Does moving from one geographical location to another, completely change your taste in cars?

enginenerd said:

Alright, I feel like I can speak from experience here. I moved from California to the Detroit Metro in 2014 for work. (Guess my motivations for moving are obvious...why else would you live here?) In California I was about 30 min from some good foothills and canyons and took advantage of it often. As you might be able to relate, I was excited to get away from paying for smog checks, the ridiculous CA registration fees, and gas taxes. 

Michigan is touted as being car enthusiast friendly but in my opinion it's a pretty terrible place to be a car enthusiast, unless you're into car shows. Insurance in the Detroit area is ridiculously expensive and as you've mentioned the roads are atrocious and boring. I'm not even going to start about the salt and rust. I swore I'd never stop daily driving something interesting and drove RWD sports cars year round for the first 2-3 years. However, I finally got sick of my cars getting beat up and started driving either my truck or the comfier project cars I pick up.

Getting into road racing has alleviated a lot of my frustration with MI. Now I don't really give a crap about street cars and spend most of my efforts developing the race car. I honestly probably spend less money than I did maintaining my street cars and have way more fun. There are 3-4 great race tracks within 3 hours of the Detroit Metro and tons of racers around the area. I guess my taste in cars hasn't changed but my automotive interests have. 

This is true, now that I'm into racing I care less about my street cars getting modified and going faster.  Playing with race cars is just way more fun.

Rust and insurance rates are the only things that will push me south some day.  For now I just have to accept that if I drive a car in the salt it will die.  I have grown tired of winter beaters so I'm trying on an all season vehicle for a while.  I just hope I can afford the daily car washes.

I'm on the West side of the state which in my biased opinion is better in every way except cultural diversity, unfortunately this is viewed as a good thing in some areas. 

I have been in Michigan my whole life so I'm not sure about the automotive changes due to location.  My choices have been based on need or amount of free cash I have.  Big van for ten years to pull a trailer and haul kids.  Sold the M3 before it got too needy or in my case too valuable .   I am now back in to 4x4 and a V8 RWD toy car coming full circle back to where I started.   Some day I'll be back to a luxury sedan and two seater.  Life changes and our cars have to keep up, I like to have the correct tool for the job.

Have to make the Miata a track car, Have the van to haul the dogs, a pos sedan for a daily and a Mud Truck (Michigan Mud Jam) and a motorcycle for some fun.

Look up Michigan Mud Jam.

To the OP, I'd have to say yes. I live in CA and can drive just about anything here, including my self-build sports car, Midlana, which is meant for twisty roads. If we were to move to, oh, Arizona, where it's flat with endless straight roads, a hardcore sports car is going to find itself out of sorts. Out there, it probably makes more sense to make an off-road vehicle. It's like having a private pilot's license and owning a Cessna. Then you move to Canada where there's a million lakes - I'd instantly buy a float plane.

Definitely. It's why I stopped enjoying the BRZ. Highway/city streets in a straight line, no quick corners, no nothing. 

Drag racing and burnout comps in Maryland and drag racing in Ohio. The only thing that changed is the distance too the track. I looked at autocross but the nearest venue is the same distance as the dragstrip..

Tdlr no change in 500 miles of distance and completely different landscapes.

I remember looking out the airplane window as we dropped into Phoenix and seeing all the brown dirt ridges and sand washes with little dirt roads running all over them. My first thought was "If I lived here I'd sell the Mustang and the 2wd truck and buy a Raptor ASAP. Fast and fun in all the conditions available."

akylekoz said:

enginenerd said:

Alright, I feel like I can speak from experience here. I moved from California to the Detroit Metro in 2014 for work. (Guess my motivations for moving are obvious...why else would you live here?) In California I was about 30 min from some good foothills and canyons and took advantage of it often. As you might be able to relate, I was excited to get away from paying for smog checks, the ridiculous CA registration fees, and gas taxes. 

Michigan is touted as being car enthusiast friendly but in my opinion it's a pretty terrible place to be a car enthusiast, unless you're into car shows. Insurance in the Detroit area is ridiculously expensive and as you've mentioned the roads are atrocious and boring. I'm not even going to start about the salt and rust. I swore I'd never stop daily driving something interesting and drove RWD sports cars year round for the first 2-3 years. However, I finally got sick of my cars getting beat up and started driving either my truck or the comfier project cars I pick up.

Getting into road racing has alleviated a lot of my frustration with MI. Now I don't really give a crap about street cars and spend most of my efforts developing the race car. I honestly probably spend less money than I did maintaining my street cars and have way more fun. There are 3-4 great race tracks within 3 hours of the Detroit Metro and tons of racers around the area. I guess my taste in cars hasn't changed but my automotive interests have. 

This is true, now that I'm into racing I care less about my street cars getting modified and going faster.  Playing with race cars is just way more fun.

Rust and insurance rates are the only things that will push me south some day.  For now I just have to accept that if I drive a car in the salt it will die.  I have grown tired of winter beaters so I'm trying on an all season vehicle for a while.  I just hope I can afford the daily car washes.

