stereotypes regarding Vette ownership?
 

Do any fellow corvette owners experience some type of stereotyping regarding ownership of a corvette? I know some of its playful such as "Does the corvette compensate for something else" or anything along the chick magnet lines (truth be told it really does perform as one ;)). But I am more concerned with people treating you in a more negatively way. I had some guy (this MF was scary looking and very dirty) bang on my driver window as Im at a stop light asking me for money, when I said no (I rarely carry cash) he puts his face next to the window and says "you're going to hell, people like you always gots some money".

Another example, called a local tire shop to get a quote (wasnt near a comp) asked what car it was he said he couldnt get the hankooks that i wanted but offered the cheapest kuhmohs for 1200 including installation, I called the next day using a different # after looking at tire rack, told him i was buying tires for my brother for his birthday didnt know what the car was but gave him the same exact specs and the price came out to 960 with installation (I dont mind spending money but I am not going to overpay when I know im being rectally assaulted).

My GF and I went out for dinner a few weeks back, waiting for valet to bring the car back, this ricer kid comes makes his way towards me and says corvette owner huh, yeah I replied, as my car keys were being handed to me, he came back with "corvette is a poor mans ferrari huh" I said to him "Dude, your driving a Hyundai" and left it at that and drove off. I dont know if its because he was trying to embarrass me in front of my GF or if he was truly just an idiot looking to get a rise out of me.

So do any of you have anything similar or people treat you differently based on what you drive? I had never encountered anything like this when I was in college driving my POS eclipse, and no I wasnt showing off or bragging in any of these situations.

My wife says I am a balding, somewhat portly, middle aged white guy in the midst of a mid life crisis. Is that a stereo type? :willy:

The tire thing is so messed up. :willy:

Harmon Kardon is a stereo type. You, on the other hand, are apparently a balding, somewhat portly, middle aged white guy in the midst of a mid life crisis.

The only stereo typing I see from owning a Corvette is on this forum, by the younger gen. (not all of them).

One night on the way home from work I had a group of early 20 to late teens (about 12 of them) block the city street as they slowly walked across nowhere near an intersection. As I went by one of them started yelling and waving his hands in the air. I stopped got out and asked him if he had something to say to me. He backed off but one of his buddies 50 ft away in the group was yelling "you think your special cause you got money, get back in the car old man". Boy was it hard to be the better man and not smack this guy. I just said "you have no idea how hard I had to work to get this car and how long I had to save to get it" Maybe I didn't use those polite of words but you get the idea. Needless to say when I drove by the other night they all waived and didn't stand in the middle of the road.

Who cares? We all experience this with any expensive / somewhat rare possession. Ignore it. Don't even retort with "Dude, you're driving a Hyundai." Makes you look silly for even engaging. Just say "Yeah I guess so" and walk away.

Not really, other than what I read on the forum.

you say " you park cars for a living..beat it"

I'm not looking forward to hearing "Did mommy and daddy buy you that car?" when I buy mine in the fall.
I don't get how hard the concept is for some people that if you save up your money and work hard, you can afford a nice car. It doesn't have to be handed to you just because you're 20...

I could care less what others say. I got the mid-life crisis thing a number of times, and said no, I've always wanted a real fast sports car. I googled mid-life crisis and found out that I was having one, as a matter of fact!:rock:

LMAO best thing i read all day, you sir belong to a category of corvette owners....... eh if I inherited my fathers genes then I will too be balding and be a typical corvette own lololololol

IMO there seems to be a certain demographic that is able to afford the majority of the Vettes.

With 100 million boomer's lots of them have play money for toys.

Who cares what the stereotype is. The 400 plus HP makes up for any labeling that might happen.

Who owns the road? , we do as Vette owners. :rock:

Never experienced any of that in 14 years of driving vettes other than a few ricer's trying to get me to street race, which I always ignore.

Just the opposite I get a lot of compliments on the GS, mostly while filling up at gas stations.

I agree. 9 comments for every 1 bad remark.

Remember though...there are a lot of jealous folks out there. More and more they are being raised that way.

Just look at the 99% vs. 1% rhetoric out there. This type of thinking is what gets people to make these idiotic remarks about people they don't even know....or worse yet, cause damage to other peoples' possessions.

I wouldn't worry about what people have to say about you for owning a car that you worked hard for. It's not worth you responding to them just smile or nod and walk away. People are going to always have something to say no matter what maybe they are just mad they can't afford your car. :cheers:

Dont get me wrong I still get plenty of compliments, mostly by life experienced older gents at the gas stations as well. To be honest I have only had it at WOT on the interstate once, and that was because one of docs I work with bought a new 911 and wanted to test her out against mine on the way home from work (no cars on highway)

Not this again.

Lots of people think I drive the car to be cool or get attention. What most non-car people don't understand is that I catch a lot more negative attention than positive. I also get the "compensating for something?" comment from time to time. Oh well, just enjoy the car and be happy that you have an interest that brings you joy.

I get the stereotype of driving my parent's car every now and then. I'm 23 and most of the time it comes from people near my age give or take.

Sometimes I shrug it off, but I also have no problem telling them that my Dad helped me get it off the lot, but I work and pay for my Vette (it's an '07, 1LT, nothing fancy, 84k miles), but he helped me with some money to get it off the lot. It's not hard at all to get a nice used Vette ... they're less expensive or roughly the same as a lot of new cars these days (except for cheap cars). I fully acknowledge that the higher end Vettes are out of my price range, but the Coupes really aren't terribly expensive if you shop around and be patient. Personally, I'd enjoy seeing more people driving Vettes and I enjoy when I can tell others that they can get one just as easily as well.

Usually, after telling the person that they calm down and 9 times out of 10 the conversation ends up turning into a conversation about performance cars in general ... and ends up a happy conversation many times :)


The key to stereotypes is not responding to them. "Charm and disarm" is a much better way to go rather than responding defensively, in my opinion.