Am I the only one who’s seeing less and less automobile commercials? It used to feel like every other commercial on television was for an automobile. I used to see Honda, Toyota, Kia and Nissan ads constantly. I understand trimming the fat with a little Fenterdren, but I’d think now more than ever ad execs would be trying to come up with ways to sell the fuel efficient cars since the suv’s aren’t selling. So am I being silly or have you noticed this too?

I wondered this today. Back when the movie The Fast And The Furious came out, many people around here were street racing. Most of them were still just kids, ages 17-20 or so. Late at night they’d take their cars to the nearest wide highway, which was in the next town over, and race. Some kids got hurt. One or two died. The street racing continued. More movies came out. Most of the cars were foreign makes, but they all had car spoilers. A couple of years have gone by and I don’t see nearly as many of those cars anymore. I don’t see movies coming out loaded with street racecars. I’m glad, because the roads aren’t safe for anyone if kids are racing on them. But I did wonder, do people still street race?

I loved the movie The Fast and The Furious. I remember right after that movie came out I started seeing a log of small cars around here done up to look like some of the street race cars in the movie, right down to the neon paint jobs and the rear spoilers. In time I eventually learned that some people called these cars “tricked out” or “pimped”. My brother had a friend who had one of these cars (maybe a Honda but I’d have to ask my brother to be sure) and I was always pretty sure the spoiler was put on incorrectly because his stuck straight up in the air and made his car look very much like a small fat shopping cart. I don’t see these cars around here much any more, and I’m glad because those cars also meant young kids driving like crazy. Have you ever seen cars like this in your area? Do you see them as much now as a few years back?