Why we love cars

Valentine's Day, also called St Valentine's Day, is the day when everyone expresses their affection to their loved ones. For us Autophiles, some of our loved ones are not of flesh and bones but built of metal and other exotic materials. But why do we love them so much? 

We asked Team Wheels the exact same question, and here are their answers.

Ehsanur Raza Ronny, Head Of Content Strategy and Product Development

Dream Car:  90s Toyota Hilux double cabin

If Schrödinger had a car this would be it. It's epically useful and useless at any given point of time. It is uncomfortable, and yet, every time I drove one, it felt surprisingly comforting. The handling is poor and yet, to commute across my usual bad roads and worse drivers, it would be a great handler. A childhood fascination for "The Fall Guy" and "Back To The Future" is to blame. The car is also a unicorn. As I have not found a clear enough example to actually buy.  

Rahbar Al Haq, Feature writer

Dream Car: 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe

My love for cars, classic cars to be specific, comes from my childhood. Being an awkward kid, I had a hard time finding friends and spending time in general. As it happens, one of my landlords was the late EM Faruk, a prolific member of Bangladesh's vintage car collector community. 

I would spend hours with his team of craftsmen and watch them slowly turn rusted shells into running works of art. Another trait that I gained from my "Faruk uncle" is his passion for classic American muscle, as exemplified by my dream car, a 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe with a 289 V8. 

Haseeb Chowdhury, Contributor

Dream Car: BMW E46 M3

Objects, if held in a high enough regard can have similar effects on one's mood, demeanour and overall state of mind as a Valentine. Since we are after all car guys, those objects for us are cars. I could go on and on about driving experience, quoting the "7000rpm" line from Ford vs Ferrari, but truth be told, I don't know. Why do I love cars? I don't know where it began or why. But just that it did, and it never stopped. It's an all encompassing package, the sound, the looks and everything in between yet nothing discernible at all.

Ahbaar Mohammad, Photographer

Dream Car: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX

Cars are like faithful golden retrievers and I have an inexplicable obsession with them. I also cannot, for the life of me, tell what ingrained my habit of smelling (not huffing, those are two different things) petrol even with a gun pointed to my head, but I reckon I owe it to the Lancer Evolution IX in no small part. 

Hereby, I profess my love to the Japanese turbocharged all-wheel-drive (designed by someone who was seemingly huffing petrol) sedan which might have sparked my love affair for cars, and thanks to the current market and new JDM world order, is getting increasingly unaffordable to own. I'll resort to driving (and crashing) one in Assetto Corsa for now.

Akif Hamid, Photographer

Dream Car: 1960 Volkswagen Beetle

A download from the sketchiest torrent site I could find in the early '10s was the spark that lit the flame for automobiles in my heart. The game in question was 2005's NFS Most Wanted. With each succeeding wanted list tier my love for cars deepened, at least on a surface level. With time and a better understanding, my heart set itself on a restoration project for a VW Beetle from the 1960s

Ayan Rahman Khan, Photographer

Dream Car: Toyota GR Yaris

It is a known fact that hot hatches are some of the coolest machines to have ever graced this planet, and what makes this GR Yaris even cooler, apart from its carbon roof, is its WRC heritage (special mention to the ridiculously cool factory rims too). 

It is light; it is punchy, it is a Yaris that can put a smile on you better than any Valentine can. On Valentine's Day, a pocket rocket that you can tell people you own, and not have them question what kind or how many vibration settings it has, the GR Yaris is what dreams are made of.

Saikat Roy, Photographer

Dream Car: Subaru Impreza STI 22B

For me, my love for cars started with crashing vinyl wrapped Civics at 300km/h on Need For Speed. Or perhaps when I first learned that Nissan makes a car way cooler and faster than the Sunny called the 'GT-R'. This is what used to be my first ever dream car just like every other young petrolhead who just got sucked into a whole new world of cars at age 12. 

However, looking at the mind-boggling six-figure price tag these R34s are going for, the more mature version of me now rather vouches for a limited edition 1998 Subaru Impreza STI 22B as the perfect car to be my Valentine.