Does moving from one geographical location to another, completely change your taste in cars?

Hello GRM,

I've been thinking lately... if I were to move from California - where there are dozens of canyons, rolling hills, twists and turns - to Michigan, which has some of the flattest and roughest roads around... will my taste in momentum cars (RX8, E36/46, Miata, etc) switch over to more "point-and-shoot", luxury/GT cars? (B7 Audi S4, Charger SRT8, CTS-V, AMG E55, BMW 550i E60)? 

And if my taste doesn't change... What is now the compromise?

Do I continue driving momentum cars that are completely wasted by the lack of engaging roads/elevation change during a daily drive? 

Or do I actually end up in something like a 6-Speed V8 S4? Or perhaps its completely futile to even hang on to "having to drive" manual... and I end up in an AMG E55? 

For those of you that have made moves to and from different geographical locations, how did it effect your experience and life as an automotive/driving enthusiast? 


 

It doesn't change your tastes, but it does change what you can and can't enjoy. You don't change, you adapt. 

I live in Chicagoland. Still have a Miata. Going to sell the Miata. I now DD a Lexus GS430. Automatic, V8, RWD. YMMV.  

Think about the same person who lives on different bodies of water. On a pond, he has a canoe. On a river, a pontoon boat. On a lake, a speed boat or large sailboat. On the Ocean (or the Great Lakes), it could be a 20 foot Nacra or a 40 foot Catalina or a 60 foot Sea Ray. Same person, different environments.

Totally agree that geography changes your taste - or at least makes certain tastes more enjoyable.

When I lived out in the sticks I was a hillrod with a big lifted up diesel truck.  Tried to keep the dream alive in town and just decided to end it.  My smaller SUV does everything I need, much more comfortable, easier to drive, easier to park, etc, etc.  

There were great country roads where I used to live so I had a bike.  Milwaukee has crappy roads and bad drivers.  Sold the bike.  Bought another, didn't enjoy it, sold that one too.

My fun car is a Dodge Viper.  Its great for the city and paved country roads, but I wouldnt dream of driving it on gravel.  Once I can live the dream and move to upper Michigan, that Viper will give way to something like an International Scout or K5 Blazer. Still top off summer fun, but you can run it down a gravel road without worry.  

Heck, for the last two winters I had a car the southern folks wouldnt even consider, a winter beater Subaru WRX wagon.  It was the sacrificial anode of the fleet, intended to keep salt and corrosion off my F250 and Viper.  

No, change of venue does not change your taste in cars.  It does however change your ability to indulge those tastes.

Kind of... I had a 4X$ Toyota truck when I lived in Colorado/near Moab. It was the bees knees, even necessary for the area. Here in TN, I drive a Matrix, of course, you always gotta have a motorcycle for the nice days, dirt, street, whatever you can get. 

I moved from Philly to Atlanta, and I have no desire to own a brodozer... So no, change of address has not changed my taste in cars.

Not really for me. I lived in a southern city for 9 years and now I've moved to Tahoe and the Outer Banks which are all three very different driving conditions. I have the same loves and lusts. I still love German sedans and coupes from the 80s/90s and I don't see that changing. The only sad part is putting away my e36 to drive to Tahoe because some of those roads would be lovely in it, but something tells me it won't like 400+ inches of snow.

Berk No, and I have first hand experience

Toebra said:

No, change of venue does not change your taste in cars.  It does however change your ability to indulge those tastes.

This sums it up nicely. 

PHAN said:

Hello GRM,

I've been thinking lately... if I were to move from California - where there are dozens of canyons, rolling hills, twists and turns - to Michigan, which has some of the flattest and roughest roads around...

The smoothest roads I drive on are in Michigan.

This makes me think that Michigan is full of whiners.

Don't get me started on how rust-free the cars from there are.  I bought my second car from Michigan, and recently had to do some major disassembly, and I MARVELED at how rust free it was compared to a similar 13 year old car from Cleveland.  Everything came apart like it was a 2 year old car, no rust on anything, nothing broke, didn't need to torch anything!  The same was true from the last car I bought from Michigan, my late lamented VW Quantum, which had FLOORS when I bought it.  Not so after two years of being in Cleveland...

My root vehicular desires don't necessarily change, but yes, I buy a car for the area.  When I moved to LA, I did succumb to the stereotype and got an E30 cabrio.

If I moved to Alaska, I'd have a 4x4.  If I moved to Hawaii, I'd have a scooter.  If I moved to Arkansas, I'd have a Ferarri.  Why?  Because I would need something to offset the depression of living in Arkansas (I kid)

In general, though, I don't get whatever car is popular there, or listen to the area's opinion.

I moved from Virginia to California, now I have rust-phobia. Moved from California to Texas, still have rust-phobia.

I recently moved from the middle of nowhere in IL to the Gulf Coast. The only thing that really changed is I no longer have to worry about road salt eating my vehicles alive & I keep seeing cheap old beaters that haven’t existed in IL for decades. 

Knurled. said:

PHAN said:

Hello GRM,

I've been thinking lately... if I were to move from California - where there are dozens of canyons, rolling hills, twists and turns - to Michigan, which has some of the flattest and roughest roads around...

The smoothest roads I drive on are in Michigan.

 

This makes me think that Michigan is full of whiners.

Don't get me started on how rust-free the cars from there are.  I bought my second car from Michigan, and recently had to do some major disassembly, and I MARVELED at how rust free it was compared to a similar 13 year old car from Cleveland.  Everything came apart like it was a 2 year old car, no rust on anything, nothing broke, didn't need to torch anything!  The same was true from the last car I bought from Michigan, my late lamented VW Quantum, which had FLOORS when I bought it.  Not so after two years of being in Cleveland...

