2007 GCX REFLECTION 2.0 LI - 2017 TEENAGE SENSATION EDITION
“I have no mouth, and I must scream.” - Harlan Ellison
THE BRIEF FROM MY POINT-OF-VIEW
After spending literally only about four or so hours on this (wow, so short), I posted this to @ProbablyWastingTime’s thread in response to his 1,000 view anniversary on said thread (congrats btw!!!). I am particularly proud of this, mainly for the narration below which I must say, is quite… interesting. Although the proportions were weird, I believe that @ProbablyWastingTime did a phenomenal job on this vehicle. The work on the lights on the front AND rear, not even counting the immense 3D work on the lower half of the front grille and taillights, is just phenomenal, I have got to give the man some credit where credit’s due! The car already had a cheeky little personality, so I decided to really get in on that and proceed to ruin it by making the car regret touching the tiniest bit of asphalt.
The song choice was also one thing I loved. I was listening to the entire Brothers in Arms album by Dire Straits and I must say, I do love it, but The Man Is Too Strong was just an anthem of this car looking back on its owner in pure disgust and melancholy in my opinion. It was just to perfect to overlook! I was also considering Animate by Rush or something more upbeat representing the owner, but I settled on this deep little piece from Knopfler. Hope you guys like the car and the choice of music to go along with it despite how deep the lyrics are, and happy trails to you! Smile until then!
THE NARRATOR'S... OPINIONS, OF THE OWNER OF THIS MACHINE.
Ahhh, America in 2017. The Big Orange Boss Man is in office, people are awfully happy about walls for some reason, and Michigan is absolutely eating it up! Vine is going currently meeting a fall only rivalled by Japan’s economic bubble in the '90s, SoundCloud rappers are rising in popularity sadly, everybody pretends to enjoy Gucci Gang and your classmates desperately want either puh or an exotic car. Everything is GREAT!
Except for this. This car. The absolute embodiment of Mount Pleasant’s local parking lots as of 2017, and especially the high school’s lot. This little googly-eyed P.O.S. is the 2007 GCX Reflection 2.0 LI, watered down (or strengthened, if you’re not right in the mind) to the same level cosmetically as your local VQ-powered automatic thingymabob that you’d see at around 3:00 PM on a weekday near any high school. The only difference is 30 MPG and even more rust.
Purchased new by an unassuming assistant teacher who was severely underpaid by Detroit’s school district, this Reflection was just some boring doohickey that served as a ferry from Brighton to Downtown Detroit, with the only major difference being that the ferry had one person in it, being the “captain” of this rather deplorable ship with repurposed bus seats from Houston Metro buses. It was practically an Invisible Cloak from Harry Potter on the road.
And 2016 came around. A sophomore from Mt. Pleasant somehow got a wonderful gift from his parents; his first car. A 2007 model year at that! How amazing, right? Except that it was an unassuming GCX with a naturally aspirated 2-liter inline 4 engine that made… an okay amount of power. But it was a 5 speed! Three pedals! What more could you ask for???
And barely half a year later, Mr. GCX got his license. And unsuprisingly, this thing got a flurry of shitty aftermarket parts that would now be at home on Temu or AliExpress nowadays. Four fake Advan reps-of-reps-of-reps, a rear wing that could double as a picnic table made of plastic instead of wood, and some decals put here and there to, quote, “make the car look good, bro!”
