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September 20, 2005
Image is Everything?
We Americans can be very car-centric people. I'm no exception. When you think about it, the purpose of an automobile is very simple: a means of getting from point A to point B. After this, everything else is (in varying degrees) unnecessary. Certainly, having air-conditioning is a wonderful thing (especially in the south), and an air bag seems like a true necessity these days. To some degree we've even begun to expect things like CD players and tape players (as well as AM/FM radios) in our vehicles. The truth is we could do without all these things. As protective and psychologically appeasing as an air bag is, we've driven without them much longer than they've been in our cars...so, it is possible to drive a car that doesn't have an air bag. Additionally, we don't need air conditioning, CD players or surround sound to get from point A to point B either. It's nice, there's no arguing that, but ultimately unnecessary. In fact, although no one's going to tell you this, a car need not even have been built in this decade (or the last) to accomplish what it's meant to...getting your ass from the house to the grocery store in under ten minutes. But this is where I have to offer a confession...I am a slave to image.
Recently, after spending part of the summer as a one car family, my wife and I bought something else. The summer had been fairly convenient (for me at least), but as Fall approached and Tricia prepared to begin teaching again, we knew we had to get another car. Now, here's the rub. I had been driving/we had been sharing a lovely pearl white Volvo S70. It's five years old, but looks, smells and drives like it's brand new. Tan leather covers the interior, it has a fantastic sound system, sport wheels, a turbo engine, dual climate control, dual airbags, power seats, a sunroof, one of those fancy-schmancy computers in the dash that tells you how many miles you can drive with the gas in your tank...it's even got wipers on the headlights. I had gotten very used to driving the Volvo...in fact, I was beginning to see myself as a "Volvo man" since this was the third one I had driven (an '83 240 wagon got me through high school and into college, and a '87 740 sedan carried me the rest of the way and into marriage). When Tricia and I started looking for something else we tossed around the idea of getting another Volvo, but knew that an SUV would be more practical (what with the two dogs that seem to travel with us everywhere we go). Honestly though, I was having a tough time (mentally and emotionally) letting go of the Volvo, my Volvo.
So we bought a Ford Explorer. It's the same age as the Volvo, but has very few of the same amenities previously described. It does have a CD/tape/radio combo, and it does have dual airbags, but that's where the similarities end. Truthfully, it's a really nice automobile. It's in excellent shape, has nice running boards, and a cool compass/temperature feature right below the spot where you can put your garage door opener (which doubles as a handy spot to hide a pack of smokes). It's a beautiful blue color, has ample room for our stuff, and is fun to drive. Really, there's only one problem, and it's with me. How am I supposed to go from "Volvo man" to "Explorer man" without having some sort of interpersonal crisis? In the Volvo I could listen to David Alan Coe or Outkast and people thought it was ironic, now I'm just some guy in an SUV who needs to turn the volume down. I could cut off a car in traffic and the turbo engine would save me every time...now they're in my rearview mirror shaking their fists (at least in the Volvo I could hoist a triumphant middle finger through the sun roof, letting it wave in the breeze).
It's been one month since I first started driving the Explorer. I still have a Volvo key on my keychain, but rarely drive it. Honestly it suits my wife more than me. She loves the sun roof, loves being able to pick her own temperature, and loves being able to engage the seat warmers in the winter. I took it to the car wash over the weekend and it felt strange to drive...in fact, when I got back in my Explorer I was happy...it felt comfortable. Maybe I've been an "SUV man" all along and never knew it. There are a lot of Ford Explorers on the roads of America, with very different and unique owners. Having an image is therefore kind of difficult, but in a good way. What if all that image stuff is just something the marketing guys sell us anyway? I say it is.
Life is a highway / I wanna ride it all night long / if you're going my way / I wanna ride it all night long
| By micah | 12:03 PM