I was at the warehouse club today for my quarterly trip (so it's a full flat). I ran into a friend there who asked how I was getting it home. Then she said "that's right, you drive that thing." She went on and on about new cars are safer, and don't I wonder what people think, and how could I let my kids drive it, blah blah blah. She was practically scraping me off the bottom of her shoe as she walked away.
I love my "thing.". It's in great shape and I've never even had a flat in 9 1/2 years. I only have 81k miles on it and that includes 4 r/t to Florida for about 10k of it.
Just needed to vent. I'm assuming some of you drive "things" too if you bother to own a car at all. I can imagine what she'd say if I brought my groceries home with a bike and trailer like MMM.
You drive that "thing"
Ha seriously, eh?! I had a similar experience:
Over Christmas a cousin took one look at my iPhone 3GS (bought used) and exclaimed "Seriously, you better have a good excuse for not having the iPhone 4."
For once, I was speechless.
Note that this is also the cousin, who's asked me for a $300 baby shower gift, then when I got one (off of craigslist lol), asked if I could exchange it for the more expensive model.
I don't even bother wasting my energy being upset or hurt by people like that anymore. Rather, they become a fascinating case study of modern consumer culture.
Over Christmas a cousin took one look at my iPhone 3GS (bought used) and exclaimed "Seriously, you better have a good excuse for not having the iPhone 4."
For once, I was speechless.
Note that this is also the cousin, who's asked me for a $300 baby shower gift, then when I got one (off of craigslist lol), asked if I could exchange it for the more expensive model.
I don't even bother wasting my energy being upset or hurt by people like that anymore. Rather, they become a fascinating case study of modern consumer culture.
@jennypenny - I want to be gentle when I say this, but this is the sort of friend I would avoid. I have always squeezed over 10 years out of my cars, usually 13-14, and I am proud of it.
@palmera - it is difficult with relatives but I would be clear about communicating your your expectations of an appropriate present. I gravitate toward gift cards and my typical gift is $20-30; I might go up to $50 if someone has gone out of their way to do an excellent job for me (e.g. a subordinate who pulled off a difficult project). You are exactly right about not being bothered by (and I'd suggest avoiding) by people with extravagant expectations.
@palmera - it is difficult with relatives but I would be clear about communicating your your expectations of an appropriate present. I gravitate toward gift cards and my typical gift is $20-30; I might go up to $50 if someone has gone out of their way to do an excellent job for me (e.g. a subordinate who pulled off a difficult project). You are exactly right about not being bothered by (and I'd suggest avoiding) by people with extravagant expectations.
@palmera - Here you have an easy out: just tell your cousin that you're still in the middle of a contract with AT&T and can't upgrade yet .. that worked for me for a couple of years, until I finally sold the iPhone and went with a free company provided phone + Google Voice. Now I just say "free phone" and people tend to have nothing to say back .. I especially love saying this to the kiosk people at the malls and such. It's amazing to see their reaction to "If you can give me that phone and pay me to use it, I'll take it. Otherwise, I'll stick with my free work provided phone thanks!" Almost always shuts them up and I walk away smiling.
I was also wondering if this is a friend you should have. I'm sure there are other great things about her though and if we all ditched our friends whenever they disagree with or offend us, there would be no such thing as friends...
There's sort of a similar example where I work. One of the managers drives really bad cars. He calls his car "Shitbox". I think it's a nickname someone at work gave it. That car got crashed and now he has "Shitbox 2". For the first couple months after he bought it, he had to push start it often. He would drive a few people to lunch, and they would have to push his car for him to get it started!
Anyways, we joke often about his car with him amongst the management team, but we aren't making fun of him specifically or ever telling him he should do something differently. I know that some of us (myself included) are admiring him more than making fun of him, talking about his resourcefulness and all.
Sometimes I am surprised to hear accounts like yours Jenny. I tell people MANY times "that costs' too much money for me" when they suggest or talk about buying something that I don't want, and I don't ever recall anyone giving me any crap for it.
On a serious note, when her behavior offends you like this, why don't you call her out on it?
There's sort of a similar example where I work. One of the managers drives really bad cars. He calls his car "Shitbox". I think it's a nickname someone at work gave it. That car got crashed and now he has "Shitbox 2". For the first couple months after he bought it, he had to push start it often. He would drive a few people to lunch, and they would have to push his car for him to get it started!
Anyways, we joke often about his car with him amongst the management team, but we aren't making fun of him specifically or ever telling him he should do something differently. I know that some of us (myself included) are admiring him more than making fun of him, talking about his resourcefulness and all.
