Do you like it? Then it is perfect.

Today someone in a BMW E28 group on Fa

cebook posted a pictures of some wheels he planned to install on his car and asked the inevitable question:

"What do you all think?"

I looked at the post and knew, just knew, many purists were going to comment 'Dude, that is hideous', or 'I guess if you like to look like one of those guys' and the other myriad of comments that come from the question 'What do you think?'.

I wrote to him:

And I meant it. I recently purchased a 2000 M Roadster in silver. Very cool car, very fast and very cool - oh, I already said that, but it is that cool. It has very BMW looking aftermarket wheels and, what I knew would be controversial, BMW Original Equipment (OEM) rear wing. I was so excited about the car. My first BMW M car. I posted a picture of it on Facebook in some of my favorite groups from BMW groups to other car related pages. The response I got from many:

'Wow, very ricer looking.'
'What's with that wing, are you going to keep it?'
'Too bad about the wing.'

There were many other comments that purists in the Roadster community thought of the wing on my car. I went from excited to practically embarrassed to drive the car around. I immediately started shopping for a trunk lid without a wing to replace the certainly hideous appendage my car had grown. I shopped for a couple of weeks, some people had trunk lids to sell me, and overall I wasn't getting my Elephant Man car fixed for less than $300 to $400.

I then looked at the car and thought 'I like the wing.' Sure it is a bit gaudy but it just fits the car - I guess that's why BMW offered it as an option. I then thought 'Why am I going to spend money because others don't like it? I am the one driving the car.' In the end, I have decided to keep my grotesque looking M Roadster with the hideous rear wing and enjoy the car.

The above scenario plays out all the time, In hairstyles, clothing, houses, stereos, TV's, what our kids do and don't do - pretty much in everything we do. In the car world we seem to be less charitable with our comments. Someone paints a car a strange color and many laugh at the owner. They lower the car
but 50% of the people don't like stanced cars. They raise the car (or
truck) and put big tires on it and 50% of the people don't like raised cars. They modify it outside, inside and under the hood and people ask why the car wasn't kept original. Some keep their cars perfectly original and many respond about how boring the car looks and why haven't they modified it?

Essentially, you aren't going to make everyone happy. In fact, probably most won't like what you do to your car because it isn't what they would do. I am 52 years old soon and maybe with age I have learned to not care what others think or maybe I have learned if I like something then why not do it?

The moral to this story is:

If you decide to modify (or not modify for those keeping a car original) and you post a picture online asking the opinions of others realize that many are not going to like your decision. That's their prerogative. But don't base what you decide to do on what others think. As I told my new friend today:

'Do you like them? Then they are perfect.'

That's the thing about cars. Really, no two cars are alike and not everyone is going to like your car. But isn't that half the reason cars are so cool?