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Yes, it's nice to live in California's (mostly) benign climate, but salt can still (sometimes) be a problem right along the immediate coastline. And California has a lot of natural disasters to contend with (earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides/landslides, Santa Ana winds, etc...)...it's not necessarily the Paradise that is often glamorized.
Even in a nice climate, though, some people simply like the body-cladding look for its image. I think you and me (and tex2670) can all agree on that.
LOL Don't let the media fool you, nobody here is worried about any of that. Paradise is Hawaii but California is close
Here in New England, I see a lot of rusted fenders on vehicles without the cladding. Even pickup trucks that are only 6 or 7 years old. I see many where the whole truck still looks new but with rusting fenders. Imagine paying $45K for a truck and it starts disintegrating that quickly? All it takes is one small rock to kick up and chip the bottom of the fender. Then the rusting process beings.
To note how rare it is to have color-keyed cladding in the mainstream class, only the top trim Sorento has painted ones in the mainstream 3-row class. But you're paying over $45K for the smallest entry in the segment. Telluride gets gray on top trims.
The Blazer is interesting because it is the first (to my knowledge), to have piano black finished cladding. Certainly gives it a more premium look.
Also, why does everyone always call the cladding black when it is clearly gray? Always found that curious.
I think it cheapens the look. Very disappointed when Lexus started it. Driving cars over a million miles and never had a dent where this plastic goes. Love to see how good my 2017 RX 450h would look without. At least it does not look as bad as on the UX.
IMHO I think a car or SUV looks more premium when it has everything body-colored. Two SUVs that come to mind are the BMW X5 and Range Rover Sport...in the lower end trim models, the trims and cladding are black/grey plastic. On BWM M-Sport or RRS HST / Dynamic models, the trims are body colored:
Small fender trim pieces around the wheel wells were an accessory I added to my white 2011 MDX. It was inexpensive and looked good as an accent on a white vehicle. I also thought it might provide a small level of protection. I would only put it on black or white vehicles.
I think it cheapens the look. Very disappointed when Lexus started it. Driving cars over a million miles and never had a dent where this plastic goes. Love to see how good my 2017 RX 450h would look without. At least it does not look as bad as on the UX.
Have you considered removing them from your RX? I didn't know they were on the 2017 but googled it and see it - that looks like a pretty thin black strip in the photos but I agree with you I'm not a fan of the look. It just reminds me of lower-end models from back in the day, but I think the trend is here to stay for a while.
05-16-19, 03:34 PM
