autoevolution
 

Fake Exhausts Invade 2018 Paris Motor Show and Mercedes Is the Biggest Offender

It started as a whisper on the wind: fake exhausts. But then it quickly spread to the entire automotive industry, just like our dear friends, the fake air intakes. The 2018 Paris Motor Show hosted more such pretender cars than ever, and it's the performance or premium models that are the worst offenders.
Fake Exhausts Invade 2018 Paris Motor Show and Mercedes Is the Biggest Offender 31 photos
Photo: Guido ten Brink / SB-Medien
This trend doesn't look like it's going away. Even if all cars are electric, they will put fake exhausts on those too, just like they gave the Model S a big grille for no good reason.

It's like the mouth or the nose, once you remove it, there's something uncanny about the face, like Voldemort. But with every gram of CO2 counting for something these days, automakers have to streamline their underbodies while meeting out expectations in the exhaust department. Still, the original Audi S4 only had a couple of small pipes, so why does the Golf R need twice as many?

The Paris Motor Show photo gallery can be divided into two categories: ultra-fake and normal-fake. The former is usually the way Mercedes does things. Designers install a couple of shiny pieces of plastic on the bumper and hope the sporty diffuser distracts you from noticing.

But our photographers did the limbo and spotted every muffler tip, sitting way back and looking quite small. We've got the A-Class, the B-Class and even the new GLE 450 SUV. What, you thought that because you are paying $100,000 for your 360 horsepower SUV it deserves real exhaust?

Then there's the semi-fake route. The example everybody knows about is BMW's M Performance setup with a large, square piece of trim and the actual tip taking up about 20% of that. We don't mind it as much.

Another oddball solution can be seen on the 53 AMG models. We're talking about all the cars equipped with the inline-6 hybrid AMG engine, including the GT 4-door. They have just one real tip, but it's hidden in the middle of two large machine gun barrels.

And as we suspected, only one of muffler tips of the Skoda Kodiaq RS is real, the one on the left. Even the Chinese automakers are getting in on the action.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories