Cars

There are lots of cars here that you rarely see in the States. In addition to Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Kia, and Chevrolet, you see lots of vehicles made by Renault, Citroën, Škoda, Dacia, Peugeot, Fiat, Astra, Ibiza, and Suzuki. To my knowledge, there are no Israeli auto-makers and so passenger cars get imported from elsewhere.

I would most like to test drive the Fiat Panda because it looks and sounds fun. It also defies categorization. Is it a car or a van (see also the Škoda Roomster and the Mitsubishi Space Wagon)?

The Hyundai Getz is interesting because I have no idea where the model name came from. Most of the Hyundais here have straightforward names like i10, i20, or i30. In the states, Hyundais have names like Elantra or Sonata, so a short, harsh sounding name like Getz stands out. It is also not uncommon to see a Hyundai Getz with one of these window flags.

What counts as a large automobile is relative. In the States, a Toyota Corolla is considered a small car, but here Yaris == Corolla and Corolla == Camry. Land Cruiser still equals Land Cruiser, but those are more rare than full-sized pickup trucks.

Speaking of cars, lots of them have this bumper sticker, which is a Facebook group that went viral and now has thousands of “members” around the country. The name translates as “defective father” and is essentially a support group for dads or people who are about to become dads.

The significance of the bumper sticker is that it allows members (and anyone really) to leave chocolates, fruit, notes of encouragement and other things for strangers who are doing their best to meet the daily challenges of parenting. They also meet up in person to volunteer, take on renovation projects, and socialize. The idea is that parenting is hard and so we shouldn’t beat ourselves up so much and we should support one another. Sounds nice.