Saw several examples or both while driving through South Carolina this weekend.
Which is stupider? Lowering your car so low that it rips its bumpers off trying to negotiate a 3" curb, or lifting your truck so high it will topple over going 20 mph on a curve?
Or optional choice #3: Advertising to the world that you feel the need to compensate for your tiny penis?
Off to IMHO
Yes.
my penile preferences in cars sounds a bit much like my preference for women. Sporty with good lines. Sensible, predicable, handles the daily bumps in the road well. Quiet when necessary and a joy to listen to when so engaged. Up for a bit of fun now and then.
As for the op question there is no contest. I’d have to go with the low-rider as the worst of the 2 choices by many many factors. Tall trucks don’t fall over at 20 mph curves but low-riders have no suspension so even driving on a normal road they are a hellish nightmare of discomfort. If I’m condemned by a court of law to drive a vehicular UFO I’d gladly take the monster truck over the low-rider.
I’m picking lowriders. I can at least imagine a situation where a lifted truck would make sense even if most of them are never driven in such a situation. But there’s no place where a lowrider makes sense.
Meh young men customise cars, it’s fun and relatively harmless pursuit. I see no reason to get all judgy about it…
Low … Ride … Er … Drives a little slower.
True low riders are cool. I liked the bounce offs I saw in East L.A. That lowering stuff to Gran Prix height for a regular driver, tho, strikes me as a waste of a good vehicle. If someone wants to throw away their money on that, let 'em
Normally I would agree but low riders are modified in such a way as to greatly affect the original steering and suspension geometry. Trucks that are jacked up usually don’t have bumpers low enough to be useful so they’re a danger in a collision.
Cars that have simply been lowered are one thing, but Lowriders have the hydraulics to be “normal” or really low. This was originally done to avoid police attention–now a well-done Lowrider can dance.
Other customization is part of the package–fancy paint jobs that might include graphics expressing Latino (or Tejano) ethnic price, sharp interiors, plated metal, etc. Generally, they are done by married guys on weekends–as a hobby. It’s part of the customized car culture that started in California after the War.
Houston’s Art Car Parade generally has a couple of Lowrider clubs participating.
Is that what you’re doing by broadcasting your disapproval of other people’s hobbies on the internet? 
The first time I recall seeing a vehicle lowered to the point of complete stupidity was around 1990. I was living in a large apartment complex just outside the perimeter in Atlanta, and some schmuck had a little pickup truck (S10 or Mazda or something perfectly pedestrian) lowered to about 4 inches off the ground. I first spotted the guy detouring around the speed bumps in the parking lot - modest bumps, which I easily cleared with the Nissan Sentra I drove at the time - and thought to myself “WTF would someone take a pickup truck and turn it into something completely useless?” I continued to watch for the guy, until one day, sure enough, parking spaces around the speed bump were full and he couldn’t just go around. He got stuck trying to drive directly over the one right in front of my apartment. I laughed.
Several years later, I saw a guy get stuck on a busy and bumpy railroad track that services the Port of Savannah because he was driving a stupidly lowered car. I detoured around the traffic tie-up, and was modestly disappointed to learn later that his stupid car didn’t get creamed by the next freight train. (Turns out, the guy was an acquaintance of one of my acquaintances. The driver actually worked at a large facility located on the very road where he got stuck, so he didn’t even have the excuse of not knowing about the bad RR crossings there!)
There are limited circumstances where lifted trucks are useful. I see no real circumstance where a lowered one could be.
Sounds about right to me. But then some people can only feel good about themselves by belittling others.
Stupid juvenile jab aside:
At least a lift kit is functional.
This is the saving grace. Ordinarily, I would hold lowriders to be more stupid, because, well…I wouldn’t be able to drive to and from my home! I live in a hilly neighborhood.
But with adjustable struts and things, you can have the best of both worlds. Low as you wanna go…and then back to a normal operating ground clearance. And, like you say, the ability to dance! The first time I saw a car bounding up and down, like a lizard doing push-ups, I laughed, half with derision…and half with joy! It’s a triumph of do-it-your-self engineering!
Count me in - I think the true lowriders are freaking awesome and would love to own one.
Lowriders attract sexier babes than do tall trucks.
IMO, true lowriders can look pretty neat. Then again, I also like hot rods.
Now, when guys just get a cheap import and lower it, wiithout also doing custom graphics and bodywork, I think it looks stupid. (The types of guys who put stickers in their windows saying “No Fat Chicks, Ride Will Scrape” are part of this group.) I did enjoy the time a guy in a “No Fat Chicks” lowered Toyota in front of me apparently sheared his oil pan off on a speed bump; carefully drove over the bump, then left a long oil slick and conked out. The driver and passenger hopped out and looked under the hood utterly puzzled.
Never seen a lifted truck out on the road that I liked.
…rising flood waters not withstanding.
I go option #4: a two-door Civic or Accord that’s been “modified” with a big tailpipe and a fiberglass body kit. Bonus points if it has LED strips under the skirt. : old rolleyes smiley:
