I thought it would be an interesting thread, if we could pinpoint which car manufacturer was the first to introduce a feature, an option or a design element that is now used in every car.

For instance, we all know that Volvo was the first to introduce a three-point seat belt, but which brand introduced these exhaust vents first ?

 

This is a good thread. Maybe LS460?

 

I thought so too but I’m not sure. When I first saw it on a LS I thought it looked so sleek, different and just awesome. Then all the other manufacturers started doing it and it started to look cheap to me. I have it on my X7 and feel it looks cheap. I vaguely remember how it was done on my LS but I remember the implementation seemed much better.

 

This is a common misconception the first 3-point belt was used by U.S. automaker Nash Motors, about in 1950. The 3-point belt itself was invented around 60 years earlier.

 

My vote goes to LS460...

 

[img]data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==[/img]This is unlikely to be the very first example...

 

Maybe because everyone does it now? But the way they do it now, they don't do as well as they used to. So it looks tacky. We were out today and we saw a few cars...sad to see some Audis with faux exhausts Can't believe the A6/A8 have fake ones that are not even cut out...Just awful. Toyota Corolla Hatch does the tacky faux looking style as well.

Here is Audi.





Here is the new S Class Maybach





My guess is that Lexus and the other cars used to do it better and more complete. iMO.

the best I have seen on a long time the Ford Edge

 

That is an early-mid 1950s Cadillac in the picture.

It is unclear which vehicle actually had the first production tail-fins, but, among mass-produced vehicles, the first one to have them on a significant scale was the 1948 Cadillac, which was the first major postwar redesign for that brand. Harley Earl, the Chief Stylist at GM at the time, had a love of the wartime Lockheed P-38 twin-boom fighter-plane, with its twin-rudders in back. He wanted to apply that styling to the automotive world, so he chose one of GM's most expensive cars to experiment with. The first tail fins in 1948 were quite small, but, by the late 1950s, had grown to enormous proportions on the overdone 1959 Cadillac.

 

MB does have fake tips too. But yes Audis are worse. They even have speakers there. Crazy. The only good thing about fake tips is you’re not burnt by the hot air when loading on hot days with engine on.

 

Fake or not, though, however you look at it, IMO those molded-vents sure look a lot better than the garish 3-inch "Coke-Can" exhausts that a lot of customizers and "slammers" were into some years ago.....particularly on Civics and Acura Integras.

 

Sounds like fun. Suscribed!

 

mmarshall, I share admiration of the Lockheed P-38 aircraft but my inclusion of the early Cadillac photo
was to highlight the stylized tailpipe treatment that this thread began with. Earl's tailfin saga is an entirely
different and fascinating subject.

 

I'd like to say that Lexus came out with it first with the LS - but not sure. Audis are atrocious with the fake exhaust housings and having the muffler spew out pointing downwards. Is this thread only about the feature of exhaust housings? How about Hyundai/Kia group with the innovation of the blind spot camera popping up on the gauge cluster? That was pretty slick....

 

OK.....Understood. From the posted-image, I thought you were referring to the tail-fins....something Cadillac was famous for in spanning several decades.

 

yup definitely a strong attraction when i got my hyundai santa fe suv. now whenever i get in my lexus lc500 i expect it to have that feature.
oh the inconvenience of having to swing my head around! i don't trust mirror blind spot indicators as much as the awesome gauge views from cameras.
only downside to the gauge views is when it rains, i see a lot of drips and distortion.