I’ve been shooting and posting the painted cars of Eugene since starting this long, strange trip. But this one presents a bit of a conundrum: was it tagged unsuspectingly, or did the owner do this?
I’m guessing most of you are going to say the former. But then many of you live in larger urban areas where that’s more common. Not that we’re immune to that here too, but I’ve never seen it on a car, never mind this neighborhood.
Given the nature of the car, a beater Breeze, a car that has essentially no value anymore here in Eugene, I’m guessing the latter.
But then it won’t be the first time I’ve been wrong. It certainly is a rather nice way to “dress up’ an exceptionally dull and bland car, a perfect “anonymous car”. No longer.
Well, it’s basically undriveable as it is and it’s relatively easy to get spray paint off glass. The fact nobody’s bothered points to it being inop for other reasons. But if it’s a non-runner why is it parked blocking two garage doors? And then there’s the spot worn away on the driver’s window – maybe someone tried to clean the paint off and it wasn’t as easy as they expected, or maybe they just drive it with the front window open and its’ worn away?
The more I think about it the more questions I have…
First guess is tagged. The flat front tire and the layers of debris suggest the car hasn’t moved for some time. Looking at the pictures, I’m not convinced anyone made an attempt to clean off the window-there are similar spots on the bodywork, and looking at the “clean” spot on the window, the black outline paint has remained.
My guess is that it got tagged long enough ago the weather’s worn away some of the white paint, which probably wasn’t as well adhered or as thick as the black paint because of the spray patterns.
This car’s derelict at this point.
Inop or not, I’d be highly p!ssed if this happened to my property…
I rather liked the Cloud Cars. I thought about getting one back when they were new. My kids were little, we both had long commutes and my wife refused to be seen in a minivan. This was roomy enough and with the 2.0L/5-speed option would have been economical enough. But, we had other priorities and another car payment wasn’t one of them.
So, anytime I had to rent a car for travel, I tried to get a Cloud Car whenever possible. It was my way of compensating for not buying one.
The Clouds were great cars, George. The base model, 5-speed, 2.0L Strat that I had for 14 years and 220K miles was a gear car. No real problems in all that time, either. A used Cloud would still make a decent daily driver. Although, depending on the condition of the body, might be more of a beater. Seriously, mine had the the dependability and reliability of a Toyota or Honda. Never visited the dealer ever! Instead, went to a small private shop for any maintenance issues.
Are there others like me who are almost always unable to read these tags?
Oh, for sure. I think that’s intentional. It’s essentially a secret language that only those in the sub-culture really get.
I think it says MINI. Clearly someone from Eugene’s British Car sub-culture.
I like it! They can dress in tweed jackets, straw hats, Bermuda shorts with Webley revolvers tucked in the waistband, and wield cricket bats.
“For Lucas! The Prince of Darkness will return!”
Gang Member: Then I guess I’m gonna have to read it for you. It says this is ****ing private property! No ****ing trespassing! That means ****ing you.
Bill Foster: It says all that?
Gang Member: Yeah.
Bill Foster: Well maybe if you wrote it in ****ing English I could ****ing understand it.
Here in Chicago it’s not super uncommon to see a tagged white box truck, but I’ve never seen a regular old car tagged.
I’m not surprised. Even amongst gangbangers it’s understood that you don’t mess with someone’s ride.
true, and IME gangbangers aren’t out to get you, just the other gangbanger. Just don’t get caught in the crossfire, I suppose.
It’s to match the interior on the Breeze Expresso 🙂
Just when you couldn’t stand another gray interior, the Breeze Expresso gives you just a splash of color to break up the gray. I’ll have a rum and Coke, heavy on the Coke.
You’re right: It’s not bad. Not quite as vibrant as VW or Subaru plaid, but still a nice change from gray.
In a tangential CC effect I was stuck at a train crossing this morning before seeing this post and found myself looking at the graffiti on the railcars and realized I didn’t really mind it. Some of it looked quite interesting actually.
But this for some reason bothers me and I don’t like it at all. Maybe because it’s jarring in a neighborhood, or the canvas or…something, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the German in me objecting to the car parked the wrong way. It’s JUST WRONG! TURN THE CAR! SCHNELL! 🙂
The owner needs to either clean it up or get rid of it. Or make it a full art car and use it. Maybe I’m just getting old. Where did I put that Schnitzel again?
Relax, it’s a one-way street. 🙂
I’ve always admired the Cloud cars. Sorry to see this in such a sad state ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️
It was only my list as a contender when I was shopping for a car in 1997. A Camry beat it to the punch.