Want to know what’s hot right now in the automotive community? Check out these top car modification trends of 2023.
Modifying trends come in waves, and they’re cyclical more often than not. With each decade and each generation there will come fresh new ideas and different ways of doing things, as fashions evolve and technology progresses. And at the same time, nostalgia tugs on the heart-strings, and styles from times gone by come back into fashion. So what’s hot on the car modification scene right now? Roll up, roll up, we’ve put it all into a handy top-ten for you…
Top Car Modification Trends of 2023
Custom LED lights
This is a trend which has been growing for a few years, and it’s very much a characterizing trait for modified cars across the board this year. Every generation has its identifying markers (for example, when you talk about 1990s builds, you think of Venoms and bad-boy-bonnets and pointy fiberglass bumpers), and future generations will look back at the 2020s and say: custom LED lights.
We’re not talking just about upgrading your bulbs, but having full replacement clusters with redesigned internals to improve your car’s lighting while also giving it a fresh new look. This has been particularly popular in the Ford scene, with companies like Monkey Wrench building bespoke LED light designs, and now it’s spilling out across the tuning world overall: you can get LED lights for Mazda MX-5s from Carbon Miata, for BMW M3/M4s from CarbonWurks, and for all sorts of cars from VLAND.
’90s/’00s revival
There’s been a massive groundswell of enthusiasm for reviving the tuning culture of the 1990s and early 2000s, with shows like RADwood and the Max Power Reunion gaining traction, and modders restoring well-known project cars back to their turn-of-the-millennium specs. That era even served as the inspiration for one of Calvin Harris’ new music videos!
In the ’90s it was all about bold aesthetic endeavors: headlight swaps from other cars, smoothed bodywork, oodles of mesh, wing vents from Mercedes vans, the biggest rims possible joined by the biggest exhausts. As we moved into the 2000s, the influence of The Fast and the Furious fueled a rush to slather everything in full-length Manga graphics – yes, even Vectras and Mondeos. People painted their cars bright orange, fitted them with colossal aluminum spoilers, and bathed them in a lurid glow of underbody neon. Everyone wanted to be Dom Toretto or Brian O’Conner.
People who were in their teens in that era are now in their late-thirties and forties, having reached a life stage whereby they can afford to build the cars that their teenage selves had dreamed of. That’s why we’re seeing all this coming back.
Audio builds
Proper quality audio builds never went away, of course. It’s been a perennial constant of the modifying scene across the ages that people have always wanted to upgrade their stereo systems to create better fidelity and clarity, more impressive volume, deeper bass… but what’s really on trend right now is the ostentatious audio build.
This was something that, again, was very popular in the 1990s and 2000s on the show scene. Back then it was a case of crafting extravagantly shaped enclosures from fiberglass to house speakers, amps and subs, finishing it all in bright colors with perhaps a bit of airbrushing. Nowadays it’s more about tastefully integrating the hardware into the car’s interior – but it has been noticeable how many more big audio builds we’re seeing on the show scene. These fashions, they come in waves.
Tuned exhausts
A thoughtful approach to how a car sounds has become a bit of a thing among certain corners of the modifying community. A few years ago everyone was very excited about pop-and-bang maps, and they enjoyed a huge popularity among those of a more peacocking persuasion. Now though, they’re generally regarded as just being a bit antisocial, or – dare we say it – cringey.
Today’s modders are going the other way, putting proper research into the lengths and diameters and formations of the pipework in their exhaust systems to create just the right tone. Did you know that when Mazda originally developed the MX-5, they specifically tuned the exhaust note to sounds like a classic 1960s British roadster? That’s the same line of thinking. With a bit of thought, effort and expertise, you can make your car sound sublime – not just dumb pops and bangs, but an intelligent and considered soundtrack
Retro base hatches
Upscaling lesser cars has always been a popular approach, taking an OEM+ line to make a car appear higher-spec than it is without looking over-modified. Let’s say you’re a teenager in the nineties with an Escort 1.3 L – you might go to the local scrapyard and find an XR3i or an RS Turbo, liberate the alloys and spoilers and bumpers, and reinvent your ride. Not necessarily trying to pass it off as the real deal, but at least going a step or two further than merely peeling off the giveaway ‘L’ badge.
