cars

i was on my way home yesterday when i had a thought. shocking i know, but sometimes i do have thoughts.

anyways, all of the cars i have owned (all 2 of them) have been used. nothing wrong with that. the cherokee was given to me from the rens, and i bought my explorer (~6 months before i wanted to, but that's a story for another day) used (had 34,895 miles on it, and as you can see in this post, i've managed to hold onto it for a little while).

but i noticed something that struck me funny. when we buy a used car, it's generally because we can't afford a new car, don't want to pay the premium of a new car, we want a 2nd car, or buying it for a child to drive. (unless you are one of those snot-nosed rich fucks on mtv celebrating their 16th birthday who get cars that are way more powerful than they know how to handle. my 16th birthday looked nothing like that....) but i started thinking about what we expect in a used car.

when i think about a 'used car', i think of something affordable, your typical SUV (explorer, cherokee), a compact car, a camry or maxima. something i think most people would consider to be your 'typical' used car. yesterday, i saw someone driving a 98 Mercedes ML320. and on the rear gate, was a sticker that indicated that it was a used car. it wasn't a huge sticker, but the sticker got me thinking.

if you are going to spend the money to buy a used Mercedes, it isn't exactly something that i would want to advertise as 'used'. i realize that if you see one of the older boxy Mercs on the road, it's probably used. but once they changed the styling to a more rounded shape, it seemed to me that they boosted their image and anyone driving it, could afford it. new or used, didn't matter, but i never saw a sticker on one that indicated that it was 'used'.

so when i saw the sticker last night, it struck me funny, because if i were to buy a used mercedes, the first thing i would do would be remove any kind of indication that it was used. i want people thinking i bought it new. but instead, the person who bought this ML320, my immediate reaction (judging is a bad thing, i know) was that they couldn't afford a new one, but were trying to make it look as tho they could.

granted, i'm sure a used ML320 costs a pretty penny (more than i'd want to pay), but leaving that sticker on makes me think of them as a wanna-be Mercedes owner. well off enuff to buy one, but dumb enuff to leave the glaring fact that they couldn't afford a new one.

my next car? most likely will be new, smaller and a lot more fuel efficient than my current one.

maybe i really am becoming a hypocritical snob...

fuck it. i like how i view the world, with sick, twisted and distorted eyes....