   Cult of the Car Model
  I own a 2008 Honda Civic Si:Something I've noticed is that I seem to now be part of some sort of "club" of Si owners. Every time I seen another driver on the road in an Si, they wave to me. If it's a 6th gen (what I have), they always wave. If it's a previous model, it's about 75% of people wave. When I had my 7th gen regular Civic (regular Civics are currently on their 8th generation), I never got waves from anyone. When my father's Accord was my primary vehicle, I never got waves from anyone. I've noticed Harley Davidson motorcyclists do this with each other, and sometimes motorcyclists in general. Apparently, there is a minimum level of "uniqueness" in one's vehicle necessary before waves are offered.I never get waves from Acura RSX owners, which is weird because it's practically the same car. In fact, I mostly get challenges to race from them, which I always turn down because I love my car and don't want to thrash it like that.Has anyone else noticed something similar? Do you have a somewhat unique vehicle, and do you receive waves from other drivers on the street? Is there a point where a vehicle's "uniqueness" value is high enough to warrant an opposite reaction, i.e. the two drivers feel some level of animosity towards each other? I somewhat suspect that people who drove extremely expensive vehicles were trying to make some sort of statement about their individuality, and seeing someone on the street with the same vehicle would challenge that.Anyway, just something curious that I thought I would share.   
  I hear MINI drivers do the same exact thing. I also hear Mustang drivers do it, but replace "wave" with "rev".   ;  According to my dad, Jeep owners will do the same thing.  I've seen it a few times while on vacation with my family.   ;  Oh yeah? Well, I drive a Dodge Stratus!  But no one seems to wave to me...   ;  On the sea a wave is very customary, except inside a port, regardless of how different the two vessels are. This is probably due to the rarity of encounters. You'll notice the same thing with people passing each other by on hiking trails. They'll always say high while they wouldn't do the same if passing by in a park even if they are the only two people in the park.Hm ... it might be some need to acknowledge like minded strangers :), and people just need some action that is unique or different enough to seam like an action the other person is putting concious effort to perform, rather than just a passing choice.Sailing, hiking, ridin a Harley Davidson seam like good candidates for something that took concious effort and some dose of passion to bring into one's life. Perhaps Honda Civic Si falls into that category B)   ;  Corvette owners do the same thing as well.  I was riding in a friend's corvette, and every person in a corvette waved at us, and my friend waved back.  Guess it's a factor of expensiveness and uniquity of the car.   ;  Around here I've seen people from the same county (it's marked on the plates) wave to each other when driving in some other region of the country. Unless it's people from the capital driving in other cities, we ignore each other at best [smile]   ;  I used to drive a real mini (Not one of the little BMWs with a mini badge) and it was customary to flash your headlights whenever you passed another mini on the road.  However if you are driving a modern BMW mini and flash your headlights at somebody driving an older mini the only response they're likely to give you is the middle finger.   ;  That's interesting. Hmm, what about older LandRover Discovery?I take note when I see one, especially this one that I see sometimes when I get off work. But my poor eye sight prevent me from seeing what the person inside is doing. I wouldn't want to be appear unfriendly, as possibly have been not identifying distant persons in hallways/office.   ;  It's probably dependent mostly on the relative size of the ownership community. There are a lot fewer Civic Si than RSX machines out there, and Acura owners in general suffer from "marque douchebaggery syndrome" (see: Audi, BMW, etc).Subaru owners are already kind of a cult, so it's not a surprise when WRX guys wave to each other.The new Mazda3 commercial features two Mazda3s blinking their lights at each other to show that they are part of "the club," but honestly I've only ever seen highbeam flashing used to warn people of oncoming cops or to start a race. Is this an American thing?My fellow Cavalier owners just cover their faces and grin sheepishly at each other. I did fist-bump another owner in the junkyard once while we were tearing the same dessicated wreck apart to revive our low-mileage shitbins.Edit: I gave a thumbs-up to a Mk1 Scirocco when I saw one the other day while on foot. In my defense, it is a totally awesome car.   