Just ruminating on something I've just posted in the Cactus thread, about how a car might make you feel.
We rumble on ( quite rightly probably ) about how reliable, affordable, comfortable, practical, fuel efficient etc etc our car choices are but I wondered if it would be interesting ( for a car nerd forum ) to explore how cars have made us feel?
I've owned or had long term use of more than 40 of the things over 40 years of driving and countless hired ones so I'll not even begin to try to describe them all, but a few highs, lows and unexpecteds to follow.
How about you?
MG Midget, my third car despite only being 18 years old. Loved it and that hot summer ( yes that one ) going down to the beach on weekend evenings, hanging out with pals, dogs, girlfriends, playing good music, cooking sausages on the beach. Good memories.
Cavalier Sri, company car, I was now in my mid 20s first one that went a bit, first one I felt confident to throw about. In my head I was a rally driver !
Golf Gti 16v, great fun wee thing, go kart handling, not actually all that fast but seemed so rightly put together. Really enjoyed my couple of years with that.
Fiat Panda Mk1, loved that little car, it was my wife's in fact but because I wasn't allowed to take my company car abroad on holiday, we used to take it instead. Really honest little car and more than coped with the Alps in winter. Felt a lot faster than it really was.
BMW 320i around about 1988 - like driving a fast chocolate bar, enjoyable and sooo smooth, handling could catch you out though.
Alfa 75 ( hired in Italy for a week ) you could almost hear Matt Munro singing "days like these"
Espace, made me want to scream ( in a bad way )
Westfield, made me want to scream ( in a good way )
Oh there are so many more, but I'll let someone else have a go...
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Mon 8 Feb 16 at 18:03
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Can't remember having or driving any car that didn't make me feel good in one way or another.
Even Skoda Estelles of which I had five (shaddap Perro, you're wrong comrade). Most people don't really like cars, they just think the one they've got is brilliant until they get tired of it.
There never was a faultless jalopy. Perhaps the original RR Silver Ghost, back in the days when petrol was free.
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Well, the one I can honestly say left me emotionally unmoved was the diesel automatic Qashqai I had for a couple of years. It was full of toys, sunroof, 4x4, top of the range at the time, but I never really bonded with it. It was about as exciting as a washing machine ( to me anyway ) I didn't dislike it but I never got in it in a morning and looked forward to the journey if you see what I mean? Conversely, my wife loved it and we got her a Qashqai on the strength of it and which she still likes very much.
I've been far more fond of far more mundane cars, my old Mondeo estate by way of an example. No rhyme or reason to that really, I just liked it and enjoyed driving it.
For different reasons I loved the old beaten up Vitara convertible we hired ( twice ) two years apart in Cyprus. Same small independent car hire company and exactly the same car by sheer coincidence. It just fitted the mood of those holidays, spent hours off road in it exploring the Akamas peninsula conservation area. Forest tracks, empty ( as in deserted ) beaches, swimming with turtles...
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Much of how we feel about a car is inevitably tied up with how well our life was going at that point and what part the car was a catalyst or enabler, or even just there at the time.
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Of course that's very true, but I suppose I'm interested to explore the emotional influences, expected or otherwise from the ownership/usage experience of given cars.
Surely we have all enjoyed some more than others despite having use of them in similar life circumstances?
Or is it really only about how much or how little they cost us and how reliable they were?
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"Surely we have all enjoyed some more than others despite having use of them in similar life circumstances?
Or is it really only about how much or how little they cost us and how reliable they were?"
That depends I think on the sort of person we are as well as the cars we drive. If your car is simply a piece of equipment to get you from A to B, the second line is all that matters. But as enthusiasts who like to spend time chatting on a forum, then a car is much more than that, and indeed different cars will make us feel differently.
There's something special about one's first-ever car, provided that it was reasonably reliable. My Austin A50 made me feel good to be British, with its flying-A mascot sitting proudly atop the bonnet.
There's also a more general feel-good factor about driving a car with six cylinders. I've only had three (Laguna V6, A4 Avant 2.5 TDI and BMW Z3), and I'd like another - but you have to go further and further up most makers' ranges to get a six nowadays. But the 2.0 TSI four in my current Octavia comes quite close, with lots of zing when you need it but plenty of torque when you need to pootle.
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Much of how we feel about a car is inevitably tied up with how well our life was going at that point...
In retrospect, that's true. So how about we confine ourselves to feelings contemporaneous with the cars we felt them about? For example, my Saab made feel like an architect - a real one, not the made-up IT kind - or at least, how I imagined a real architect might feel. My Toyota made me feel glad it got me where I wanted to go and it was time to get out.
That sort of thing.
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My wife's Qashqai makes me feel like I'm on holiday. I guess because I spend so many working hours in the Merc. Driving the far less capable Nissan makes me feel relaxed and off duty. But I wouldn't want to take it to London and back in a day. Not that it wouldn't be more than capable of that. It just feels like much more of a local potterer abouter.
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We've been talking about this in the last few days as I have to choose another car, and I have to say the Volvo's I've had made me feel most like an accountant.
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Well, if you are an accountant, that's sort of OK isn't it?
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That's what we were talking about as I'm a 'Finance Director' now so more accountant/businessman - I've been to test drive a BMW ....
