UK’s motor vanity fair (2) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

Maybe there is not much left ‘sacred’ in this faithless UK (here’s another view about this from today’s Daily Mail), yet – similarily to how ‘primitive’ peoples deify various objects, rocks, trees, and animals –, many ‘civilised’ Brits worship their cars.

Certainly, this is by no means only a typically British feature, as in all consumerist societies the two-seater car is probably a ‘god’ of the day. What I mean is that this religiosity surrounding the idea of having good cars, and perfect roads is somehow more obvious in the spiritually barren UK.

Like all idolatries, its rotten fruits are obvious: some men get into financial trouble to buy them, sometimes die stupidly due to overspeeding, or at the very least they are devoured by envying those who own such vehicles, while some women sleep with bald and fat men in order to take rides in car like these.

Moreover, many children are falling in love with these ‘motor idols,’ saying to themselves: ‘When I grow up, I wanna have…’, instead of saying ‘When I grow up, I wanna be…’ People everywhere are crazy about these spyders (as the Brits call them) or roadsters (as the Americans call them), and the Brits make no exception. However, it would be unfair to consider them more obsessed with motor vehicles than other nations.

Some of these most fashionable ‘motor gods’ that I witnessed on UK’s roads are two Mazda cars – MX-5, and RX-8. I was astonished to see so many of these two-seaters (especially in Scotland, the part of the UK that I visited most), but I couldn’t be sure if it was just a mere onlooker’s impression (of someone not mad about cars, who can easily jump to the wrong conclusions), therefore I had to make a little online inquiry.

And what I found out proves my initial assumption – that the UK is one of Mazda’s best markets! Ever since the eary 1990s, the Japanese company has been stubbornly pushing to conquer the British market, and their marketing strategy seems to have paid off.

Not only that I don’t know, but I don’t even care how good these cars really are. However, it seems clear to me that the price is appealing, thus making a Mazda MX-5 more affordable than a Porsche, Ferrari or Aston Martin. A price ranging from £ 18,600 to £ 21,100 looks like a tempting offer for anyone who thinks that owning cars like these is a ‘purpose’ worth struggling for in life...

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]