on. To make sense of this laser-light spectacle of aftermarket add-ons, we'll hit the highlights for just the appearance items.


No tuner car looks good without a set of custom rims with rubber bands (read: wheels with low-profile performance tires). The turnover rate in wheel designs is so high that styles don't last much longer than the ice cream flavor of the month. Tires have a bit more staying power, but new tread designs, some with color stripes, are part of the mix. Exotic sizes are the big news, but not necessarily for compacts, such as BFGoodrich's high-performance 24-inch g-Force T/A-KDW, which measures 305/35VR24. Yokohama even had a whopping 26-incher as an eye-catching display, but no word yet on whether it will actually hit the road.

Skirts and Flames
What you can get right now are all those aero kits and body mods—wings, skirts, spoilers, neon and strobe accents, custom headlights and taillights, and carbon-fiber hoods. You name it, you can buy it—and bolt it on. And to finish things off right, don't forget stainless-steel exhaust tips etched with flames. Some even have light-emitting diodes in the end that glow at night with different colors.


For an even stronger statement, check out the wild graphics and custom paint schemes. Machine-turned metal (bare metal with swirls) is also making a comeback, but instead of on the dash, it's being used on the exterior panels. In some cases the underlying metal is actually exposed, and in others it's a vinyl stick-on graphic.