Ah, teenagers. They are the same on every world. Even teenagers who can instantly transport to anywhere in the universes want to buy flashy, super cool sky runabouts to travel around their planet. An economical, simple means of transportation is not enough for them. No, they want eye-catching personal sky cruisers to impress their friends.
This desire brings together all of a teenager’s typical traits: complete ignorance of a fair price for a runabout, fanciful thinking about how much money is required to keep a runabout running about, a corresponding lack of those funds, and an easy disregard of the older generation’s advice.
This is where Earth comes in. For such a backward planet in an isolated backwater location, Earth’s name comes up on other worlds more than you would think. Teenagers from these other worlds are fascinated with two forbidden things associated with Earth: in-your-face selling techniques, which are a complete novelty to non-Earth humanoids, and used cars. Both of these themes come together in the practice of used car salespeople doing their job of selling used cars.
Bold selling practices are just the opposite of typical restrained interactions of buyers and sellers in most civilized areas of the cosmos. Humanoids don’t act this aggressively anywhere else. Residents of any galaxy have to interact with a huge variety of species from anywhere within the infinite universes, so speaking softly and dealing fairly are the best ways to avoid conflict. Many an intergalactic war has started with a simple misunderstanding turning into an extended grudge.
Parents don't like their children learning brash attitudes and aggressive actions from Earth residents. Therefore, their kids are banned from visiting Earth until they are mature enough not to pick up bad habits.
However…
Bored teenagers from all over the universes break intergalactic laws to zip over to Earth in their parents’ long-range runabouts. The kids disguise themselves as adult humans just so they can experience the crass selling techniques, and then enjoy giving back a little of what they’ve gotten.
It’s great fun for teenagers to bring disguises and bars of gold to Earth. After getting some suspicious stares and often some police presence, they panic and leave quickly. The boldest teenagers upgrade to better disguises, realistic drivers’ licenses and actual Earth cash, then visit the vast acres of used car lots again. They fake-casually stroll through the used vehicle retail businesses to try their chances at facing off against aggressive salespeople again.
This is actually a forbidden hobby due to the possibility of being recognized as not exactly human. The kids don’t care. The parents think no real harm is done, and that it’s educational. They often don’t get too angry, except on planets where police issue monetary fines for the offense of trying to buy a car on Earth. The parents suddenly become very strict as they see monetary units departing their bank account.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Almost all parents insist that Earth’s autos be purchased and not stolen. Pilfered cars could cause some serious blowback from any advanced planet’s policing entities.
The mere fact that this type of suspicious purchasing activity isn’t reported by humans working in Earth’s used car lots doesn’t mean it’s not happening or that the more astute salespeople don’t recognize it. It just means that they don’t want to give up their golden geese that lay golden eggs of easy money.
Now it’s true that aliens from other worlds, and especially teenage aliens, are not very good at haggling over prices but they have the big advantage of being able to read a salesperson’s mind. This means they actually do know that the salespeople are trying to get rid of what dealers call lemons. It offsets the disadvantage of having limited understanding of prices and whether a car has mechanical problems.
These buyers don’t really care if the cars do have issues. They will rip out the entire engine and mechanicals anyway, in favor of an advanced extraterrestrial upgrade. The salesperson’s overcharge is really considered a tip so that if the kid comes back to shop again, they will be eagerly welcomed back as a regular, albeit not very smart, customer.
The teenagers bring the vehicles back to their home planets and work on them in their garages. With the help of robot mechanics and integrated repair manuals, they upgrade the vehicles into little runabout sky cruisers. These aren’t intergalactic spaceships but just fun vehicles to fly through the skies of a local planet. The original engine has been removed and an anti-gravity propulsion system installed. So instead of the old Earth pastime of comparing V-8 engines, they now compare the speed and maneuverability of their shiny new power sources.
A Detroit-made classic muscle car that’s been upgraded into a sky cruiser is a highly prized possession on many worlds. These classics have a very high value even on planets that rarely use money. Therefore, fixing and flipping cars can be not only a cool hobby, but also a highly profitable hobby. Some teenagers enjoy buying, upgrading and selling the runabouts so much they continue with the hobby their entire lives.
There is one automobile that is most in demand: a 1981 DeLorean sold along with a VHS tape of “Back to the Future.” It’s almost irresistible to a collector of classic Earth runabouts. There are collectors who specialize in cars like Porsches, Shelbys, Pontiac GTOs, Camaros, and the like. They repaint the cars using strictly original paint formulas, then polish them to their highest beauty.
I would have thought car flippers would upgrade the interiors into something sleek, super modern and sumptuously comfortable, but apparently that would lower the car’s value. They upgrade the mechanical parts of the car but go to great lengths to keep the interiors as original as possible.
Other civilizations of course have invented automobiles, but somehow, they never made beautiful cars like you find on Earth. The aerodynamic designs and chrome embellishments are much admired intergalactically. You can hardly go to an advanced humanoid-populated planet and not see some of these prized sky cruisers zipping through the atmospheres. In fact, Detroit, Michigan and a few other locations on Earth have become popular stops for time-traveling tourists anxious to see the original automobiles and the factories where they were made.
