What is an automotive enthusiast? | Enthusiast 101

What is an automotive enthusiast? And what is a car enthusiast, or a driving enthusiast? After recently introducing the new Enthusiast 101 section of our website as an educational resource “for the car obsessed from newcomers to lifelong gearheads,” we’re tackling these very basic questions in this article, the section’s inaugural entry.

For AutoNewsblaster, as a publication focused on covering automotive industry news from the perspective of the individual enthusiast, these questions are foundational.

It would be easy enough to simply look at dictionary definitions of the word enthusiast and apply them to the automotive realm.

But we’re not going to do that. Frankly, we believe that we have been immersed in this subject matter long enough, and in enough depth, to have our own perspective to offer on these definitions.

In the real world, of course, there is considerable variability in the understanding of what terms like automotive enthusiast or car enthusiast mean, depending on who you ask.

For instance: does someone have to own a sports car, muscle car, or high-performance luxury car to qualify as a car enthusiast? From our perspective, the answer is a resounding “No.” Does someone have to do their own wrenching to claim that he or she is a car guy or car gal? That would also be a “No.”  

As noted in an article we published last year that commented on how “un-elite” some of the vehicles were that exhibitors had on display at one small-town car show we covered, we believe that the automotive hobby should be accessible to everyone, from the wealthy to those of more humble means. A car show that isn’t a concours d’elegance can still offer plenty of excitement to those who just like checking out cool cars, even if not every vehicle on display is a spit-shined trailer queen.

And that’s a good lead-in to our take on what an automotive enthusiast is.

Our definition of automotive enthusiast

An automotive enthusiast is someone who has a passionate interest in cars or other motor vehicles—or anything associated with them, including the industry that produces them and the culture that surrounds them—and takes great pleasure in enjoying and appreciating them for reasons beyond their basic utilitarian value of simply transporting people from Point A to Point B.

That’s it. There are no other special or exclusionary requirements for admission to this “club” of being an automotive enthusiast. Remember, our tag line is “No matter what you drive, we’re drive to help you get more enjoyment out of automotive life and culture.”

Automotive life and culture is something one can theoretically enjoy even without being a licensed driver or owning a car—because the automotive realm offers a virtually inexhaustible range of things to appreciate, from the aesthetics of good automotive design, to the deep and intricate history and traditions of the industry, to the thrill of the way a high-horsepower engine can give you that thrown-back-in-your-seat sensation, to the simple comfort of knowing that your modest, used subcompact crossover or old hoopty gives you tremendous freedom and control over where you want to go and when.

Now, within the general category of automotive enthusiasts, there is an endless variety of subcategories and niches. There are sports car enthusiasts. There are truck enthusiasts or, even more narrowly, diesel truck enthusiasts. There are antique fire trucks enthusiasts. There are 1990s Japanese Domestic Market, right-hand-drive car enthusiasts. There are motorsports enthusiasts or, more narrowly, flat-track motorcycle racing enthusiasts.

The list goes on and on, but you get the point, right? This is a hobby and area of interest that has something to offer virtually anyone.

Automotive enthusiasts: subcategories and related categories

But the range of subcategories and related categories beyond the broad level of automotive enthusiasts goes even further.

For example, consider the driving enthusiast: someone who enjoys the sheer pleasure of the act of driving. It’s a pleasure that can be experienced, theoretically, while driving anything from a precisely-handling high-performance contemporary hypercar to an awkward, oversized land yacht from the peak of the “colonnade period” in the 1970s.

Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, anyone?

One driving enthusiast might be very particular about what he or she drives, but on the other hand there are driving enthusiasts who just like driving, no matter what kind of vehicle might be accessible at any given time.

And from where we stand, it’s all good.

Similarly, there are car enthusiasts, another subcategory of those whose interests are more specifically focused on the vehicles themselves, or some aspect of vehicles like their design or engineering characteristics.

From where we stand, this is a distinct subcategory from a driving enthusiast, although it’s clearly possible for one person to be both a car enthusiast and a driving enthusiast.

But one can be a car enthusiast without even having the ability to drive. If you can visit an automotive museum or peruse the innumerable range of available media content focused on cars, from coffee table books to websites to print magazines to podcasts, you can derive plenty of enjoyment as a car enthusiast, without owning or driving a car.

The list of subcategories, niches, and rabbit holes that can pleasurably absorb the attention of enthusiasts of various stripes is virtually endless. There are electric car enthusiasts and, yes, there is even a subculture of enthusiasts of the emerging niche of self-driving and autonomous vehicles. So there’s plenty of room for everyone in this hobby, and inevitably we’re not all going to agree with each other on all issues at all times. But that same inexhaustible depth and breadth of the automotive space, and the generous room for varied individual interests and preferences, is what makes the realm of automobility such a rewarding area of human endeavor to explore.