The Unseen Costs Of Motoring

When we are young, we look at cars on the road and long for the day we can drive one of them. Just think – no more riding the bus, go where you want when you want and be in control of the habitat in which you travel. Sure, the car will cost some money up front, but after that it’s all good. It all sounds pretty sweet.

It is only in adulthood that we see how the costs stack up. Sure, as kids we may have some understanding that we will need to fill the tank up every once in a while and that that will cost money. But you don’t realize just how much it costs until you’re driving to work and back every day and using the car for shopping and more.

If it were just the car and the gas that you had to pay for that would be one thing. However, for many people, the car has to be taken for a tune-up too often altogether. Some cars which look good and drive well for most of the time have a habit of developing a specific fault that cannot be conclusively repaired, merely taken care of.

Another cost which can drive you mad is the price of parking. It does not occur to a non-motorist just how much it can cost to leave your car somewhere safe. Some car parking charges are so expensive that they put motorists off any kind of visit that is not immediately vital – just another hidden cost of motoring.

Which Nation Makes The Best Cars?

A common discussion among motoring aficionados is the one about which country produces the best vehicles. Of course, it is a subjective argument. One person may have different views about what actually makes for the best car, and their preference may be reflected by a choice of cars from a specific nation.

Someone who likes efficiency in their automobiles will be likely to wave the flag for Germany. The country’s most noted manufacturers – BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz among them – are a byword for sleek class and reliability. Then again, you may be bored by efficiency and want a bit more bang for your buck, which may lead you to the Italian manufacturers such as Ferrari and Lamborghini.

Of course, there are certain anomalies which make it difficult to ascribe any specific characteristic to all a nation’s cars. Germany did, after all, produce the Porsche and Italy the Fiat. Some people will say that the best nation of car manufacturers is neither of these two, pointing to France’s fine track record with Citroen and Renault among others.

As two of the world’s predominant cultural influences, we might expect the US and the UK to be big hitters in the car industry, but it would be a stretch to put them up there with the aforementioned. Of the more recent arrivals on the scene, Japan has some fine manufacturers – but for most people it will come down to Germany vs Italy. A quick look at the grid for a Formula One race will back this up.

Your Dream Drive – What Makes The Perfect Car?

The discussion of what is the best car in the world is a pretty futile one unless you lay down certain parameters as to what the “best” really is. Do we mean the one that moves fastest, the one that looks best or the one which lasts the longest? These are just three criteria which can either be the most important or entirely irrelevant, depending upon your point of view.

For some people, the best car is the one that runs the most smoothly. Some cars, though technically excellent and pleasant to look at, have just one small fault which dogs the driver from the moment they take it home to the day they trade it in. The fault may not even be a particularly severe one, but if it keeps happening it can make the car impossible to run.

For those of an environmental frame of mind, the kind of gas mileage the car gets is also important. Many sports cars are beautiful to look at and purr like a tiger when they are on the open road, but they require refuelling so often that they are impossible to run economically and ecologically. A less “exciting” car that gets more mileage for a full tank of gas will be less likely to send you crazy.

Sometimes, the dream car is one that you just fall in love with for no reason that can be easily explained. From childhood, many of us see a car just once and think that we will be truly happy the day we can drive it off a forecourt. Sometimes, we need to be careful what we wish for.

The Way We Look At Cars

Although in real terms it is just a means of traveling, the car has taken on a completely iconic role in modern life. For some people, a car is just a car, a conveyance to get you from A to B, and maybe on to C if you are feeling adventurous. For many others, though, a car is as defining a symbol as any other, and says a lot about the person driving it.

Many people purchase a car with this in mind – sitting behind the wheel of a particular car is endlessly interwoven with status. For some people, the first thing they will do when they become definably rich is to buy the car of their dreams. Look at the players’ car park at any major sporting stadium and you will get an idea of how significant this is.

The car has had a fairly major role to play in popular culture. Particularly in cop shows and movies, the car that a central character drives will have as much significance for the viewer as the character’s wife and family and indeed the place where the show is set. Just look at the Dukes of Hazzard and Starsky and Hutch for two examples of how iconic a TV car can become.

It could be said that we fetishise the car in Western society. It is definitely true that we make a big thing out of the kind of car someone drives. Frequently, a politician will even be judged on the car they drive – is it made domestically, does it get decent gas mileage, what are my taxes paying for? The car is a source of endless fascination even for those who do not drive.

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