We have aired out many disagreements here at the Curbside, but I think there is one thing on which we can all agree: 2020 sucked. Because all of us here tend to think way too much about cars, I decided that our expectations vs. our actuality can be expressed in automotive terms. Here is my take:
This is the 2020 I was sort of expecting.
Here is the 2020 I actually got.
With expectations suitably adjusted, here is the 2021 I am hoping for. Don’t they say that low expectations are the foundation of happiness?
So how about you? If you had to describe 2020 with a car, what would it be? Or for that matter, what car would best express your realistic hopes for 2021?
A daewoo Nexia
1. A new Vega. 2. A rusted-out and crushed Vega.
100%
My comment is intended for JFrank below. Not sure how it ended up here all by its lonesome.
Well said.
I try to be a positive person, but when things suck I have a hard time pretending they don’t. I mean, I feel lucky that I’ve had good times so I know the difference. I feel like an idiot smiling through the pain. Frowning just feels logical and, kind of earned.
Not everyone likes sarcasm and understandably so, but for me it is a priceless coping device until the next decent run starts. For now sarcasm has hitched his horse to a post and decided to stay awhile.
For me, personally, 2020 was a draw. So I am extremely lucky in that regard.
Not worrying about the past. It’s over. The future? What I’m hoping to buy as my personal transportation before the month is over: Chevrolet Bolt.
I can answer that using my own vehicles. 2020 was supposed to be our 2007 Mustang convertible which we were supposed to drive on a 2 week vacation to the east coast.
It actually was like our 1963 Beetle, which spent 2020 off the road and staggered around the block only once under it’s own power.
I’d like 2021 to be like our 2017 Caravan, just something normal that functions.
I’m with DougD.
I had expected 2020 to be like a Dodge Caravan. Nothing fancy, but sensible and like any other year.
Instead we got a Pontiac Aztec. The more you looked at it the wilder and worse it got.
For 2021? A beige Caravan. I want as quiet and boring a year as you got!
2020;
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/A4NR0D/history-the-very-first-trabant-car-to-be-thrown-away-after-the-fall-A4NR0D.jpg
I’m hoping 2021 will bring a chance to road trip the actual car I bought in early 2020 just before the virus hit (not this one but an identical twin);
https://inventory.dealersocket.com/api/photo/qbda6gCL/640×0/1597774365/u/ecl/3Qfb/GpC2/Bh5D/sqQT/FieF/Lw.jpg
I had to go out of my way and compromise on color and trim level to get the transmission I wanted. Make of that what you will for the meaning of 2021.
A thought provoking question. While my example could change, the sentiment remains the same.
2020 was like this old Dodge pickup. Overall it is sound, but is definitely looking a little worse for wear. While still easily repairable, signs of the repair may linger for quite a while. That was my 2020; decent although there are signs of a bodily repair with some elements that will linger for a long time, if not permanently.
2021? Like you said, if you set your expectations low you are more likely to be happy. Thus I have set all expectations at a level such that I will be ecstatic.
That still sounds pessimistic, doesn’t it?
The issue with being a pessimist is that if things go badly, you expected (and hopefully planned) for things to go badly. If they do, instead, go well, you are pleasantly surprised. Optimism, by its nature, expects things to go well, and when trouble strikes, it can often knock the wind completely out of one’s sails.
Now, I don’t think one should be sullen and depressed all day, and only expect the worst to happen all the time, but then, one could take off the rose colored glasses now and again to see the world for what it is.
So cheers for setting the bar low, and let’s hope that you (and all of us) are pleasantly surprised by the actual outcome of 2021.
Agreed! It also seems there are times in which examining reality is confused with pessimism.
Being a realist is more of my disposition.
My wife and I recently purchased a 2021 RAV4 hybrid, the sort of vehicle I had no interest in for my previous 46 years on the planet. 2020 was a broken down on the side of the road in 110 degree heat kind of year, and reliable and boring is fine with me for this coming one.
Sadly, 2020 was a hearse.
So many people have passed away. Millions of small businesses ceased to exist , lifestyles have deteriorated, perhaps for good and our naive belief in many institutions has been shaken to the core.
Unfortunately the 2020 hearse is still parked at the funeral home of life, still being loaded, because 2021 may not be much better.
2020 was like flying back to Biskra, Alergia in All American after the mid air collision with a ME-109…Covid-19. No left horizontal stabilizer. Fuselage almost severed – when they opened the rear crew door, it collapsed according to Martin Caidin in ‘Flying Forts’.
