You Are What You Drive


The premise that “you are what you drive” is a concept that has been debated fiercely since the advent of the automobile. I contend, with limited caveats, that this is a factual truth. Now before you write off my article as a one-sided plea to evaluate people based on their automotive budget, I want you to make an effort to remove the monetary aspect of this paradigm for just a moment. Obviously, as we look at all cars on the road, (and in yards, fields, museums, etc. for that matter) it is hard to remove entirely the financial part of the equation. However, assuming all of us had equal financial footing, if we had the exact same automotive budget, not everyone would choose the same vehicle. It is in our choices that we define ourselves.

Continue reading after the jump!

Just as with any material possession, people desire to find a vehicle that fits their personality and one they can identify with. Few would contest that people at the same financial level express themselves by the type of clothes they choose to wear, the breed of dog they choose to own or the color they choose to paint their home. However, when presented with the concept of expressing yourself with an automobile, the knee-jerk reaction from most is to disregard this idea as bunk. This is due to the excessive flexing of financial muscle that is so often tied to high dollar vehicles. A car purchased simply because it is expensive would trump my argument. However, that is not typically the case. Even millionaires don’t all have the same car. Each vehicle, practical or impractical, expresses something different. Audis, Land Rovers and Lamborghinis are all different, despite their higher price points. Let me expound on this premise, attempting to remove the financial aspect.

If everyone was given a budget of $40,000 towards a vehicle, given a large enough group, there would be an unlimited variety of different vehicles chosen. It would be an infinitely diverse group of vehicles, including everything from an F150, to a Prius, to a VW Van, to a Willys Jeep, to a Corvette, to a Supra, to an Eldorado to a Mini Cooper, to a Subaru Legacy, and so on.

With or without the budget, everyone chooses to get a vehicle that they are comfortable driving that fits their personality. Even assuming everyone in the entire group chose an F-series truck, they would range in vintage from 1948 to current, in 4×4 and 2WD trims, all cab configurations, transmission types, engine types, bed styles, colors, trim levels, and the list is unending. Even someone that has limited options because of a utilitarian aspect like the need to transport a family could choose anything from a ten passenger van, to a Honda Odyssey, Chevy Suburban, Ford Flex and so on. It is in their personal identity and personality that each chooses accordingly.

For example, I am most comfortable driving a pickup truck on a daily basis. Although I don’t have anything against luxury brands like Audi, BMW, Lexus, etc, I doubt I would ever own or drive one simply because I don’t think it is a good fit for my personality and identity. Also, although I appreciate Corvettes, NSXs, Cobras Roadsters, Solstices, and other two-seater sports cars, I think a 2+2 or a muscle car is more my style in the performance end of vehicles. I simply don’t think that I am cool enough to have a car with essentially no utilitarian aspect at all. Give it a little more girth, and an attempt at a back seat, and I feel like it belongs in my life like a flannel shirt on a lumberjack. Automotive enthusiasts are not alone in this very selective automotive opinion-forming.

I spent some considerable time working in the rental car business and I contend the most popular lie that people tell themselves and others is “I don’t care what I drive as long as it gets me A to B.” If that were the case, then there would be no question that everyone who has ever said that would drive shapeless inexpensive fuel mileage vehicles and the only thing that would vary is how many people or how many things it could carry. In Rental Car Land it is very common that even customers that use that exact quote wouldn’t be content driving, even for a short time, any of a number of deviations from their preferences: Chevy instead of a Toyota, or a four door instead of two, blue car instead of red, and the complaints go on. Remember this is from someone that said all they need is A to B! Even weighing heavily on unexciting features like safety, reliability, price and fuel mileage still presents a choice. There might be seven models that fit the bill in those categories but you still have to pick one model, pick a color, a transmission and a trim level, among other things.

Those of us that belong to CarDomain have a unique appreciation for the automobile differently than a typical civilian. However, CarDomain member or not, there is no question that there is a correlation between personal identity and the vehicle one chooses to drive. I contend that the diversity of vehicle types, configurations, colors and styles are essential to personal expression and the enjoyment of the automobile. Despite automotive love or “indifference,” everyone chooses to express themselves in some way by the car they drive. For those of us that choose to modify cars, or those of us that have bottomless pockets, the possibilities are even more endless. No matter if the chosen vehicle is a Chevy Beretta, a Chrysler Imperial or a Ferrari Testa Rossa, one expresses personality and individuality in that choice. We can learn as much about a person by this selection as by any other means of personal expression.



Related posts:



Related posts:



Автор: DarrenFerris на 19:27
Ярлыки: ,

0 коммент.:

Отправить комментарий

Подписаться на: Комментарии к сообщению (Atom)