The Audi Factor
I admit it: I am a car freak living in the middle of New York City. But a little background is appropriate here, because I am far from a gas guzzling, irresponsible citizen. You see, I developed this love way before there was an environmental or gas crisis; it started around the age of five. I can now blame it on my father, since he rewarded me with the present to end all presents: a miniature car racing kit!
There was no stopping me after that. I helped pick out the cars my dad would buy beginning when I was six. Yes I was a precocious kid, and on top of this service to my dad, I became able to name the model and year of just about every car on the road, which never ceased to amaze my less observant friends.
So it should come as no surprise that I would be fairly picky when it came to buying a car for myself. And since this was something I have been trying to do for the last year and a half, I am mindful of the environmental and economic implications of my choice. Even though I will not be using this car most of the time (it will be in Miami where I have a second home), I was determined to get something that was fun, maybe even a convertible.
I have been reading car magazines all my life so I am fairly conversant on most of the new models to hit the market. I was also lucky because I could test drive cars in two different locales, in both Manhattan and Miami.
It was a fun job to test drive these cars, and it taught me so much more than I ever would have thought. Interestingly enough, many of the cars that recently got glowing reviews from the car magazines seemed uninteresting to me when driven, or like so many things in this society now, so over the top that the pure driving pleasure I was looking for just wasn’t there. I found many of the premium auto brands were trading on their reputation and were not delivering the kind of feel or performance I expected. One rainy day about two months ago, I went to the Audi dealer on the west side of Manhattan to drive a few of the new models. I had read about a particular new sports model that had gotten some fantastic reviews, and I was curious how it drove. Since another customer was test driving the car, I had to wait about 15 minutes for him to get back. I noticed a particular attitude among the customers of this very busy dealership in the middle of a supposed recession. Most of the customers were looking each other over as if they were all somehow special to be there; I almost felt like I was waiting in line to get into a hot nightclub. I thought this was somewhat strange, since I never anticipated this kind of vibe in a car dealer. What was so special about this car buying experience to warrant this?
It hit me like a bolt of lightning: the desire to belong “to the right club,” in this case the Audi club, was so important to people that they would not only sacrifice a lot of money for membership, but they became oblivious to the underlying worth of what they were getting. This same need to belong is so prevalent today, and it applies to so many things other than a certain auto brand. True quality and substance is in short supply, since the surface quality of many things has assumed enormous weight.
Has the need to belong caused you to make decisions you’ve regretted?
