Three times in the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen  very unique appearing automobile in my city of 83,000.  Twice it has quite obviously been the same car; the third was the same vehicle, but this one an advertisement for some company.

Since each of these encounters have come while I was driving, I couldn’t take a photo.  So, here’s a link Tesla Foundation; and a Review.  If you’ve got a spare $100,000 lying around, you can order one of these limited edition automobiles….

Every now and then things like this appear, and the new owners strut their stuff.

The most recent one I recall in my limited view of the past is the Hummer which had a run at fame during the Iraq War.  I suppose they more or less had the image of the WWII Jeep, though they were not an everyman’s vehicle.  There was an implied status and power image connected with them.

Every once in a. great while, nowadays, I see one of them somewhere, but they were a fad, probably mostly stored in their owners garage today.  Will the new Tesla’s have the same fate?

Conspicuous consumption is not restricted to today’s status seekers.

Over 100 years ago, my grandfather Bernard came into possession of a 1901 Oldsmobile. It was the car my Dad said was his driver education car when he was a youngster; and I actually had an opportunity to drive it back in the late 1990s.

I wasn’t around when the Olds came to be part of our family, but over the years I’ve picked up bits and pieces of the story of the car.  (The longer story – 7 pages – is here: 1901 Oldsmobile)

Someone came to Grafton in the early 1900s, and apparently had a few extra dollars to play around with and bought the Oldsmobile and it came by rail to Grafton.

It had utility, but for what!?  It was a curiosity, of course.  There were incidents like frightening horses.  And gasoline stations were unknown, and spare tires, and who’d want to even get in the thing!  Utility beyond purchase was not a given.  Now that I’ve got it, what do I do with it?  And does anybody care?

At some point, the man left town for other parts, and wasn’t inclined to take the car along.  Grandpa Bernard had a small barn, and agreed to store the car there, which is where it sat, protected from the elements, except for infrequent visits to the outdoors.  It helped that Grandpa was mechanically very adept, and knew how to care for machines, and he was a faithful steward.

The car wasn’t his, but years passed and the owner was never heard from again, so it became Grandpa’s property.  He was a fireman in the town, and later the little car was stored in a municipal building, where it stayed for years, occasionally coming out for a parade.  Then it became a display in the Oldsmobile dealer in Grand Forks, where it was later sold to a collector, and sold and resold and resold, as such things go.  I have no idea the name or destination of the original owner.  It is probably lost to history.

Californians Tony and his wife became the owner for a lot of years, and took the little rig to London, England, to drive in the Old Car annual event, London to Brighton, and years later did the New London – New Brighton MN version of the rally.

I had a chance to ride in, ‘drive’ (max speed 18 mph), and even buy the little car, but what would I do with it?  I passed.

Best I know, it’s at some car collector in Pennsylvania….

So, what does this all mean?

What will be the future of the fancy dandy new Tesla’s I’ve been seeing.  Will be the next Model T, or will they be the Edsel of the 2020s.

1900 was about the beginning of what became the automobile, and it was perhaps 20-25 years before autos became common means of transportation.  There were automobiles of one sort or another long before 1900, but not before manufacturing technology improvement and reduction in cost slowed growth, not to mention things like roads, stations, and the like.

The new generation of cars has to evolve similar to the cars we’ve become accustomed to.  A good primer on the past to present that I found on the internet is here, from Car and Driver.

I’ll be watching!