These Are Your Local Automotive Stereotypes

I moved to Alabama a few years ago and something I noticed almost immediately was the amount of red vehicles here. Most of them are dark red metallic. It took me a little bit to realize why...the cult of Alabama football. Then once I made that connection, I noticed a lot of dark blue vehicles here have Auburn stickers on them.

So I’d say the stereotype here is that people here are so obsessed with college football that it carries over to their vehicles.

I hate Alabama football so much. If they ever win another game it’ll be too soon, and Nick Saban will have to answer for what he’s done to college football when he gets to the gates of heaven.

Also, I like red cars. At least they’re not black, white, gray or silver, right?

Submitted by: -Tom-

When I first moved to Los Angeles from England nearly 15 years, the most stereotypical LA car was basically any nice, leased luxury European car with paper dealer plates on, advertising the dealership name. Looking back, it was a very LA thing to want other people to think your car is brand new all the time.

Embarrassed to say I ended up doing the same, I don’t think I ever had actual plates on my first Q5 or my Cayenne. A few years ago they changed the law in California and we now get boring temporary alphanumeric tags like other states.

I see this from time to time, and it’s always such a weird flex. Oh, look at you. You gave a dealership a ton of money, and now you’re advertising for them for free. Couldn’t be me, folks.

Submitted by: Wiliam

Living in TX for 15 years and what is it about the yee-haws and their pickup trucks where it’s a cold day in Hell before they’ll use their turn signals? This was in the Dallas area and I swear it never happened—changing lanes, making a turn onto another street—it doesn’t matter. Signaling ain’t happening when the vehicle was a pickup.

I recall one time bringing this factoid up at lunch with the guys at Texas Instruments. I wondered if the truck salesman did the buyer a “favor” by snipping the turn signal wires for the yee-haw when he took delivery.

JUST USE YOUR TURN SIGNALS DAMMIT.

Submitted by: the1969DodgeChargerFan

SW FL. Every guy 18-45 seems to need a jacked up 4x4, F250-or better with a diesel, to take his brood to Walmart or the nearest fast food drive through. And don’t forget all those LED lights on the bumper, the undercarriage and even the wheel hubs — you gotta be unique, just like everyone else.

And don’t get me started on the requisite political/gun/anti-woke/I love the constitution/3%/Don’t tread on me/Go back to NY/Salt Life stickers. That’s a whole other topic for Jalopnick to explore.

Color me shocked. I truly cannot believe dudes in Florida would be rocking bro dozers.

Submitted by: ReluctantFloridaMan

I live in the SF Bay Area and work in tech.

People will not shut up about how cool their base Tesla Model 3 is, and will drone for hours about things car OEMs figured out decades ago that have been wholly reinvented by Tesla.

EVs can be cool, EVs can be fun, but an entry level mass market econo-EV is hardly going to be the smash hit at the cars n coffee you expected it to be.

Also, they’re everywhere, you and your Model 3 are not special. Get a Polestar, like an adult.

How anyone can get into a lower-level Tesla and not immediately be like “no thank you” is beyond me. That’s especially true now that there are so many alternatives that are far better.

Submitted by: Zach

My first time in Arkansas from Los Angeles, I was amazed by all of the full size pickups being used as commuter vehicles. The overwhelming majority with pristine beds. And most with trailer hitches still wearing their original coat of paint in the receiver, having towed or hauled nothing but air since day one.

The ones that did get actual use as pickups in Arkansas were towing around small trailers or a pair of Jet Skis. The kind of things you could pull with a Prius.

Meanwhile, in LA, you had 30 year old Toyotas with 20 dudes riding in the bed hauling double axle trailers stacked well above GVWR with lawn mowing equipment through the canyons at 60+ MPH on a daily basis. But not in Arkansas. No self respecting Arkansan would be caught dead bringing their 3800lb bass boat to the lake once a year with anything less than a lifted 1 ton dually Cummins RAM with a 37000lb tow rating.

You’re gonna need that truck in case you’ve gotta tow something one day. I mean, you won’t, but maybe. Never say never, am I right?

