Something is happening in the motoring world. A miniature adventure is evolving into a national craze.

Cars are getting the makeover treatment, girl-power style. No longer are we settling for the dull grey/black interiors and limited choice of exterior colour. It’s not quite ‘Pimp My Ride’, but we’re definitely making cars look both fluffy and fierce.

These two pics come from www.sjbaker.org

This latest craze for customisation seems to have started around the same time as BMW’s launch of the New Mini in 2001. In the dealer’s showroom we discovered that the Mini had a vast range of accessories and options available. We could shop for our car like we would for shoes, bags and jewellery to go with a main outfit. Accessorising and colour co-ordination are important to many females, but car buying has never really a place where this has been accepted. Usually if you asked a dealer what colour options were available for a car you got a patronising laugh or comment, but the Mini dealerships seemed to understand the desire to customise and stamp your individual style onto your vehicle. The Mini is our British equivalent of the VW Beetle: a small, fun car that we love to keep and make unique.

But you don’t have to have a Mini to get involved in the customising craze. Buying a small car and personalising it seems to be a particular trend at the moment, especially amongst females. Here’s a mad but awesome example from this year’s Car Styling and Tuning Show at Donington Park, Leicestershire.

There are now many stores, both online and in the high street where you can buy accessories and graphics to liven up your motor whatever model or age it may be. Even Asda and Wilkinsons have started to cater for the female motorist, and you can now locate the motoring section of these stores by looking out for the pink aisle! That’s a definite shift, from almost no colour to just one colour – but it’s a step in the right direction.

Sunday 23rd November 2008 17:03pm