Can you buy a better car than a Honda Civic? Or for that matter a Toyota Corolla? I don't know if you can. For approximately $15k you get a really decent car—four wheels plus a steering wheel, comfortable seating, a decent trunk, pretty good fuel efficiency and intermittent windshield wipers. For roughly the same amount of money you can get a Pontiac G5 or Vibe or a Kia Rio5. There are equally fine cars in that price range offered by Chrysler, Mazda and Ford. The Ford Focus is a perfectly acceptable choice.
The Focus, for example, puts out 136hp@6,000rpm and 133lb./ft.@4,500rpm of torque; plus, it has 5-speed manual transmission, stainless steel exhaust, anti-roll bar, remote keyless entry, cup holders, vanity mirrors, driver's footrest, Mp3 capability, 40.7 inches of front leg room, 47.9 inches of rear hip room, variably intermittent wipers and a clock. That's a lot of stuff (and I left most of it out, 'cause, you know, I also do editing) for under $20,000.
So, let me ask differently: Can you buy a better car than a Ford Focus? A 100 years of engineering, design, safety, efficiency and a whole bunch of other things I know little about, have gone to create this fine automobile. I don't see how anybody could make a better car than that—or a Civic, or a Corolla or a Vibe.
In fact, why make a Corolla when the Civic is so perfect? Or why bother with Civics when Vibes are the tops? Well, I suppose I want choices in my life. Choice is the semblance of democracy, of autonomy, of free will. After all, the thing that makes the West a great place to be is our options to choose our own destiny. I see images of people in developing worlds and they look the same: the same kinda hat, the same long shirt and loose pants. They're dressing the same way they have in their habitats for centuries. What they need is a little splash of Ralph Lauren and Versace. But, its not gonna happen, 'cause they aren't free, not the way we are.
Back when I was a kid they used to tell us how the Communists longed to have different kinds of bread, of clothes, of comforts. We have choices; and we can choose between a Corolla and a Civic; more importantly we can choose to have neither, ride our bikes and take public transit and rent autos when we finagle our way into somebody's cottage. And, the truth is, there's a huge difference between a Corolla and a Civic.
Is there? Sure! Just the same way there's a huge difference between a red car and a blue one. The difference is in how it makes me, the driver, the owner, feel. Because the car, like my clothes, my haircut, my shoes, my house and my music is an accessory of me. Choice is about Brand Me!
And that is why there are so many different kinds of car, at different price levels, because it's all in aid of me deciding who I am. A woman working checkout at the local grocery store may not be able to afford a Honda Accord (starting at $20k) but once she gets her medical degree she's unlikely to drive something that humble.
Like any successful drug dealer, she'd know that if you want to scream your status, you must get a Beemer or a Benz. An entry level BMW starts at $35k; bragging rights aren't cheap, and anyways, Brand Me is always worth it. That extra bit of loose change might buy you “double VANOS steplessly variable valve timing,” but, whatever. Nobody needs a Hummer, the same way nobody needs more car than a Civic. But you can't go to a squash game in a Lada. Brand Me would never stand for it, because Brand Me needs other brands to keep it aloft. That's why Brand Me needs the semblance of choice; no matter how bogus.