Sometimes I am surprised to hear accounts like yours Jenny. I tell people MANY times "that costs' too much money for me" when they suggest or talk about buying something that I don't want, and I don't ever recall anyone giving me any crap for it.
On a serious note, when her behavior offends you like this, why don't you call her out on it?
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Posthumane
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:06 am
My car gets made fun of quite a bit, but usually not by people who I would consider actual friends, as my real friends don't really care what I drive. Usually it's co-workers, in which case I make an excuse about not having money for a newer car because I spend it all on my airplane. Of course, I could go out and buy a fairly decent car for cash now (though not brand new), but I like my car. I bought it for $900 with the intention of driving it for a winter, and five years and 110000km later it's still going pretty well. In fact, it's 19 years old this year. My parents bug me about it, which is kind of annoying because they know I could afford a better one and can't understand why I would keep driving it.
Anyway, I understand your frustration. It takes effort to learn to ignore those people. When they get really annoying I start doing depreciation calculations for them...
Anyway, I understand your frustration. It takes effort to learn to ignore those people. When they get really annoying I start doing depreciation calculations for them...
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jennypenny
- Posts: 6858
- Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:20 pm
She is a friend because our daughters are friends. I've shed most of my friends who think they way she does, but when our kids are friends it's harder. I don't want to hurt my kids' friendships because I can't stand their parents. (I know we could debate that but we all know it's hard to be excluded when you're a kid).
So I tried to remember my daughter's friendship, and only told her that I love my car so why would I get rid of it? I wanted to tell her that if that stick goes any further up her ass she'll have to have it surgically removed. (sorry if that's crude, but that's exactly what was perched on the tip of my tongue at the time)
@shawn--I drive a rockin' ford high top econoline conversion van with a bed in the back and tricked out for camping. I LOVE my van. It's been described as "low rent" but I don't care.
So I tried to remember my daughter's friendship, and only told her that I love my car so why would I get rid of it? I wanted to tell her that if that stick goes any further up her ass she'll have to have it surgically removed. (sorry if that's crude, but that's exactly what was perched on the tip of my tongue at the time)
@shawn--I drive a rockin' ford high top econoline conversion van with a bed in the back and tricked out for camping. I LOVE my van. It's been described as "low rent" but I don't care.
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aussierogue
- Posts: 379
- Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:02 pm
hehe - you dont shed friends because they diss your car...lol..
my car is 11 years old and i cop the same crap from family and friends. I just remind them that their 2 cars cost them 30k per year (40k pre tax) and my one old car costs 6k...that means i workd 2 days less...
It also helps that i live in an inner city green voting, educates area where being frugal, buying vintage, not having a suv is seen as cool..that is great for mental health being surrounded by like mindeds
my car is 11 years old and i cop the same crap from family and friends. I just remind them that their 2 cars cost them 30k per year (40k pre tax) and my one old car costs 6k...that means i workd 2 days less...
It also helps that i live in an inner city green voting, educates area where being frugal, buying vintage, not having a suv is seen as cool..that is great for mental health being surrounded by like mindeds
My car is nicknamed the wheelbarrow by the in laws- while concepts like FI may be too complex for them- it doesn't stop them from wanting borrow the barrow or get rides off me - nor does it bother me. People judge me openly on a number of factors from riding bikes for fun, to having an old car or for always cooking at home- and I in turn judge them for conspicuous consumption, poor parenting, and lack of personal fitness - it all works out in the wash.
Jenny - I guess you use the term "friend" loosely as it sounds like you were just using shorthand for "mother of my daughters friend.". Good for you though, playing nice for your daughter. I wouldn't confide my hopes ans dreams to this "friend" but I'd bring her a fruitcake for the holidays :-p. By the way your car sounds awesome.
Aussie, you make 20k per day??
Alex - I'm not judging, but I would imagine a 1992 geo to be a very dangerous car in a highway crash. Unfortunately, safety tends to require weight (either due to structure or advanced devices).
Aussie, you make 20k per day??
Alex - I'm not judging, but I would imagine a 1992 geo to be a very dangerous car in a highway crash. Unfortunately, safety tends to require weight (either due to structure or advanced devices).
