Cars. Even if you aren’t a car fan, theres almost noone that doesn’t have a favourite car. Maybe it’s the cute proportions of the mini, the sumptuous luxury of a rolls royce, the sweeping lines of a ferrari or the hippie iconography of the vw camper van, there’s a car to inspire all of use. In recent yeats, the car has become something to many which is indicative of our commercially driven world. A badge. A status symbol. It’s strictly the middle classes, and those aspiring to be so. It’s not longer enough just to have a car, or even a nice car. Even if a car has every feature known to many, it’s apparently nothing without a badge.

This was demonstrated to me the other days by one car. The audi A3 convertible. It’s an audi from the front, and a car crash from the back. Lined up next to one at the lights, the lack of a boot makes it’s look less like a real car than the result of a top gear challenge to make a convertible hatchback. The problem within this car really is that the occupants think it’s says something about them by having and audi badge on the front, some kind of superiority over other drivers, something better than a driver of a tigra or peugeot 206cc.

To me this car definatley says something about the owners…. They couldn’t afford an A4 cabriolet, and were too yuppie to get a decent convertible without the fancy badge.