Peoples' reactions to my 02 in LA traffic

[irdave]

14 hours ago, Tdh said:

I once came out of a mall to my '61 Corvette to find an old couple sitting in it.  I walked up, and the guy smiled and commented something like "nice car huh?"  I dangled the keys and asked why they were sitting in MY CAR.  It could have gone bad, but they were nice, apologetic, and explained that their first date had been in a car just like it, and they couldn't resist taking the chance to sit in it and reminisce.   Weird. 

 

The south is a weird place.  I don't think I'd do well there.

[tzei]

5 hours ago, irdave said:

they couldn't resist taking the chance to sit in it and reminisce.

Young rebels... meh

[KFunk]

5 hours ago, irdave said:

 

The south is a weird place.  I don't think I'd do well there.

 

Some old people also really don't give a shit no matter where they are, hah.  You only have so many days left.

 

I once caught an old lady opening the door of my truck, while I watched from inside mcdonalds.  I sprinted out to say WTF get out of my truck, and the embarrassed younger lady with her just said one word, I think it was 'dementia,' and I instantly calmed down.  Then the old lady proceeded to smile and said "I used to drive the big rigs, tooooooot toooooooot!" and made the semi truck honking arm motion with her arm.  Ah well.  

Edited November 14, 2018 by KFunk

[jscaptura1]

Living in & Around Watkins Glen, one usually sees some pretty interesting stuff.  That being said, I have seen relatively few '02's and even less of the 1600's.  I do get honks, waves & thumbs up when driving the 1600 around.  2 of the best comments I have ever heard though were at the track during vintage weekends.  I had the 1600 sitting behind the esses grandstand and overheard 2 younger couples taking about it:  "What is that?"  "It's an MG" (I almost fell over laughing but kept quiet so I could hear the rest of the conversation). The guy from the 2nd couple said "No, that's not an MG, its British, That's what BMW stands for, British Motor Works".  At that point I just kept walking by, not really believing what I had heard.  Later that same day, I was opening the door and a guy came up to me and said "Is that Granada?"  Still with the previous thoughts in my head from the MG comment, I thought he said, "Is that A Granada?" (thinking he meant a Ford Granada), I replied , "No, its not a Granada, its a BMW 1600".  He kind of chuckled and said "no, I mean is the color Granada?"  I laughed and told him the story of the previous comments about it.  We chatted a bit about the car and he was very nice.  Even at this years Vintage, there were very few '02's there and I had a lot of positive comments & conversations about it.  I do get the comments as listed a lot in previous posts: "I used to have one, my dad/brother/uncle/neighbor etc. had one, wish I/they still had it".  A few years ago, I was driving home to Horseheads from a race, it was dark and someone was following me pretty close.  I knew it was a BMW by the headlights and wondered what the person was doing.  Didn't matter how much I sped up or slowed down, he kept right on my tail.  So I pulled into a gas station looking like I was going to put gas in the 1600, and this car follows me right in.  At this point I'm thinking "oh great, what is this all going to be about".  Turns out it was an E46 with a 20 something kid driving it.  He gets out and says to me, "is that really a 1600?  I've never seen one before, I've only heard of them, Wow!  That is cool, can I please take a picture of it?  I want to prove to my buddies that I actually saw a 1600!"  So he took his picture and we chatted for a few minutes.  If he thanked me once he thanked me a dozen times.  I guess the 1600 really made his day!

[DonP]

3 hours ago, jscaptura1 said:

That's what BMW stands for, British Motor Works".

Many years ago on the way home from a long road trip, my son and I stopped to do a bit go kart racing for a break, and got the very same comment about my British car from the guys running the track!

Not very many 02s up here, so very seldom do I ever get to go for a drive without getting a few thumbs up, picture takers, honks etc.  At a stop light once, a guy offered me his first born for my car.

Not a very good offer in my opinion haha

[reyes02]

Mike chillin with you?


- Reyes

[Conserv]

3 hours ago, jscaptura1 said:

...its British, That's what BMW stands for, British Motor Works"....

 

Ca. 1973, 85% of the people I met thought this — I’m not from Southern California, where every citizen was apparently provided with a new tii. ? It wasn’t worth trying to educate them, they knew it was British. ? 10% thought BMW was somehow related to VW — hey, they both ended in a capital “W” and had some vague “German-ness” about them. The last 5% recognized it was neither British nor a VW; they were at least on the right track. There were 4 BMW’s in our borough of 8,000 people, so I’m guessing that .05% of the population (4/8,000) actually knew the BMW brand.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited November 15, 2018 by Conserv

[7502]

Not LA, but this afternoon, after topping off my tank, I asked the early 20's woman at the register how many gallons it needed. She wondered why I needed to know that, and I told her I just got back from Edmonds and wanted to calculate my MPG. She looked out the window and said,  "you drove to Edmonds and back in THAT! She was quick to add "cute car" .  

[Slavs]

Skylund caught me in his rear view mirror in LA traffic. That is proof !