2021 will be like the first flight in All American after she was repaired. Will it fly? Will it break apart in mid-air? Where’s my damn parachute…err vaccine??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_American_(aircraft)
I can’t imagine how the tail gunner felt.
In my case, 2020 started out with my dream car: a 2017 Mercedes SLK AMG hardtop convertible. Something I’d always wanted, and now that I’m retired and well off I can afford a plaything. Instead, 2020 ended up like the vehicle my convertible replaced: A sad, dilapidated 2005 Dodge Dakota I inherited when my brother died: bad brakes that needed replacement, a failing transmission, a cracked windshield, and a pervasive stench no amount of detailing could overcome.
I’d like to compare 2020 to a worn out 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier. It just keeps going and going and going and going. It really shouldn’t given all that it’s been through and the ride is no fun, but still it persists.
2020: Yugo, with flat tires.
2021: Anything that is predictable or reliable.
I’m thinking 2021 will be your #1 but with good tires. So, far better than what you had but still far from great.
2020 was my grandfather’s 1962 Rambler American station wagon with the aluminum block engine that my uncle gunned at seventy miles an hour over the Rockies in 1964 and which expired on that cannonball run.
I’d like 2021 to be my dad’s first Avalon. 350000 miles of boring comfort please, not deaths.
For me, 2020 is a 1977 Volare with a Slant 6 in that ugly green with a vinyl roof with evident bubbling. The body is rusted through in numerous places, the interior stained and ripped beyond redemption, but the engine and tranny keep going. Even though in my fantasy I would let one of my 16 year old students drive the car, no amount of burn outs, neutral drops and Jim Rockford style J-turns will kill the damned thing.
For 2021, my pick is the 2014 Forester I inherited from my recently deceased mom. The car is seven years old but will finally hit 10,000 miles this week. There isn’t one iota of coolness in this car, but I imagine that I will have it for a lot of trouble free years.
I can’t force myself to make an analogy between a bad year and a car, as every car has some good points. Not much was good this year. But my double cab pickup with rear seats removed was the right vehicle this year; room for my wife and me, no excuses about not carrying passengers, and plenty of capability to enable extreme distancing. And then we replaced it with an even more suitable vehicle. Our first bought-new vehicle in 13 years and first domestic purchase since 1986.
I can’t boil down 2020 to specific car because no car can properly sum up the experience for the sake of its merits or lack there of. No, 2020 needs a car that creates that experience, tells a tale. For the sake of the story let’s say it’s a resale red 1969 Mustang fastback with a later 302(out of a Foxbody), not perfect, not original, but my dream car, I probably overpaid but how often do you find these for the money that run and don’t need a major restoration these days?
Upon purchase I had some concerns about rust, being Michigan car, the previous owner was quite reassuring that it was garage kept through winters though and that what little it had was limited to the drivers floor, as common. It was repaired with a patch and the whole undercarriage was sprayed with a bedliner like undercoating. There were a few issues like a clunk in the front end as well as a lack of power, but the ad did note it needed a suspension rebuild and a tuneup. Regardless, I was in cloud 9 and drove it around on short trips as much as I could through february.
As March approached I left it outside on a night it just happened to snow, and the next morning brushing it off I noticed the carpet was wet – didn’t smell like coolant, the floor was repaired, weatherstripping was replaced by the PO, wtf! – ah, cowl rust, damn! I’ve read this is common in old Mustangs, and not easy to fix with my skills, oh well, I just won’t leave it outside or drive it in the rain. Until then I should dry out the carpet, in fact I’ll go ahead and pull the seats and take the carpet entirely out, and I can check out the other side of the pans. Much like the underside they were painted black to cover previous repairs, but the repairs were more visible, turns out there were several patches, not just in the drivers footwell either, all over, and there were a lot of rust pits coming back through the black paint, “hmm, that’s concerning”. Also finding that the car was originally blue, (damn I wish it still was!)
Sometime in the middle of March my concerns started getting higher, I had wire wheeled the pans and recoated them with a rust converting paint after the leak debacle, I had to wear a mask due to the fumes. My faith in the previous owner’s work was a bit shaken now, I had a bad feeling there might be more hidden problems in the body, but you know what? Who cares? It’s a 69 Mustang fastback, it’s still cool, I’ll forget all about that and spend the next 15 days rebuilding the suspension and getting that 302 tuned up, along with some upgrades for both!
