title: Classes / instances in Ontology
body: <p>I'm trying to comprehend ontology basics.
  Here's an example: </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>car (class)</li>
  <li>2009 VW CC (sub-class or instance?)</li>
  <li>My neighbor's 2009 VW CC (instance)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>My issue is understanding what is "2009 VW CC" (as a car model). If you're making product model a sub-class in the ontology - all of a sudden your ontology becomes bloated with thousands of subclasses of a "car". That's redundant. At the same time we can't say "2009 VW CC" is an instance, at least it's not material instance of a class.</p>
  
  <p>Does it make sense to distinguish between regular instances and material (distinct physical objects)?</p>
  
  <p>At the other hand, if both are instances (of different nature so to say), then how can instance inherit properties / relations of a non-class?</p>