We’re all at least a little guilty of assigning personality traits and cultural quirks to people based on the cars they drive, and frequently not for the better – I’m sure you could easily reply with strong beliefs if I asked you what vehicles jerks prefer. But we like to keep things much more positive here at The Autopian, so let’s flip it. What cars exclusively give you positive vibes about their owners? The gang piped in on Slack:
Mark Tucker: “Saab owners. They’re as weird as their cars are, but always good folks. Classic British and Italian sports car owners are good folks too, if a little pedantic and rivet-county.”
Replied Matt:
“Have you ever met a mean person driving a Volvo 240 Wagon? From the 1st owner to the 19th owner, nice people.”
Thomas Hundal is a very nice guy who drives a Boxster, so this tracks:
Boxster owners are also surprisingly nice. A friend was recently musing about some of the antisocial behaviour in Corvette owners groups, when I opened up a Boxster owner’s group and saw an impressive landscaping run, a celebration of a gay wedding with many well-wishes, and someone using FB’s anonymous poster function not to harass, but to wish everyone a lovely weekend with a picture of their own Boxster.
Mercedes Streeter with a (disappointing) surprise:
If this were 2008, I’d say Smart owners. But today, Smarts are sometimes owned by massive jerks. The kind of people who say they bought a Prius just so they can save money for more bullets. Smart owners in 2008 were so wholesome they voted me to be the spokesperson of Smart USA; too many Smart owners in 2026 want to ban me from bathrooms.
Your turn!
Which Cars Have The Most Wholesome Owners?
Top graphic images: Porsche; iOS
I’ve never met a Metropolitan owner that was anything but nice, generous of their time and just an over all cool person.
Admittedly, in over 50 years on this planet, I’ve only met 2 owners of Metropolitans, but still that has to be something like 50% of their population right?
Not to get Torch’s ego too big, but most of the air-cooled Beetle owners I’ve met are very nice. It’s not really a show-off car I’d say; you’re not flashing wealth, or speed, or anything. Just quirkiness.
Older cars there are tons. 25+ year old trucks might be the most in most places. It greatly depends on the area. Like in most of the county full size truck people were pretty wholesome that has changed but older trucks still seem wholesome in general. Still in new England and West Coast that wasn’t always true and even the opposite.
Some older cars had some bad behavior owners when new but now are decent. Like Prius, used to be terrible reputation rightly so. Now not bad not sure wholesome but maybe some especially gen 2. Sort of like whatever the most popular car in California is more likely to be one of the worst behavior cars in the country. It happened with Prius, Model 3, Model Y specifically white ones. BMW and Volvo could have been victims of that in the past as well. On the other hand there were some very wholesome model s owners when they were pretty fresh and new. They were true ambassadors to many things. There are some rather wholesome Rivian people but I wouldn’t say on the whole and probably regionally. Even cybertruck there are some wholesome but as a whole it’s hard to say. Buick used to attract a sort of buyer that could be wholesome. Now maybe? I see lots of 20s to 30s hipster types driving the newer ones along with older people. Seem wholesome enough in general. The old lesabre people used to have 99 problems but still could be called wholesome? Avalon used to be big time wholesome now not so much. And the older ones have been passed down so much probably not either.
People with older trucks in good condition. People driving nice, original F-100s, Squarebodies, GMT400s, etc, in my experience, have all either been older men who bought them new and love them or younger people interested in keeping them nice and preserving them. The drunk rednecks and blue collar kids, d-bag diesel bros, distracted suburban dads, and all the other people who give pickup owners a bad name all tend to drive trucks that are either falling apart and beat to death or a new model truck
The pre-2000s German car community as a whole seems pretty positive overall; while I’m sure there are some asses driving vintage Porsches and SLs, people driving E34s, W124s, and similar cars have all been nice and happy to talk about their cars
What do you mean by “wholesome”?
There used to be a stereotype about MG owners being something of libertines, but not so much now,
Subaru owners are sort of bimodal. Eliminate the ones with fart cans and they are pretty nice.
Lamborghini Espada drivers have a good reputation, as do Citroen drivers or really any old French cars. Note that I’m talking Espada, not the rest of Lamborghini owners. Those people who can’t decide whether they want to be the Lambo jerk or the SUV jerk have been catered to by the URIs.
