For better or worse, certain kinds of cars attract certain kinds of people. Some vehicles don't carry a stigma, but a great many do. Want to know how society sees you? Here are ten commenter-chosen cars and their stereotypical drivers.
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10. Pontiac Trans Am
Suggested By: Sheed's Bald Spot
Stereotype: "A tire-smoking, chest-hair-having, whiskey-drinking, coke-dealing, wife-stealing, head-banging, chain-wearing, too-manly-for-you (dyno charts be damned) type of ride." Or at least, someone who thinks it is.
9. Volvo Wagon
Suggested By: phil DLJ
Stereotype: Those who don't know assume that the average Volvo wagon driver is probably from New England, boring, and a dentist. Those who are aware of the magic of the Volvo wagon know better. (Look upon my tailgated, indestructible, and sturdy works, ye mighty, and despair!)
Photo credit: The Bassic Sax Blog
8. Porsche Boxster
Suggested By: trev
Stereotype: It's the Diet Porsche. The one for people who either couldn't afford a 911 or didn't know any better. It's a girl's car, albeit one for ladies who wouldn't feel at home in a Miata. Don't mind that it's a great-handling, quick sports car for those of us who don't want the other side of the 911 stigma: old men with midlife crises.
7. Honda Civic
Suggested By: The Stig's American Cousin
Stereotype: The Civic was forever ruined by the Fast & Furious crowd. If the car is out on the road, there's probably a twenty-something dude with a baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes behind the wheel. His buddies all probably drive Civics with giant wings and neon and stripes and huge wheels and coffee-can exhausts. (For the rest of us, the Civic is a great autocross car, and it responds well to tasteful modification.)
6. Subaru WRX STI
Suggested By: danio3834
Stereotype: Danio3834 says WRXs are "basically turbo'd economy cars owned by younger douches who generally believe their cars are impervious to losing any race, real or imagined." Much like the Civic, the STI is largely ruined by the attitudes of a select few. In truth, it's a great car, on- or off-road.
5. BMW M3 (E36)
Suggested By: luisthebeast
Stereotype: A perennial favorite among the hair-gel, popped-collar, big-sunglass-wearing, Ed Hardy-and-Muscle-Milk crowd, the E36 M3 is seen as a car for the brawny and brainless. And that's too bad — as M3s go, the E36 is one of the best.
4. Jaguar X-Type
Suggested By: Critique_
Stereotype: Well, it's a Jaaaaag, isn't it? As the boys from Top Gear put it, "Is the person who drives it the sort of person who would go away for a weekend with his wife to a hotel or some romantic place and spend the entire night flirting outrageously with the waitresses — but it's OK, because he's got a Jaaaaag?"
Photo credit: YouTube
3. Mazda MX-5/Miata
Suggested By: Qurtyslyn: Horizontally Opposed
Stereotype: "Everyone thinks it's a chick car, when it's really a great-driving sports car. Regardless of the fact that it looks like a little cutesy car that college girls might tool around in, it can still be a good car." Just go ahead and tell the thousands of SCCA and autocross racers around the country about their "chick car." That'll go over real well.
2. Chevrolet Camaro
Suggested By: gman1023
Stereotype: Similar to the Trans Am but even less classy, the Camaro is the unofficial mount of the trailer-park king. Widely viewed as the exclusive ride for anyone in a double-wide, it's brushed off by folks who long ago trimmed the party end off their mullet and threw out their Whitesnake tapes. Their loss. They don't know the party's not just at Hookup 12 any more.
Photo credit: Collector Motors
1. Chevrolet Corvette
Suggested By: The Stig's American Cousin
Stereotype: Old dudes with more hair left on their chests than their heads and gold chains around their necks, step right up. Recapture the flame of youth with your not-quite-brand-new Corvette. The ladies will flock to you, attracted by your vibrant essence — oh, wait. No, they won't. You're just some old dude in the throes of his midlife crisis. You got an automatic Corvette, because it's too much work to deal with a manual. Good luck with that, sir.