Got this postcard from T87 enroute through Charles de Gaulle Airport. Another one of them pesky anonymous cars.
It’s not just the car up front; both behind have had their tail-lights fiddled with.
More thrilling adventures:
CC Outtake: The Deliberately Anonymous Car Part 5
– Posted on September 27, 2018
The first in the row is a poorly disguised 2009 Mononcleu Banlieue GLX – the station wagon could be a Volvograd Piroska 2.5 but I might be wrong.
The silver car looks like a gen 2 Subaru Forester to me.
Toyota Yaris
I agree. As a side note, the US-spec Yaris hatchback (not the sedan that is really a Mexican-built Mazda2) is built in France, making it the only French-built car you can buy in the USA today.
The (made in France) Smart is no more available in US ?
Yes, first is a Yaris, the single wiper is a big clue
Similar why do they fuzz out t-shirt logos?
I assume because they don’t want to give some other company free advertising. When I was a kid I once got to be in the audience of a Nickelodeon TV show while we were at Universal Studios in Florida. One rule was that no one in the audience could be wearing a Disney t-shirt. I assume the reason was the same; they didn’t want to provide any publicity for Disney, a competing company.
I believe it’s the other way. If they showed a registered visual trademark (a logo, nameplate or general car body) in this close proximity, they would have to pay Toyota for use in their advertising, and it might be construed as an endorsement by Toyota. The cars are featured more prominently than any AmEx product here, and more prominently than the cars in many car ads. And if they had to pay Toyota, then I’m sure BMW and Subaru would come looking for money as well, since it becomes a slippery slope about distance and recognizeability.
It can be seen as an endorsement, and the company can take legal action if you’ve associated their logo with content they find unflattering.
In Australia in the early 80s, TV ads featuring broken down/wrecked cars frequently used the Leyland P76, so often it became a joke. I believe Leyland had exited the Australian car market by then so perhaps that made them fair game.
Yaris, MINI and a Forrester, but these are more clumsy comedy disguise rather than anonymous
Yes, those would be my three as well – they made the headlights far too small on the Yaris, though.
Somebody needs to go back to perspective school. That’s a really bad ‘shop job.
Hmmm. A Yaris with small, replaceable sealed beams. AmEx is throwing a bone to the CCers that decry the move to large, expensive, overstyled, UV fade-prone lighting clusters? Thoughtful.
Would be a great job for someone who drew cars all the time in school.
Kind of strange how the first car is facing forward, and all the others are parked in the opposite direction.
If you’re familiar with European cities, haphazard parking like this is pretty common. Or it may just have been an art direction choice.
In my area that car would get a ticket for parking the wrong way on that side.
I got one like that. The fine was for parking too far away from the curb.
I don’t know about France, but in the UK, parking facing “the wrong way” is perfectly legal and acceptable.
I actually owned an anonymous car that was built that way from the factory. It was a 1968 Ford Falcon Futura wagon. There was not a Ford emblem on it. No block letters. Nothing. No Falcon emblems either. It did say Futura on each rear quarter panel and on the glove box door. It was so anonymous that I received a parking ticket with it and the officer wrote that it was a Dodge. I argued that I drove a Ford and the fine was dropped.
Okay, it takes experts to ID the cars, but is it really that hard to go anonymous? I see scenes like this every day. Oh, for a fin or a racing stripe!
I find this far more distracting than the car itself. They should’ve left the car itself alone and replaced the license plate with generic info but ordinary appearance for the country. By putting a blurred license plate and a deformed car over there, they guarantee that I won’t be looking at much else.