What is a car bra? The name is quite self-explanatory. A car bra is a fitted piece of material, often made of durable vinyl or leather, that wraps around your car’s front end. Original-style bras, ideal for sports cars, provide full coverage with cutouts for headlights, license plates and fog lights. Sport-style bras, perfect for SUVs and pickups, cover the front portion of the hood and don’t interfere with brush guards, winches or tow hooks. No matter what you drive, car bras are custom-fit for your specific vehicle and have openings in just the right places, to keep your lights shinning and your engine breathing.

As my German co-worker Tim once remarked, “Why would anyone want a car bra? They are hideous!" Well Tim, car bras can protect your car by blocking dirt, grime, rocks, and whatever else may hit your hood. If you’ve had your license for more than a year I’m sure you’ve driven through a construction area. If you haven’t, consider yourself lucky because by me, the tri-state area, roads are constantly being torn up and repaved. It seems like I can’t go a month without cruising down a recently repaired road

Here is perfect example when I would have loved to have a car bra.

It was a sunny Saturday and I had just gotten my car washed. And it wasn’t one of those cheap car washes where you sit in your car while a track pulls you through a 15 foot tunnel of hoses and automated brushes. I’m talking about a real car wash. They started by vacuuming my interior and shaking out my mats. Then they sent my Subaru through the exterior wash cycle to get off the easy stuff. After that, a 15 man crew equipped with spray bottles and rags attacked my Subaru, cleaning every last particle of dirt and dust out of every last nook and cranny.

This car wash isn’t cheap, but they do a quality job so I spring for it every now and then. So I pull out of the car wash and head over to my friend’s house. As I pull onto his street I am immediately greeted by a burly town worker next to a “paving in progress" sign. As I slowly creep down the street, I can hear thousands of tiny pebbles and rocks bouncing off my newly washed car. I cringed with every ting and ping I heard. By the time I got to my friend’s house, the front of my car was covered in tiny tar balls, spit up from the tires in front of me. I was pissed.

Driving down these freshly paved roads is hell. No matter how slow you drive, your car’s body will inevitably be pelted with gravel and rocks. So if you live in New Jersey, you should probably get a car bra. Especially if you lease, it would behoove you to consider a car bra. But what if I don’t like how they look? Well, if you have a black car, you probably won’t even be able to see it (most of them are black).