As he became a senior in 2018, the car would kindaaa mature…? a little bit through two years. When he graduates near the bottom of his class and with one football achievement he still prides himself on today, he gets an okay job at his local Walmart as a shelf stocker. Instead of saving his money to get an apartment or try to reach for a better position, or even TRY to be a good employee, he instead slacks off, takes breaks 10 minutes too long, gets paid somehow and spends damn near his entire paycheck on his car. Suspension parts and new tires mainly. The works-ish. The thing is…
…he never installs the parts he buys for the suspension or engine. ChrisFix doesn’t own a GCX Reflection so how can he install the suspension parts??? He even later gets a turbocharger but never gets around to doing ANYTHING but oil changes and filter changes. That’s it. Even the coolant isn’t changed. And the next “major job” he does is slap the Einfach Suspension sticker he got from his order onto his left fender! What a MAJOR JOB right?? And he puts a TURBO badge on the back as well because he has a turbo!!! (he will have one soon trust me)
Of course, in barely two months, he suspects he’ll get fired. So what does he do? That’s right! He puts in his two-weeks and somehow gets a job at a restuarant some family friends own as a server and bartender on night shifts. He stays for about 4 months then leaves, and proceeds to bounce between jobs like the five little monkeys jumping on the bed. He spends his paychecks on a… muffler delete, new exhaust tip and NOTHING ELSE. And of course he pays someone else to do it. Keep in mind, his bank account is on life support provided by his generous family and friends who hope he’ll learn financial responsibility the hard way eventually.
And when COVID rolls around, he parks up in the garage, and when Lockdown eases up, he orders new clear lenses for this humble little GCX! This so far is the biggest modification he has done since the spoiler in high school… and for some reason he’s proud of it? He even puts on a new bumper sticker touting his 2 liter (according to him) because he thinks its bragging for him even though it’s actively shitting on the GCX SuperEconomy’s already sad existence even more than his poor maintenance.
And around this time, he starts up his Kitsch (Twitch parody) streaming “career” under the name “That1GCXowner”. Pretty catchy and interesting until you lay your eyes on his Very Interesting Automobile, begin to use your brain to make your own thoughts, which then lead to “this guy is a fucking loser” and then you stop watching his streams. Which is probably the right choice because he unironically listens to SoundCloud rappers at the ripe age of 20 and is not interested in branching out his music tastes whatsoever.
By around this time, he decides to take on a “big” project… drilling holes into both fenders and making little side vents for his humble GCX to breathe better, even though the air is adequate for the small little engine that has somehow survived his routine maintenance and constant rev-bombing. So, as a result, rust starts to appear. This was already due to happen across the entire car, given that this sad excuse of an adult lives in Mount Pleasant, but hey! There it is! And he talks and talks about getting rid of the rust… but it builds up, like his debt to friends and family and stupidity as he takes on loans from banks that wanna rugpull him in a fancier way than most banks would.
So, by 2026, the Reflection 2.0 LI is now sporting some interesting colors. Sandy Mica bumper and fuel filler door to be exact, adorned by Autumn Orange accents that totally aren’t rust, still owned by a 27 year-old who has not learned the responsibilities of being an adult by sheer willpower. Purely because he cannot handle any criticism and MUST “forge his own self” while he runs his credit score into the negatives. Don’t ask me how, and don’t ask the poor guy either.
The poor GCX (which I admit never deserved this kind of treatment) has gotten into some accidents naturally. Ten years will do that for ya. This consists of a dent on the rear-right door, the front-right fender and the hood. How did these happen, you may ask? Well, consult the list below!
Accident 1: A really fast shopping cart being maneuvered by one of his coworkers after Mr. GCX said something rather unsavory that nearly got him fired
Accident 2: Another shopping cart, but this time self-inflicted by Mr. GCX.
Accident 3: Mr. GCX didn’t press down the brakes hard enough whilst looking for something in his center console storage area, resulting in him running into a gardening truck’s big ass trailer at approx. 2 MPH or less. Dent in the hood and not a scratch on the pure metal trailer in front of him.
So now, Mr. GCX lies in a dilemma. His already unsavory social status and monetary status is actively getting worse by the day as he remains jobless, he sold his turbo and suspension parts he “planned to install eventually” to pay his debts to friends and family finally, but he kept literally none of the money because he owed that much money to people. He is now left with a car with worn suspension he swears handles better because it’s “broken in”, terrible cosmetic parts, and an engine that begs for real service.
PICTURES IN AN ACTUAL SHOWROOM
The high RTX settings make the taillights look red here, they are actually clear lens taillights in normal no-RTX Automation graphics
Only the best wipers 
