Very Excited
Guess what?
I get my Little Car back today!!! I'm leaving work between 1:30-1:45, picking up Steve at home, going to the Bump Clinic to get Little Car, then to Hertz to return the rental. 
Super excited to be getting my car back. I always thought this notion was dumb before, but I completely feel like we bond with our cars. I'm serious here, and it didn't hit me until the day of the accident. Once I realized that Steve and I were OK, part of the emotion (you know, besides "I can't believe I just hit someone and got in an accident") was that I felt bad that I "hurt" the Corolla. Now, when you think about it for a minute it's kind of silly, because it's just a car and it doesn't have feelings. But when I saw the pictures that Steve took the day it got towed over to the Bump Clinic I couldn't help but think that it looked so sad.
Look at the front of a car sometime with a different eye. The grill on a car is kind of like a smile (or a frown, or a "grrr" face in the case of trucks). The headlights on either side look like a pair of bright eyes, completing the face. There's a picture that Steve took where Little Car looks like a smaller woman that got into a barroom brawl with a bodybuilder. I had a tear when I saw that picture, I'm not even going to lie.
I don't know what it is, but I know that there are a lot of people out there who agree with me on at least some level - you bond with your car. Especially if it's one that you picked out, that you like, and that you enjoy driving. I never bonded with my Buick and was not sad to see it go when we got the Corolla. But the thought that Little Car could have been totalled just kind of put a knot in my stomach. Almost like the loss of a pet, which again is just totally silly because it's a CAR! It's just a THING! It's replaceable!
Does anyone have any idea why we bond with our cars like this????
Well either way... Steve got the call yesterday that Little Car is all set and fixed and ready to be taken back on the road. And I'm super excited about it.
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5 comments:
I understand, I wouldn't want to get rid of Silver Bullet Jr even though it has cost me thousands of dollars in repairs.
A guy called in on Car Talk after he bought a truck. The woman he bought it from said it's name was [some male name]. He called in to ask Click and Clack if it would be okay for him to change its name to a female name, or would that confuse and upset the truck?
The hosts were completely baffled, and basically called him crazy on national public radio.
I totally understand being attached to your car. I just traded in my car that I had had for 5 years. It was my first car and I had never had any big problems with the car. As I was watching them drive it away for the last time, I teared up a bit. I even wonder right now who the new owner is and I hope that they are a nice person.
I think that we become attached to our cars because we spend so much of our lives in them. They are like little oasises, especially on the way home from work. :)
They become a part of the family, part of your life. Hasn't everyone taken at least one picture of their car? And you end up talking about old cars like they're your kids. I'm sure you've heard stories like "Back in 82...you remember, that's when I had that old white Monte Carlo..."
IMO, people feel loyal about decisions they make.
If you consider a purchase long and hard, and decide on a particular brand, size, color, etc., you usually end up feeling that it was indeed the best choice. If someone comes along and says, "That was a bad purchase, you should have bought -----," it makes you feel defensive! Why? Because they're insulting your choice and your decision making process (indirectly of course).
Our choices reflect who we are, and an expensive purchase like a car sometimes gets associated with our image of ourselves.
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