More Than Clout & Niches: Car Culture Needs to Change

Car culture in the 2020s is more connected, extremely visible, and more diverse than ever. Thanks to social media, global events, and the rise of content creators, it's never been easier to see what people are building, driving, and dreaming of—whether it’s a slammed Civic, a twin-turbo Huracán, a big-block Chevelle, or a fully drift-ready E36.

But while the reach of car culture has grown, the divisions between niches still run deep.

JDM fans stick with JDM. Muscle car guys roll their eyes at imports. Supercar owners often exist in their own lane, rarely showing up at mixed events. Classic purists scoff at anything with air suspension. Despite the increased visibility, there’s still a quiet—or sometimes loud—competition over who "belongs", what’s “real,” and what deserves respect.

The truth is, we’re all here for the same reason: we love cars. And it’s time the culture started acting like it.

Still Divided: Import vs. Domestic, Built vs. Bought

Walk into any car meet, scroll through any automotive Reddit thread, or read the comments under a viral car video and you’ll see it: the diehard divisions still exist.

• “That’s not a real car; it’s just a Civic with a wing.”

• “All they did was buy it—they didn’t build it.”

• “EV's have no place at car meets.”

• “Mustangs only go fast in a straight line toward a crowd.”

I don't know about you, but the hate between groups gets exhausting to me. And worse—it’s backwards. Instead of celebrating each other’s style, creativity, and passion, many enthusiasts are still stuck in gatekeeping mode, acting like their preferred niche is the only one that "counts"- what it counts for, who knows.

What’s lost in all this noise is the simple truth: we’re all part of the same car culture. Whether you’re wrenching in your garage on weekends or buying your dream car off the showroom floor, the common thread is passion. That should be a uniting factor, not something that makes us look down on anyone else or talk shit.

Clout Is Killing the Culture

Let’s be honest: clout chasing is hurting car culture. (And so are takeovers, but that's another blog...)

With the rise of TikTok and YouTube, it feels like half the scene is building and buying for clicks, not for the passion behind it. You’ve seen it—burnouts in intersections, clickbait thumbnails, fake personalities at car meets just to film content. So much has become a performance without substance.

This shift toward attention over authenticity has created a toxic undercurrent in the community. People care more about being seen than being part of the scene. It has become a game of leveling-up to the next outlandish trend. Through this clout-chase, it has turned something real— a shared passion and enthusiasm for incredible machines—into a popularity contest.

That’s not what car culture was built on.

Before social media, respect was earned through craftsmanship, effort, creativity, accomplishment, and knowledge—not followers. Social media isn't going away, but the clout-chasing has to be discouraged to a point where it slows down or disappears.

What Unites Us: The Love of Cars

Take away the noise, the trends, the rivalries—and what’s left is what really matters: passion for cars.

• That feeling when you finally get your build running after months in the garage.

• The smell of race fuel, burnt rubber, or old leather interiors.

• The glorious sound of a brutal downshift.

• The emotion of finally buying your dream car.

• The late-night drives, broken bolts, shared tools, garage hangs that leave us with memories for a lifetime.

These are the things we all understand, no matter what we drive.

We forget that the average person doesn’t care about horsepower or stance or carburetors vs. fuel injection or NA vs. turbocharged.

To the outside world, we’re all just “car people.” And that’s exactly what we should be to each other—car people who share a passion that can't really be put into words..

The Road Forward

We have a choice. We can keep arguing about what’s better: JDM or American muscle, track cars or street cruisers, built or bought. Or we can recognize that what unites us is stronger than what divides us.

Because no matter what we drive, we’re all chasing the same thing: that connection that happens between you and your car when you fire up the engine.

Car culture can have friendly competition without clout and gatekeeping. It doesn’t have to be a divided landscape of judgment and egos.

It can be a true community. Drop the bullshit clout-chasing, check your ego, remove the divisions. Be car people, together.