Hooniverse Asks: What Automotive Brand Has The Most Cult-Like Following?


Yesterday we talked about which motorcycle really should have been more popular. Today we want to know what car brand is perhaps a little too popular. Fan comes from fanatic and what we’re interested in is your opinion as to what maker or marque has the most devoted—or maybe cult like—fan base.
Image: VW Vortex

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60 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What Automotive Brand Has The Most Cult-Like Following?”

  1. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    Let an actual cult leader tell you:

    1. Monkey10is Avatar
      Monkey10is

      Luftge-cult.

      1. nanoop Avatar

        +1 from me, although he’s riding a wasserge-cult.

  2. Alff Avatar
    Alff

    If you refer to your car as “The Answer” to every question, you may be in a cult.

      1. Lokki Avatar
        Lokki

        Add me to the list of the Cult of the Thomas Flyer…
        I mean has your Idol won the New York to Paris Race?
        Well, the Thomas Flyer did – in 1908!

        1. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar

          My grandmother and great-grandfather saw the Thomas Flyer compete in the New York-Paris race. They lived just outside Buffalo where the Flyer was built, and it generated lots of local excitement for the car. My grandmother was six at the time. Her father walked her to the end of the block and they waited with others on the roadside for it to pass. It is the first car she remembers seeing. She died in 1985.

      1. Lokki Avatar
        Lokki

        Here’s the acceptance ritual for MD Harrell’s cult of little cars

  3. tonyola Avatar
    tonyola

    Subaru?

    1. Alff Avatar
      Alff

      Perhaps. I’d argue that the cult of former Subaru owners is even stronger.

      1. cap'n fast Avatar
        cap’n fast

        salvage yard owners love them a whole bunch. i kind of like that. a lot of subies here in the mile high.

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      It can be a bit hard to find your car in a typical Norwegian parking lot.
      http://bloggfiler.no/reitanjunior.blogg.no/images/1947368_7_1434229705848-1947368-9-1449748652200.jpg

        1. Sjalabais Avatar
          Sjalabais

          There used to be plenty around, not even joking. Now I only find one for sale:
          https://www.finn.no/car/used/search.html?q=Kewet

          1. nanoop Avatar

            There’s an orange one (Kewet, that is) with black racing stripes in the ‘hood, but it’s being displaced by e-Ups.

      1. Alff Avatar
        Alff

        Just what I’d expect to see in an oil-rich Scandinavian country.

        1. Sjalabais Avatar
          Sjalabais

          Scandinavian logic tends to be impeccable:
          https://www.dietdoctor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Scandinavia.jpg

          1. cap'n fast Avatar
            cap’n fast

            i am laughing for five minutes at this. also a good one for Minnesota.

          2. Sjalabais Avatar
            Sjalabais

            Check out Wulffmorgenthaler – Danish paper comic guys of exquisite hilarity.
            http://euroislam.pl/app/uploads/2012/03/Wulffmorgenthaler-Arabs-as-Scandinavians.jpg

          3. crank_case Avatar
            crank_case

            I’d forgotten that existed, can be hit and miss for me, but when he nails it, he’s brilliant.

      2. Rover 1 Avatar
        Rover 1

        So that’s where the Teslas went.

      3. nanoop Avatar

        My neighbor refers to the S as “the cheap Tesla”, since the other one is about 50% of my house (both space and price).

        1. Sjalabais Avatar
          Sjalabais

          Sounds like it’s also tall enough to look down from?

    2. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      Tesla owners, and by extension EV evangelists in general. For most of them, it’s not enough to extol the virtues of electric power, but insist the combustion engine or any other infidel mode of propulsion has no future, which I just don’t think is true. EVs are part of the solution, not THE solution.

    1. Alff Avatar
      Alff

      Which leads to an interesting philosophic question – can a single person comprise a cult?

      1. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar

        Well, I think he has multiple personalities.

        1. mdharrell Avatar

          If I could get us to agree on our automotive tastes it would simplify the parking situation.

          1. Sjalabais Avatar
            Sjalabais

            “If all follow, the world would be a better place”…that’s #1 on the cult check list?

          2. mdharrell Avatar

            At this point my cult would settle for “my driveway would be a tidier place.”
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a447a52a05b58aaa1a34480f073997e74d8648e1446ace4f2e84c24a019264e.jpg

    1. cap'n fast Avatar
      cap’n fast

      misplaced faith in the general and the UAW. like the time the new guy put antifreeze into the crankcases oil of 1,600 engines at the plant. I still wonder if it was possible that the only reason to close Saturn was that it was profitable and made the upper management look like jackasses. some people do think like that…….

