Cars are emotional items as well as practical ones, which means our reactions to them are not always purely logical. In a rational world, all cars have value only relative to their usefulness. In that world, a Ferrari GTO is less valuable than basically every Toyota Corolla ever built. We don’t live in a rational world, which is good, because I don’t think I’d function well in a place that relies purely on quantifiable measures.
If it’s true that our love of a car can be irrational then our hate for a car, too, could be based on something more than cold hard facts. This is what I’m curious about exploring today. It’s fine to dislike a car because it did you wrong, but I want to probe the deeper reasons why a car was ruined for you. Why you can’t stand that particular vehicle?
Here’s a tough one to talk about, though I think I’ve mentioned it before. A good friend of mine, an extremely talented actress, was doing a summer stock theater program in New Mexico before heading off to New York for an internship. At the end of the show, she got into her 7th gen Mazda Protegé to meet up with her parents. She never made it. A dumb kid in a modified truck was street racing, collided with her, and killed her instantly.
The world lost an incredible person that, I’m certain, you’d all know today were it not for the accident. It’s rare these days, but whenever I see that generation Protegé I think of her and, while I cherish any time I have to remember her, the car is never going to be separated from that terrible moment when I found out what happened.
Sorry, this is a bit of a downer, but it was just her birthday and I was thinking about her. It’s also a good reminder to not street race. It’s not worth it.
Ok, here’s the question: What car has been ruined for you? Why?
Never Nissan, Never Stellantis, Never VAG.
This question has been looming over my should for a few days now. My ego forces me to assume that this question was asked specifically for me. My ego forces me to believe that there is a slack sub-thingy specifically for Pee-for-one, as I assume you all call me behind my back. Well, here you go, here it is….
Never Nissan:
Carlos Ghosn really sealed the deal for me on this one. That, and I got into the identical accident, in equivalent circumstances, in different locations, in one year, with two Nissan Rogues. Every stereotype about this company and their vehicles is true. Yeah, the Pao and GTR are cool, but the rest is not, full stop.
Never Stellantis:
This is historical. Being a mid 40’s male from the Northeast, Dodge (sidebar: yes, I know “Stellantis” is so much more than Dodge/Chrysler/Ram/Jeep, it is basically these 4, let’s be honest with ourselves) has always had just a shit rep. My irrational brain has never been able to shake this. To back that up, the actual history of this company is very truly shit. Yup, they have done a lot right…. a lot right. They have done a spectacularly larger amount wrong.
Never VAG:
Dieselgate did it for me. I’m an engineer. I studied automotive engineering in university (but ultimately went another route in life). My life is cars. I take engineering VERY seriously. I have worked with engineers from just about every country in the world at this point. One country that stood out was the Germans. Their approach and expectations were just so much higher than the rest of the world, and that shows in their cars and just about everything else they engineer. Then those fuckers went and pulled that shit. It is just so profoundly deceptive around what they did. It’s the health of the world versus the shareholder. They chose shareholder because they were fiduciarily obligated to. But those engineers weren’t. And it’s them that I still can’t find it in me to forgive yet. I may someday, but that day is not here. And it’s too bad, they make the best fucking wagon’s around. Oh, and then there is the fact that I owned two B5’s. One sedan and one wagon. I would never want to relive those disasters ever again.
Overall, my hatred is really not that deep. I don’t really HATE anything or anyone with the exception of a very few humans that rightfully deserve it. All three companies collectively make some great vehicles, and are overall great solutions for the majority of humans that need transportation. Doesn’t mean I have to like ’em though.