I remember when Mercedes-Benz were mostly engineers, architects, and creative types. Most of them could tell you how their car worked and were determined to get one of those mileage badges and letter from the president of Mercedes. Then , and I’m talking about the USA, Mercedes seemed to deliberately cultivate a customer base of jerks. It got to the point where the dealerships became really unpleasant. Maybe it was because of all the Studebaker owners from when Studebaker dealerships suddenly became Mercedes dealers, or the dealers that were Import Car Dealers and were selling Mercedes, MG , Renault and Lotus all on the same floor.
My experience has to do mostly with the NYC area
MG owners libertines?! Maybe that is the reason I meet the friendliest Grandmas with my MGB.
Well that was in the 1970s.
Back when “casual sex” was pretty casual generally. See “Why does nobody remember the Ford Administration?”
Oldsmobile Delta 88
Ma and Pa Kettle approved.
My now-husband then-boyfriend drove a Delta 88 in college and we did some VERY not wholesome things in that car. The back seat is basically a bed…
Yep. 😉
I had the same instinct as Mercedes. “Smart owners…or wait Smart owners 15 years ago”.
In the modern world, I’d say those who drive Ford Escapes. There’s no pretense with these drivers or cars – it’s transportation, perhaps slightly better than other forms. They’re A-to-B, people who won’t cut you off because theyr’e willing to take their time and signal before changing lanes. They also wave you through intersections and return carts at shopping centers.
I routinely do all of those things, but don’t think of myself as wholesome exactly, nor would I like to drive a Ford Escape if I could possibly avoid it… well, maybe a new one, but there are so many better choices for my unwholesome tastes. 😉
The ride doesn’t matter, as long as you’re rocking Mr Microphone.
core memory = unlocked
HEY GOOD-LOOKING, WE’LL BE BACK TO PICK YOU UP LATER!
Also I just learned that was a real product and not just something on The Simpsons.
Fun fact: The guy said that infront of his girlfriend. You can see her hitting him immediately after.
Not THE most wholesome, but I’ve never seen anyone misbehaving behind the wheel of an SL-class. Something about the big roadster just precludes the kinds of attitude you see from its sedan siblings, they’re always cruising and minding their own business. I think there’s a reason directors put Benoit Blanc and Trent Crimm (Independent) in R107s.
On a tangent, we all know the whole thing about a hero’s car and villain’s car, how some cars just have an evil aura and the villain in the movie always has the coolest car, but what we don’t talk about enough is the genre of the villain.
The Boxster, for example, is a villain’s car, but a romcom villain, the semi-successful but cynical black-haired guy that the female protagonist falls out of love with after she meets the Squarebody-Chevy-driving, brown-haired male lead.
The New Beetle Cabrio is often a villain’s car in high school movies, where it’s the transportation device of choice for the meanest girls.
Boxter assertion is spot-on, bravo.
Also agree that New Beetle = mean girl car of the 2000s
On the 2000s male highschool villain side it’s tough. I want to say Firebird. But that could definately be driven by the cool guy who’s not like all the other cool guys and defends people from the QB of the football team. So I’m going to say either E46 BMW or lifted pickup truck, depending on where the movie is set.
As a Boxster owner I really want to disagree. And my interactions with Porsche owners has always been more pleasant than when I had a BMW.
But maybe I am a romcom villain?
As also a Boxster owner, we’re romcom villains, and that’s not such a bad thing to be.
As an R107 owner, I think I’m fairly wholesome. The car makes people smile and give thumbs ups. Hard to be a jerk when everybody thinks your car is cool.
In my area the nicest people drive older Altimas, or Challengers and Chargers. /s
I think it’s because they got such great deals on financing that they just are too damn happy for words…
And actions always speak louder than words, right?
In my area, it’s BMW and RAM drivers. Coincidental that I own both? I think not.
The level of confidence in your reply seems spot on for a BMW / RAM driver
That is SO funny! 😀
Gen 1 Vibe owners seem to be chill from my experiences. Not a car, but same with the C125 super cub and CT125.
What shocks me are maverick guys- ive run into way too many ecoboost owners who act like the old 4.6 mustang owners did to v6 guys, talking down on anyone with a hybrid. Guys, its a cheap little economical truck. Gobbless and all that I guess.
That’s especially ironic given that the hybrid is the only correct powertrain for the Maverick.
98% agreed! With the other 2% reserved for folks who gotta tow IRL. Plus, why be a dick to anyone, let alone someone who made a choice so similar to yours except that they wanted better MPG? Makes no damn sense!
