#i think volkswagen is the better choice even though it makes for longer tags

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

4. Personality, pt.2 - or The Norm(s)

Some readers (the brave few that got through the last part, at least) may have been left with the impression that cars may be able to have a personality, but still consider it as only expressing through deviance from a norm, which a car has more personality the more it deviates from and, by extension, less personality the less it does so, to the point that if a car coincides with the norm it has none whatsoever. And to that I say: 

Well, what would that norm even be?

I cannot even imagine asking that question and not having some yank bring up the fabled Toyota Camry. But that’s not a “normal” car - hell, it’s not even sold in Europe because that’s how low its demand is for sedans as large as a Camry and no more… premium than a Camry (in fact, we do get the Lexus that is based on it), and it’s stopped being sold in Japan as well. The Camry being the quintessential ‘normal’ car is a distinctly American idea, and one could transpose some of that yankiness to the spirit of the car itself. Seeking then to try a more global car, it’s easy to land on another Toyota product, the Corolla being another popular answer to the question - especially between people more exposed to drivers with lower purchasing power, because obviously, what cars are normal varies with the wealth of the people around you.

But again, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a Corolla sedan here, because if we want a car that isn’t big and luxurious we tend to just buy a hatchback, which will either make parking much easier with a shorter length… 

…or make the most of the length at hand by offering foldable seats (why don’t all sedans offer them too???) and space atop the cargo area for tall shit to occupy.

But if we turn these versions around, what do we see?

“Hold on, that’s a different front end!”, I hear you say, and aww man, I lovingly made you a link to the post where I go over the different looks of this Corolla generation and how they were studied to blend with the local automotive landscapes! I even put up a solid half hour of fight with the Tumblr editor to fix the picture array! Don’t do me like that :’C

Anyway, a car that changes looks and shape depending on where you are is not a normal thing in itself, and it means the resulting cars will all not be normal elsewhere. So surely we must look for a car all the world got a pretty similar version of, right? And lucky you, I’ve just the thing: a car sold anywhere a car was ever sold, a car so consistent that multiple of its commercials openly bragged about how little it changed - at last, the epitome of normal car.

The Volkswagen Beetle.

What.

Is this not a normal car? How could the best selling car of all time (unless you count the hundreds of completely different cars the Corolla name has been slapped onto) not be normal? Because it’s not normal now? Well, then look at all the other ‘normal’ cars I’ve shown so far. You’d be called nuts if you tried to sell any of them today. They had fucken’ tape decks, brother.

See? There are so many different normals through space and time and communities that what seems normal to you here and now is notably ‘of this place’ or ‘of this time’ or ‘of y’all’, and recognizable as such. And even when a car seeks to be normal everywhere that it is, there is a personality in that. Because personality isn’t standing out or being compelling or piquing anyone’s interest (yes, that’s how it’s spelled). It is the sum of the ways we see the world and the things that we want and the things that we fear and how they push us to be. And the pursuit of normalcy is, inescapably, a personality trait. Even in the quest to be normal there is a personality to be found in what motivates it, what it finds as its goal, and how and how successfully the character goes about it. Huh? Did I say character? Sorry, I meant car. This is not advice on how to write ‘normal people’, it’s a post about cars. What did you think it was?

what do you like about cars?

I think you knew, upon asking this, that I could only ever have answered with either an ironic one-liner or a dozen-part novel. And unfortunately, this is already the second line, so novel it is. So then, without any further ado than the literal half year that’s gone by since this was asked, let's go.

1. Engineering matters

At the end of last year (aka when I started writing this, yikes) my dear old iPhone 6S moved on to a new home because it simply wasn't keeping up with me anymore. (And again, I was using an iPhone 6S in 2023. If I say a phone is too slow, it's too slow.) I had plenty of criteria for the replacement: a smallish screen not overboard on resolution, ideally a physical media control button and/or vibration toggle, repairability, a FUCKING AUX JACK... Something like the Sony Xperia 10, whose only real issue is marketing so trash you've only just now learned Sony never stopped making phones.

And yet...

This fancy wallpapers-sporting foldable is a Motorola RAZR 5G, a phone whose too-big screen already broke (though at the edge due to adhesive issues) and those who dared try warn repairing it will be as hard as phone repairs get. Why the fuck did I buy this? Well, because it has something more important than the aux jack, proper sizing, and good cameras: it made me go “That’s so cool!”, and when’s the last time a phone made you say that? It's the cusp of a new technology, and whether it becomes the future of phones, a future of phones, or just a weird footnote, it is an island of interesting in a sea of boring. And sadly, even this island is rapidly sinking. The drive for new form factors has already boiled down to the same two phones and their evolution is sinking into the usual millimetric proportion tweaking, camera rearranging, touchscreen expanding, case material switching, fingerprint sensor moving, and spec improvements not even manufacturers can come up with use cases for. I mean, seriously, how does the iPhone 15 differ from a software-updated iPhone X (which is apparently not pronounced "x", so I guess the iPhone Twitter)? Nothing is new. Nothing is tackled differently. The user experience does not differ. And why should it, when iPhone users will get a new one out of habit anyway and many are so tech illiterate moving a button could hospitalize them? Five generation newer and 150% faster are numbers you basically have to trust, because they don't make a difference that matters.

But in cars? 150% faster will matter alright. Even just looking at it. Cars are a visceral experience to even witness, let alone ride in or drive, and the frantic engineering pursuits for performance and overall capability actually have impactful real world implications beyond "some pockets will bulge 1mm less". And their engineering involves so many fields that there’s always a breakthrough going on somewhere - which leads to another reason their engineering is so interesting: there’s simply so much of it that anyone interested in engineering will find something for them, no matter their level or sector of expertise! Interested in mechanics? Well, obviously you’ll have a field day! Aerodynamics? Don't even get me started! Electronics? You're getting more goods by the year! It spread from engine management to safety assists to infotainment to ergonomic adjustments to even suspension and aerodynamics! Sound design? Even just working on the way engines sound is a profession of its own, let alone making these barrels of metal and glass propelling themselves at triple digit speeds through hundreds of explosions a second things you can comfortably have a conversation in - and that's not even mentioning horns and chimes! Hi-Fi? We’ve spent most of a century trying to get concert hall sound from a tiny tin can where everyone sits off-center and everything bumps and shakes around and you have maybe room for two components* a third the normal size and speakers can only be in a handful of places you wouldn’t want them which may well be the next room over**!

And this is just engineering.

*Like everything in the car world, there are exceptions to that

**For those unfamiliar, subwoofers, the speakers dedicated to, indeed, sub-bass, due to their frequent humongousness are often installed in the trunk.