I understand everything you are saying here. You acknowledge that you are select minority, fixated on all the little details that make your cruisers and that "lifestyle" what it is. But in my book, that makes you a nerd. Not meant to be derogatory, mind you. Hey, I participate in vintage simulation baseball leagues, and that's about as nerdy as it gets. In this respect, I meant "nerd" as a roundabout compliment.3fj40 said:One thing about Cruiser people is they are not `nerds.' I am a nerd: I have spent my career in the finer points of Unix kernel tuning, interested in radio propagation, programming languages and their esoteric sytax and semantics. One of my college degrees is Mathematics.
Also being part of this community in parts, we as a whole are the furthest from nerds. Those who consider us nerds are also those who we may possibly consider `sheep,' herded around by marketing departments, air conditioning, and the uber-suburban lifestyle.
We're a small loyal group who know we're in the minority. SUVs are popular in large part due to enthusiasts like us through the last decades, the `outdoor'-lifestyle is popular in part because of people like us, the marketing departments of automobile manufacturers glorify (and mock) us in what they sell.
Thing is, we don't accept reality the way its given to us: one day you will see an FJ Cruiser lifted about 4 inches, running larger tires, with off-road body armor and many people who are NOT us will think ``that's cool,'' and the cycle repeats.