Monday's Random Musings: Auto Beasts

Source: Outraged Comics









I kinda sailed over this info last weekend, so I can't tell you where I saw it anymore, but I cheered when I read the news: GM is going to stop making Hummers, the urban assault vehicle of urban assault vehicles, pinnacle of superfluous excess in American consumerism, which is itself the pinnacle of world consumerism. Which is, when you think about it, quite a statement.

The monstrous beasts--I won't miss 'em. They're god-awful ugly on top of it all.

Despite the fact that they get less than 10 miles per gallon, the fact that they're no longer being made will render them instantly collectible, but ah well, what can you do? At least there will be fewer of them to try to see beyond & over & through at dangerous intersections for those like me, who still drive their Honda normal-sized cars.

Playing in my mind right now is that really funny commercial for Volkswagen (never mind the ties with all the other German automakers who are in on the SUV action, let's just play along for now). Two people in an "ego-less" Volkswagen drive down a street where the other drivers are all shouting through megaphones what they intend to broadcast to the world by their choice of wheels. (Marketing has become so avant-garde.)

Shouts one man: "Compensating for my personal shortcomings!"

Segue to Washington, DC, where the royalty & their staff live. The news is dismal for us normal-sized car owners. According to a piece in Newsweek:

"With all the histrionics about rising gas prices coming out of Washington these days, SUVs must be an endangered species in our nation's capital, right?

"Well, not exactly. At Capitol Cadillac, just inside the Beltway, SUVs are flying off the lot. Last week, former White House chief of staff Andy Card dropped by to pick up a new SRX, Caddy's midsize SUV, says dealer Daniel Jobe.

"But Jobe's hottest seller, by far, is the newly redesigned chrome-encrusted Cadillac Escalade, an incredible hulk that gets 13mpg in the city. 'My biggest problem is not gas prices,' says Jobe, "it's getting enough of these trucks.'"

Guess that's what it means to be privileged & Republican these days. No more the era of Pat Nixon's sensible & modest "good cloth coat."

This is the age of unabashed GOP bling-bling.