Roughly four years ago I went with my father and picked out Beatrice, and while it wasn’t until a few days later that I brought her home I knew that as soon as I saw her she would play an extremely important role in my life. While things have not always gone smoothly with Beatrice I know that she will always be there for me and I will always be there to defend her when anything bad is said about her. It may not seem obvious from the beginning of this blog but Beatrice is my car, a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It is certainly not the best car out there, and I have had to take it to get many repairs but it is amazing to think about how important that car is and what it says about me. Many people have many different approaches to buying and having cars. Some people thing that cars are simply a means of transportation to take you for place A to place B. Other people believe that cars are a symbol of your social status and say a lot about you. People spend thousands of dollars on cars just to get a message across that they have enough money to spend a fortune on a toy. It is also interesting to consider what type of message you are sending with your car and how people judge you. The other day my friend went to court to fight a speeding ticket that he got while driving his Porshe Cayenne. The judge heard his ticket, stressed the fact that he was driving a Porshe, and then denied his appeal. Now I have gotten my fair share of speeding tickets while driving Beatrice, and often times I was driving well above the speed limit. However I have appealed every single one of my tickets and have done so successfully without any issues. There appears to be two reasons for the fact that I successfully appealed my ticked while my friend did so unsuccessfully. The first being that I argued my case better than he did (which I continue to tell him is the case) and the other is the fact that he was driving a sports car that is known for its speed while I was driving a Jeep which certainly is not known for its acceleration. It is clear from this example that cars really are an incredible medium and the messages they send across are very obvious. So the next time you are picking a car, which probably won’t be for a little while, just try and think about what message you want to send.
Awesome post Mike. Cars are definitely a unique medium. If you see someone with a fancy car, you would think that this means they have a lot of money that can be used to buy fancy things. Although they may cause people to make unfair assumptions about one another, cars are definitely a special way to tell people a little about yourself.
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