MetaChat - Apparently I've conformed.

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07 November 2006

Apparently I've conformed. →[More:]
So I bought an Altima back in June. And now I realize that they are everywhere. I parked my car at work today...
The car in front of me? Altima.
The car next to me? Altima.
The car in front and two cars over? Altima.
The car three cars over? Altima.
The car in the next row behind me? Altima.

This is no exaggeration. I tried to snap a picture with my phone but couldn't get them all in the shot.

And I see them constantly driving anywhere. Granted, it's by far the best car I've ever owned, and its ubiquity is probably just evidence of that. But damn. I hate being one of many.

post by: mike9322 at: 12:16 | 34 comments

Guess you'll have to pimp your ride, then.

(Don't feel bad, mike. I used to drive the even more ubiquitous Ford Escort)

posted by jonmc 07 November | 12:23

My sister drive an Altima, mull. Keep your hands off her, you damn dirty ape!

posted by item 07 November | 12:29

I didn't want to say anything when you got it Mike, but...

posted by richat 07 November | 12:49

I never see Altimas around here. I don't even know what they look like. I am surrounded by a sea of Jeeps and Volkswagens and Saturns.

posted by iconomy 07 November | 12:49

Cars are not status symbols. A car is a tool you use to get from one place to another. If you have one that works, you are lucky, yaay.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 07 November | 12:52

I drive a Ford Escort. It's 9 years old. Kids round here point and laugh at it.

posted by essexjan 07 November | 12:55

I drive a piebald 1993 Oldsmobile. People make fun of me until I tell them it gets 27mpg and then run them over.

posted by sciurus 07 November | 12:58

I tried to snap a picture with my phone

See, taking pictures with a phone, THAT's where you conformed . . . .

posted by JanetLand 07 November | 13:06

Oh, and just so we're all clear, I was totally joking.

posted by richat 07 November | 13:08

TPS, this was meant to be a lighthearted, funny post. In no way did I mean to imply that my car somehow defines me.

posted by mike9322 07 November | 13:10

Yeh, but mike9322, your car has "good user interface." (He said that about his car. Which is nice.)

posted by rainbaby 07 November | 13:12

I know, I was more responding to the general idea that some cars are "cool" and some cars are not. In reality, my post should say, Cars *should not* be status symbols.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 07 November | 13:19

I'm sitting here eating my lunch, and looking out the window. In the past 5 minutes I've seen three Altimas! I gave the drivers your address and told them to move to your town.

posted by iconomy 07 November | 13:21

He said that about his car.

I'm a nerd.

posted by mike9322 07 November | 13:24

Yeah, the car is nice, the ah. . .user interface is nice, the choice of phrasing is nerdy!

posted by rainbaby 07 November | 13:27

I think I'm being hit on, but I'm not really sure.

posted by mike9322 07 November | 13:27

If you lived in Seattle, it would be a Subaru.

posted by matildaben 07 November | 13:29

I think I'm being hit on, but I'm not really sure

I hope you're talking about iconomy sending you stalkers, because I'm just making fun of you.

posted by rainbaby 07 November | 13:30

Are you going to push me down and pull my pigtails too?

posted by mike9322 07 November | 13:31

I would, if you weren't tonsorially challenged.

posted by rainbaby 07 November | 13:35

Hell, essexjan, now I don't drive anything, I just take the subway. Also, nothing like a few beers at lunch to take the edge off the workday.

posted by jonmc 07 November | 13:36

I drive a 1996 Integra with peeling paint. I'd like to get something new, but I don't like anything out there. I like Honda Del Sols, which they quit making in 1997. I also like Mini Coopers, but they don't get good enough mileage to justify the price. I like the old body style Mazda Protege 5 hatchbacks. Smartcar 2 seaters are cute but again too spendy. Plus I'd be afraid of being smushed on the highway. Other than that, they're all the same to me. Because this thread *is* all about me, after all.

posted by chewatadistance 07 November | 13:37

I've always wanted one of these.

posted by JanetLand 07 November | 13:43

rainbaby, ouch.

chewie, you can make any of my threads about you anytime you want. You're awesome.

posted by mike9322 07 November | 13:45

I don't drive anything either. In Baltimore I drove a '93 Accord. It was a great car.

posted by gaspode 07 November | 13:45

Yeah, JanetLand! Dune buggie! Sweeeet!

posted by jrossi4r 07 November | 14:37

mike: Yeah but your teeth are way more perfect. & LOL @ iconomy.

posted by chewatadistance 07 November | 15:34

I drive nahthing, Lebowski.

My last car was a 1986 (I believe) Mercury Sable that I bought to work on the 2004 campaign with. (Lots of driving to do in upstate Minnesota, as you might imagine). I then drove it from Minneapolis, to Boston, to New York, to Washington, DC. That crazy car never once complained. It ruled.

Then I got home to DC and didn't have anywhere to park it, so I gave it away.

posted by Inkoate 07 November | 15:41

Dodge Carvans are everywhere, and it's not just selective observation. I went a whole day driving around and every single stop I made at an intersection had at least one other Caravan stopped at it. Freaky I tell you.

A car is a tool you use to get from one place to another.

My Caravan is a tool. My '66 isn't. I'm not sure how to sum it up in one word but to say it could be replaced by a nondescript Camry is to deny much that is good in the world.

posted by Mitheral 07 November | 16:08

I'm the only KLR rider in MA in Nov. I think. Four wheels are for jerks, though, so long as there's no ice.

posted by Eideteker 07 November | 17:11

My friend got an Altima sedan a few years back. We were merciless with the poor guy. This was someone who had always had cars that were in some measure cool: a Nissan pickup, then a Pathfinder, then an old BMW.

I think the culminating insult was when we purchased one of those plastic Kleenex-box holders at the dollar store and set it prominently on his back dash.

So when the Altima was totalled in a driveway accident, he was not exactly sad. He has a Frontier pickup now.

posted by Miko 07 November | 23:05

I wuv my Jeep Wrangler. It's 4WD gets used every Winter, Eideteker. The mister and I almost died once due to not using it.

Seriously. The mister hit a patch of ice about five minutes after I told him he should maybe engage the 4WD and he didn't do so. We hit the centre divider on the left and a snow bank on the right. If the snow bank hadn't been there we would've ended up in the river about 1000 feet below us. There were several cars around us at the time and I don't know how we didn't hit any of them. After we got straightened out, he engaged it. Driving the Coquihalla in Winter is always a gamble and I dread doing so.

posted by deborah 07 November | 23:27

Deborah, that's why I have the 4x4 F-150 in the driveway. Snow and ice like to come out and play in the NE, too.