Maverick attracted a lot of nonsense people. I don’t understand why. They are always calling them real trucks compared to other things like old full size or mini trucks. It’s a fine econo trucklet thing. Great for fleets or whoever. But I can’t understand the behavior that has become attached to some. They have modified them in strange ways too that you just shake your head. It’s almoat like the 90s to mid 2000s civic, mustang, and mini truck guys all decided on Maverick as their platform to annoy people with. But the hybrid xl people seem ok?
Re: the Honda scooters: do you see a lot of them where you are? I know ‘you meet the nicest people on a Honda’ and such, but they’re pretty few and far between in these days of hulking crossovers and SUVs parked cheek to jowl at Walmart. I saw a guy on a Honda Monkey yesterday (gah, it was so cute!) and complimented him on it (of course) and once in a blue moon I might spy someone on a Super Cub driving up Highland and turning onto Santa Monica Blvd., but very infrequently.
I love scooters and (generally) I’m predisposed to love scooter people. I’d like to be one myself someday (back injury has rendered my small motorcycle too heavy for me). But aside from a sprinkling of ultra-cheap/disposable Chinese scooters, I see SO few in Southern California outside of a car show.
This is a little difficult. Any owner’s group is going to involve “car people”, who really like their cars and care about them. In my experience, car people are almost always cool, whether they’re rich or poor, whether they’re into Ferraris or Fords or Fiats. So drivers of rare or classic cars, for instance, are usually nice folks. Once you get away from the car people, it seems like you can find any type of car that’s driven by at least a few absolute assholes. That said, I’ll put Volvos up there as being generally owned by people who are even-tempered, calm, and pretty wholesome (if not the most exciting people in the world).
Oooh oooh oooh! Mr. Kotter?! Mr. Kotter?! That’s me! 🙂
Not sure about the wholesome thing, but I’ve made it my life’s mission (in my sunset years) to be calm and even-tempered despite having a Type A personality and talking too quickly like the former New Yorker that I am.
And I own TWO Volvos! 😀
I do a lot of biking and walking in a town with a lot of pedestrian crosswalks, many of which exist along a stretch of road with no stop signs. I’ll be waiting to cross and will see a high-end Mercedes convertible, or a loud Corvette C8, or a crazy looking Mustang and think, “No way those people will stop for me.” And they do. More often than any SUV or crossover vehicle. I think they are more conscious about the responsibility to control their vehicle, and the fact that they are recognizable.
Not saints. Some of them still rev their obnoxious engine in other situations, which startles the shit out of me. (I don’t settle quickly after being startled by noise.)
This is an excellent point. It’s really easy to make strong associations with bad behavior of people in unique, flashy cars because we see relatively few of them and it makes a strong impression…
But my experience aligns with yours. I don’t know about how they are as people generally, but in terms of driving, I find the hordes of selfish, distracted, always-in-a-rush SUV drivers to be far more aggressive, rude, pushy, etc. than most drivers of sports cars, real off-roaders, or other drivers’ cars.
People who are actually interested in driving (as opposed to those who just have to do it out of necessity) are quite often more thoughtful about it.
That said, I DO have a beef with BMW coupe drivers. Anything bigger than a 2 series with two doors seems to bring out the hooligan in those drivers. (In my city.)
People who own crappy or patina first or second gen C10s (around here). I went to the Olympia gathering last year with my shitbox and all the cool people either also had shitboxes, or mechanically perfect patina trucks.
Pickups, but a certain trim level.
Whatever the trim level is that gets cloth seats and colors other than white, that’s the sweet spot. Some of the finest people you will ever meet drive honest pickups like that. They will stop to help, likely have some tools you need and are generally really nice people. The only people better than a Southern man with a mid-low level pickup is a Southern man with a mid-low level pickup that is towing a smoker.
It’s actually a bit shocking. Show up at a smoker towing pickup with a turban and it will be awkward for a few seconds as the guy at the smoker asks if it’s ok that the chicken is in the same smoker as the pork. Then once they get past that awkwardness of not knowing the culture, they accept the person as a person, not as a stereotype 9 times out of 10. (seen it happen more than once).
Yes, there are always jerks in every group, but I’ve found mid-low level pick up owners to be so down to earth to deal with.
My husband drives an F250 with cloth seats and a bright blue exterior. Going to use this comment as justification to get a smoker …
You got doubles of the F-250? That way you know you have a pristine one in storage.
Triples is best. Triples is safest.
You don’t get a smoker. You make one. There is nothing like BBQ served at a gas station from what used to be a propane tank that was cut open with a cutting torch.
Very true, and the white trucks might be because they are fleet trucks and working.
