These Are The Car Companies Non-Car People Love

The go-to answers will likely be Toyota and Subaru, but I have a different take:

It’s Jeep.

Pull up a chair and stay a while while I explain. While Subaru has led with Marketing genius backed up with true functional capability, and Toyota is the GOAT when it comes to packing reliability, resale, and inoffensiveness into the psyche of the collective masses, Jeep has a different reason for being important to the non-car people.

Because Jeep makes the Wrangler, and despite constant warnings of the automotive press (It rides terrible! It steers terrible! Oh it’s so uncomfortable! Oh they’re so expensive!) ——Yes, Automotive press, the Wrangler absolutely sucks compared to just about anything.

Yet people buy them anyway. And not just the hardcore off-roaders and Mall-crawling dudebros.

Normal people buy them, and they love them! Why? Why would normal non-car people love something declared so inferior by the almighty internet?

Because Jeep Wranglers, more than any other car model out there, turn non-car people into people that are into thier cars.

By combining the off-roady looks, the customizability, the convertible factor, the actual all season capability, and the constantly growing Jeep “Community” you have a recipe for something a lot of people want to be a part of!

It’s a community of “normies” so large now that there are Facebook groups tens of thousands strong full of regular ass people that were never into cars, but they have ducks on thier dash, names on the side, and color matched outfits to thier vehicles when they GO OUT TO MEETS! These are mostly people that were never into cars, or working on them, or meeting other people at places just to show off their cars.

But because of a shared love of an infinitely customizable convertible rolling anachronism, they’re decorating their cars in christmas lights and attending parades, they’re out doing Jeep drives for charities, they’re migrating every year to Miami, Myrtle, Or Gatlinburg for huge meetups. And it’s not just one “Group” or “Type” of person. You go to a drift meet, you have a pretty good idea of what culture of people are going to predominantly there. Same thing with, say, the Hot Rodders, the Supercar guys, the Lifted Truck scene.

But the Jeep community? You have EVERYONE. Black, white, Rich, Poor, Urban, Rural, Religious Evangelists, Swingers, Environmentalists and Rednecks, you truly can run into ANYONE at a Jeep meet or in a Jeep Group, all united by one thing: Absolutely loving a certain car.

Jeep, seemingly hated the most by actual car-people, has ironically brought car-enthusiasm to the non-car people.

Submitted by: H4llelujah

The “aspirational” car I hear the most from non-car-people is, confusingly, Jaguar. There’s some weird disconnect for normal folks where Jaguar vehicles are both highly desirable and unattainable, when in reality, you can lease one for whatever amount you’re willing to pay the dealer.

Submitted by: Give Me Tacos or Give Me Death

I gotta go with Subaru, mainly because of their endearing dog commercials. Ironically the ads are memorable and the kinds of things that people share/talk about, but the Subaru brand itself still feels too far out of the mainstream for so many possible consumers to actually buy. I think a lot of the population thinks of Subaru as a car line for Vermont/NH residents, college professors, camera hobbyists that still shoot film in SLR cameras, the LGTB crowd, hikers, and people that shop at Ikea.

Submitted by: ReluctantFloridaMan

It’s Honda.

Someone’s cousin’s brother’s girlfriend’s teacher who talked to her father’s brother’s housekeeper had an awesome experience with a Honda and that person knows their cars, so they bought a Honda.

It’s why every time you see a car with its high beams on inappropriately, it’s a Honda. These are drivers of an appliance.

And so then, car people, recognizing that people have good experiences with Honda, and that most people who know nothing about cars are good with Hondas will say to people who are clueless but needing a new car, “Just get the Honda, they’re good cars.” Because If I recommend a car and it has issues, i get to be the point of contact on all of those complaints, but if it’s a Honda, they heard, “get the Honda” from at least a dozen other sources.

And thus the feedback loop continues

Submitted by: PotbellyJoe and 42 others

It’s gotta be Nissan.

