Boys and cars

There was something profound about washing my car just the other day, having spent most of my time on a Maserati, an Aston Martin DB7, a Mercedes C200 and two BMWs. I am currently working at an automotive detailing centre for this summer holidays till January (before I resume my uni semester) for some extra cash, and the job entails everything from handling customers to interior/exterior car care, mostly for an upper class niche. It’s hard work but I’m enjoying the experience of learning about an industry I never really took notice of, and the boys there are good men.

The mechanical task of spraying and wiping, coupled with the irony of washing my shabby, humble Proton Saga after washing those luxury cars invoked something in me that day – I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride towards my car, that despite its scratches, cracks and dents, it still serves me well and does its job.

Cars, like clothes, may have a universal function (to transport/to cover), but they vary in their social values, and, to a certain extent determine the measure of a person’s image and social worth. The great gap in prices between the cheapest and most expensive cars reveals - beyond the unavoidable effects of capitalism - society’s great fixation on status and image. With so much emphasis on form, functionality is a given and more often than not, ignored. But while the capitalistic system is unable to measure values beyond what is material, I believe we should never discard some important ‘measures’. That which has little "social value" may be of much more worth than we think.

On this day, I think about the school bus that transported me (and thousands of other children) to kindergarten every morning 18 years ago, the different cars I sat in on my way to Saturday Youth Meetings when I couldn’t drive, my carpooling partner’s blue Proton Wira that took me to my secondary school and back every day, and the 3 well-used (understatement?) vans that go as far as Kajang and Bukit Jalil to make sure that different ones get to attend my youth group in Subang Jaya every weekend. In light of all that, the Maserati still holds its appeal, but does not stand a chance against any shabby, humble Proton car that is used for the good of others.

And if that is true of cars, it has to be true of people and their abilities.