Vroom Vrooom!! The hours spent on the carpet playing Matchbox cars with my son…and how we all grow up eventually and want….A CAR! Cars can be magical, practical, necessary, beautiful, sexy, huge, over-the-top crazy…..all sorts. And they can be multipurpose: show cars, race cars, minivans, trucks.

As the show Top Gear has become a favorite, we are in love with all things cars! And with shows showcasing how cars are made, specialized factory parts to accessorize our cars (I once only thought of accessories in the clothing sense), we are obsessed with all things car!!

And with this obsession, the new trend is going GREEN. Even on Top Gear, where opulence in cars is the thing, they even showed an over-the-top expensive V8 that was a 4-door sedan. It went FAST! But, as the host mentioned, cars like that are a dying breed with our modern-day obsession with fuel economy. 20 years ago that wasn’t really even a consideration.

Europe has been fuel-conscious for years and years now–the price of petrol being sold by the liter at almost double what we pay per gallon. Only now are we catching the mindset of going farther on less fuel. It’s probably about time….

So now we have the car basics down…..what kind of car do you drive? How did you choose it? And what does that say about YOU?

I am the “soccer mom” people try to advertise to for the most part. My husband is not a fan of the minivan although we both acknowledge the great benefit–plenty of room, mainly! So instead I am one of the masses driving the crossover SUV–we love the look of the big SUVs, but don’t want the minimal gas mileage nor the massive car payment. they come with. So I would say that I’m trying to be trendy yet run on the cheaper side.

Anne and her husband, for their first new car, purchased the redone VW Bug about 11 years ago. It was black and so adorable! Complete with flower vase, for which my sister found the cutest fake flower to fill it with. Can we say super cute Yuppie car??

Catherine and Mark, excellent friends of ours from the UK, were doing a 4-year transfer stint in Maryland. I won’t say what cars they ended up with since they are cars of practicality–but will instead mention what they told me they should have splurged on–a vintage convertible Cadillac! They said only in the states could they have afforded the gas mileage of one of those–and Mark is brilliant with car maintenance, so he could have done most of that himself. I can SO SEE these two toodling around highways–I picture Catherine with some chic scarf around her neck blowing in the wind with large sunglasses on! To cool for school these two are!

My husband and about 8 others on our street drive a pickup truck. They say more millionaires drive pickup trucks than any other car–apparently because you can haul your own stuff and work on your house, cars, etc. And some millionaires obviously use their pickups in their daily business….such as pest control and construction-based businesses.

Then there will always be my friends who love fancy imports! Bring on the Audis, Lexuses (or is it Lexi?), BMWs, high-end Caddies and even Acuras.

The only thing that comes to mind after owning two import cars is HIGH MAINTENANCE COSTS! And a pain to get parts at times—for now, until I move to a big, big city with easy access to the above, it’s not even a consideration for me! These are the friends who will easily drive 2+ hours to have work done on their car…..no thanks! The Ford dealership down the street works great for me! And I can run across the street to the local museum to buy some hand-crafted jewelry and McDonalds for a yummy McCafe drink. (Saving money on maintenance is a relative term in my book!) Although these cars will always be loved, look great, and truly have a panache–which is what they were bought for in the first place.

On the import note, my aunt and I own Subarus–and I will say they drive like a dream! But we did get the odd comment that we were the Yuppie Californians driving the Subaru to Mammoth for ski vacations–which at the time was true–we never saw ourselves as such though. Our car was 10 years old at the time–the person who made the comment said that didn’t matter. Which begs me to ask myself if I realize truly what my car says about me……

So now in the comments it’s your turn–what do you drive and what does that say about you????