Tag Archives: cars

On cars….

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Rewatching Top Gear – in season 7, if you’re a fan – and was reminded that the Mazda convertible is a good car – and a great car for the price. (Clarkson agreed with Hammond so it must be true.) I’d seen a lot around town but didn’t know much about them, so was rather dismissive. Turns out, for those who know cars, it’s a nerdy but great car. Again, I think that says something about this town.  There are a bunch of economical car nerds around here.  Can’t say that’s a bad thing.

On Privilege…again

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I’ve been watching a lot of Top Gear recently and it’s got me looking at the world in a different way…
I used to count the number of luxury cars vs the number of Priuses (Priui?) I saw on my way to work. Luxury cars defined as – Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, Lexus (for pretensions to luxury), Jaguar and any super cars I saw (and I saw a couple in one walk). The Prius won by a nose. Then I counted how many luxury cars (this time including the Prius and any other hybrid) vs trucks. The trucks won, barely.  If I tried to count the number of Subarus vs luxury makes, it would probably end in a similar result.
In Portland, if I counted the number of luxury cars vs the transients I saw…I think the luxury cars would win. By a lot.
I don’t know what to make of that. Perhaps it was a function of the neighborhoods I travelled through in there, perhaps it was a fluke of weather or a local event. In Ashland, the number seems to stay fairly constant (today I saw a beautifully restored muscle car – big fins and all).
Maybe the number of BMWs and Mercs on a city street is not a good measure of that city’s wealth. But the ratio of luxury cars to transients does seem to be a ratio of privilege.