I'm on the West side of the state which in my biased opinion is better in every way except cultural diversity, unfortunately this is viewed as a good thing in some areas. 

I have been in Michigan my whole life so I'm not sure about the automotive changes due to location.  My choices have been based on need or amount of free cash I have.  Big van for ten years to pull a trailer and haul kids.  Sold the M3 before it got too needy or in my case too valuable .   I am now back in to 4x4 and a V8 RWD toy car coming full circle back to where I started.   Some day I'll be back to a luxury sedan and two seater.  Life changes and our cars have to keep up, I like to have the correct tool for the job.

Yeah, I was mortified when I found out Motor City doesn't really make it easy to own a car. I was worried I'd miss the California roads the most and it seems like I will. I don't attend many race events currently... simply because I never really needed to (being 15-20 mins away from the Azuza canyons). I'd have just as much fun driving 7-8/10ths my sporty daily drivers. 

When I finally relocate to Michigan, I'll definitely take advantage of the circumstances and build a dedicated racecar. I'm actually kind of excited to have a "winter" beater as well. The one time I drove in the snow was a lot of fun, and I'd like to get a little more experience with it. 

I'm also aware that Mayor Mike Duggan has filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Insurance commissioner, hopefully this will eventually move Detroit's insurance rates closer to the national average. I'm also aware that Michigan is about to receive a new Governor, many of the candidates seem to be focusing on improving the infrastructure. So hopefully... I'll only have to deal with ridiculous insurance rates and horrific roads for 1-2 years. 

It does, in a sense.

When I lived in California I wanted a truck because I was riding dirt bikes in the desert, when gas was 4.50 a gallon I didn't want a truck so much. When I moved to Seattle I wanted a 4x4 capable SUV for overlanding, not really  when living in San Diego. etc

In reply to PHAN :

My tastes havent changed, but what I will put up with as a daily driver and what’s fun to use where I live definitely have. Maryland to Alaska, add a family, and it’s good bye coupes and sports cars, hello 4wd 4dr truck. I started with a mustang and a motorcycle up here and now drive a Tacoma. I’m not mad about it, because it’s nice to drive what’s nice to drive where you live. 

If I lived in "I'm gonna go play in the desert every weekend" territory I would definitely have a 302 swapped ranger with long travel suspension.  That's the only way I see my taste changing.

I don't  know if my tastes change, but different cars are fun in different locations. 

For instance when I moved from IL to CO, I bought a full-size Bronco as a Winter beater.  I found myself beating on it through the Summer as well---as there's tons of great 4x4 trails in the mountains.  I still kept my old VW, but it felt gutless at high altitude.

Now that I'm in FL, where the roads are glassy smooth I love driving my E36 M3.  I drove it to IL a few years ago and was amazed at how bad the roads were.  I never noticed it when driving rental cars, but those crappy Midwestern roads beat the heck out of my M3, and I felt pain with each bump.  (for the car, not me)  If I ever moved back, I'd likely get an STI and lift it,  to better deal with the Mogadishu- type asphalt.   

My vehicular decisions are based on how I use the machinery, and where.  So I guess my tastes adapt, rather than change.  

Appleseed said:

If I moved back to Montana, I'd still want a low rider.

Yeah I'd 3 wheel motion on the reservation.

There are lots of 3 wheeled cars on the reservation. There are actually a lot of no wheel cars on the reservation. Oh, that's not what you meant.

jharry3 said:

If I moved from the South to a snowy and/or mountain area I would probably get a Subaru Forester or Outback. 

Seems like half of Colorado and all of Seattle drives those.

Colorado needs them, In Seattle it makes you appear green.

I also came here to mention Colorado/Subaru. Dont see them much here in San Antonio Texas. Ive posted a lot about how the roads around here make you want different things. For example, i've never found Miatae to be well suited (too slow and noisy) and got rid of the one i had pretty quickly. Even at that, i've been working on a ~240-270hp turbo Miata with 3.63 gears and while it's more than fast enough in a straight line, the rpms are still borderline annoying to me, and that's best case scenario until you swap in a different diff carrier. So yeah, other people's dream Miata is still meh for most of my driving because of where i live. It's a huge factor imo. 

I just moved from Virginia to Colorado.  So far, I've only bottomed out the Miata on public roads twice.    Once the carburetted TR6 gets out here, we'll see how it does at 7000' altitude.  It may get sold to finance completion of the fuel injected TR6 project.  That should be easier to adapt to local conditions.  And I hear dirt roads calling, which none of the above can handle.  So yeah, moving can skew you car demands somewhat.

Different cars suit different roads and lifestyles.

When I lived in Quebec, I adored my Evo VIII on snow tires. There was nothing more fun for blasting around logging roads in the dead of winter.

When I'm at our summer house on a small Greek island, nothing beats a small French hatchback. Had lots of fun with a rented Renault Twingo last week.

I love small roadsters, but they kind of suck to drive here in the NYC area. An Austin Sprite isn't a lot of fun when dodging Buick-sized craters on the Cross-Bronx Expressway or slogging along the NJ Turnpike for 45 minutes at a time.