What do you find appealing about cars?

[Mind Maverick]

They transport you efficiently.

 

[Earl Grey]

YOU CAN SLEEP IN THEM!! ROAD TRIPS!! YEAHHHH

 

[Mole]

'The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.''

- Marshall McLuhan.

 

[Qlip]

They transport you efficiently.

Yeah, cars are great because you can drive from point A to point B. The right car reflects my personality in how cool it is to be at point B instead of point A, or sometimes going back to point A because I look cool there.

...in all honesty, I'm still image conscious. My current car is an uber-functional anti-statement, a '93 4Runner. It gets me up my insanely steep driveway, even in the rainy season. Once I even plowed over a small fallen tree while doing it. It's hauled lots of cargo with the seats out and down, lots of frozen goods in the cooler. And I've got Nirvana, Bowie, Queen, and Dead Can Dance for the cassette player.

 

[rav3n]

Automatic transmission cars can "gear search" on steeper hills, meaning they can't figure out which gear they really need to be in, so you can hear the transmission going from usually 3rd to 4th and back. With manual, you just shift into the one that makes sense. I had a steep hill like this where I lived for awhile so would drive it almost every day. Now I make occasional road trips through hilly parts of the country. Perhaps newer automatics are better about this, but I have driven manual for years now and am used to it.

Stick has many advantages and disadvantages too. If people drive the horrific stop/start metro rush hours with commutes of 45 minutes or longer on a consistent basis, a manny tranny wouldn't be the way to go.

But yeah, there are many advantages to stick, fuel conservation, cheaper repairs, cheaper upfront price, control, especially the exhilarating aspect of control when taking performance cars through their paces, et al. Ooommm, one with the car, lol.

 

[cascadeco]

When I was right out of college, as a graduation gift I got money towards a new car, and I chose a 2 door cherry red honda civic, brand new, with a moon roof. I loved it; I suppose at that time it 'reflected my personality' in that I liked how it looked, but also I was big into wanting something with really good mileage and that was reliable / would last for years and years and years ( I too grew up in a family where you bought the car, drove it until it was pretty old, then got a new one).

Sadly the asian gangs in St. Paul MN loved honda civics (actually they're loved by all car-racing gangs everywhere...now I know, then I didn't), and when 4 years old and still in tip-top shape I came back from a vacation and it was gone from the parking lot. Already impounded, everything over the engine was removed - it was a tip-top engine sitting on wheels. My insurance company declared it totaled and I was able to afford a 2-year old used no-power-anything gray corolla. Got that in 2004.

Had that until almost exactly a year ago, when I finally got a new car, and I chose one that was going to be good in the mountains / in snowy conditions (which my corolla had been very dicey in, but I'd managed), so got a rav4. Hopefully it too will last a very long time. It's such a massive upgrade from the corolla, though, have to admit it's nice to have comfort again. I'd gotten so accustomed to having a bare-bones really uncomfortable old car with a door handle I had to open from the outside, rolling down my window to be able to open the door (yes too cheap to get that fixed). I guess my new car once again 'reflects my personality' in that it matches up with my lifestyle, which involves a lot of mountain driving, driving on unfinished or 4wd roads.

Bottom line is, function/reliability/quality is most important to me. Something that's likely not to break down and have lots of issues. Only after that, I'll dial into aesthetics (and the only time I've really had the luxury of choosing all the aesthetics and perks was that first car). But aesthetics aren't my #1.

Re status symbol cars, you could say I have a strong counterphobic 'disgust' reaction to them and to people who wax poetic over them.

 

[Wisdom 24/7]

fucking cool, what else can i say

 

[Peter Deadpan]

This is my new ride as of yesterday. It's basically me. I even dressed to match it when test driving because I'm a loser like that.

 

[1487610420]

This is my new ride as of yesterday. It's basically me. I even dressed to match it when test driving because I'm a loser like that.

R E N E G A D E​

 

[SD45T-2]

YOU CAN SLEEP IN THEM!! ROAD TRIPS!! YEAHHHH

"You can't drive your house to work, but you can sleep in your car!" - My best friend

Re status symbol cars, you could say I have a strong counterphobic 'disgust' reaction to them and to people who wax poetic over them.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Large trunks.

 

[Earl Grey]

"You can't drive your house to work, but you can sleep in your car!" - My best friend

NO YOU CAN'T SLEEP IN THAT!

For serious though, traveling and just sleeping in a car (imagine trailers though) sounds really fun.

 

[cascadeco]

oh gawd. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm talking about. Though too, I was directly thinking of a former coworker who I'm soooo glad is in another location now because I don't have to hear is status-worship drivel anymore, ie. 'Oh that's customer X. He drives a Porsche. ' Oh, we took Z's AAA super awesome car (you see how much I cared... I didn't even retain the info) up into the mountains, it costs over 150,000, blah blah blah,' 'I Decaf'd Person Z today, [gives out name of some top 50 rich guy in America, whom I suppose he thinks I actually know/have heard about/care about]' - Excuse me, you do realize you're talking to ME, right? Do you think I care? That this is something that I find impressive like you do? lol.

 

[SD45T-2]

oh gawd. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm talking about. Though too, I was directly thinking of a former coworker who I'm soooo glad is in another location now because I don't have to hear is status-worship drivel anymore, ie. 'Oh that's customer X. He drives a Porsche. ' Oh, we took Z's AAA super awesome car (you see how much I cared... I didn't even retain the info) up into the mountains, it costs over 150,000, blah blah blah,' 'I Decaf'd Person Z today, [gives out name of some top 50 rich guy in America, whom I suppose he thinks I actually know/have heard about/care about]' - Excuse me, you do realize you're talking to ME, right? Do you think I care? That this is something that I find impressive like you do? lol.

Yeah, CAR BROS is the only group I know of off the top of my head to satirize that sort of thing. I especially loved how "Damien Stonebrook" (played by Mike Garrett) is wearing a shirt with Ferari (misspelled) and a Ford Mustang logo on it.

More recently they got a Pontiac Fiero with a really hideous Ferrari body kit. It's a deathtrap but the comedic value has been great.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

F R E E D O M

 

[JAVO]

I like to tear them apart, ripping out inefficiency and solving all of their problems from a system-wide understanding of how they operate.

It's the perfect NT nerdgasm.

Grrr.

 

[1487610420]

going places fam

 

[Mole]

What do I find appalling about cars?

!. The death toll

2. The pollution

3. They are status signals.