Lashed

It looks like the stick people stickers I posted about on Tuesday are quite prevalent and embarassing Stateside.  American Insurance site, carinsurance.com, have produced this article on embarassing cars, car colours and accessories.  Sorry, as they are American, that should read "colors".

Unfortunately, they chose the top 12 cars for their survey rather than just opening it up to the public and this is the list after the votes were counted:

1. Smart Fortwo (7.6)
2. Nissan Cube (3.6)
3. Hummer H2 (3.5)
4. Chevrolet SSR (2.1)
5. Volkswagen New Beetle (1.9)
6. Subaru Baja (1.6)
7. Lincoln Town Car (1.6)
8. Pontiac Aztek (1.4)
9. Chrysler PT Cruiser (1.0)
10. Honda Element (0.9)
11. Chevrolet HHR (0.7)
12. Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet (0.3)

The numbers in brackets are the cars "Cringe scores" so I really don't think the bottom three should be in the list at all. The Smart scored badly, rather unfairly, due to a preception that it is "not safe".  At least the reason for the Lincoln Town Car & Chrysler PT Cruiser was they are "too Grandpa" - "ha ha!" says the Jaguar driver.

 

The Americans should be lucky they never had the Fiat Multipla or the car I was once subjected to, the Mercedes Vaneo.

 

The accessories list is much more cut-and-dried:

 

Headlight eyelashes	34%
Bumper sticker for a candidate who lost	18%
Fast and Furious-style spoilers and wings	15%
‘My child is an honor student’ bumper sticker	13%
Stick-figure family decals	13%

 

I really hate the headlight eye-lashes.

Why?

 

 

Fox News also had the story.  Apart from getting the accessories in the wrong order, they also express surpise at no mention of "truck nuts" - something I was aware of and hate nearly as much as the lashes and also no mention of unicorn antenna balls - something I wasn't aware of and was pleased not to be aware of.  Check this out for a cringe.

 

 

Again, why?

 

My Family

No, not the popular BBC Sitcom which, in the good old days featured the brilliant Kris Marshall before he went off to appear in the terrible BT adverts which then went on to spawn another series of even worse BT adverts.

 

No, I am talking about the My Family stick people who have taken Australian rear car windows by storm and are apparently doing the same here.

I learnt about them from this Independent story by Gillian Orr (or "Grr!" to her friends).  The idea is you buy stickers to match your own family which can include grandparents and pets.

I wasn't too sure myself - I'm not too keen on window stickers that obstruct views and I also think of them like tattoos which I also don't like as I see it as defacing something nice like a human body or my car.

 

But then I took a look at their UK Website and started selecting characters that matched my own family.  Quite good fun but I won't be shelling out the £9.96 it would cost for these four people.  This will also discrimate against people with big families - it could cost a fortune and they won't be able see properly out of the back of their people-carriers.

Apparently, in Australia, there has been a bit of a backlash and various spoof versions are now appearing including pregnant teens and families with nooses.

Grr! states that "It is yet to be seen whether My Family Stickers will be a big hit over here, but you can bet they’ll be every bit as divisive"

 

Nah, I doubt if most people will even notice them.