I mean, SOMEBODY has to be buying them, and the enthusiasm with which they are driven seems to indicate they’re enjoying themselves, generally at the expense of everyone else.

Submitted by: Anthony Thornton

Strangely, Toyota.

I know so many non-car people that got a Toyota, had it for years without it giving them any problems and absolutely love any Toyota product as a result. My wife is like that and falls into tears any time our ancient Sienna does something strange.

I hear this conversation with my wife and her friends all the time “Oh, a new car? And it’s a Toyota? That’s going to last forever, I love it!”

I don’t hear this excitement with any other brand.

(But it might be that my wife and her friends are boring. That is a strong possibility since she was willing to be seen in public with me)

Submitted by: hoser68

Not a company, but a model - the Mustang. It’s always been a fairly accessible, stylish, and recognizable car; almost a by-word for the American sports car. It’s adored within, and well outside the car enthusiast sphere.

Thousands of Cars & Coffee crash videos can’t be wrong. I’m not the only one who’s maintained the theory that all these crashes happen because the Mustang is one of the most attainable and recognizable “cool car” to show off at a car show with, and often the first powerful RWD car that a lot of new drivers get their hands on.

I’ve heard people mistake Camaros & Challengers for “Mustangs” all the time, and Ford themselves affirmed the power behind this nameplate by slapping it on their EV.

Submitted by: Aldairion

Came here to say ‘Subaru’ - but was late to that party.

So here’s my thought - Volvo.

Everyone I know who owns a Volvo seems to have had it for ever and formed the sort of irrational, emotional, bond with it that car-people tend to form with cars. Not sure what it is about them - they’ve traditionally been a bit of a funky alternative to more mainstream vehicles - which I suppose gives them less of a ‘appliance’ vibe than, say, your run of the mill Lexus or BMW. And maybe there’s something to that. Even if you’re not a car person, it’s easier to get attached to a car when you see it as something different from (more than) just a transportation module.

Submitted by: TheWalrus

Tesla. I hear so much talk from the work lunchroom about how great they are and how advanced they are how they have the best tech, etc. Tesla has become the new BMW, it’s an attainable aspirational car.

Submitted by: finalformminivan

Land Rover. This is entirely anecdotal, but at all the different cities & states I’ve lived in since childhood, there have been suburban moms that don’t care about cars but they want a Land Rover.

Submitted by: engineerthefuture

Around here, it’s BMW unfortunately. I find it endlessly frustrating as a car guy who happens to enjoy BMW cars but the reality is that when a tech bro gets their first round of stock grants, there’s a good chance they are going to go out and buy an M3 or some 3-series with M branding. It’s the default choice for someone who has more money than sense and wants to hammer down merging onto the freeway during their commute. And while Tesla is eating into this, 90% of the family-men/women seem to buy a 3-series sedan.

On the plus side, that’s how I got my e39 M5 (tech company’s in-house counsel) and my e46 M3 (tech company engineer) from original owners who viewed them simply as conveyances which were well maintained and babied.

Submitted by: SantaCruzin6

I’d say Mercedes. It’s still probably the most aspirational vehicle for a wide range of folks, from “The Hood” all the way to the upper echelons, “Picture me rolling in my 500 Benz!”. And whenever I borrow the more expensive models, people always stop and talk to me about it. It’s badge carries a hefty weight, even if their reliability has gone down, or if the “lesser” manufacturers have caught up to them in the luxury front, simply being in a Benz, people assume you are successful.

Submitted by: darthspartan117

My late Uncle Walt was a ‘Buick Man’ all his life.

The moment he was discharged from the Army in 1946, he bought a ‘36 Century to drive home. His last car was an ‘93 Regal.

Submitted by: Earthbound Misfit I

My buddy, he is a hippie. He loves him some VWs.

Submitted by: Nemo

I would argue BMW or Lexus. Basically a luxury brand that someone gets once they feel they’ve “made it.”

Something nice but not flashy.

Submitted by: Broken-Aero