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Best get some hair gel too then, and some Raybans. ( oh and some unfortunate ties )
;-)
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Yes, I think that's what's bothering me!
Last edited by: Paul Robinson on Mon 8 Feb 16 at 21:05
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Perhaps you should consider a Cactus then Paul? Admittedly it probably wouldn't be high on your list of possibles but anything that puts Zero in a good mood must be really very special indeed.
;-))
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>> my Saab made feel like an architect -
>> a real one, not the made-up IT kind
Mine makes me feel skint. Which is fine, because I am.
Mrs A is a made up IT Architect. I don't think cars make her feel anything, other then fed up if one fails to proceed. Although we had to sell the Touran because the smell of the car reminded her of being picked up from chemo sessions feeling nauseous. "The Chemo Wagon", she called it. Had to go.
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>>Even Skoda Estelles of which I had five (shaddap Perro, you're wrong comrade).
Whatever floats your boat Sire.
My Forester makes me feel safe and comfortable, and with that I'm H A P P Y.
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>> My Forester makes me feel safe and comfortable
Heh heh... certainly a better motor than an Estelle Perro. But I love them all, just can't help it.
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But, as far as know, you've never had an Espace AC?
If mine had been a horse I would have shot it.
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I think I'd have been ok, it wasn't often a moving target...
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>> you've never had an Espace AC?
>> If mine had been a horse I would have shot it.
I haven't owned one, but I've been in one. Perfectly decent van with windows it seemed. I like Renaults, and I like having to climb a short staircase before driving something tall and dominant.
But I'm very tolerant with cars. Can't help it. Chacun à son gôut however.
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Nissan Almera.
I wanted a 1.8 manual, but couldn't find one so settled on a 1.5.
It did so much more than the Focus it replaced and despite what they say about Focus handling, I swear the Almera was better. It had more bells and whistles than the Yaris I replaced it with. Had it for nine years ('05 - '14) and I only got rid of because a crankshaft position sensor failed - cost me forty quid. It looked fantastic when I flogged it and someone was willing to pay £1700 for an eleven-year-old car.
It wouldn't return the 50MPG I get out of the (1.3 petrol) Yaris though.
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Vitesse 1.6 convertible. Posed around in it most weekends for what seemed like ages. Not quite Seventeen though! AND TODAY WE CONDEMN THE YOUNGSTERS................
Z1. Rarely, but as above. Torque. Ya don't know Jack Shi until you've hung on to one of those beasts. Regular wheels for me when both of the above appeared was an FS1E.
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I've probably owned pushing 50 cars in 40 years, so lots of metal which really stirred the emotions. The first was a Mk1 Golf Gti. AUM 880X. Then a 205 GTI B211 UCP. An RS2000 which I road rallied. Then a Ur Quattro ( G626 JVC) still available to view on YouTube driven by JC and bought third hand. Then a Mk1 Elise ( post divorce present) which I waited 3+ years for. I have wonderful memories of them all, and, to all lesser extent, a fifth hand Spitfire.
And yet strangely, very strangely, my current 330 ragtop doesn't come closer to any of these where emotions are involved. It's too reliable, too comfy, too fast ( at times). You just get in & go depending on how the mood takes you. Want to cruise comfortably home in the dark on a summers evening touching 130 on a quiet dual, no problem. I got twice the fun doing half that in my 1600cc Golf.
Regrets. Very few. Probably counted on one hand.
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I've owned about 10 cars in my life, although it's hard to classify those bought for spares or given to me.
I've only ever bought a car for love, but obviously I restrict my feelings so as not to suffer too much from unrequited love for Lamborghinis or classic Rolls-Royces. And never anything later than 1992, coincidentally the point when the catalyst emissions test cuts in.
I don't get any nice feelings from driving or sitting in a later car - they are just plastic padded boxes with a tatty plastic smell . I wouldn't furnish a room in my house like that, so why put up wiith it in a car?
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I agree with Zero - it's quite hard to separate feelings about a car from feelings about your life events and experiences generally at the time you owned them.
My S60 always gave me a tremendous sense of wellbeing, but I couldn't really put my finger on why. I suspect it was a combination of the supreme comfort, low noise levels, and the sense that you could set off a decent sized explosive charge inside it, and everything would still function perfectly afterwards. It wasn't a very impressive car dynamically, but somehow it didn't really matter because it didn't pretend to be that sort of car. I have similar feelings for the B8 A4 Avant I've just taken over in my new job. Infinitely less sharp than the 3-series dynamically, but it's got big leather armchairs and a smooth engine, and the interior feels like it cost about 20x the BMWs. Smells nice too. Silly things, but I've done 1500 miles in 2 weeks, and I've not got out of it once feeling tired or pained.
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AC said "Can't remember having or driving any car that didn't make me feel good in one way or another." and I feel much the same. They make me mobile and give me a machine to play with.
I've owned just 12 in almost 50 years of motoring, but the one which came to mind, when I saw the topic title, belonged to a friend when I was about 18.
It was a white MG Midget TA with red wheels and trim and I only rode in it once. We went to Skegness one sunny Sunday afternoon. I don't know what we did when we got there, just cruised around I should think, but I do know that every girl I saw that day was looking in our direction. That felt very good!
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How they make/made you feel. - Armel Coussine
