> I was at the San Jose Auto Show yesterday, and one thing I looked at in
>> all the cars was the cup holder designs, and how they accompany different
>> size cups.
>>
>> I had along a Contigo Extreme insulated mug for testing
>>
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"), >> since any car I buy will have to be able to accompany a mug with this >> diameter base. My current 4Runner will work with it well, while my wife's >> older Camry (1996) has cup holders that are too small.>>
> Almost all new cars have larger cup holders than previous generations,
>> there were only a few vehicles with tiny cup holders.
>>
>> Different designs
>>
>> Single size: You have to buy a cup that will fit properly and snugly.
>> This may actually be the best design, least likely to ever break, though
>> the single size cup holders are too large for holding a soda can or a
>> smaller bottle of water securely. You could insert a foam insulator for
>> use with smaller diameter containers.
>>
>> Laddered: a small circle at the bottom, so the cup stops when it's at the
>> smallest circle that the base will fit in. This is fairly unstable since
>> you don't get much side support at any of the levels, though you could
>> add some foam to make it more secure.
>>
>> Rubber flaps: A large diameter cup holder with some flimsy rubber flaps
>> that are intended to hold the smaller cups in place. These don't work
>> well as the flaps are too flimsy to do much of anything. Once they fall
>> off, you could add some foam.
>>
>> Swing arm: This type was in a Dodge RAM truck. It was big diameter cup
>> holder with a strong plastic arm that swings over to match the cup
>> diameter. Did not appear flimsy. A simple, straight-forward design, but
>> you need to manually adjust the size. I liked this truck, which was a
>> crew cab that seated six. When was the last time you saw a vehicle that
>> seated three people in the front seat?
>>
>> Plastic flip: This was a spring loaded plastic flap that flips up or down
>> to fit different cup diameters. It was very flimsy, and one of the two
>> was already broken on the 2007 Camry that was on the show floor. The
>> Camry may be a great car, but the engineers clearly missed the class on
>> cup-holder design.
>>
>> Three spring loaded fingers: This was a good adjustable type. Three solid
>> plastic fingers with springs behind them push against the base of the
>> cup. These held the cup pretty securely, and appeared as if they wouldn't
>> break easily. No manual adjustment was necessary. It took a little bit of
>> a push to seat the cup into the cup holder, and a good pull to remove it.
>> This type requires a larger console, since the spring -loaded fingers
>> need to retract into the console. Only issue might be that eventually the
>> springs will fatigue.
>>
>> Three foam fingers: These fingers were vinyl covered foam. The cup
>> compresses these fingers as you slide it in. They worked fine, but they
>> won't last, the vinyl will peel off after moderate use and exposure to
>> the elements. The advantage to the manufacturer is that these fingers
>> don't have to retract so a smaller console can be used.
>>
>> I didn't see any of the super-flimsy slide-out or pop-up cup-holders that
>> tend to break very quickly. The only broken cup-holder I saw was in the >> 2007 Camry.
>>
>> Research shows that cup-holder design, while not a primary selection
>> factor in a vehicle, often is a secondary and deciding factor in
>> narrowing down the final choice of vehicle.
> The cup holders in my car and pickup are used to hold cat food for the
> dogs. I'm serious, the same cat food in the house that they don't touch,
> they eat out of the cup holders like they were starving. They are small
> dogs and love to ride.
DOGS should eat DOG food. Cats, CAT food. People like you shouldn't be on the road.