Same here.
Good for you, you wasted thousands of dollars on useless shit for an impractical car. I'm sure your family appreciates it.
People often make choices for themselves that others might not feel are right for them. :dunno: Personally, I've been a gearhead since I was a kid. I've owned some great cars and some real dogs... that I thought would be great (Porsche
*cough cough*) But where I'll spend more than the average person will on a car or accessories, I'm baffled when I hear that the video game market now has $74 billion in annual sales globally. Bloomberg just reported on a guy who spent $75K playing Farmville in one year. Hell, I don't even know what Farmviile is. I'm also baffled when I hear $70-$80 billion market cap valuations for Facebook thrown around. The reason these things baffle me is because I've never been into video games and I've never spent any real amount of time on a social network. So I accept that these are things that I can't really relate to, since I'm not into them. But that doesn't mean that the people who do spends hours and hours on end, playing computer/console games or chatting with strangers and "friends" on social networks, are bad people or wrong. Hell, I do spend time here, so I "get it". But I don't spend money and I don't go through withdrawal if I don't come here for a few weeks.
The same is true of cars and the car culture, IMO. Andronicus is not a car guy, by his own admission. But I believe he's been a fan of the Indy 500 since he was a kid. Not all racing fans are car guys, though typically they are. But cars are not something that he finds all that interesting... he's not "into them". And that's cool. But like I said, the mistake that people often make is thinking that what they are into is normal and fine, but what others are into is a waste of time. Whenever I catch myself doing that, I try to check myself.
As for the smaller car thing, if you look at 2-3 year sales trend data from all of the manufacturers that sell in the U.S., you'll notice that more fuel efficient vehicles have been selling the less fuel efficient versions of the same model. So it's not so much about "smaller" as about what is more fuel efficient. My daily driver is a modified WRX that is classified as a subcompact. But it's not very fuel efficient. With the modifications I've fitted, it generates around 300 hp and gets around 24 mpg. I'm 6'3" and I fit in it just fine. And even though the fuel mileage isn't great, I love this car! It's better and more fun than the one it shares a garage with that cost me three times as much. But I've always liked the feel of smaller, lighter, powerful cars more than great big land yachts that make the tires squeal if you take a turn going more than 25 mph. Me, I don't get the 5'2" soccer moms who can barely see over the steering wheels of their Caddy Escalades and Lincoln Navigators... but to each his or her own.
If/when fuel prices go back up, I'm sure you'll continue seeing Americans choosing more fuel efficient vehicles, no matter the size.
