In the grand (no pun intended) scheme of things, you don’t always think of your grandparents as badasses. In this regard, they’re not entirely unlike a Ford Focus. Bear with me on this one. After all, when visiting a Ford Dealership, drivers might be quick to overlook the potential of a car like the Focus, just as they may be blind to just how cool their grandparents are. Especially today’s grandparents that run 5K’s, travel the world and knew that dabbing was stupid long before their lemming grandkids figured it out.
I was fortunate enough to get to be extremely close to my grandfather and get to know him as an individual, in his later years. Pictures of him in the 40’s, leaning up against a Vincent Black Shadow, cigarette hanging out his mouth began to paint a different picture of just how badass he was. But without that personal experience, I may have never come to that conclusion.
Cars are similar in this regard. We tend to fixate on a make, model or style of vehicle that appeals to us, and our subconscious decides that everything else just… isn’t as cool. For example, I was raised on a love of ‘Detroit Steel’ so, despite my general appreciation for all performance vehicles, nothing really comes close to classic Dodge.
If suddenly I found myself presented with a Ford Focus, I’d expect my interest to be minimal. For me, it’s too safe, too predictable (and damn it, too slow). With all due respect, the comparison applies to the same reverence-tinted glasses that we often view our grandparents with. They’re safe, because of their reliability. They’re predictable in their habits. And it stands to reason that some (specifically the ones who aren’t out running 5K’s) might be a little bit slower than they used to be.
But just as I had my eyes opened up about my grandfather’s level of badassery, we should be open to considering the attributes of vehicles that we may not have in the past. I’m not saying you should feel compelled to buy a car that you’d hate, but perhaps we need to be more open-minded. They might not be as slow or as predictable as we think.
With that in mind, enjoy this…
