What 'car guys' sound like to non car guys

[leroy17]

Came across this via another forum and thought that it was worth sharing.

I have always been involved with bikes or jetskis and cars, if you start talking and see that glazed over look... you know they just dont get it.

What a Car Enthusiast Looks Like to Everyone Else

[Donunder]

Two hundred views and no replies.....

After reading it I didn't know whether to laugh or hurriedly review every conversation I'd had with "non-car" folk over the past few months.

Is it a bit too close to the bone? Hence the silence? Food for thought though isn't it? Perhaps we may have to curtail our answers to those often-asked questions about our cars. It'll be hard though, given the enthusiasm we have for our toys.

Just a question of finding that middle ground -- somewhere between a curt answer giving the impression we're up ourselves and can't be bothered giving a reasonable reply, and a lengthy fact-filled discourse, the sort we'd lap up, but leaves the other party with information overload and something approaching a headache.

Although, coincidentally, I have a terrific Kleenmaid semi-industrial washing machine that I've had for over twenty years, still going like a train, built like the proverbial brick outhouse, never had to replace a belt........

[Treeve]

when it comes to 'non-car folk', I normally use a phrase along the lines of:

"I'm obsessive about cars, I can find things to love and things to hate in every single make and model. I think about cars every day, and so far have found that every area of engineering that I have been taught or learnt can be applied to different parts of cars. This means that even for car enthusiasts, conversations about cars with me are incredibly boring, so please for your own sanity, can we talk about something else?"

Normally does the trick! People then normally only approach my insanity for small doses (like they ask which bit am I trying to fix on just one of my cars this week - not any other car, or for any other time period!).

Treeve

[kevins2]

I thought the article was both humerous and useful. My dentist lives across the street and has seen the car and watched me do the first test drive since he happened to be outside. I had a dental appointment yesterday and he asked me about the car, even though he's clearly not a car guy. I started explaining the issue I have with changing out a bearing in the rearend assembly, thought about the article, and deleted considerable detail from my explanation... So, I'm sure my dentist would thank you for posting that!

[mickmate]

That's a really funny and very clever article! I know plenty of people who look at a car as a domestic appliance so to use another domestic appliance as an example was perfect.

[Rob. Smith]

I've adapted to telling the basics... Just tell em the simple things that they can relate to and not get technical....if they are keen they will ask for more! One night at work I was asked for pics of the cobra build process and the bloke fell asleep !

[Jaydee]

I hate it when they reply , as long as it gets from A to B.
JD

[trularin]

The art is in seeing the reaction of the audience and deciding whether to "fix" the dialog or not.

"The thing-a-ma-bob goes into that do-hicky with a hairpin so it..."

Sort of like a politician?

[darkside]

can go the other way as well...you know the one where the know it all cant refrain from telling you about every last detail of his car where he found it and how much blahdy blah...only asked him if he owned it turns out its his uncles mother in law,i like the enthusiasm but i want to have time to look at the rest of the paddock before my eyes glaze over...doc

[Igofastr]

I had my wife read it....

She didn't even smile....said it didn't go anywhere near far enough.

Not sure what to make of that.

[KevinW]

I guess we are all 'on the spectrum' as the mum's outside the school gates would say.

I actually find talk about modern cars really pretty boring. I find their lines, their plastic finish and the homogeneity totally uninspiring. Perhaps the $100k+ market is more interesting, although thats out of my pay bracket.

This is all rather unfortunate, as my son (10) has now started (slightly obsessively) watching Top Gear re-runs on saturday mornings, and started blatting me with how one Land Rover or other is crap compared to the Defender , his (alledged) misgivings about the finer points of the ferrari 358 design has really started to bore me. In fact the other day in the car home from school I told him we would not talk about whether this car or that had a V8 engine , and how was your trumpet lesson?

[Bernica]

Originally Posted by trularin

The art is in seeing the reaction of the audience and deciding whether to "fix" the dialog or not.

"The thing-a-ma-bob goes into that do-hicky with a hairpin so it..."

Sort of like a politician?

Very Tru!
I have caught myself watching some good car show or race and the wife and kids come in to watch something else. I try to get them to sit and watch for a while, then catch myself explaining the significance of this car or that, double-overhead cams, SU carbs, the wrong tires etc. When I finish and look up, they are usually gone. They say if I didn't talk so much about the cars and the show, maybe they would hang around. Now, put on one of their shows like "Voice" or "American Idol" and a totally different story. I can't get a word in, I'm pretty clueless and bored anyways, and tend to retire to my garage / hobbit hole.