Brand Loyalty

Jogging through the subdivision on my ways to and from the Arb for my real run this evening, I was struck suddenly by the number of houses with garages that contained two or more vehicles of the same mark - sometimes, even the same model. One garage - the one in which the owners often sit at a patio table, watching TV and smoking - contains two identical Toyota Avalons, one silver and one blue. Down and across the street is a house with two Saabs, a station wagon and a sporty sedan; next door is a place with a Chevy Silverado pickup and a Chevy Suburban SUV. There's a house with two BMWs (and a junky-looking Oldsmobile) and a house with two Grand Caravan minivans. And just off my running path is a house with a three-car garage so full of stuff that the three Chevy Trailblazers - an old one, a new regular-sized one, and a new extended one - have to sit on the driveway, along with one ancient golden retriever.