Huh? No, really. Before you call me weird, please read this from The National Post. To summarize (for our time-challenged cubicle dwellers), Nissan employs a designer named Shiro Nakamura. As a cellist, Nakamura uses music to design cars. No, really. "The Nissan brand is more is more like jazz, pop or rock, whereas the Infiniti luxury division is akin to classical music." I'm not sure where that leaves the new FX50, though Wagner springs to mind. And I'm positive that the QX56… I was going to make a Mozart bowel movement joke here. Anyway, you get the idea. As corny as this seriously forced metaphor sounds, let's ride it like a Valkyrie. I drive a blue Subaru WRX wagon. For some perverse reason, the Subie reminds me of Andrew W.K. Often bloody, but unbowed. And manic. You?
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When I drive my work truck, I think Paul Wall.
Jonny, you’re wierd.
But if your WRX is Andrew WK, the girlfriends 2.5i must be some kind of laid back but wildly popular (in Portland) indie rock… I’ll go with her favorite band, The Shins.
My car? Well, it’s a 70’s Peugeot ten-speed bike, so I’d guess it’s the automotive equivalent of Eliot Smith. It has loads of indie cred, but it also kinda makes you want to kill yourself.
I’m still going to call you weird. :-)
Those amusing Japanese guys! They like, think of all these very weird analogies that don’t translate very well (unless you’re also weird and you like stuff like Andrew W.K.).
It brings back to my memory something from around 1986, when Nissan had a motto/leitmotif for their cars called NEE: Nice, Easy, Economical. (At the time, the competition noted that was a good motto for refrigerators, too). Next question: what vegetable is your car?
Let’s see..
I drive a Mazda 3 sedan (MT). It’s a bit rough around the edges, but at it’s core it has a good amount of soul (at least IMO). So I’d have to say one of my favorite bands, Sevendust, fits the bill.
infiniti as classical music?
Lately it reminds me more of Madonna: extremely face-lifted.
I honestly have no idea what kind of music a Volvo 240 Wagon is, but I’m sure I’d listen to it.
Edit: Maybe something from the likes of Trio?
My blue WRX wagon plays Spoon.
We’ll I just picked up an ’07 3.3L Sonata. It had some 13k miles on it and I got it for $14k. This is an underrated car.
I guess MF Doom, Madlib, or Nitro Microphone Underground would be appropriate.
I hear Miata’s play Wham!… or something like that
Anything loud, hard, fast, in your face, that type of thing.
John R:
I agree — the Sonata is very under-rated.
As for music… this is a goofy question, ain’t it?
I remember reading an interview with Beck once, where he said he just couldn’t roll around LA in a Benz, or Bimmer like everyone else. His solution? A used Lincoln Towncar, if I remember correctly.
Just goes to show that one mans stodgy is another mans quirky. Which is why I can totally see “Hyundai Sonata” finding its way into an MF Doom track. Or visa versa.
I’m surprised that 2 people in the first 14 responses know who MF Doom is, I guess he’s not that underrated after all
And Mike Solowiow’s comment made me laugh out loud
Gospel music. Because it is by divine intervention that my cars (’97 Grand Prix and ’89 Bonneville) still run good.
The Pusher
Mine is less like music than haiku:
Hard thrust engine
Asphalt pebbles spray like waves
Radar gun
Hmmm… The GTI is Dirty Vegas – cool and smooth but not that edgy. The LGT is A Perfect Circle – gorgeous and sublime, and deep down inside it’s Tool.
I drive a 97 Ininiti I30 and while I do like jazz, rock and “library music” (Ennio Morricone, Roy Budd, and Alan Hawkshaw, etc.), I prefer talk-radio (Don & Mike) or the music from the VQ30DE…
My 2006 GTO ‘is’ the song by Slayer — “Angel of Death”
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgh.
Hyundai’s got more Seoul “than a sock wit a hole…”
My Audi A6 is Grover Washington….smooth and mellow jazz with a kick when you need it….
Under normal circumstances, it’s ZZ Top.
