Cars - Basic Training

There was this interview i watched with a CEO of a major car manufacturer a couple years back and he mentioned something that shocked me.

He was discussing the R&D stages they go through when creating a new car or upgrading an older model. Basically, as with all products, they asses its market feasibility and if people will actually buy it. Then they begin to hone it down adding on features and accessories people will drool over.

What was interesting though, was when the interviewer asked him 'How do you assess what people want...?', to which the CEO answered, 'Well, in brief, we place a 40% weighting on the needs of north america. 40% on the europeans. 20% is split around east asia and the oceanic continent. We don't place much weighting on the middle eastern region, for the reason that they'll buy pretty much anything as long as it's new...'

Immediately, i took that as a crude insult. Though, a moment of pondering later, i came to the conclusion that the son of a bitch is right. Especially when it comes to automobiles, generally, we don't have the foggiest clue when we are in the buyers chair saying, 'Aaaaahhhh.... mmmmm.... oh Daddy, i want that one!'

If you think of it in the sense that this is one of the biggest depreciating assets you'll probably be making in your lifetime... it does make most of us morons, doesn't it...?!

I had a friend come up to me proudly proclaiming that he's going to buy a new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 for KD 16,000... 16 GRAND!! for an american gas guzzling, premature ejaculating jeep... in my view, and in the view of anyone with a mind on their shoulders, there are far better alternatives to throw away your hard earned cash.

Another point that begs to be beckoned is peoples ability to drive and before you all start telling me crap about if you drive in kuwait you can drive anywhere... let me tell you something about driving.

the ability to drive in a straight line and the ability to merge as one with your machine and hold it when it's at the very edge of its physical capabilities are not one and the same. Being a good driver firstly means that you have good knowledge about your driving ability, your cars strengths and weakness's and your anticipation of things that are about to happen before they actually do.

People are dying pretty much everyday on kuwaiti streets. We are all mature enough to understand that accidents to happen and we all know we are taking a risk getting into our cars. But what burns down deep in your gut, is when people are dying for stupid, reckless reasons.

I've had many friends dissapear in a second due to car accidents, i've seen a whole family laying on the ground covered with white linen due to accidents, name it i've seen it. Each and everyone of them needn't die, yet the very reason they die is our governments total disregard to driving standards in this country, and ofcourse, our arab superiority complex thinking we're all schumachers.

Damn fools!