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this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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Fuck Cars
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Most of what are generally considered coolest cars are loud, inefficient, and hard to maneuver around a city. Think Lambos, Ferraris, Bentleys, low riders, hot rods, in addition to lifted trucks and fart-can Hondas.
It doesn't have to be that way though. A lot of that desire was created by car companies using massive advertisement campaigns over decades, to convince people the cars with the most profit margin, and dependency on the system, are cool. All the reasons beneath the obnoxious parts, that ultimately are what people like, can be done differently now. You don't need a loud car, with shitty normal road compatibility, to have a fast, agile, car, that could be targeted at the consumer. You don't need loud, smog belching, monster trucks, that fit nowhere, to be able to do all the off road shit. The rest are aesthetic desires, which are easy to manipulate, through advertising, over time.
The whole car industry could just start an unrelenting ad campaign on the side of those who do not like coal rollers, and paint those using them as bad people, and, since a huge amount of the population hate them already, it wouldn't be all that long before they are a thing of the past.
I agree that advertising did that for trucks, but race cars are loud and fast and terrible on the road and people will still think they're cool because they're loud and fast and agile. The loudness is because muffling the exhaust reduces horsepower, the lack of ground clearance is for handling. These are physics problems and people who want to go fast with internal combustion will always trend that way.
Plus if Lamborghini or Ferrari or Porsche could sell a fancy car without some insanely complex engine and suspension for the same amount of money they'd absolutely do it. Often those cars are built because there are rules in motorsport that require a certain number of production cars that often end up costing the company money.
And there will always be people who modify their cars for whatever reason. No car company in the world makes a car with an adjustable suspension that can make the car so low it scrapes the road, but people do it anyway.
But, like I said, car companies are doing a great job of making cars uncool by just making them electric, and then spitting out crossover after crossover after crossover that aren't just ugly, but are also uninspiring. Cars are turning into appliances like microwaves and dishwashers, which are very much not cool.
Yes, I get that loud attracts some people, especially people who want to force it on other people. They were why I was installing those stereo systems, in their car, and not in their house. As for things like the ground clearance, if you are going to spend like 6 digits on a car, of 10s of thousands on mods, there are things like clearance adjust suspensions, for road, terrain, track, shifting. The people who actually go as far as to make low riders, and other things where they have to do a lot of their own work, are so rare, its not really a concern compared to modded coups, lifted trucks, and fart boxes.
As someone who loves and talks up her subcompact, a lot of people won’t ever see it as cool. In part because it’s so practical in an unobtrusive way. It’s cool like getting regular cardio or eating a diet high in vegetables: once it’s a part of your life consistently it’s awesome, but it’s not showy, decadent, or immediately fun (ok actually it is if you like a zippy vehicle). At least where I live a lot of people see trucks as both a part of their cultural identity and as associated with things they enjoy like hunting and hauling.
Making the smallest practical vehicle cool will be difficult. I think bicycles are actually one of the easier for it because it’s the only practical form of transportation that actively makes you more attractive. But it’ll generally need to involve more appeals to fun and coolness than being a nag or appealing to practicality.
I am not saying we need to make subcompacts cool, or the smallest possible vehicle, just ones that aren't actively intrusive to the lives of everyone stuck around them, dangerous on busy roads, and hard to fit through neighborhood streets, that are wildly sucking gas down, while spewing pollution out.
What’s a fart can Honda?
They put a great big resonator in the exhaust of a four cylinder car, generally a Honda Civic. They think it makes them sound cool but it really doesn't.
Sometimes they'll even remove the catalytic convertor for extra fart sound.
I fucking hate those cars! Ugh!