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Posthumane
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:06 am
@dragoncar - I understand the sentiment, though the argument that larger/heavier vehicles are safer has always bugged me. While it's true that in a multi-vehicle collision the heavier vehicle has more inertia and so is subject to a smaller change in speed than the smaller vehicle, this is a case of increasing one's own safety at the sacrifice of the safety of others. Two Chevy Suburbans colliding aren't much different than two Geo Metros colliding, so it's kind of an arms race for the vehicle that's bigger than everybody else's. The larger/heavier vehicles are less safe in other situations such as single vehicle accidents (they are typically less maneuverable due to their inertia so less chance to avoid accidents), and collisions involving pedestrians. While many innovations have been made in terms of active safety devices which have increased the weight of vehicles, I think correlating vehicle weight and safety is incorrect.
Posthumane -- Good point, but there are other safety advantages that increase the weight of the vehicle without merely adding mass. Here are a few (I'm not particularly picking on the Metro, it's just the pertinent example):
Tire width - 1992 Geo Metro had 145mm tires vs. my 2003 Honda's 205mm. Wider tires should provide more grip, right?
Anti-lock brakes - This makes the road safer for everybody
Airbags
Car length/width - adds mass, but also puts more crumple zone between you and whatever you are colliding with. All other things being equal, I'd rather be one of two large cars colliding vs. two small cars for this reason. The 1992 Geo Metro Sedan was around 151.4" vs. my Honda's 189.5".
Weight -- more mass to stop, but also more force on the tires... is this a wash?
I'm not saying you should look for a higher-weight car and presume it's safer. I'm saying that a safer car is likely to weigh more (correlation, not causation).
Note also that hybrids were never really expected to get amazing highway mileage -- the regenerative braking effects tend to help stop and go situations and don't provide much benefit at speed. The electric assist could allow automakers to reduce engine size, but it seems they ended up using it to increase HP on moderately sized engines. One cool thing they started doing was disabling one or more cylinders when cruising, effectively reducing HP on the highway (but this works better on a v6 than a v4 for balancing issues)
Tire width - 1992 Geo Metro had 145mm tires vs. my 2003 Honda's 205mm. Wider tires should provide more grip, right?
Anti-lock brakes - This makes the road safer for everybody
Airbags
Car length/width - adds mass, but also puts more crumple zone between you and whatever you are colliding with. All other things being equal, I'd rather be one of two large cars colliding vs. two small cars for this reason. The 1992 Geo Metro Sedan was around 151.4" vs. my Honda's 189.5".
Weight -- more mass to stop, but also more force on the tires... is this a wash?
I'm not saying you should look for a higher-weight car and presume it's safer. I'm saying that a safer car is likely to weigh more (correlation, not causation).
Note also that hybrids were never really expected to get amazing highway mileage -- the regenerative braking effects tend to help stop and go situations and don't provide much benefit at speed. The electric assist could allow automakers to reduce engine size, but it seems they ended up using it to increase HP on moderately sized engines. One cool thing they started doing was disabling one or more cylinders when cruising, effectively reducing HP on the highway (but this works better on a v6 than a v4 for balancing issues)
I switched my commute vehicle from a Honda Helix scooter to the Geo Metro so my safety level has actually increased. The Geo is easier for drivers to see and at least there is some metal there to protect me. I agree though, as far as cars go the Metro isn't very substantial. It weighs only 1630 lbs. The highway gas mileage is better than my 400cc motorcycle which is amazing considering how much more people and cargo it can carry.
>The highway gas mileage is better than my 400cc motorcycle which is amazing
That is amazing. Anyways, if the metro is in good mechanical condition, I think you've got a really good thing going. I'd definitely use one for intermittent trips. My comment was more that I'd hesitate before going cross country (at one point in the 2000's I drove an 82 Nissan Sentra which probably had similar attributes... honestly it was a bit scary on the highway).
That is amazing. Anyways, if the metro is in good mechanical condition, I think you've got a really good thing going. I'd definitely use one for intermittent trips. My comment was more that I'd hesitate before going cross country (at one point in the 2000's I drove an 82 Nissan Sentra which probably had similar attributes... honestly it was a bit scary on the highway).
Heh. My husband had both a VW 'Thing' and an Econoline van. More recently, he had a GMC high-top van camper conversion that dated from the '70s. It was more than 10 years old when he bought it and we camped in that thing all over the country. Great memories. It finally bit the dust when someone banged into the driver's door and it wouldn't stay shut. He kept it closed with a rope, but finally gave it away a few years ago when he found out it was almost impossible to find a replacement door. If we could find a reasonably-priced newer, similar van with better gas mileage, we'd probably buy it in an instant.
I should add that over the course of 25 years of marriage we've maintained two cars until recently and probably spent less than 30 grand on cars and repairs.
I should add that over the course of 25 years of marriage we've maintained two cars until recently and probably spent less than 30 grand on cars and repairs.