For Portland it’s the Subaru Outback. For Los Angeles it’s maybe a Mercedes. For San Diego… a Volkswagen. For SF it’s a city bus because where the hell would you park a vehicle anyway?
All fine and good. But what I want to know is, what is the vehicle that most represents Fresno?:
Lowered Honda Civic: Hey. Ya got a Civic. What the hell else is there to do but lower it?
Raised Truck/Oversized Truck: Just pick any make. Ford. Chevy. Dodge. GMC. We got them and we raise them. You know, just in case a thousand-year-flood happens, we are high enough to drive through it. We also have to drive unnecessarily large F150s and take five minutes trying to park it in a ‘compact’ spot. Bonus points if you own a dually but have nothing to tow.
Muscle Car: Yes, Mustangs! I love them and formerly had one. There are plenty of Camaros, Firebirds and Corvettes too. Bullard, for some reason, seems to be the Fresno street to rev these down.
Large SUV: NW Soccer Mom having one? OK, I get it. You’re hauling equipment and children around all the damn time – sometimes kids that are not even yours. Makes sense. Really don’t understand the need for them otherwise. And just like ‘oversized truck guy’, we like to fit them into parking stalls they don’t belong in.
Toyota Corolla: Not a sexy choice but, DAMMIT, Fresno is not sexy. You can be sexy in Fresno, but Fresno is not sexy. Fresno is show up to work on time. Fresno is get me from Point A to B in 10 minutes. Nothing says that like a Corolla.
So yeah. That’s my pick. A Corolla. Fresno is the Toyota Corrola of California. And that is fine. I am good with that. Nothing wrong with that. The word “Corolla” is Latin for “small crown” and that fits us.
Somebody has to be the reliable workhorse of California and be willing to wear a smaller crown. That is a Corolla. That IS Fresno.
10 out of 10, would read again.
I love the list of candidates, but I’m afraid I have to disagree on the final winner selection. I’d have to go with Kia. Any Kia. I see ’em everywhere. Models of Kia that I didn’t even know existed. Maybe Corollas are so ubiquitous that they’ve just faded into background noise for me, maybe they just don’t stand out for me any more. That characteristic alone probably qualifies them for your award. But Kias are dirt cheap, run pretty well, and look just odd enough to attract that Fresno attention span, kind of sparkly. They’re not Japanese, they’re sure not big American cars, they’re made someplace undefinable, someplace… out there… where all Fresno’s favorite cheap shiny imported things are made, someplace we really don’t want to think about too much. Sort of the Dollar Store car. Yeah. I vote for Kia.
Hyundai/Kia, same difference. According to the Wiki, Kia owns part of Hyundai and Hyundai owns part of Kia. Strange but that is what it says.
Anyways I don’t know if I can classify Kia/Hyundai as the vehicle brand that represents Fresno because if you travel to the Bay Area and SoCal, there has been a huge influx of Kias and Hyundais on the road. It has been accepted as a brand to own compared to back in the 90s. Thanks to it’s 100K mile warranty (compared to the competitors which is half that if your lucky without paying more for extended warranty) included and fuel economy and overall value. But yes, I see Hyundais and Kias a lot, not just in Fresno, but also in San Jose, San Francisco, and LA. It also doesn’t help that they have also become a choice for fleet vehicles (rentals).
I think people have not cared about brand when it comes to buying compacts in this price range. And in this segment, you have the civic and the corolla but doesn’t have the same value as a Kia or Hyundai. And probably why you see a lot everywhere now. It has become the new civic and corolla.
That is a good pick. I don’t really disagree with it.
With Fresno/Clovis being a driving city, I don’t know why people are not investing more in gas saving, hybrids and EV (electric) vehicles. Especially all the rich bastards north of shaw and in clovis haha. It will also help in the questionable air quality we have here in the valley.
Something like a Prius has that Liberal yuppy stigma which flies in the face of NE Fresnan/Clovisian. Hell I know Liberal environmentalists that hate a Prius. We should be driving more of these type of vehicles though.