To all the car manufacturers of the world: “Cupholders are NOT an afterthought!” Do some consumer research, for Pete’s sake. People will complain incessantly about insufficient or inaccessible car cupholders — even when they love absolutely everything else about their vehicle. Legend has it that the global community of Saab owners (typically a fanatically loyal bunch) threatened a large-scale revolt unless their cupholder grievances were addressed. Lo and behold, the designers “found a place” for a couple. (I’m pretty sure that really happened.)

Despite these hard lessons, it’s obvious that not everyone has gotten with the cupholder program. The photos below are of the cupholder / handbrake fiasco Peter recently encountered in a rental car. We won’t specify the manufacturer, but we will say it was a Jeep (oops). The photos are self-explanatory, so we’ll only add that, although none were actually suffered, several variations of severe injury were risked by this design. These included uncontrolled backwards rolling and carpal tunnel syndrome. When will the madness stop??

Enjoy the weekend.