Defining the Undefinable

What makes something cool?  It seems easy to define, because we all know what cool is.  Steve Mcqueen was cool.  Ed Sullivan was not.  Between the two, Ed Sullivan made decisions that had an impact on every young person in the country, defining what was cool.  While Steve Mcqueen made a few good movies, he had neither the influence or the power to affect the masses as Ed Sullivan did.  But he was cool, and people tended to imitate him because of it.  

Personalities lend themselves to comparison, and some fall in the cool division.  Cars are the same way.  A Jeep Wrangler is cool, while a Ford Taurus is not.  Both are about the same money, and both will accomplish exactly the same thing most of the time.  The difference is that the Jeep allows us to imagine climbing a mountain to some wonderful vista, while the Taurus allows us to imagine what car we can get when this lease is up.  In real terms, the Taurus is better at everything a car does than the Jeep.  It is faster, more economical, considerably more comfortable, and friendlier to the environment than the Jeep.  Jeep owners buy Jeeps instead of vanilla sedans, not because they are good transportation, but because they are cool.

The same holds true for almost any uncomfortable, unreliable, expensive to maintain vehicle out there.  The Land Rover Defender, one of the worst forms of transportation ever devised, is so cool that people are willing to break the law in order to have one.  An old diesel Mercedes is not a stinky, slow, noisy, unrefined beast of a car, it is an eco-chick magnet.  Any Alfa Romeo is not a rats nest of electrical problems held together by cheap Russian steel, it is a passionate Italian automobile.

Not all terrible cars are cool, but almost all cool cars are terrible somehow.  Well designed, comfortable, economical cars represent compromise.  They are good at most things, while not excelling at anything.  That is not cool.  Jeeps and Land Rovers will never be used off road, but their owners pay for the unused capability without complaint.  Sports cars are not driven any faster than other cars, but they are loved by the people that have them.  Pickup trucks never haul anything, but they outsell cars by a magnitude of 5-1.  Simply making a car less good at being a car does not make it cool, but a vehicle that has some focus on a lifestyle can be cool.  Adventurous or powerful or sleek or even gizmo laden can be cool, while simply competent transportation is boring.

We can’t forget that cars are made by people, and we are creative.  Every now and then a decision is made to create a car that is less good at being a car, but a little better at being fast, or rugged, or just beautiful.  Thank goodness.