The noble life of a lesser car

We all strive upwards, to eat at a better restaurant, stay in that six star hotel, take holidays to exotic locations, drive the car that reflects who we are. Or perhaps who we want to be.

Cars – linked, without a doubt, in everyone’s mind to their persona and self-perception. And so, there is a section of cars that not many aspire to; the cars that nobody thinks anyone who’s successful drives.

Yes, to this group belong the dented, un-polished and un-accessorised cars. It’s hard to imagine any kid say with pride and conviction, “when I grow up and earn my own, this _______ (fill in the blank with an old model, near the end of its life vehicle), this is what I’d own!”
But I’ve been given a sense of liberation and freedom when I started going round in one of these. It’s not expensive, it doesn’t need any more maintenance, no new tyres required – I’m driving with the spare because the usual front right had burst, and that feeling is just fantastic! Never have I felt this way since I started driving oh so long ago. Carefree. Because the scrap date, i.e.: end of COE is coming soon.

Heck, this is the car you want to squeeze in the queue with others on the causeway jam into JB. It’s the one where if you aimed for a gap at the same time as the other fella, he’d give way to you. Because if in case, oops, there’s a scrape, you really don’t mind!

I think I’m going to miss the car. What a strange emotion to feel for an appliance that generates no adrenaline, no excitement, no love. These are the cars designed to be scrapped at the end of COE.

But wait, maybe there is some love in it. The love that comes from an ugly thing doing its utmost best to keep going for the owner that no longer cares for it – the love is coming from the car. So I guess what I feel is reciprocating emotion to a faithful grunt that’s had a tough life. And for that sense of liberation in the last number of months, I’m grateful.

To all the uncelebrated cars out there, my salute to your service, it’s the noble life of lesser car.