The Luxury Car
May 19, 2008Cruising down the highway after a tiring trip with my immediate circle in Subic, I noticed the signs saying 80 kph. I was the driver that time. I didn’t really expect my other companions to volunteer and sacrifice sleeping instead. So, being the responsible driver, I chose not to attract heat from the patrol and just simply follow what the sign said. Besides, the car didn’t really have the look of a law-breaker. We were riding my friend’s battered Isuzu Fuego pick-up truck, a vehicle adequate enough to perform to our needs.
As a good driver, I remembered the fundamental words I had learned from my mentors: to check out the mirrors as much as possible. Then, I suddenly noticed in the mirror that this silver piece of metal was swiftly approaching me. It’s a rule breaker! It must be going around double my speed. I grinned remembering the tales I heard that the cops are more active in catching speeding cars nowadays. I just hoped that they catch this one.
Before I knew it, the speedster was on my left side. Hearing its noise, one of my asleep friends was forced to wake, look and say, “shit pare!” Thus, I glanced as well and suddenly I felt my eyes bulge as well! What the hell?! I was so star struck in recognition of what I witnessed. It’s a Ferrari! A rare silver Ferrari F430 whose shimmer was trying to lure me out of the car. It’s a vehicle any hopeful automobile enthusiast like me will be willing to lick simply for satisfaction. My friends and I stared at it for a long while (or did its presence just make it long?). It also took a while until the “woahs” and the “wows” disappeared from us. After this experience my lust towards luxurious cars were upgraded.
The luxury car. Of course, who wouldn’t want to own one? The market offers several tempting brands such as the Benz, BMW, Audi etc. which for most of us are very present in dreams. Even if you are not so much into cars, you understand the value and prestige they offer with their name and their expected quality. I can’t wait for that day when I’ll be able to park my own Ferrari in my garage, if ever it still comes.
Then I ask myself, is there really such thing as a luxury car? After my philosophy got better, realizations between me and the real world just got better. I concluded, luxury cars do not exist (even though it was hard for me to proclaim this, I guess this is the truth). Why? Simply because, rationally speaking, every owned vehicle IS a luxury. Toyota is a luxury. Even the owner-type jeep is a luxury! I guess that simply owning any kind of vehicle is a luxury because owning a car in general already means going over what we really need.
Obviously, people need to move from point A to point B. If it’s not walking distance, we’ll need the help of a car. Basically, the need here is just transportation and that is why public transportation was invented. I could call this a second order form of need, probably staying in the same level as clothing and social life. I believe we can survive the present world without really considering of owning our own vehicle (not minding the picky).
I’m speaking in line with economics. There is no such thing as a luxury car, because every owned car is a luxury. Now this is what the rational person would say. Yet honestly, when it comes to cars, I become too irrational. This is where my own preferences and utils would come into play. If someone out there can understand me, luxury cars such as the BMW are better than the ones economically manufactured by Kia Motors. It’s always best to keep rational because you’ll be able to save a lot of money, but when it comes to things you love and desire, you’ll do anything to acquire it no matter what. These personal desires come with a force which pushes us to the limit. It enhances our ambitions which should encourage us to work harder. Thus, sociologically, if everyone has desires to make them work harder, thus, making them work harder, then good this means good news for our country’s economy. Ayos ba? Wahahaha.
So, I guess it’s not all good to be rational at all times. We need our liberal expressions and desires create ambitions for the better.
-Jon Gancayco
Great insight! Tama naman eh… Personal/family-owned cars, in essence, is a luxury since it is already adequate to use public rides.
… But having a stereotyped luxury car will connote that the person who drives it (or the person being driven) has a kind of lifestyle that is beyond adequate. There is nothing wrong to splurge oneself if there’s money to go around naman!
Jon, ilan nga pala kotse niyo? May camry din kayo diba? Hahaha….
yea cars are already a luxury in themselves.
It’s all a matter of perspective. From a utilitarian perspective, I see no reason why cars are not a luxury, given it delivers you from point a to point x with less effort. Well-thought and well-said there.
However, an automobile connoisseur might disagree with your claim that there is no such thing as luxury cars, because he is departing from an aesthetic perspective. But maybe you’re right, even value propositions like Japanese and Korean automobiles scream aesthetic luxury nowadays.
Sometimes pala, it’s not about aesthetics at all pare, in our context, it’s the kind of lifestyle that you can afford and that you’re trying to tell everyone that you’ve made it – if you drive around in a luxury car.
Good point, any sort of personal transportation is really a necessity these days, even with the ever-rising price of gasoline. Methods of public transportation aren’t well-planned and are always congested. And who would want to arrive at one’s destination (especially if it’s school or work) all sweaty and smelly from commuting?
In addition though, there’s the economic theory of utility. I’m sure no one would disagree that the marginal utility of a Ferrari is quite a bit more than a Kia. So that does say something about luxury cars.
Interesting point. I guess in light of recent events (increasing gas prices!) cars are even more of a luxury. after all P50 for a liter of gasoline is a lot!
I agree. If only we base our standards of living on what can just get us by, then perhaps anything that comes in excess of our most basic needs would be considered a luxury.
But then again, nobody likes living on the edge right? Living a life where everything is just enough isn’t living a life at all. Imagine the monotony. Which is why we always have to consider our ever insatiable desires that keep us aspiring for something more and something new. It’s our desires and how we respond to them that keep life interesting and complex.
With that, I guess it just all boils down to whether we want to life an apportioned, monotonous but sustainable life or a life driven by desire that can lead to excitement and at the same time detrimental lavishness.