The Honda Element? Yeh, it’s a homely little SUV dressed up in a silly costume. The gas mileage isn’t so hot, either.
The Scion xB is cute, and it’s a HOOT. I get a chuckle every morning when I open the garage door. People smile when they see it. Didn’t cost very much, and it for damned sure doesn’t look like every other suppository-shaped hatchback on the road these days. 
Besides, what else IS a car besides a box (to carry stuff) on wheels (to move it around)?
Not a beautiful car at all. Its essentially a box with 4 tires. No styling at all.
Correct, and nuh-uh. I never said it was beautiful. It isn’t. It’s utilitarian with a sense of humor. It revels in its squareness. Take a look at the dashboard, for example. Not a hint of “beautiful” in it, but immensely practical, with all those cubbyholes for stuffing stuff into. The slope of the dashboard top on either side of the speedometer means when you put something there, it stays there, instead of sliding off the way stuff does from more elegantly styled dashes.
It has its own style, aimed not at people who want sleek and flashy, or overbearing excess – nope, the xB is styled for folks who like practical, don’t give a rat’s ass about conventional, and dig a hint of whimsy.
I have kids. Four of them…
I think a good deal of children today are obnoxious, spoiled brats. My kids’ friends can’t figure out why my kids don’t each have a $400 IPod and why they can’t have calls at 2AM. I have seen children hit their grandparents in the face in church, I’ve seen kids scream “NOOOOOOOO!” at the top of their lungs and fall in the floor pitching a fit in the grocery store because their parents said they couldn’t have ice cream. I would guess those things were nearly unheard of in my grandparents’ time.
It’s not JUST now, but yes, things have changed. When I was a kid, you heard about some random teenager that called her mom a bitch or a guy who hit his dad. Those were the “bad” kids, the kids we weren’t allowed to hang out with and the ones who were always in trouble.
It does seem worse now, on many fronts. My alma mater now has lockdowns where they search classrooms for drugs and weapons. There were kids who had those some of things when I was in school, but you didn’t hear about kids taking guns to school to mow down as many of their classmates as possible. THAT is new. Kids have always had access to guns. Killing peers for sport just didn’t happen before. You cannot say kids are the same today as they always have been. They are maturing faster, younger, and losing their innocence way too soon. They are exposed to a lot of sex and violence at much younger ages than we were. (For some frame of reference, I only graduated high school in 1993, and I saw a marked difference in my class than the classes that graduated only 4-5 years after mine.)
I really can’t believe how some of you were so sure that Diosa was a “spoiled brat” riding Daddy’s coattails just because she’s only 20 years old and has a nice vehicle. Kudos to her for at least taking care of herself and taking the criticism in this thread with grace beyond her years. Maybe her response at the memorial was a little overzealous, but I’m tired of seeing disrespectful, rude kids, too and I think more people need to step up and say something when they see kids behaving like asshats out in public.
Scion tC’s are way cooler. My best friend has one. He’s 6’0" and I’m 5’10" and we are both always comfortable in it. Yeah, when driving we put the seat most of the way back (I drive his car any chance I get) but I’ve been in the backseat a ton of times and it’s not bad. It’s cute as hell too. I made his stereo spell out “I heart beer” when you turn the car on. He drives a ridiculous amount and doesn’t seem to have to gas up too often.
‘Cute’ is exactly the word I would have used. I think they’re adorable cars. I seriously considered buying one when I was car shopping a couple of years ago, but I couldn’t fit my daughter’s wheelchair in the back.
I bought a PT Cruiser, instead. A lot of people hate them, but I don’t care. I love mine. I’ve got it tricked out with flames down the sides and bright red smoothie wheels with baby moon hubcaps, and lots of silly chrome. It’s fun to drive, I like how it looks, and other people seem to get a kick out of it too.
Alright, it is substantially longer, sure. But it is also not that much wider and not that much taller (it’s the height that most in this thread are complaining about). As far as I’m conscerned, the 6’’ or so in width and 2" in height (even considering the extra length), really qualifies as “not all that much bigger” to me. Then again, I am totally deceiving myself, so who knows.
By my calculations, 68.3 - 64.6 = 3.7, not 2. But who’s counting when we’re trying to convince ourselves of something we want to believe?
What do these minor increases mean?
The extra 6" in width means I have 3" less to open my door when parked next to you compared to the Scion.
And the extra TWO AND A HALF FEET in length means when backing out of my parking space I have to back that much further INTO TRAFFIC to see around those extra 3.7" of height of your diminuitive machine.
Now, how would the implications on other drivers look if we were to compare your vehicle to something with a trunk or hatchback, or anything other than the boxiest compact available…
Let’s look at it from another angle. Ford Explorer: Length: 193.4 in. Width: 73.7 in. Height: 72.8 in.
So if your vehicle looks small compared to the Scion, then the Explorer appears positively petite next to yours. And the Excalade is diminuitive compared to…
