Christmas time is upon us, meaning its time to gather your friends and family around the Christmas tree that you recently broke while removing your door panel, and sing songs about how crappy a fastener that little plastic thing is.

I like bolts. Mostly because I don’t have to be careful removing them unless they’re rusty. Plastic “Christmas Tree” fasteners, though, are not cool. I break them. I bend them. I get tired of trying to fit my invaluable underneath their heads.

I know they’re light, cheap, and they allow a single factory worker to apply a car’s entire front clip in seconds, but they make me sad. Clip after clip. Ruined.

Random agrees:

Garbage american door panel fastener (retaining pin) will self destruct when removing panel. Enjoy those rattles when your power windows break. I really hated these things in my crown vic. If you’re lucky they self destruct like this. If you are unlucky they break the plastic part and if you’re really unlucky and have a super shitty cardboard car they rip right through the cardboard and you need a new interior door panel

I feel you, Tom.