Is it just me, or does it seem like web forums centered around older cars seem to have more people that understand how cars work, and the best upgrade paths to take to achieve a certain goal.
Case in point, the Saturn Astra forum at saturnfans.net can't seem to grasp why you would need to upgrade the shocks and struts when lowering the car. I brought up the point that I've killed a pair of front struts and 2 pair of rear shocks within 60,000 miles on the stock sport package springs. One guy keeps asking me to tell him which set of dampers he needs to install Eibach springs, I mentioned that Tire Rack carries Koni Yellows, and I told him to call up both companies to find out. The kid is looking for a handout, and he's not the only one.
I've seen this exact trend on other site where newer cars are supported, such as Honda-Tech. It seems like most of these kids just want to go for a certain look that just happens to be in this 15 minutes, damn the consequences.
On forums that tend to be populated by more mature people, this is almost a non-issue completely. Does the ability to think for yourself only come once you've realized you're an idiot and change your ways? I know I've been on the handout side before, but now I'm the guy that calls up companies to have these questions answered.
Good decisions come with experience.
Experience comes from making bad decisions.
Old cars usually need to be fixed, so they're owned by people who know how to fix them.
In reply to stuart in mn:
That makes sense, and it also explains why most of the people on 3geez.com are older than the people on the saturnfans.com Astra forum.
JFX001
SuperDork
2/5/12 2:05 p.m.
I always try to help people as much as possible...and also encourage them to seek and find.
Here, it's pretty much: "Cool....try this/that and if you need help lemme know!" 
Plus, to a lot of people in general...the Saturn Astra wasn't even on the radar.
In reply to JFX001:
I know. Somewhere around 25,000 of them were imported for the North American market. There are fewer than 10 of them that have owners that understand how to take care of an orphan car.
I don't know, I started reading car magazines before I was 10. At 16, I knew my 300ZX needed Koni's to go with my Eibachs.
It really has nothing to do with age. There's a 19 year old on 3geez that knows what he's talking about, but countless 30 and 40 year olds that want to install "stance-class" springs on their cars without changing anything else.
The interesting phenomenon about GRM is we're populated by everyone of driving age and up. Yet we usually respect others automotive knowledge and experiences. Usually.
it's the off-topic stuff that gets our panties into bunches sometimes.
I would not call it an age thing.. I would call it a bandwagen thing.
Appleseed wrote:
The interesting phenomenon about GRM is we're populated by everyone of driving age and up. Yet we usually respect others automotive knowledge and experiences. Usually.
That's because generally we're the people who do things, and can tell you what works and what doesn't.
And don't ask stupid crap like "Can I drive my alternator off of an electric motor?". To be fair, we treated that kid very gently, he's pretty... enthusiastic, just needs to be guided in the proper directions.
