Today is Father’s Day, if you haven’t already heard. It’s a day when children are supposed to spend some time with their fathers to say thanks for everything their father did for them over the years. It’s also a day to remember all of the great times spent together.
It got me thinking, about my own memories and creating more for future children (though that is going to be quite a long ways off, a dog is already too much to care for). But in my thinking I was imagining passing my E36 328i down to my hypothetical son.
As my first car, I think it would be incredible to pass down and have as a family heirloom. Especially considering the fact that it would seemingly be a relic at that time, with how fast the automotive world is changing. Just the fact that it ran on gasoline would make it rare by the time he could drive. Which got me thinking further. At that point in time, probably close to twenty years from now, will people even be interested in cars like that, or even cars at all?
I actually ponder this often. How long will there be car enthusiasts? Eventually, the internal combustion engine will die, it’s inevitable. I understand that it will still be around in twenty years, but, due to emissions regulations growing ever stricter and environmental issues, will it be popular or will it be shunned? In twenty years, how far will electric vehicles have come, how connected will cars be and how interested in cars will people be?
Cars have become less and less about driving, but about being turned into four-wheeled mobile phones. It’s all about having WiFi and apps and connectivity. I hate to use the term “in the good old days” but in this case I must. In the good old days, car advertisements were about horsepower and performance and making the car seem cool. They had volcanoes in the background or made cars out to be fighter jets for the road. Now, commercials show kids wanting a specific car because they can watch movies on their iPads in the back seat. In twenty years, will cars still be desirable as their own entities, or will they just be another way to access the Internet Of Things?
It just seems like car enthusiasm is waning and that we’re a dying breed. It seems like cars, especially old petrol-powered junkers like my E36, won’t be desired or even well liked by the masses. So I started getting a bit glum, thinking that I may never get to share the same enthusiasm over my E36 with a child of my own. I may never get to have discussions with them about the cool cars I used to own or got to drive by having this cool job. All because they might not care at all due to the lack of social interest in the automobile.
I probably sound like an old fart at the ripe old age of 25, but I can’t help but think that BMW nuts, or any car nut for that matter, will be few and far between by the time I’m ready to receive Father’s Day gifts. Call me sentimental if you wish, but I genuinely want my Father’s Day to be spent taking a ride in my E36, from way back in the days of my youth, with the future of my family in tow and them enjoying the nostalgia of it all right along with me.
