An exciting car is a toy one owned by a child. The child still has a very narrow focus of interest, and can use the toy car as the starting point for creative play.
A boring car is one owned or used by an adult, who has a much wider and more highly developed sense of all that the world has to offer. The car cannot stir the soul like a work of art, refocus one's world-view like a great piece of literature, incite lust like an attractive person, stimulate the senses like good food or drink, alter consciousness like hallucinogens, give spiritual sustenance, nor return love like another living being can do.
The car is a tool, a machine which may do its desired job well or do it badly, and it may in some circumstances be used for tasks which cause excitement; driving fast or adventurously, or propelling its occupants towards something exciting (whether that's a football match or a lover, a new job or a reunion with friends). A well-crafted tool of any type may of course offer great satisfaction, but the excitement for an adult is in the use, not in the tool.
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It don't think it's as simple as that NowWheels. Motoring writers have called cars 'metal overcoats' and I think it's a good simile. Is a coat just a 'tool' to keep you warm and dry. Do you choose a coat just on that basis, or are there other considerations?
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All cars apart from a small percentage of hand built are from enormous production lines. Saying some similar products are white goods, and others are "interesting" betrays more about the commentator than the product. I can see that to a driver of a performance car, or maybe a plutocratic MB, lesser vehicles, i.e. compromised, or just cheaper, would be looked at askance:) Differentiating between a Jazz and an equally modest vehicle seems to be taking things too far! Delusional I calls it.
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> Differentiating between a Jazz and an equally modest vehicle seems to be taking things too far!
Indeed.
A Punto, Clio or 207 is every bit as 'boring' as a Jazz, Micra or Colt.
An interesting car is something like an Alfa, Subaru or Porsche. Not some naff little Renault Megane.
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>>>The car is a tool, a machine which may do its desired job well or do it badly<<<
Perhaps this is the way you see a car NW, but to others a car is much more than just a means of getting from A to B ... With many of us, a car is an extension of his/her personality, something to behold, to cherish, to lavish love and money upon, , to form an attachment to, to personalise - even a 'boring' car.
I drive a fairly boring car, an Almera 1.8, most bread & butter cars are boring (IMO), I'd rather drive an exciting car like a red MX5, a silver BMW 335 convertible or even a humble? VW Eos than a 'boring' car anyday but ... needs must etc., etc. maybe I am just a child - at heart!
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>The car cannot stir the soul like a work of art, refocus one's world-view like a great piece of
>literature, incite lust like an attractive person, stimulate the senses like good food or drink,
>alter consciousness like hallucinogens, give spiritual sustenance, nor return love like
>another living being can do.
What an odd statement.
An E-Type Jaguar or a DB4 Zagato isn't a work of art?
The wail of a Ferrari or Alfa, the deep rumble of an American V8 doesn't stir the soul?
A Mercedes 500K Roadster doesn't incite lust?
My XJ doesn't love me? My Chevy is having an affair with next door's Boxster?
You're in the wrong forum again NW.
Kevin...
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>>You're in the wrong forum again NW
It's funny you should say that. That post has probably been the closest I have ever been to agreeing with No(w)Wheels.
Cars are mass produced stampings, castings, forgings. There's really little difference between them and the white goods in your kitchen.
I'm glad that I haven't bought into the marketing department's spin that the car you drive says something about you - it's a line that has made the manufacturer's many millions!
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>It's funny you should say that. That post has probably been the closest I have ever been to agreeing
>with No(w)Wheels.
NW's posts in the "Insurance blunder" thread were excellent, they matched my feelings exactly. On this occassion I disagree.
>Cars are mass produced stampings, castings, forgings.
>There's really little difference between them and the white goods in your kitchen.
If you look at it purely in terms of manufacturing methods you are correct but I think that most people have a bigger emotional involvement with their car than their fridge.
>I'm glad that I haven't bought into the marketing department's spin that the car you drive says
>something about you
The marketing departments didn't create it or spin it, they simply took advantage of it. It's called the mating ritual and however much you protest, the car you drive does say something about you. It's as much a statement about yourself as the clothes you wear.
My daily-driver says that I'm an old pink fluffy dice who values ride quality and comfort more than economy or fashion. My weekend car says that I'm a middle-aged hooligan.
I wouldn't like to say what my fridge says about me.
Kevin...
Edited by Webmaster on 20/10/2008 at 01:02
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"My daily-driver says that I'm an old pink fluffy dice who values ride quality and comfort more than economy or fashion."
I've found a nice car for you Kevin. Autotrader - Super V8 with individual rear seats, rear entertainment system and piped ivory leather.
Might be a bit old for you though, it's a 99 with 100k and it's going for 6999. Everything I'm looking for but 6 months too early.
"I wouldn't like to say what my fridge says about me"
Mine would say that I eat a lot of corned beef with pickles and drink a lot of vodka.
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BBD,
I'm really looking for something a bit younger.
Having said that, I'd be very tempted by that one except for the paint. It has a good spec and it's one helluva lot of car for peanuts, but Sherwood Green isn't exactly my favorite.
>Mine would say that I eat a lot of corned beef with pickles and drink a lot of vodka.
Mmm, you've just ignited one of those odd cravings for "comfort food" - corned beef hash like my mum used to make when I was a kid.
Kevin...
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Kevin, I posted this for you on 20 Oct, 40 days or so ago...
"I've found a nice car for you Kevin. Autotrader - Super V8 with individual rear seats, rear entertainment system and piped ivory leather.
