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I drive a 2003 Chevy Malibu. It says I don't give a rats behind what anyone thinks. I drive a practical vehicle. I'm 43 and I've only owned 5 cars. First was a 1978 Camaro and sold due to having only 5 of 6 cylinders working. Second was 1984 Buick Skyhawk. Sold when I entered the Navy. Third was 1994 Cavalier RS sedan. Had it right up until a Ford F-250 ran a yield sign and totaled my car. Next was a 1998 Malibu. I caused an accident which totaled the car. Replaced it in 2004 with my current car. I try to get my money's worth out of a car instead of treating it like a disposable toy.
Just recently, my wife and I were taking our Daughter to a friend’s house. My Wife said to me, “We can’t take your car, people will think the pikeys are turning up”.
So we went in her little car, I feel so vulnerable in that!
I’d planned, and still do plan, on keeping my car for a number of years now. Yes, it’s a bit noisy, a bit tatty, smokes a bit, and aged now, (you could say that about a number of people), but I like it.
It can carry 0.7 ton in the back, it pulls trees out, (without too much of a problem), seats seven, and can be driven almost anywhere, even in the snow, (not that it likes starting in winter though), and that suits me.
I started to suspect the wife wanted me to get rid of it, at the time of the last MOT, she told me we would need to get another car if too much was wrong with it, well, there wasn’t.
I do get attached to my cars, and think we are judged far too much for what we drive.
So, what statement, does the model of car you drive, make about you?
Do you judge people by what they drive?
You can even add other assumptions that are made, if you like.
Heres a few thoughts :
1. It is rediculous to be concerned about gaining the applause from Others who we may not know, who we may not even like, or who we may never cross paths again .
2. It is silly to be so concerned with prestige that it defines who we are including our self worth or dignity., because that is based on ever changing criteria which at its core, is superficial.
3. It is puerile to allow the manufactuers of automobiles to dictate to us what we should be driving to make us feel good about ourselves .
4. It is correct to be grateful for whatever car we have and to look after it the best we can afford to , including its exterior.
5. To willingly give control of our lives (including decisions) over to our culture or society , is shallow and misdirected.
My eldest is looking to by a new place and the first thing i tell him to do is drive around the area and look at the cars. Are they well cared for (new or old doesn't matter) are they keyed (scratched on purpose), do they have polythene to cover where glass has been broken, are all the 'nicer' cars parked away from a certain group of houses and all the wrecks outside one or two.
Yeah i know it's making assumptions but i've found that as a baseline to look at an area it's not far off.
As for what my car says about me well... My wifes car is the one we use most and that's an 07 Alfa Romeo 159 soooo, fairly well off and don't follow the crowd and buy the usual cars of that class? BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Audi for instance.
I have a '94 Aston and sometimes when i park up people ask me questions about it mainly "how much? oh!" and "so, how many to the gallon then? really? Christ!" so they either think i'm loaded or stupid and sadly i'm not loaded..
My eldest is looking to by a new place and the first thing i tell him to do is drive around the area and look at the cars. Are they well cared for (new or old doesn't matter) are they keyed (scratched on purpose), do they have polythene to cover where glass has been broken, are all the 'nicer' cars parked away from a certain group of houses and all the wrecks outside one or two.
Yeah i know it's making assumptions but i've found that as a baseline to look at an area it's not far off.
As for what my car says about me well... My wifes car is the one we use most and that's an 07 Alfa Romeo 159 soooo, fairly well off and don't follow the crowd and buy the usual cars of that class? BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Audi for instance.
I have a '94 Aston and sometimes when i park up people ask me questions about it mainly "how much? oh!" and "so, how many to the gallon then? really? Christ!" so they either think i'm loaded or stupid and sadly i'm not loaded..
You can own nice cars but it behooves us not to let it get to our head . Nor should we want to bring Christ into it by using his precious name in a vainful manner as a flippant form of speech to make our point.
You can own nice cars but it behooves us not to let it get to our head . Nor should we want to bring Christ into it by using his precious name in a vainful manner as a flippant form of speech to make our point.
If i feel the urge to have some religious enlightenment i'll seek some from a source other than the C-D forums thank you and as the speachmarks indicate what i was typing was a qoute of what i hear. If i hear it again i'll resist the urge to attempt to educate them as i have to admit, i'm not pretentious enough.
I drive a 00 Jeep cherokee, and have a 97 Wrangler for a backup vehicle. My exwife said I was cheap and boring and in that respect driving a vehicle, any vehicle, for more than 5 years with the understanding I had the means to replace it, was indeed congruent with that adjudication. I don't subscribe to that assessment, primarily as the monicker cheap and boring is a subjective metric. For example, however mainstream, I found her affinity for wanting new stuff and placing such importance on social acceptance and being socially visible,to be a rather mundane and bland behavior on her part. The overemphasis on alcohol consumption as the glue to those interactions was even more boring to me. As we see, completely subjective metrics.
I.e. I personally couldn't give a fluck what she or anyone thought.. The thing runs, it's paid off and practical. It's not a hardship or unsafe to get me to work and my motorized passion lies in flying airplanes, not pedestrian vehicles anyways. But why would I attempt to impart a subordinate quality to those who find an affinity for being automobile enthusiasts?
I had a chick once remark being surprised at the car I drove, saying a person of my stereotype (pilot) should be driving a bmw suv. This girl was young, but it was my first encounter with that archetype of people who I thought were just an urban myth.
Absolutely, the car I drive IS a reflection of my personality and lifestyle choices. But it's hardly all-encompassing or even enough to understand the full complexity of my identity as a human being. That's where the people who extrapolate human character out of a horse and buggy depart the realm of accuracy in their assessment of you as they see you drive by, IMO.
Absolutely, the car I drive IS a reflection of my personality and lifestyle choices. But it's hardly all-encompassing or even enough to understand the full complexity of my identity as a human being.
one can say the same about clothes, but it's not an arguable point that there is such a thing as first impressions and those impressions are driven by our appearance to others. And the car we choose to drive that day has as much a bearing on those impressions as the clothes we choose to wear that day or the way we cut out hair.
I've owned everything from pink VW Beetles to big black BMW sedans, tiny little economy cars to full size extended cab diesel dually 4x4 pickups, and none of them defined the extent of who I am as a person, but I'd be foolish to think that they didn't make an impression on other people and that others didn't make assumptions about who I am based on what they see me in. And so woud you or anyone.
What you choose to do with that impression is up to you. However, the impression still exists. Play against it or use it to your advantage. I like to use it to my advantage.
My thoughts = Yeah, I just found a cute, safe, dependable 6 year old car, w/ low miles under $9,000.
Their thoughts = Wow, she's driving a Volvo now.....nice. She must be doing well.
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