"Real" carbon fiber is not a fad. McLaren and Pagani have been leaders in carbon fiber development for "street" cars, and the stuff they use (especially Pagani) is NOTHING like what you see on your friend's car. Pagani has developed carbo-titanium for use in its chassis which is something nobody else uses (as far as I know).
99% of the stuff you see on cars today is junk. The CF parts you see everywhere are heavier than the plastic/metal parts they replace and have less strength as well. This is due to the way the part is made. Most of it is just resin which makes it very heavy and useless. You might as well have made it out of plastic.
I have a carbon/carbon brake pad off a Williams F1 car. The thing weighs next to nothing, even though it's about 3 times as thick as the brake pad on my Z. I also don't think I could break the thing even if I ran over it with a semi. Crazy.