I get that any industry has to develop, I really do. I understand that the old, beautiful cars that make my heart go giddy-up are gas guzzlers, and that we really can't afford that these days, economically or environmentally. What puzzles me is the degree to which positive advances in the automotive industry are outstripped by ridiculous ones.
Is the world really improved by cars that resemble a soap dish? A suppository? I think not. You can take aerodynamics too far.
Even the cars I love are the cars I hate. Take those eensy ones you're seeing more and more of these days. Not the minis, the uber-minis, the ones that look like a modified ice cream cart. I will admit that they're terrifically cute, but am I the only person who thinks they're evil? You can't take that car on the highway, folks. It's just too little. Its capacity is two passengers, and god help you if one of them has so much as a backpack to try and fit in there. It seems like a good idea--build a small car, it uses less gas, therefore creating less pollution--but what it really is is a vehicle only good for transporting a very small number of people around in a city. And if there's only one or two of you, and you aren't transporting any stuff, and you're not leaving the city, shouldn't you take the damn transit? That would be the actually environmentally sound decision. A bike's an even better one.
It's true that part of our problem, air-quality-wise, is the cars we're driving. (Every time I see a single person in an SUV, for example, I want to slash their tires.) It's a much bigger problem that most of us are driving at all.
I think there is a place for personal vehicles in cities--sometimes you can't get your groceries or furniture or children home by yourself. Some people's physical abilities are such that they need access to a car to be able to participate in city life. Fair enough. But patting ourselves on the back for creating a car that lets us assuage our environmental conscience while ignoring the very thing that got us into this mess in the first place is just stupid. Plus, hello, who can feel cool cruising around in a jellybean?
Give me a car you can stick your dog and your camping gear in and drive across the country, picking up hitchhikers. Give me a car with fins and running boards and so very much chrome. Give me a car that has beauty and purpose--and if you can figure out how, give it to me with an electric engine. The suppository car? You know where you can stick it.
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5 comments:
While I'd never buy a "Smart Car", they are apparently safe and approved for highway driving both here and in Europe. They get a 3 out 5 from Euro NCAP which seems to be a comparitively good rating (a 5 star rating is very rare). The manufacturer compares the design to a walnut - small but hard to break. Though I imagine that, much like a walnut, if it does break - all of it breaks. You wanna feel unsafe - try attempting to get onto the highway in a sports car with someone who doesn't drive standard. Hell, try getting out of the parking lot. Road trips aside, cars are for chumps. Any in 10-20 years, I betcha driving them is going very cost prohibitive (say goodbye to the suburbs).
that's cool to know. I appreciate factual corrections. even if I do feel a little stupid about them. that said, I would never get on the highway in one of those cars as long as SUVs are around. (have you seen the stats on how people who are not driving SUVs fare in crashes with people who are? let's just say that all that talk about "improved safety" obviously leaves out a little--like how much more dangerous they make the roads for everyone else.) also, what happens in a high wind? or when an 18-wheeler drives past you? do you get blown into the next lane?
perhaps not. I will not be finding out.
Hey, don't feel stupid, I did some research after seeing one on the highway and thinking "you've got to be kidding me." I betcha in five years time you could make a killing by offering a service that retro fits classic automobiles with hybrid engines/battery cells. Assuming such a retrofit is feasible
paul (sticking-to-his-not-getting a-blogger-account-cuz-he's-just-too-much-of-a-rebel) says
screw you adam
we managed just fine. i'm starting to think maybe i was actually a great - nay heroic - driver of standard automobiles. i think since it was a sports car i shoulda driven it faster - yeah faster - or maybe it was the car's fault - yeah the car's fault!!!
give me a v-8, baby, cause i'm a just rust belt girl.
mr. pixie
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