  4. SeanKHotay Avatar
    SeanKHotay

    All wrong.
    SAAB.
    And that doesn’t include Saab.

    1. neight428 Avatar
      neight428

      Tend to agree, their devotion is deep, but difficult to justify in a way that others will understand.

    2. mdharrell Avatar

      The Vintage Saab [sic] Club of North America recently voted to recognize the 900. The article announcing this result includes the following paragraph:
      “We received just 64 votes, that is a 18% participation. 47 people voted yes and 17 people voted no. Not surprisingly, long-time members cast most no votes.”

      1. SeanKHotay Avatar
        SeanKHotay

        And the (C)900 *is* a SAAB…

        1. mdharrell Avatar

          The company officially changed how the name was styled, from SAAB to Saab, on 1 Sept 1969 upon merging with Scania. Fortunately I own a ’67 and a ’68…

          1. mdharrell Avatar

            Logos are frequently styled in all caps independently of other usage. I’m not going to start calling my Volvo a VOLVO on that basis (although I may occasionally call mine a DAF).
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4ea29eb3645dbc7c0b3282314bc3f01b22227e3a1af369b2944dc7d3cf056f1.jpg

          2. SeanKHotay Avatar
            SeanKHotay

            WTH…Are posts being deleted?
            ’69 was the Valbis merger/takeover
            It became SAAB again in 1990: http://saabmuseum.com/en/saab-history/saab-marque-and-emblem/

      2. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        That’s hilarious.

        1. mdharrell Avatar

          Oh, it’s quite serious. To illustrate, SeanKHotay and I are making a strong case for the cultish qualities of SAAB/Saab ownership in the above exchange.

          1. Sjalabais Avatar
            Sjalabais

            No doubt a fair point, but seen from outside the cult…it’s hilarious. Also, as a statistician, I find the use of percentages on low volume surveys extra entertaining. I need to do that at work sometimes, and it tends to feel like creating nothing…of nothing.

          2. mdharrell Avatar

            There was also a bar graph breaking down the yes/no votes into bins based on range of membership number.

          3. nanoop Avatar

            I’m delighted to hear that a simple yes/no vote is displayed as bar instead of, say, two connected data points (I’d use a pie chart, but I’m hungry right now.)
            My inner typographer would recommend more spacing in S A A B and D A F, that works better with most screen fonts, and with cult-ish obedience exercises:
            T R A V E L T O E I N D H O V E N.
            B U Y A D A F F O D I L.
            O B E Y.
            [Edit: Disqs, being the liberal company they are, considers triple spaces as ostentatious, and renders them into single spaces. When editing, they are triplets again.]

  5. cap'n fast Avatar
    cap’n fast

    Harleys. and if it need to have four wheels, two harleys. harley owners as a class are right up there with the Thomas owners when it comes to cult-like love of their vehicles.

  6. Owl Avatar
    Owl

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/850dd1f38fff8cdbfb433eb7a8d0a955507dcbe0f05f8c40d53ba7ce3133401b.jpg
    Simple answer – the Citroen A Series (incidentally we, i.e all the 2CV clubs of town, cities and countries of Europe, also allow H Vans as honorary members)

  7. neight428 Avatar
    neight428

    Since Chevrolet won’t put “Chevrolet” on the car, I’ll pretend it is its own brand and nominate the Corvette Faithful as a cult. Odd bunch doing weird things to cars that actually have merit that they rarely enjoy, except in theory.
    http://www.corvettesconquercancer.com/07_6841s.jpg

    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      http://a400mod.com/Photos/What%20is%20a%20Tickford%20Capri/Badges/Ford%20Badge.jpg
      Specially of the models separate, Capri, Mustang, Escort, Model T, Model A, Thunderbird, Falcon etc.And the great rivalries, Ford vs Chev, Ford vs Holden, Ford vs BMW, Ford vs Ferrari
      http://a400mod.com/Photos/What%20is%20a%20Tickford%20Capri/Badges/Ford%20Badge.jpg

    2. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      No comment about the “Marvel” underwear? I wonder what we’re supposed to marvel at…

  8. Joey DaVive Avatar
    Joey DaVive

    Two days in, and 50+ replies
    Jeep-sauce drinkers, I am disappoint
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/587032cec12d01336eefbeffbd7395993f1b529aed624981b237e35741bd9335.jpg