For something that serves no real or imaginary purpose, the side strakes draw too much attention to themselves. If you look at the pictures above, your eye is drawn toward the strakes because of that crazy curved edge that doesn't fit in with the rest of the lines on the car. I wouldn't like to have my eyes and everyone elses drawn to a feature that serves no purpose.

BTW, I feel almost the same about the front spoiler, but that's just me.

 

Yep! I agree. Side strakes take away from the aesthetics and demand attention to themselves. I'd rather spend the $$ on other accessories.

 

I think the strakes make the car look ugly.

 

I agree with the idea that you need all three options if you are going to have on the sides strakes. Also I think the black rubber gasket behind the strake on light colored vehicles is to noticable. On black exteriors they look the best because the gasket color is blended into the paint. 1

 

When i went to the dealer to buy my S the floor model had side strakes and one of them was hanging off the side of the car. I don't think any of the spoilers or strakes look good either. For the money, it's a NO-GO.

 

I too bought mine off the showroom floor. All three options were already installed, but I would have skipped the side strakes. Oh well...

 

to me ..
if you don't mind putting holes on your car and will probably keep the strake forever and also you like the look of it .. then get it
otherwise, think about something else ..

 

i thought even you get a aftermarket ones it still requires you to put holes on the car...

 

Appearances aside, functionally they serve no purpose and the installation is a joke (H&A has a PDF file on the installation process). They are held on with double sided tape a pin and a couple screws. The tape just doesn't last. Either my dealer did a crappy job or they are inherently a bad design.

When I bought the car in March 2000, I couldn't get one without the side strakes (and spoilers and every other freaking option). Within a year, the driver's side came loose. This march the passenger side came loose at one of my first autocrosses and I had to take it off between runs.

I wish I never had them and want something to plug the holes. Of course this is just my (bitter) opinion, others will undoubtably have different opinions.

chris.

 

jvils: your 02 red interior seems to be in darker red than other pix can tell ...
others are more like bright red ....

did you do anything to it?