Earlier today, our David Tracy wrote about the Ganeshan family Honda Odyssey, a van that was in the family since it was purchased new in 2004. For many people, cars are just appliances that get disposed of when their duty is over. That’s not always the case, and in cases like the one David highlighted today, a car becomes a part of the family.
Autopian readers are starting off the year not with one-liners that have us on the floor laughing, but with a number of comments that tug on our hearts. That article was full of them, but today’s COTD is a result of a couple of observations. Mr.Asa said: Newbalanceextrawide followed it up with this COTD winner of a reply: Not saying that any of those other hobbies are bad, not saying that you need to jump into cars with both feet (although if you’re reading this, you probably already have,) just saying that its a beautiful thing to be able to see someone in the weirdness that the world has become and be able to instantly connect with them on some level. Mr.Asa’s comment is something I’ve never realized before. Of the perhaps infinite hobbies, few of them have the opportunity to strike up a conversation with a stranger quite like a vehicle. You can be into CrossFit, but unless you walk into a bar and tell people that you’re into CrossFit, that random conversation isn’t happening. Park a crapbox Chevy Tracker in a car wash bay, and you might strike up a conversation out of nowhere with someone. I was not taught mechanical skills growing up and smile and nod politely at many of the more technical discussions here. I definitely feel like an imposter sometimes, and not a worthy gearhead. That’s probably why I landed here, because of in particular Jason’s approach- cars as art, the tactile feel of chewing on various rubber or vinyl bits, etc. There are so many ways to be an enthusiast. I keep reminding myself I don’t need to be able to rebuild an engine to appreciate things. Unfortunately, the car world still has plenty of gatekeeping. In some spaces, you’d be looked down on for liking an automatic transmission. In others, you might be insulted for liking something that’s not a mainstream enthusiast car. It’s something that I’ve experienced for years because I love the Smart Fortwo. Hell, I even got crap for my first car, the red Kia Rio below. To this day I still get nastygrams in my email saying that I’m not a car enthusiast and unqualified to write about cars because of the cars that I like.
Frankly, that’s insane. Do you know how boring it would be if everyone loved the same cars? Variety is part of what makes car enthusiasm so awesome. To Newbalanceextrawide’s point, you also don’t need to know how to overhaul an engine in a day to love a car. Maybe you just love the way cars look or sound, but don’t know how to wrench. That’s fine, too! Love that Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet at the top? You’re good in my book. Cars are for everyone, and you can love a car for any reason you want. So long as these pages stay online, it’s something that we’ll always push. Come to think of it, I finally saw the new Avatar last night and I feel kind of the same way about it.
