Alright, so I'm quite fond of the Final Gear community. I may not always be of the same opinions of the moderation staff, but the rules are enforced and the conversation is civil.
If you are following me you know I'm in the market for a car that's a bit more practical, a bit less expensive, and a bit more comfortable as a replacement to my Honda S2000.
So where do I go to get information about the possibilities? The online forums. In researching the possibility of buying a Cobalt SS turbo (260hp is nice, FWD is not, torque steer is not, and being a GM is not, but it's a nice drive all things considered). So I visit their website.
I come across this thread:
http://cobaltss.net/forums/showthread.php?t=121661
I know there's at least one SS owner on this forum, so I'm sure he's aware of these types of posts on this site. Anyway, my screen name on there is the same as here "The Chad". Am I wrong to think this thread is stupid? I did post some intelligent "troll bait" I guess, but I couldn't read that thread, and then this thread:
http://cobaltss.net/forums/showthread.php?t=120661 without being completely shocked and concerned.
That's his last insult of me, even though I didn't attack him personally.
So this leads me to this train of thought. I'd be afraid to buy this car, not because of the car, but because of the community around it. I guess people get their impressions of BMW owners through the E90Post.com type of people.
My question to you. Would you buy something big, like a car, if you didn't like the community around it's ownership? Would you potentially choose a different brand based on "cocks" and other people who buy it? General thoughts?
First off, whether I buy a good, personally, would depend most on what its value for me is.
In truth, the purchase decision that a person makes depends on a lot of things according to marketing theory. One would be the opinions of the people that surround you, in order of their importance. Because every time you buy a good, even though it might not cross your mind at the time, you're making a lifestyle choice, whether it be buying rice at the supermarket or, in your case, buying a car. And the purchases that you do make and are apparent to other people will surely make these people form an opinion about you. Based on their own experiences with people that have bought the same goods, or whatever people have told them about purchasers of said product, they will form that opinion about you ... whether it is a founded opinion or not. The fact that they will form a mental image of you will affect future interactions with them, and for people social needs, from most studies seem to be not much higher on the ladder than survival and security needs. Logic, since most people find
So the opinions of friends, colleagues, relatives, the opposite sex, etc. do matter in the purchase decision. To some it matters less than to others, but it still matters. The order of importance of the people who have the most influence on your decision differs from one person to the next, but it mostly starts off with family, goes to friends, relatives, acquaintances, strangers, etc.
But what's in question here is other people's opinion of you based on a stereotype of purchasers of a certain good or service. Again, these stereotypes are not formed by a single person who had an experience of some sort with the said purchaser, but by repeat experiences of different people and is propagated once a good number of opinions match each other.
But what you're talking about here is an internet forum which is dedicated to a very specific product and is populated mainly by members who own the said product. Here's the popular stereotypes that run about the people who frequent those kinds of forums:
1. They love their purchased good much more than the value it brings the average person. For them, in this case, the car is not a car anymore. It is "their baby". They will spend hours on end with their car neglecting other aspects of their lives without looking back even once.
2. They are fanaticals. These people are usually very stubborn, especially when it comes to defending the image of their treasured good. For them, there is nothing better than the Cobalt SS and there will never be. Whether the evidence against it is objective or subjective, they will never stop arguing against it until your opinion matches theirs.
3. They like to sit in a special "social club" with their own special friends who all own that certain product and spend their time boating its quality and discussing why others really aren't so much into it and how pathetic others that don't own the said good are. Yes, it's as bad as a damn country club.
Fortunately for you, the number of members of the online forums pales in comparison to the number of owners of the car, so they don't quite matter in the public opinions. They are wienners by nature, and people dismiss them as such.
My question to you is:
Why would you frequent that forum anyway? Even if you did own that certain car. Do you want to "belong in a certain club"? Or do you just want to get some advice here and there about how to fix that thing in your car, or whether your new amp will work with the car? It's not like the cobalt SS is some exclusive car that most people can't find or can't afford, so there's no "Cobalts of America Club" or something.
I don't get why people get into such fallacies as "Oh my, he has the same car as me, so we must have something in common." It's like people parking next to you in the supermarket parkinglot because they have the same brand car. Those people are as bad as the annoying colleague in highschool that you had to do a small school project with and who won't stop trying to hang out with you however long it has been since the project has finished and you have made it quite clear that you're not very eager to hang out with them. So what if you too drive a toyota corola? It used to be my fathers ... my, you and my father must also have a lot in common. Hmm, now that I think of it, don't you work for the same employer as me and shop from the same brands of clothes?
It's a damn car, what tool would make a web forum for a SPECIFIC car? Not a specific brand, not a specific type of car (sedan, SUV, etc.), but about a SPECIFIC car. Sure, I own stuff too. I have a nice Motorola RAZR V3 phone. And I love it. It has worked fine for me since I've had it. I never got a single complaint from people that I have an "ugly phone" and it has proven to be quite reliable. In essence, I love it. But I'm not going to start a motorola-razr-V3-with-the-canadian-anthem-for-a-ringtone.com forum. I may go to the motorola website and browse through their forums if I need some info about the phone, but that's it. And even if I did own a car, I wouldn't go for my answer to i-own-a-mazda-6-with-a-yellow-interior.com.
Why did you even visit that forum in the first place?