I don’t use cup holders, I’ve never had them and I low-key resent the oh-so American idea that every car needs them. When I’m driving, I don’t have cups. But how did McLaren mess them up so badly?
In his video, Doug calls them an afterthought and not the world’s greatest cupholders. This is giving Macca far, far too much credit.
They simply are not cup holders. They’re not big enough to hold anything useful (let alone super-duper-sized American fast food beverages), they aren’t cleanable and they’re the wrong material. At best these are weird round storage bins, as worst they’re bait for getting condensation and drinks soaked into your expensive and difficult to clean alcantara. A cupholder only has a small set of design requirements, this satisfies none of them.
And from McLaren! This isn’t some Italian upstart in the ‘80s, lazily adding half-baked features to appease an audience they don’t care for, nor is it a company whose road cars are known for such purity and singularity of purpose that those asking for cupholders need not apply.
This is the company challenging those companies. The one that has only been around only a scant 8 years and prides itself on differentiating from the usual suspects. A turbo’d V8 before it was cool in a supercar, a touch screen before the existing competitors did it, a ride that can be genuinely supple and stiff when you need it, outlandish styling unburdened by a stiff and traditional owner base.
In short, McLaren sets itself apart with unique but well executed designs, and these cupholders are the exact opposite of that.
If I was paying this much for a Mac, I’d be disgusted. I’d rather not have them at all than have them done this badly.