When speeding, it’s Gimme Shelter (Stones only).
When it’s donut time, it’s Morphine’s Honey White.
Older E39 BMW’s seem to run better on a 50/50 mix of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Drive-By Truckers. Extreme caution when playing Wagner for obvious reasons.
I’m actually (weirdly) inclined to say an M-B 300 SD (the W126 body one, anyway) is equal parts Grateful Dead and Saliva. Laid-back and melodic under normal conditions, but with just enough of an edgy badassness to keep things lively (likely owing to the lowering springs, larger chrome wheels and tires and technically-verboten Euro-spec headlights on mine).
Del Tha Funky Homosapien (Civic Si)
I gave up on radio 15 yrs ago. I listen to Books on Tape. Anything I can check out of the library network. My work trucks dont have a player, so I have an old boom box on the passenger’s seat. I am currently listening to Michael Connelly’s “the Lincoln Lawyer”
My 2000 Saab 9-3SE: It’s Swedish. It’s versatile. It’s tourquey/fast. It’s The Soundtrack of Our Lives (http://www.myspace.com/officialtsool)
My 2002 4Runner: Reliable as hell. Hauls – as we say in Texas – “a shit ton o’ stuff.” It kind-of looks pretty aggressive and is actually fun to drive. Gorillaz.
My Miata is The Outlaws “I’m a Freeborn Man”, followed by their “High Tides and Green Grass”.
My Probe GT is Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”.
My MPV is Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”, and the wife’s Mazda5 is The Car’s “Let’s Go!”
Hmmm… given that my current driver is a 5-speed, bare-bones, AWD wagon (1995 Subaru Legacy Wagon) in the middle of SUV country… I would say anything by Weird Al would suffice.
The Buick Roadmaster’s theme was, “When I’m 64!”
Eagle Talon’s theme is Black Saabath’s Iron Man (It’s black as well.)
Chevy Tracker’s theme is, “Wanna be your girlfriend?”
1977 Mercedes 350SE’s is 1920’s Oktoberfest music.
2001 Town & Country’s Theme is, “Going to the chapel and we’re…”
1998 Volvo S70 T5’s theme is “Cult of Personality”
1998 Volvo XC70 AWD Wagon’s theme is, “Wrapped Around Your Finger”… a surprisingly quiet car.
1994 Toyota Previa All-Trac’s theme is anything by the band, “Oingo Boingo”
1997 Subaru Legacy Outback’s theme is that stupid Outback Steakhouse song…
1996 VW Passat Wagon’s Theme is “I Fall to Pieces”
1998 VW Jetta TDI’s theme is, “Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee”… it’s lousy… but with frugality
1992 Toyota Paseo’s theme was, “Turning Japanese!”. It’s pretty much the quintessential small Japanese car of the early 90’s with 5-speed and power nothing… but a damn good powertrain.
I have others but I don’t drive them enough to give them a song.
Kenny G.
A Sonata would play a sonata, of course.
The factory stereo in my little Olds has amazing depth and clarity (proving GM can do SOMETHING right), so just about anything can sound right, but I find that in the summer late 90’s bubblegum pop seems to suit it (I grew up in central Florida, and it’s a state law that you have to like that stuff), but in the winter, Detroit-style techno all the way…
“Take me away, a million miles away from here…”
My MKV GTI is De La Soul, both hard and jazzy, but with enough idiosyncracies to be either hated or loved, with no in-between.
Edward Niedermeyer: My car? Well, it’s a 70’s Peugeot ten-speed bike, so I’d guess it’s the automotive equivalent of Eliot Smith. It has loads of indie cred, but it also kinda makes you want to kill yourself.
I have one of those. Rode it Seattle to Boston in ’75. Now if I could only find a Peugeot automobile of similar vintage… that would be jazz.
Jordan Tenenbaum :
I honestly have no idea what kind of music a Volvo 240 Wagon is, but I’m sure I’d listen to it.
Possibly Grateful Dead. Or else folk.
I’d hate to say it, but I believe my Camry is Rammstein. For a lot of the wrong reasons.