Submitted by: OldManMcKenna

Louisville - home to Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant. Everyone here thinks they are propping up the local economy by buying F-150 and Super Duty trucks (even though the F-150 isn’t even made here). Plan on going somewhere? You’d better buffer in time for someone in an oversized truck to run through their five-minute parking routine. Sometimes, in traffic, all you can see is 360 degrees of TRUCK if you are in a non-truck sized vehicle. Then, you have the truck owners who reside in rural areas, and the semi-wealthy hobby farmers who both commute into the city for work. They camp in the left lane on interstates, drive far too aggressively, and pull the wide “country turn” on city streets. The trucks are getting bigger while our infrastructure remains the same. It is a F-Series hellscape.

Otherwise we’re probably known for the imbalanced ratio of University of Kentucky and University of Louisville license plates compared to the number of people who actually go to college.

They’re just proud of their work, clearly!

Submitted by: Hankel_Wankel

Sadly not to be a crazy stereotype but if there is anyone driving a Jeep anything or a newer 2022+ CUV/SUV you can bet your sweet ass that they will not use their turn signal and they will be weaving in and out of traffic like they are about to give birth. This is in southern Ohio, but man if you see one stay far far away. My friend who drives a Grand Cherokee confirms that is her case as well.. Also, weirdly they are all nurses or in the healthcare field in some way shape or form.

I just don’t get it, man. Why wouldn’t you use your turn signals? I guess never let ‘em know your next move, but still.

Submitted by: Who.the.hell.is.Mac

Denver and Colorado in general -

We get the worst drivers from around the country, concentrated here because of the abundant beauty and recreation, making any road navigation perilous especially in the snow. I’ve seen an SUV full of a screaming family doing 10mpg donuts down the aisle of the parking lot more times than I can count when waiting for the bus in Silverthorne.

Having driven in Denver, it’s gotta be the altitude. People just don’t get enough oxygen to the brain there, and that’s why they’re bad drivers.

Submitted by: Markoff8585

All yummy mummies have $150,000 Escalades and Range Rovers that are exclusively used to A) drop the kids at school, and B) go to yoga and Starbucks.

I don’t like your tone, mister.

Submitted by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

Missouri: we are unremarkable enough to even warrant a stereotype, but know for a fact that all Illinois drivers are terrible.

Fuck Illinois drivers. All my homies hate Illinois drivers (I have never been to Illinois).

Submitted by: paradsecar

Northern Michigan, Grayling area:

Not all are “stereotype” but...

Year round, Jeeps, Pickups and Subaru’s with some lifted and a fair amount of older Grand Cherokees and XJ’s (I miss our xj).

Pickups hauling firewood

Weekends/Summer, big newer SUV’s and Pickups from downstate, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Vehicles towing Au Sable River boats and driftboats.

Vehicles with full length Fly Rod carriers on the roof.

Vehicles with kayaks and canoes. (lot’s in the summer)

Vehicles with racing canoes (they train year round).

In the winter if there is snow lots of snowmobiles and in the summer hordes of 4 wheelers and sxs’s.

Logging Trucks, Grayling has 2 particle board plants

We live down the road from the Au Sable River and north of that is the state/national guard land so there can be lot’s of traffic on our road.

I appreciate that it seems like folks in Michigan are just carrying shit around constantly.

Submitted by: TroutMadness

I’ve lived in Las Vegas for 27 years. For the majority of that time I have heard that we have the worst drivers. This was especially true in the late 90s and the oughts when the population was really booming. The thing is drivers are terrible everywhere. However, they all tend to be terrible in the same way. When you take drivers that are terrible from all over the country and put them together it makes it even harder to predict what they will do.

This theory is actually super true. I visited Vegas back in January for the first time, and I was shocked at just how bad the drivers were. It was astonishing.

Submitted by: You’llBeSleepingWithTheFilet-O-Fishes

The strangest one I’ve noticed was while I was in Chicago. If you beep your horn at someone, they immediately beep the horn back at you. No idea why it’s only in this area, but that’s Chicago for you.

I think this was an episode of The Bear, but I’m not totally sure.

Submitted by: HJTravels

Entire United States: Altima drivers are unhinged.

/endthread

Leave the Altima drivers alone, Man! They’re trying their best.

Submitted by: snisps