15 days turned to 30 days, then 60 days then….. So that clunk in the suspension seemed to actually be the sound of the shock towers cracking, all new steering linkage, bushings and even hardware didn’t solve it. In fact the old parts I replaced didn’t even seem worn out. On top of that despite the aftermarket dual plane intake new holley carb and headers the 302 still seemed strangely underpowered, almost like there’s a dead cylinder, but there’s no indication that that’s the case. Screw it though, I haven’t driven this car in months now, it’s nearly summer.
Drove it to the city one day in late may and drive along lake shore drive, and I was starting to be optimistic about it again, it looked great, it sounded great(and muted the creaks and clunks) was fun enough to drive as long as I wasn’t trying to win any races at the stoplight. Unfortunately soon later I saw blue lights in my rear view as my now moderately loud 302 needed the foot to the floor to keep up with traffic and I got a nice pile charges from speeding to excess noise, to exhibition of speed and of course having no front plate. Happened several times through the course of the summer, I had only ever been pulled over once since I started driving until this car, but cops just target a red Mustang with a noisy exhaust. By July the aftermarket electric fan died in traffic and it overheated and started billowing smoke. Goodbye summer
As I paid off the tickets and legal fees I decided to get back into it, by September, I knew I blew a headgasket but wanted to see inside the engine anyway to figure out why it was so slow. Cylinders looked ok, no pistons were low to indicate a bent rod or anything, but it didn’t “look” right somehow, I have a good eye for scale and those bores didn’t look 4”. I quickly measured with my tape measure and it was about 3-5/8”? uhh… it was taken out of a foxbody, the guy I bought it from said so, he didn’t say what year but it’s a 302! “where’s that receipt in the documents?”…. 1981 Ford Mustang Cobra, 302 V8… “well that’s not a H.O. year, wait 1981?, isn’t that the year… Noooo!” 255 V8, the Junkyard was wrong and the previous owner relayed the wrong information!
So out comes the engine by November, I’ll be buying a real 302 out of an Explorer or something. Conveniently I can now address the cracks in the shock towers causing the creaking/clunking noises in the front end, so in addition to the engine stand and cherry picker I just bought for the new engine I have yet to source, I now bought a welder, and am ordering reproduction stampings from suppliers… course, I also remembered the cowl leaks, so I may as well buy those, and I may as well get new floor pans to replace the patch worked old ones, right? So I start cutting out all the bad sheetmetal, floors – gone, and apparently the inner rockers and torque boxes are bad too. Wiper cowl – completely dismantled, and worse than I thought. Shock towers gone, hey maybe I should do an aftermarket suspension that eliminates them while I’m at it? I’ve now spent over double what I paid for the car, blew through all my savings, have a pile of parts and then I realized I don’t know how to weld to put it back together.
That car is 2020
2021 I hope is a beige Prius
Ouch. Sorry about that…
This is why I don’t buy old cars and keep my interest in them virtual.
No need, thankfully it’s just a story, albeit a compilation of real some real stories, personal and otherwise, that came to mind to echo the course of the year 🙂
Same here in reality, I think it sounded more real than I intended to because those are my biggest fears with old cars lol
Glad it was just a story!
Helluva metaphor you wrote though.😀
I loved this!! You captured 2020 most eloquently. The red Edsel would look mighty appealing after that. 🙂
2020 was like my 1991 Chrysler’s TC by Maserati, bought on a whim, only to have issues that keep it mainly in the garage. Great in theory, started out as a good idea, but the execution was less than stellar. And more people hate it than love it, for better or for worse.
May 2021 be more like and older Buick. Not very exciting, but comfortable, predictable, and easily fixed when things go wrong.
Funny… just last week I saw a TC drive by my house. It was the first TC I’ve seen in quite a while, and I thought “…now that’s something I don’t feel like a need right now!”
Since I’m naturally a pessimist, I’ll keep my 2021 thoughts to myself, but I’d be more than happy with a year that resembles an older Buick.
2020 was definitely the $5000 Maserati BiTurbo that you saw parked outside the bowling alley with the sign on the windshield.
2021 will be the same car but with an LS transplanted into it, i.e. it may be sort of running by the end of the year.
2020 seems to keep going. Not so much a car as that train crash from “The Fugitive” that just keeps on crashing and crashing, fire everywhere and we’re all like poor Richard Kimble in leg irons looking for some wet leaves in which to take a break.
Using my own cars, 2020 would be my 2002 Ford Escape. It started out nice and looked great. Then all the parts started failing and some failed twice. I wanted to escape the Escape. 2021 would be the 2004 Honda Civic Si (EP3) that I replaced it with. A promise of good things to come, and completely reliable. Not the most exciting car and not quite living up to the Si badge. But I was happy to live with something reliable.