The Car of Choice

I moved to Fairfield County, Connecticut, three decades ago.  At the time, one of the most striking things that I noticed was how many people drove Mercedes cars.  This was especially noticeable at my daughter's school.  The cars lined up at the end of the day to pick up children were almost all made by the German manufacturer.  Over time, the choice changed.  First, there was a wave of Volvos that appeared.  They almost pushed the Mercedes out of first place, but then enthusiasm for the Volvo disappeared.  Instead, the new car of choice became the Lexus.  In fact, it got to a point where more than half of the cars on local roads seemed to be the Lexus SUV.  The local Lexus dealer became the largest in the nation and its service department was open from 6 AM to midnight just to handle the load.  The Lexus eventually fell out of favor, though.  It was replaced by Audi and BMW. 

It seems that now, however, a new car is taking over first choice.  I noticed this morning as I was driving through town to get coffee that there were seven Tesla cars in front of me stopped at the light.  Other than when riding by a dealer, I don't think I had ever seen seven Teslas at one place before.  It seems that owning a Tesla is the new symbol of having arrived (at least in Connecticut.)

I've never owned any of these cars.  My wife had a Lexus once, but I thought that car was a real clunker with no acceleration.  I've stuck with American cars.  At least the new choice, Tesla, is made here.