The Ten Most Polarizing Automotive Subcultures

The cult of cars is vast and varied, filled with all sorts of weird subcultural nooks and crannies. We asked you for your favorite car subcultures and you responded with all sorts of weird. Here's the ten most polarizing.

This is Answers of the Day – a feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!

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10.) PT Cruiser People

Suggested By: lazlohollyfeld

Love It Or Hate It?: So, you dig the 'Cruiser? That, in itself is pretty polarizing. But, oh. Oh, wow. Yours is covered in Hello Kitty stickers? And you made it a set of ears to wear? That's great, I can see that you really care about your car. That counts for something. I guess. They're three feet tall?! No thanks, I don't need a ride. No, I like the exercise. Thanks anyway though. Oh my god please don't honk the horn again. I didn't know what the Hello Kitty theme song was, and I'd like to keep my knowledge of it limited to what just came out of the car's horn. I'm gonna back away slowly, and then run.

Photo credit: Buzzfeed

9.) Donks

Suggested By: Skot

Love It Or Hate It?: So you've got a 1980s or 1990s American sedan lying around the house in need of paint. Why not go all the way? Give it the most ridiculously garish paint job you can, and slap on the biggest, shiniest, gaudiest wheels the world has ever seen and... Bam! Instant donk. Sure, the paint and workmanship on these is usually really impressive, but the whole idea is a little silly. Don't those guys feel silly? I'd feel silly. Or I'd feel like I was gonna tip over. One or the other.

Photo credit: Great Lakes 4x4

8.) Air-Cooled Volkswagen Fanboys

Suggested By: Fat Tire

Love It Or Hate It?: So, you dig the Bug? That's cool. You've had it how long? And it's crossed the country seven times? That's awesome. You're a hero. And you've managed to keep it running! That's even better. But you spent how much?! Dude, that's four times what the car's worth! You're awesome, but crazy. Do I want a ride anyway? Absolutely. There's a nutjob in a Hello Kitty PT Cruiser chasing me.

Photo credit: Strictly Air VWs

7.) Airbrushed Vans

Suggested By: merlot_brougham

Love It Or Hate It?: Dude, that magical wizard is sweet. But that shag carpeting is not. Also, just putting a badass wizard with a staff on the side of your pedobear house to make it seem less creepy actually has the opposite effect. You really drive this thing around? I take it back. The only magic that wizard has is the magic to repel all the sane people away from you.

Photo credit: Rob K. Sawyer

6.) British Car Fans

Suggested By: SantaRita

Love It Or Hate It?: While some would argue that owning a car that consistently works and doesn't bleed oil makes sense, there are those who would disagree. These people generally own old cars from Great Britain. There is something about the MG, Triumph, Lotus, Austin Healey, Mini, TVR, and Jaguar that keeps drawing people in, no matter how faulty the electric system may be. And more power to them. If they can keep their car motoring for just the summer, then that's a victory.

Photo credit: mike912mueller, flickr

5.) Hyper-Milers

Suggested By: JackTrade

Love It Or Hate It?: On my weekends, I like to get up early, watch the Formula 1 Circus do its thing, then go back to sleep, maybe grill some burgers later, and generally relax. I do not like to get up early and calculate drag coefficients and look at computational fluid dynamics readouts of my two-decade-old Civic, and then go to Home Depot to buy more plywood and fiberglass to rebuild the Kammback cowl for greater efficiency. There are some, however, who seem to garner great enjoyment out of that, and they do reap rewards I could never dream of, such as getting 75 miles per gallon by pissing off everyone behind them on the offramp from the highway, looking kind of like a landing pod from a spaceship, and getting weird looks from people on the sidewalk.

Photo credit: Wired

4.) Drifting

Suggested By: NickyL

Love It Or Hate It?: I mean, it's not racing, right? But there's more than one car out there (sometimes) and they do slide really close to one another, which is cool. And who doesn't like seeing cars sideways? That being said, sometimes I wonder what's so exciting about twenty-year-old beat to death Toyotas and Nissans, when there's a Mustang, a 350Z, a Viper and an RX-8 going at it over there! To each his own, I suppose.

Photo credit: Rob Nightingale, flickr

3.) LeMons Racers

Suggested By: mclaren

Love It Or Hate It?: There were, of course, a ton of votes in favor of the LeMons contingency. Often described as the nicest, least-douchebaggy, and most creative group of gearheads out there, the people that go out and send a beat up pile of rust around a track all weekend clearly are cut from different stuff than many. They also cheat, regularly (but who could blame them), and send beat up piles of rust around a track all weekend. So if you're into morals and sanity, stay home. Otherwise, it looks like the best party this side of Sebring.

Photo credit: jmayzurk, flickr

2.) Autocrossers

Suggested By: AustintheBruiser

Love It Or Hate It?: Hear me out here. Yes, picking autocrossers is like Wayne and Garth picking Chelsea Clinton on a list of hotties by calling her a "babe in development." That's because sure, it's not, like, really racing, but dammit, autocross tracks are the easiest way many people these days can get to doing anything performance-wise with their cars that isn't a straight-line drag strip. Yeah, hopefully these kids will one day graduate from the parking lot to a real race course, but they're learning some necessary skills they'll need once they get there. And we've got to salute that. Even if they do treat themselves way too seriously.

Photo credit: ProjectJenova

1.) Jalopnik Commentariat

Suggested By: twitchykun

Love It Or Hate It?: What can I say? All you folks that read and reply to what goes up here make it the great place that it is. It's the reason I get up in the morning (literally), and it's the reason you all come back here day after day (and lost hour of work after lost hour of work). If not for the die-hard fanaticism, sometimes scary enthusiasm, and general intelligence and appreciation for pretty much everything with wheels, we wouldn't be here today. Also, you scare the crap out of most people we know.