# Douchey Euro cars? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 3, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453 "2013-05-03T20:50:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Standup\_Karmic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Standup\_Karmic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Standup_Karmic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/1 "2013-05-03T20:50:08Z")
Some North American teens and early-20s douche up their cars with body kits and dropping their pickup trucks to just a couple of inches above the roadway. Now, I’m under the impression that pretty much everyone in Europe drives small and decidedly un-douchey cars like Renaults and wee Volkswagons and the like. How do douchey teen dudes in Europe dress up their cars? Are there body kits for a Citroen? Or do douchey types douche themselves up in other ways? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/2 "2013-05-04T01:14:21Z")
are you under the impression that “douching” up one’s car is a new (or exclusively american) thing? ---
**Author:** ![RippityZip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/51bf81/32.png) [@RippityZip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RippityZip)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/3 "2013-05-04T02:32:58Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > are you under the impression that “douching” up one’s car is a new (or exclusively american) thing? He never said that. He asked, correct me if I’m wrong, what the euro equivalent of a rice-burner is. ---
**Author:** ![NBYodo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9a28c/32.png) [@NBYodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NBYodo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/4 "2013-05-04T04:45:50Z")
I’ve definitely seen many tricked out, ground scraping, VW Golfs in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/5 "2013-05-04T05:25:49Z")
> [@NBYodo](#): > > I’ve definitely seen many tricked out, ground scraping, VW Golfs in Germany. At least the roads in Germany can take the scraping abuse. You sneeze on a US street and some lucky road worker’s child goes to college. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/6 "2013-05-04T06:38:37Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > are you under the impression that “douching” up one’s car is a new (or exclusively american) thing? Not exclusively American, but a lot of things which can be done to a car in the US are not allowed in other countries. Now that a car’s color is listed in its file, in Spain you need to notify DGT before you paint it in a different color or pattern (it wasn’t necessary until recently, my 2001-make car didn’t have color listed so I could have painted it rainbow polka dots without telling anybody); changing the pattern of the lights is only allowable in specific cases; etc. There are things which do get done to pimp up cars but many of them aren’t noticeable to people who don’t know what that car looked like coming out of the factory: skirty bumpers, whirly stickers/paint, rear aileron, colors that factory doesn’t even work with, fancy rims. They’re not limited to teens either: IME, guys who can’t afford to buy a sporty red car to celebrate their mid-life crisis _do_ go and grab a new set of rims and feel terribly dejected when their coworkers don’t notice. Sorry dude, I just don’t look at people’s rims unless they’re straight out of Ben-Hur 😛 Sometimes a guy wants to be all car-show but his car happens to be, say, an early-model Ibiza (all straight lines and clean angles, looks like it was drawn by a child who just got his first ruler)… all the glow in the world can’t make that car look like anything other than “a matchbox on wheels”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/7 "2013-05-04T06:50:40Z")
OOT: The evidently-pimped up cars I see driven by guys in their 20s (as opposed to the “middle aged guy bought a 2nd-hand BMW” kind) tend to be either Mazdas or older than their driver. Note that here you can’t get a car license until 18, and it’s very rare for an 18yo to actually _have_ a car; if they do, in most cases it will be a family heirloom. I’m remembering a coworker, in his 30s, whose early-70s model looked like it had been repainted by an DYIr (it had, and no fancy paint either, just a brush and a can of wall paint) - but he was the local purveyor of noise for raves; his trunk was completely taken over by the sound system. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/8 "2013-05-04T07:05:21Z")
My brothers first car back in the 80s was a red VW Scirocco hatchback. Some carefully placed headlamps and a big white stripe added to the side and roof and hey presto! He’s Starsky. This in England FTR. The ‘yoof’/ wanna be gangstas in my present day bit if East London manage to glitz any manner of small black hatchback (VWs are popular) with floor scraping stuff, blacked out windows, blue lights round the rim and boom boxes. I have no idea what the real or cool names for any if this stuff is. ---
**Author:** ![Standup\_Karmic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Standup\_Karmic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Standup_Karmic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/9 "2013-05-04T23:46:41Z")
This all makes sense. I kind of forgot about Golfs and the like, which are probably pretty good for tricking out. I saw something that looked a little bit like this yesterday ([http://www.remarkablecars.com/main/gmc/1995-gmc-001.html](http://www.remarkablecars.com/main/gmc/1995-gmc-001.html)) which made me wonder what was done to cars in Europe since I don’t think many people have big cars like we have here in Canada, what with just not having as much wide open space. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/10 "2013-05-04T23:54:50Z")
Fun fact: BMW is German. Germany is in Europe. Just saying. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/11 "2013-05-05T20:57:44Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Fun fact: BMW is German. Germany is in Europe. Just saying. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/12 "2013-05-05T20:59:33Z")
Am I the first person to have never heard this use of the word “douche” before? ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/13 "2013-05-05T21:17:40Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Am I the first person to have never heard this use of the word “douche” before? Well, there are probably a few hermits and desert-island castaways that haven’t heard it either… But seriously, you’ve never heard someone that acts like a fool be called a douche-bag? “Douche” or “d-bag” is just the shorthand for that. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/14 "2013-05-05T21:21:26Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Well, there are probably a few hermits and desert-island castaways that haven’t heard it either… > > But seriously, you’ve never heard someone that acts like a fool be called a douche-bag? “Douche” or “d-bag” is just the shorthand for that. Sure, I’ve heard of that, but it’s the first time I’ve heard it used to describe tricking out a car. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/15 "2013-05-05T21:27:52Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > 😕 Google “BMW jokes”. The ones that aren’t about being rich are about being an asshole (or a rich asshole). ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/16 "2013-05-06T00:16:15Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Google “BMW jokes”. The ones that aren’t about being rich are about being an asshole (or a rich asshole). Ok, but stock, untricked-out BMWs are not douchey. Their drivers may or may not often be assholes or douches, and you may associate them with their typical drivers, but BMWs – in and of themselves – are not douchey. The typical car seen in a _Fast & Furious_ movie? Douchey. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/douchey-euro-cars/657453/17 "2013-05-06T00:21:45Z")
In the UK, these drivers are called Boy Racers. > **[Boy racer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_racer)** > > Boy racer is a term given to a young person who drives in a fast and aggressive manner; it has become a broader term (often pejorative) for participants in modern custom car culture who tune and modify cars with street racing-style aftermarket cosmetic and performance parts such as body kits, audio systems and exhausts. The culture encompasses a broad range of car types including sport compacts and economy cars typical of the import scene, this is in contrast with the hot rod culture of previous ...