My apologies, I should specify that I will be moving to Detroit, for other, non-automotive related reasons. Although I have not been to the Detroit Metro area, from the videos and pictures I've seen from the past couple months, I think I can objectively say that Detroit roads are rough. Perhaps I should have been more specific.

I'm also excited to take a look at some Michigan cars as well. I've heard cars that get driven in the winter there get beat up pretty quickly, but the cars that don't spend their winters being driven should probably be very rust free. Anyhow, I will most likely be buying a California car and having it shipped over to Michigan - unless I find something in Michigan that checks the boxes. I've had no rust issues with any of the cars I've ever owned in California. Granted none of them were anything earlier than an 80s car, but still. 

yupididit said:

I moved from Virginia to California, now I have rust-phobia. Moved from California to Texas, still have rust-phobia.

YUP! I can't possibly imagine having to do heavy rust repairs since I know I can just buy a car from California and most likely never have to worry about anything that extreme...

... but it's probably also the reason why I haven't taught myself how to weld, and in turn, cheated myself out of the ability to fabricate parts. Maybe it's time to buy a rusty car on purpose... 

If I moved back to Montana, I'd still want a low rider.

Yeah I'd 3 wheel motion on the reservation.

In reply to PHAN :

Age and priorities change too.  In my Teens  and 20’s it didn’t matter as long as it was fast!!  Spend every spare moment working on it?  Fine as long as it made it faster.  

30’s and 40’s costs seemed to be a priority,  operational,  depreciation, and  payments.  

50’s and 60’s Job suitability, reliability.  

70’s purchase price.   

Mostly my race car tastes would change. I live where I can autocross 30-50 weekends a year and drive on track 15-20. As much as I want a stage rally car, the closest stage rally is something like 15 hours away. Even further away is desert racing and desert exploration/rock crawling.

My daily driver right is one I can take to an autocross. If I lived west it would be one I could take down a desert trail. 

The move from Minneapolis to Orlando has not softened my distaste for hondas. I do sort of want s charger, but I've always sort of wanted a charger. 

Nah, I’m still a lowered minitruck kind of guy after all these yrs and miles in between.

I once caught a nearly incurable case of the British car disease on a vacation to England. I only got over it after buying a Spitfire and having to replace the entire engine / dash wiring harness after having the high beam switch catch on fire the first time I left the headlights on for more than a minute.

Maybe applicable story about how a trip out of town changed my whole perspective on cars, like a reductio ad absurdum example.

My honeymoon was in Aruba. It's a 20 x 6 mile rectangle. The first thing we did was rent a local-spec Spark* from Hertz.** At first I was driving aggressively but then realized only our taxi from the airport was in a rush-- no one else was. So I took it easy and man we just enjoyed being in Aruba.

THEN my world changed. Every car there has to be shipped in. They're all there on purpose. And almost all of them were 90's era Sentras or Sonomas.*** They're just point A to point B. But then there was the occasional Jaguar or Mercedes sedan with tinted windows. At first I admired those cars until it hit me: A nice car is pointless here. Those guys are missing the point of Aruba. It's a beach, man! Just enjoy that you're in a tropical paradise!

And the other relevant part is that Aruba gave me an appreciation for Jeeps. I'd say there are three different parts to the island: the western coast is white sandy beaches like you think of, the other coast is rocky and rugged like Maine and the middle looks like New Mexico. We rented a Jeep and explored the whole island one day. Like we're talking hours of unpaved wilderness, a new-found appreciation for what abuse a rubber tire can handle, and thoughts of "we should have brought more water." It was so much fun. My wife and I were like MAN WE GOTTA GET A JEEP! When I got back to the Midwest I looked around at the vast expanses of not-beach, not rugged rockiness and bought an Accord.

*Sparks are so far down the Chevy totem pole I'd never heard of them before. And if you think they are bare-bones here you have to see them in not-America

**Rent local in Aruba, Hertz is a rip-off. Their rental Jeeps even have a non-removable hardtop. >:|

***And exactly one early 90s Grand Am

In reply to Knurled. :

Are you talking about the Detroit Metro, or the rest of Michigan? When I visited Cleveland I kept thinking the roads were generally much nicer than my daily commute. 

Alright, I feel like I can speak from experience here. I moved from California to the Detroit Metro in 2014 for work. (Guess my motivations for moving are obvious...why else would you live here?) In California I was about 30 min from some good foothills and canyons and took advantage of it often. As you might be able to relate, I was excited to get away from paying for smog checks, the ridiculous CA registration fees, and gas taxes. 

Michigan is touted as being car enthusiast friendly but in my opinion it's a pretty terrible place to be a car enthusiast, unless you're into car shows. Insurance in the Detroit area is ridiculously expensive and as you've mentioned the roads are atrocious and boring. I'm not even going to start about the salt and rust. I swore I'd never stop daily driving something interesting and drove RWD sports cars year round for the first 2-3 years. However, I finally got sick of my cars getting beat up and started driving either my truck or the comfier project cars I pick up.

Getting into road racing has alleviated a lot of my frustration with MI. Now I don't really give a crap about street cars and spend most of my efforts developing the race car. I honestly probably spend less money than I did maintaining my street cars and have way more fun. There are 3-4 great race tracks within 3 hours of the Detroit Metro and tons of racers around the area. I guess my taste in cars hasn't changed but my automotive interests have. 

If I moved from the South to a snowy and/or mountain area I would probably get a Subaru Forester or Outback. 

Seems like half of Colorado and all of Seattle drives those.