Might be a bit old for you though, it's a 99 with 100k and it's going for £6999. Everything I'm looking for but 6 months too early."
Well I've been browsing the Super V8s again and that car is still on there except it's now at £4850
Tempted to dip a toe in? You didn't like the colour (neither do I) but it does look prettier the cheaper it gets.
If it's still on there in March / April I'm having it.
Dave
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A boring car is one owned or used by an adult who has a much wider and more highly developed sense of all that the world has to offer.
Well of course anyone who disagrees with your 'motoring is a semi-necessary evil' views must be a child!
If a 'wider and highly developed sense of all the world has to offer' means that you can't enjoy a good car, what else does it mean you can't enjoy?
Snooker is quite a specific thing to enjoy. With a wider awareness of what the world has to offer, I should probably realise it's a bit stupid and go do something else. Similar with my wifes cross-stitching. I will inform her that she needs to find something more 'wide-ranging' to occupy her time.
Could you give a list of things which adults are allowed to enjoy?
The car cannot stir the soul like a work of art
Why can't it? If the appreciation of beauty in something which is sold as art is allowed, then why not the appreciation of beauty in something which happens to be sold as a vehicle?
Give me one reason why it is impossible for a car to create exactly the same response as a painting.
The car is a tool a machine which may do its desired job well or do it badly and it may in some circumstances be used for tasks which cause excitement;
I can drive to work in my own car, or my wifes. In either case I drive in exactly the same way. There's no point in overtaking, there is too much traffic in rush hour and the drive is only 30 minutes anyway. I cruise along in formation, doing nothing that could be classed as an activity 'causing excitement'. Yet doing so in my car is a pleasant experience. Doing so in my wifes car is a chore.
>> A well-craftedtool of any type may of course offer great satisfaction but the excitement for an adult is in the use not in the tool.
Oh yes, I was forgetting, I'm a child for not sharing your likes and dislikes. Clearly it's pointless my commenting then.
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An interesting car on the other hand does not have to be unreliable.
This is true -- but I think there is a lot to be said for the theory that fans of unreliable cars have a tendency to carp on about 'character' as it is the only thing they have.
Hence the appearance of boring=reliable. A Fiat Stilo is one of the most boring cars to drive I have ever experienced -- and I've driven some rubbish -- and it is also unreliable.
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Put it this way - a Ferrari would be boring if you HAD to drive it several hundred miles a day, day after day on the same roads, within the law, as a job! Eventually you'd get tired of the noise and wish you were doing something else.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 18/10/2008 at 15:51
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This question is really very easy to answer. A boring car is one in which the number of seats equals or exceeds the number of engine cylinders.
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>The car cannot stir the soul like a work of art, refocus one's world-view like a great piece of literature, incite lust like an attractive person, stimulate the senses like good food or drink, alter consciousness like hallucinogens, give spiritual sustenance...<
Well, the rest of you can think what you like - I may be 58 years old and been round the block a few times so I know a bit about works of art, politics, lust and good food and drink, but the Bentley Continental R does all that for me.
Luckily, I pay for my own cars so I don't know anything about what might be boring.
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I ended up driving a Suzuki something yesterday - whilst the Roomie is an utility car in my view, this one took the word utility and plumbed new depths with it.
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I think any car that doesn't make you smile is boring.
My Mondeo is boring in most people's eyes, but by goodness it makes me smile when I hear all 6 cylinders singing away under the bonnet propelling me forwards with a smooth wave of power.
I had all the rust cut away the other week and fresh wheelarches welded on, the guy that did it said that he doesn't normally work on cars as old as mine (2000 W reg) as by that time most people would rather just buy a new one! £400 later and I have an immaculate and rust free car, why buy a new one when the old one still makes you smile?
Edited by Webmaster on 19/10/2008 at 00:46
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You make the point Blue that modern machinery properly maintained and not abused will outlast some of the bodywork.
Personally I think £400 was a bargain to keep a nice car you know you like. Sort of superior bangernomics. I find it mildly irritating when people faff about getting rid of their perfectly decent jalopies because they will soon need a cambelt change.
Edited by Lud on 19/10/2008 at 01:09
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Personally I think £400 was a bargain to keep a nice car you know you like. Sort of superior bangernomics. I find it mildly irritating when people faff about getting rid of their perfectly decent jalopies because they will soon need a cambelt change.
Yeah that irritates me as well generally, although I did once change my BMW for a similar reason (rust on all 4 corners) but that was also partly because I really fancied a convertible and I used it as an excuse, wish I hadn't now as I loved that car really and only noticed just how much I loved it after I had sold it.
I think if I'd known about this particular painter that did the Mondeo when I had the BMW I probably would have just had it done, I never thought it would be so cheap to have so much of the bodywork replaced!
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To be honest, I don't even know why the people on the other side of the argument to me, those who have 'reliable cars' and sneer at people who aim for interesting, bother.
If you have bought your car purely to get you from A to B - entirely as something of utility and with no other consideration whatsoever - then why do you even care at all about what boring means? What it means is nothing to you.
It's not so much 'if you have to ask, then you'll never know' Pendlebury - it's more 'if you have to ask, then you don't actually care anyway'.
This is why such questions generally raise my suspicions that the question is posed merely as an excuse to point out how stupid those of a different frame of mind about motoring must be.
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It's not a worry to me, people can think that I'm stupid if they like, I KNOW that a car is more than a utility, they're the ones in the wrong ;-)
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