Flimsy Plastic Front-End Work DOES Serve a Purpose
If you drive a GM passenger car, you know what I'm talking about. Its all the plastic under the faux front bumper which overhangs the wheelbase for convenient scraping the pavement when negotiating road dips, snow and mud ruts and less than ideal driveways. Whether you address this fancy-work as valence panels, streamlining, cooling system ducts, air dams, under panels, chin scoops, or just plain plastic, they are a royal pain in the ass. Every scrape sends chills down my spine that maybe I just tore up the underbody or ruined the undercarriage.
But, they do serve a purpose, for GM and the Government. For GM, its a steady flow of parts replacements for those customers not limited to driving down San Vicente Blvd. in Beverly Hills. GM knows most towns around this land of ours have North Korean style unpaved alleyways and even city streets that get really nasty in the winter and will rip this plastic garbage to shreds. You knew that already about the profit motive behind this shameful emblishment. However, I bet you didn't know about the Government angle: The Government got its foothold in auto building in a big way with its smog laws and the OBD II mandated standards; it didn't stop there. After the EPA sank its teeth into the business, the FBI got into the act. Its the force of FBI directives that is the real reason why GM builds cars that drag and scrape on every excuse of a roadway. The FBI knows when you run over a pedestrian, the plastic breaks off and falls in the street. All they have to do is match up the broken pieces with the now jagged bodywork on the car and presto! the hit-and-run car is located. Its just like the pieces of Mr. Krabs pirate map, it is.
Now you know why you can't curse only GM for hanging this trash on your car. Its the Government's fault and this fact is irrefruitable.