# Where is my car? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 7, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-my-car/273436 "2004-11-07T01:40:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-my-car/273436/21 "2004-11-09T16:14:25Z")
Are you sure that it wasn’t towed? I had the same thing happen to me once… I was parking parking lot legally, but it got towed anyway because of unpaid parking tickets elsewhere. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-my-car/273436/22 "2004-11-09T16:25:02Z")
This really does deserve its own thread…but which forum? There’s so much to know! I think the basic difference between pimping and ricing revolves around the intent of the modifications. If you do the cosmetic junk–lowering, tinting, $100 pastel paint job, light kits & ecto-spoiler you’ve probably just pimped. But if you go the extra mile and add a Nitrous huffer, aftermarket intake, flywheel, rice cannon exhaust and roll cage…I’d call it a ricer. Ricers make me crazy–the cars get stolen, lost in race bets and reported as stolen, stripped, parts falsely reported as stripped when they were actually lost in a race bet, cars wrecked in a race then abandoned at the scene then reported as stolen and wrecked by thieves who fled the scene despite leaving ample blood evidence which just happens to be an exact match of to the car owner…and my favorite: Car stolen, wrecked by thieves, stripped before the police impound it from the scene, and trying to determine what equipment was really on the car in the first place–because all that gear was purchased from a friend (but new–the friend never got around to putting it on his own car) and there are no receipts and no parts stores to back up the story. Dirt Bags. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-my-car/273436/23 "2004-11-09T16:31:18Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > Minor hijack: > > Maybe this deserves its own thread, but I thought I might ask: Is there anything that clearly delineates “ricing” from “pimping”? I mean, if I want to “pimp my ride”, and my ride is a Civic, it seems to me like I must… > > 1. Stuff a massive, NO2-enhanced VTEC engine in the thing that, in this context, violates numerous laws. > 2. Drop it down to about 3" above the road, and add those special tires that are little more than barrel-shaped rims with some thick rubber coating on them. > 3. Add lots of extraneous plastic/fiberglass. Lots. The aforementioned Towering Spoiler, the low-lying girdle of plastic that makes the car’s body look like it extends down to about 0.5" above the road. Etc. > 4. Weird Lights. Nothing says “Sheeit! Muthafucka!” like an eery purple neon glow emanating from the entire bottom of the car, as if it floated on some phreaky anti-gravity field. Make sure you wrap it around your vanity tags (“UMYBTCH!”) as well. > 5. The Civic was never meant for a “posse” anyway, so two passengers less won’t make much difference. Remove the entire rear seat and replace it with the Mutha of All Subwoofers. Unless the side-panels of neighboring cars litterally buckle from the sound your car puts out, you ain’t pimpin’, maign. > > There’s about a thousand other exterior and interior elements that need consideration, but you get the idea. > > Is the above truly “ricing” or “pimping”; or am I working under the incorrect premise of a false dichotomy? To get a better idea of ricing, check out [www.laughatrice.com](http://www.laughatrice.com). It’s been posted here before, so a search may get you a better idea of what the phenomena is about. In a nutshell, ricing is taking a car that really has no hope of being something cool (the Civic for example) and loading it up with aftermarket parts (spoilers, dubs, air vent stickers (saw this one, it was funny as hell!)) to make it look like a performance vehicle when it is actually, at best, the same vehichle. At worse, the idiots put in all sorts of parts that will invalidate the warranty and they often do so themselves which presents a safety hazard. ---
**Author:** ![slai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@slai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slai)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-my-car/273436/24 "2004-11-09T23:44:48Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > A Civic? > > They’re SO gonna rice it. The next time you see that car it’ll be three inches lower, have a 2 foot tall spoiler, neon lights under the front, and decals from three different speaker manufacturers on the rear window. It was already riced! Just kidding, but I often joke about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-my-car/273436.md?page=1)