Significance

How much meaning does one's car have?
When I was 16 my mother totally indulged me and let me have a Jeep Wrangler. The car rode rough, inhibited nearly all conversation when going above 45 mph and I loved it to death. I enjoyed it for the toy it was. It didn't have air-conditioning, the windows zipped open and I could pull the key out of the ingnition while the car was running. I felt young, energetic and fun when I drove it.
Then I got the Jetta, as I wanted to have a more sophisticated car. And it did serve me well - 4 doors, pretty good gas mileage. I switched out the cassette player for a CD player. I had 2 break-ins in the 8 years I had the car. We enjoyed some great road trips togehter - SF/LA, Texas, Oregon, Nevada and many trips to the Eastern Sierras as well as Tahoe. It was still going strong at 250k miles. How I felt driving my car changed. When I first got it, I felt sharp and zippy. As we aged, I felt like it was a little lack-luster and I still loved her - I had named her Pris.
All at once, the jetta got broken into, needed her 3rd clutch and broke the 250k mark. I knew I needed a new car. So, Greg helped me search & search and we found something special - a 2 seater Mercedes SLK32. It was suped-up with the AMG construction. It was fast and so impressive. Driving up in that, especially with the top down, turned heads. It screamed, "I have money!" or "I'm HOT!" With the top down, I got to enjoy the sun on my face - sun roofs just don't cut it. I named her Oola, after the character in The Producers, as she was fun & pretty and otherwise useless.
Do I drive the car or does the car dive me?
There was such a great feeling of driving up to my high school boyfriend's house in Oola, he and his dad were impressed - my car outclassed both of theirs. I enjoyed that - but really, that is so shallow! And how sad that the car impressed them - shouldn't I be the one impressing them?
Didn't Socrates struggle with this - is it the Man or is it the Toga? Anyway, I don't want to be in my car's shadow.
Marc & I traded in Oola yesterday. We got a cute little JCW Mini Clubman. It is Pepper White with the Silver roof and has all the bells & whistles. He loves how it drives. I love that I can plug in my iPod, navigate with traffic information (but I haven't figure out how to turn this off yet, making it super annoying), make/answer calls on the car speaker phone via bluetooth, enjoy satellite radio (did you know there is a Playboy Radio Station? I nearly crashed while listening to instructions on how to masturbate!). And then the best part - I can fit the entire dog pack in the car! We can take trips together - Oola would only transport one dog at a time.
So, is the mini upstaging me? Is it undermining me? My car should be a manifestation of my values and match my goals. I value fuel economy, my dogs and fun. The new car, I think I'll call her Tilly (short for Matilda and said with a hint of British accent), gets me closer to living my values. On it's third outing, it transported the worms for my new worm farm composter.