How Can You Drive That Thing?

Israelis and Americans have very different tastes in cars. Part of this is because of different needs, part because of different economies, tax structures, gas prices, etc. And part of it is just different tastes.

We bought our ‘aliyah Car’ in September, and it just turned 10,000 km. It’s a Daihatsu Sirion, a compact car, relatively inexpensive (very relatively) and gets good gas mileage (or kilometrage). It’s not beautiful, but it gets the job done. Here’s what it looks like:

There’s another car that I’ve seen a bunch of recently called the Ssangyong Rodius. It’s a very nice wagon, but the most common color that I’ve seen is black. Here are some examples of what the black Rodius looks like:

All I can think about when I see this car is that it looks like a hearse. I see them and I’m like, “Who died?” Truth be told, however, corpses are generally conveyed here in retrofit minivans or ambulances. The classic-looking hearse is virtually non-existent here. Whatever. One of those cultural things.