Yeah, and if you know construction guys, there’s an interesting culture there. If you are in trouble and it is of your own making, the absolutely will stop. So they can make sure you know what an idiot you are.
That’s true, I feel like they have more grace in the south. Even the road crew guys you can normally yell at them and they will tell you anything they know and offer to give him a hand if you need it. That’s not happening in most of country.
That is practically an Autopian-staff-quality story Hoser68! Thanks so much! 🙂
Drivers of the current Fiat 500s?
We are as charming as our cars, friendly and colorful. And we’re easy to park.
You mean the 500e? Talk about rare.
Mazda5 owners. Smart enough to be practical, enthusiastic enough to want their practicality to have an element of fun.
Never met an asshat in a Suzuki, just sayin
I guess you never met my Dad.
I haven’t, but tend to agree with Kookster. What kind of Suzuki did your dad drive/ride?
He drove one of the Vitara 4×4 models.
He never seemed to keep a car (new or used) for longer than 6 months though, as something else would catch his attention.
My brother was a car dealer and gave him the car.
While still on the 2W side of things: I recently bought a Buell and the community is way nicer than any car community I’ve ever been part of.
I was thinking more of the Samurai’s not so much crotch rockets
All I can think of are those squids in Hayabusas, being assholes on public roads.
Doorless Ford Fiestas have some of the coolest owners
I’m trying to picture a Venn diagram of that group of Fiesta owners.
Why do the Fiestas not have doors? What about Festivas?
That is an oddly specific example. Are you I_drive_a_doorless_fiesta in truck drag? 😉
It is an incredibly specific deep cut. IKYK
https://www.jalopnik.com/have-you-ever-ruined-your-own-car-1847583130/
Missed the editing cut-off so I’ll add another: MGB owners. Especially the rubber-bumper models.
They just enjoy top-down motoring, and fixing finicky/quirky British electronics makes a person humble.
Honda Element
I used to own one. I rolled it. Miss it. Your comment had me thinking introspectivintrospectivly, “Am I a wholesome person?”
There’s Element at the office that I like from a distance.
But it smells of ashtray from 20 paces even when the doors/windows are closed.
If you wanted a way to keep people away: that guy’s done it.
I’d otherwise agree.
Off the top of my head I’m going to say Volvo and non-WRX/STI Subaru owners.
I bet flat fender Jeep drivers are all nice people too.
Maybe it’s just where I live, but there are way too many Subaru owners around me that are the polar opposite of the Subaru stereotype.
Could be. People are gonna people, hard to generalize based on automotive choice.
Also, maybe the car was a hand me down, borrowed, or the thing they could afford at the bargain lot. Not everyone has the luxury of picking the exact vehicle they want.
idk… where I am, the normal Subaru’s are often driven by insufferable, left-lane-camping douchebags
For once, Miata is not the answer. The Miata community seems pretty evenly divided (maybe 60/40 in favor at best) between passionate people who love the chassis and want to spread it’s virtues and the most obnoxious and gatekeepy people who look down on anyone with less knowledge than them. It’s a lot of the exotic car hype beast or Corvette boomer mentality but a few tax brackets down.
Honestly seems to be the case with most enthusiast-forward cars that have a low barrier to entry. It’s an easy car to enjoy and not hard to afford, so it’ll naturally attract every kind of person with a desire for a convertible or sports car. That said, I’d still recommend it, I even know a guy with a handful of new Ferraris and a half-dozen Spec Miata NCs he races for fun.
Inside you there are two Miata communities: forum.miata.net and miataturbo.net
I’ve not been an MX-5 owner for long, but all the (UK) owners I’ve interacted with have been great. Everyone waves to any other MX-5s they see.
If I had a criticism, it would be that some owners love their MX-5 so much, they are willing to talk about them for hours, which is either a blessing or curse, depending on how into that you are.
Mark: What in tarnation is “rivet-county?” As a pedant, I need to know if you’re using it correctly.
(I’m joking but I’m really asking.)
I think it means they are the type of person to have overalls and an extensive collection of model trains in their basement.
I imagine it’s the sort of person who counts rivets to check if a body panel was affixed in accordance with the factory manual (or in the case of scale models and replicas, in accordance with historical accuracy).
Having a tendency to be “rivet counters,” ie sticklers for originality and intolerant of variations from stock. I was trying to type in a hurry and invented an adjective, and I keep forgetting that Pete pulls direct quotes for these things.
I’m riveted. Tell me more.
Don’t count on it