Dating apps are far from new, but I started dating my now-ex-wife before Tinder really took off. It meant that once I was single again, I wasn’t just trying to figure out how to date in my 30s. I should have too learn a whole new kind of dating. And you know what? So far, it’s not too bad. Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge are all really different, and depending on who you are, one will probably work better than the others. But a dating app for car enthusiasts? That just sounds awful.
In case you missed it:
A company called Leasing Options created this app and decided to very creatively call it Speed Dating. Personally, I think they should have just gone with Lease Options because that would be ridiculous to say the least. I mean, it’s doomed to crash and burn right away, so why not go for something more creative than Speed Dating?
What’s especially funny is that the press release says they developed the app specifically because a lot of people don’t like seeing cars on dating profiles. Which makes sense. Owning a car is not a personality trait and you should advertise yourself on apps, not the things you own. It’s weird and off-putting, no matter how cool your car or truck is. What doesn’t make sense is building an entire app focused on what most people don’t like.
Amazingly, the press release includes a list of reasons why this app is probably a bad idea (and a few minor exceptions). Apparently people are thinking:
- It’s “weird” to include pictures of your car alone
- This is a turn off as they want to know about the person and not their car
- You can be proud of your car, just like you would be proud of your job or your children, but you don’t need to include it in your dating profile
- Showing your car is terrible
- People use their cars to “bend” which repels them
- It looks superficial and attracts “gold diggers”, others indicated they would contact them to use them for their money
- Normal cars are acceptable, but American trucks are put off
- Acceptable if they include it to show hard work and dedication to the cars
- Only acceptable if you state that your interests are motorsports
- This is not procrastination as it is just like displaying any other hobby
But also, although there are many women who are also car enthusiasts, they probably do well in other applications. If they aren’t, I highly doubt that switching to an app full of dudes with cars will magically change their fortunes. It’s going to be like that conservative dating site that failed almost immediately because it was almost all dudes. If Speed Dating succeeds, it will be because it somehow accidentally became Car Grindr.
Maybe I’m being unduly critical and Speed Dating will be a huge success. But come on. How am I supposed to take this seriously when the press release feature list includes:
- Not only do you have the standard dating app options to indicate whether or not you’re interested in a user, but Speed Dating gives you “speed up” option putting you in first position (before other users).
- You can customize your profile to show your carincluding your car history, current car, favorite manufacturers and dream car.
- See what users look like and a a picture of their car without having to click through to their profile, saving precious seconds of your time.
- Share yours the car turns on and off with the algorithm to avoid users who are not suitable for you.
- Manually filter users by common factors such as age and location, as well as car type (eg sports car) and manufacturers.
Don’t joke about pole position, Colin. Don’t joke about pole position, Colin. Don’t joke about pole position, Colin.
If you’re really interested in getting to pole position, though, you can sign up here to be notified when the app becomes active. I won’t, but maybe we should get someone else to do it to see how bad it really is. Steve? Steve sounds like a good choice for this experiment.