QOTD: There Goes the Neighborhood?
Your author was backing out of his parking spot last night when something stopped him in his tracks. A glimpse of something in the side-view mirror led to a moment’s hesitation… and some serious, judgmental eyeballing.
While yours truly will always stop to admire a Fox-body anything, there was plenty wrong with this example. An example that may have been closer than it appeared. Seems the kids across the street have a visitor — or perhaps even a new ride.
Due to a lack of taste on the part of the owner, or perhaps a prior one, your author hopes this automotive outsider doesn’t linger too long in the ‘hood.
Picture it: a black, last-gasp Fox-body Mustang, only with cheesy chrome side and wheel arch trim befitting a Grand Marquis, underscored by a mismatched and severely dimpled body kit. Those side sills looked like a pie plate following a hailstorm.
On its own, an early ’90s Mustang is something to feel good about, but someone went ahead and ruined this thing — at least until someone decides to undue the damage done. Imagine having to look at it every day. Imagine having to look at it every day and maintain a friendly relationship with the owner, which, thankfully, yours truly does not have to do. People don’t talk to their neighbors on this street.
But you might find yourself in a different situation. The vehicle that offends your sensibilities might just live next door or across the street. It might be an ostentatious status symbol that gets under your skin, a complete wreck that $50 at Pep Boys could at least make more presentable, or someone’s kid’s ride with a rifle volley for an exhaust that jolts you out of bed at all hours of the night.
Tell us: Is there a problem in your neighborhood?
[Image Ford]
More by Steph Willems
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My neighbor parks his '05 Mustang V6 convertible next to my Mustang (townhouse w/2 dedicated spots)and he's got the 20" rims with rubber band tires, slammed suspension, "Stalker" body kit, and a matte vinyl wrap that would be best described as the color of pollen, with carbon fiber vinyl wrap inserts. I appreciate he's a "car guy" too and takes care of it, but it's a bit much for the eyes to take in.
There’s a house with a flat-black-wrapped Hummer H2, F30 328i with peeling flat-black plastidip on the rims, a C5 Vette, and murdered-out Camry — all with farty exhausts, all with autotragic trannies, all driven too fast through our leafy neighbourhood by semi-employed millennials. The exhausts on my cars are obnoxious too, but in a good way dammit.