Walking along the street, minding my own business, I came across a number of cars that got me thinking. One car in particular was a brand new Scion xB that had been turned from a fresh-off-the-dealership soapbox into nothing more than scrap metal. This silver xB, parked on the corner of a block in a good neighborhood in Davis, CA, was scratched and keyed on every panel. For the sake of professionalism, and for fear of building up too high a blood pressure from even thinking about it, I will spare you the sordid details of the words that were mercilessly carved into the body of the car.
Disputes happen. One would have to be living on Pandora to think otherwise. However, it still shocks me, to this day, how many cars on the street are victims of petty arguments and drama that should in theory boil over the next morning after a good night’s sleep. It doesn’t matter if a person violated a sacred college-house rule or did something youtube-worthy, it is not a free pass to key a poem across a person’s hood or doors. What really disturbs me to the core of my existence, though, is that automotive enthusiasts sometimes resort to the same tactics to blow off steam against others.
While, thankfully, this does not happen often, such scenes reminiscent of 2 Fast 2 Furious make me want to turn in my driver’s license! There are too many different car cultures to count. Arguing over which one is best is inevitable, but it should never escalate to desecrating another enthusiast’s car. Regardless whether one feels that Boeing 747-sized spoilers are disgusting or on the contrary they believe a car should light up like a Christmas tree, no one has the right to damage others’ property.
People in the automotive community should be able to respect one another enough to agree to disagree on tastes and leave it at that. After all, that is what makes the community so diverse and strong.
There are many better ways to solve disputes. My personal favorite: donning sumo fat-suits and bumping each other into oblivion, or, in this case, out of the circle.