But what we’re seeing today is young enthusiasts going the other way, wearing a base model as a badge of honor. Because cars like the Mk3 Ford Fiesta, the Peugeot 106 and the Rover Metro (all of which are enjoying renewed popularity at the moment) represent the polar opposite of a brand new car – everything’s analogue, everything’s simple, it’s a cool throwback to a different age that’s a deliberate counterpoint to every other identikit Aygo or Picanto in the college car park.
Underglow
We’re not saying that every big modifying trend in 2023 is something old that’s come back around, but… neons are back! Although they’re not neon any more. The world’s moved on, the technology’s advanced, and the notion of sticking a bunch of light-up elements to your chassis has got a whole lot more dynamic.
Back in the day, cruises were liberally studded with cars rolling on neons, which was essentially not a lot much more sophisticated than bolting a bunch of kitchen strip lights under there. But today’s underglow employs LED tech – kits from companies like Glowkit and Ambient Car Vibes can fit into all sorts of shapes, phase through different colours with ultra-brightness, and offer literally millions of customisation options that’s all controlled by your phone via Bluetooth. Next time you go to a car meet after dark, you’ll see this stuff everywhere.
Lambo doors
Yep, they’re back too! Lamborghini-style doors – or scissor doors, if you like – are yet another modding trope that was massive twenty years ago and is coming screaming back onto the scene again. The premise is pretty simple – universal kits are available from a number of outlets to convert your door hinges from outward to upward-opening, plus gas struts to hold them in place so it doesn’t fall down and bonk you on the coconut.
It can be tricky to perfect the panel gaps and the operation, but the effort pays dividends. We were surprised when we started seeing cars with Lambo doors again on the show scene this year, and it’s definitely something that’s gaining traction. Even OEMs are getting in on the act. Nissan used them as part of its 20-23 EV concept design (pictured above) and the production version of the upcoming MG Cyberster will have scissor doors from launch!
They’re actually surprisingly practical too – you can park in much tighter spaces in the multi-storey. (Just make sure it doesn’t have a low ceiling!)
Big screens
One of the most cutting-edge trends in the modifying community is the idea of grafting in oversize touchscreen dash tech, either from newer models or from other OEMs, in order to give the car in question a bigger screen with more features and functions.
It’s a particularly impressive thing to see on the showground as it can be a fiendishly difficult job to get it to work correctly, but there are more and more people out there displaying the skills to get it done. We’ve seen oversize Tesla screens, for example, retrofitted into Mustangs, Civics, 370Zs and all sorts. It’s not easy, but that’s what makes it so impressive.
Turbofans and Aerodiscs
What better way to showcase your exquisite wheel choice than to hide it behind a big frisbee? Just kidding – but seriously, these things are everywhere at the shows these days. Turbofans have always been popular, as they offer a direct link to the form-meets-function world of motorsport, and the fact that they’ve been fitted to so many legendary race cars over the generations means that it’s a super-cool thing to have on a road car.
And when Rotiform launched their Aerodiscs a little while back, which were compatible with a number of their wheel designs, it opened up a whole new world of creativity. Because all of a sudden you’ve got a blank plane over your wheels that’s just begging for some color or an unexpected brand name or what-have-you. Or maybe not – maybe you like the stormtrooper look. Either way, it’s motorsport-flavored and it’s fun.
Engraved taillights
It’s hard to say precisely where and when this trend originated, but there’s no denying that it’s getting more and more popular. In essence, the notion is to take a Dremel or similar and v-e-r-y carefully engrave a pattern into the plastic of your taillights. We’ve seen it done with floral styles, and a lace effect, and lightning crackles – the potential for creativity is endless.
Naturally the best thing to do is buy a spare set of taillight clusters and get busy engraving them rather than having at it with the set that’s on your car (just in case you mess it up – it’s tricky!), but when it’s done well it looks totally gorgeous. And for a lot of talented people out there, this is making for a terrific finishing touch for this season’s mods.
