A few come to mind right away, miata, corvette, jeep, etc. What are some I'm missing?
Land Rover and Alfa Romeo.
Of all the little car 'circles' I've been involved with, the Fiat folk were the most open minded. I.e - willing to consider other makes and radical modifications. Unlike, for instance, the Alfa crowd. YMMV, of course
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47000235153 camry
What doesn't have a following?
NickF40 wrote: P71
That and the fact that there is http://board.tercelonline.com/ Proves that any car has fan base..
For every POS car there is a club that loves it dearly.
As evidence: Tempo / Topaz Car Club
Lotus owners are a fairly tight group. And mostly we know our cars are all about the performance & handling, and can therefore be deficient in a lot of other ways. But we love them anyway... If you pass a broken-down Lotus on the side of the road and don't stop to help, karma will bite you in the ass 50 miles later.
Of course, just like with fanboys of any other marque, there are a few tools out there ("the Evora is too bourgeois to be a Lotus", "that's not a real Elan", "Lotus sold out when they designed the Esprit", "they never should have gone away from the winning formula they had in the original 7", etc. etc.) but most of us just ignore those types.
Mazda. Most of the cars I've ever owned have been Mazdas. RX-2, 626, RX-7, MPV, and 3. I've enjoyed every one of them.
Everything. I have a friend who is a die hard oldsmobile fan. He even rebadged and retitled his 95 impala ss to be an oldsmobile. I don't know why, but he loves olds
You're--almost---all missing the strongest following: British-Built Cars. Look at all the clubs, organizations--local and national--aftermarket support, lust for MGs, Triumphs, Lotus, Rolls-Royce, Bentley...Jaguars, and they introduced the average Americans to the fun of a lightweight car. While you're at it, give them a tip of the hat for modern F1: the buy a Coworth, a hewland gearbox, farmed out tub, and go racing. You even had private individuals fielding teams: remember Hesketh ? Fielded by Lord Hesketh. Try that today. And the "electrical problems" are no worse than what you'd find on an ALFA.
Ahhh, but how many have their own magazine? I know of the Roundel for BMW and the Porsche Owners have a great glossy as well. I am assuming that Ferrari has one (funny, never seen that on any of my friends coffee tables) and probably Mercedes.
pinchvalve wrote: Ahhh, but how many have their own magazine? I know of the Roundel for BMW and the Porsche Owners have a great glossy as well. I am assuming that Ferrari has one (funny, never seen that on any of my friends coffee tables) and probably Mercedes.
MOTOR;; Spifire>6 mag; and I have seen a few others.
Now how many have an entire industry organization that was recently partially hosted, attended, and reported by the parent company of this mag?
Forza is the Ferrari magazine, and it quite good actually. P71's and one of the big 3 internet forums for them just had a very nice article in Car Craft plus they have one as a project car.
Nearly every car will have an online club or forum, including the Ford EXP. AMC has two major clubs with their own demi-magazines, numerous online forums and registries, and a lot of localized clubs with their own printing. The Georgia one is very nice!
Japanese cars have a huge following, but they don't break often enough to really develop that group therapy vibe you get with German stuff.
VWs have the strongest internet cult I've found. They're cheap enough to be owned by young people, fun enough to appeal to enthusiasts, and E36 M3ty enough that people need a lot of help with them. Trifecta.
There are fun cars that break even more often, of course, but British and Italian owners are mostly too old to use computers.
SHO owners have a cult following as well, enough so to convince ford to bring the nameplate back.
And for dedication, our cars are usually broken more often than DSM's, so yeah......we have that...lol
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: For every POS car there is a club that loves it dearly. As evidence: Tempo / Topaz Car Club
LOL
I had a letter published in Autoweek because I questioned them about listing a four day Honda Prelude Meet one summer. (Really, there's that many Prelude fans?)
NickF40 wrote: Oh their loyal alright haha but you want loyal? Alfa, you can't get any more loyal than that!
Mustang SVO owners, they'll hunt you down and feast on your soul if you part one out or even think of swapping a V8 in...
paanta wrote: Japanese cars have a huge following, but they don't break often enough to really develop that group therapy vibe you get with German stuff. VWs have the strongest internet cult I've found. They're cheap enough to be owned by young people, fun enough to appeal to enthusiasts, and E36 M3ty enough that people need a lot of help with them. Trifecta. There are fun cars that break even more often, of course, but British and Italian owners are mostly too old to use computers.
We don't have to, we employee little E36 M3s to do our computer programming for us. Oh, look at that, I just used a keyboard instead of my rotary phone. I must have done something wrong....
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