Only In Japan: Pinkquecenti
As we all know, TTAC has an occasional thing for pink cars. So has Fiat. Right where I live. Fiat delights Japan with the 500 Fiore Rosa (i.e. “Pink Flower”) limited edition of its Cinquecento.
A bit confusingly, only 150 of the pink babies will be available, only for a very short time and a very special occasion: For Valentines! The pinkies can only be bought from February 14 through 17, yours for only for 2.2 million Yen ($23,600, incl tax.) I already wanted to run out to buy Frau Schmitto-san hers, but she reminded me of two things:
She does not drive. And in Japan, the girls give the boys Valentine presents.
Did I mention that I love this country? I feel right at home, especially as it embarks on a flower power summer of love revisitation.
( Thank you, Gizmodiva, for the tip. However, it’s not $10,000, the yen has inched up a little.)
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This will appeal to the same set of people who would have bought a Nissan Figaro, I think. And I get the point about not "forcing kids into color preference based on gender role perception", but 1) this is Japan we're talking about, and we can't really apply our parenting philosophy to their car choices; 2) it's way too late to address this for people who are old enough to drive and buy cars. People who would drive this already have pink Hello Kitty purses, cell phone cases, etc., and aren't concerned with having been "forced into pink" 15-20 years ago.
A few years back a major museum did an exhibition of things that had been "made pink" in an attempt to market them better to women. Everything from pink appliances, to pink mops, to pink hairdryers, and even pink vibrators. I think this Fiat falls into the desperate marketing attempt category.
rather talk about cool cars than faragos decline into pathological paranoia. i like pink cars, but, as a gay man, could never own one myself. i saw a huge pink suv the other day, it had a mary kay cosmetics insignia on it. are pink cars more palatable if they are mary k's?
I'm going to hold out for the Hello Kitty model.