I answered a quora post about "what are people's reactions to a supercar", it ended up longform, and thought I would paste here:

https://www.quora.com/What-are-peopl...raba?srid=uueS

TL;DR - although we have an increasing division between rich and poor, and there's a focus on general inequality coupled with conspicuous consumption, The United States is still only about 100 years into the strongest car culture in the world, and the love for vehicles seems to outweigh any negative perceptions or connotations associated with the old mentality of hating on the 1980's guy with a Porsche Boxster. Point being... people love cars, the shinier and fancier, the better. It seems to make people regress into giddy boyhood.
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I am answering this because I am very ambivalent. No less than 3 years ago I started a quora thread "Why would anyone buy a luxury car?". Now I have one. I had a lot of conflict about it, what it says about me, how I am perceived, what it says about our economy and how people spend money, etc etc.

I drove a Jeep Wrangler for 20 years. I saved up for the last 10+ and just bought a Jaguar F-Type. It's a bit unknown, and therefore under the radar. I also got a color and finishes that are less gaudy, audacious, not chromey, etc. Pic below. I commute.. A LOT. I drive.. A LOT. I love driving, I love manual transmissions, and so I found the one car I loved... as I really didn't care about most cars, and definitely hate spendy cars. But I saved up, loved this car, so I bought it.

The base MSRP for the car is likely at least 50% that of a better known supercar.... so it's image is likely flashier than the cost. It's less than a Tesla, and many BMW, etc. It's only slightly more than a maxed out Subaru WRX.... but that's my perspective.

I 100% assumed there would be snide looks, or anger based jealousy or something. The Tesla, in our area, seems to be the new 1980's Porsche, for the pretentious guy wearing $800 jeans that thinks he's "made it and arrived".... my Jeep body shop said she had scene vandalism damage on Teslas, IE jealous or angry crimes of opportunity, IE 1% vs 99% stuff.
Since owning this car, here's what I've noticed:

a) most people leave you alone, but see it and smile. If I am in earshot, I can hear guys typically saying to their gals, "Wow great car" but without jealousy, just enjoyment.

b) People will straight up just walk up to me and say "I love your car" and then start talking about the car culture they grew up in, their Jaguar story, etc. It's charming, and I love it. It reinforces how much of a special and fascinating car culture we have in the US.

c) Guys in Ford Festiva or Honda's with glued on wings or spoilers just love cars. They love their car, they love my car. Whenever I see these types on the road, we just thumbs up and smile, knowing we love what we're doing, and it isn't a competition. When it comes to people enjoying my car, it's typically the gear heads, speed freaks, or auto lovers that "get" and "know" what this car is, and why it is special. That is VERY VERY cool, and something I wasn't expecting.... there's a certain point it isn't "Ferrari vs Lambo". There's a certain point it's "PEOPLE WHO REALLY LOVE TO DRIVE" vs "people who hate driving". It's a kinship and community, and it's very much like feeling part of something. I would say this is 100% the crux of your question... it isn't "mid range car person reacts to luxury supercar". It is more "people that like cars" and "people that don't care" than anything else.

d) Guys in Camaro, Charger, or Challengers want to race. Badly. Not sure why. I don't race... I am a touring guy. =)

e) Because people who buy nice cars do research, presumably, and because of the amount of nice cars in the area.... the only negativity I feel is from this class of car owners. Of course, Bentley people are in a different class. Rolls people are old school but not impervious to seeing other brands. Lambo and Ferrari guys are also sort of "internal" and don't give a **** about what you are driving... everything from a Hyundai to a Jag is simply a grey spot in their way.

f) I rarely get asked about it, and most of the time I am told about it. =)

g) This car looks like a Transformer crossed with something from GI Joe. I wasn't hoping for the attention, but anyone thinking that women will be looking at your car are WAY off. Women don't care unless they are driving in the car... for them it's more about that rare feeling of power and torque. If it's about gender, it simply goes back to whether people like cars and driving, or do not. The hilarious truth about this car is that men turn into little adorable boys, and the most compliments I think I've gotten directly are from younger guys at gas stations, etc. It's widely known to have the best exhaust system, so I get teenagers asking me to gun it "although I know it is immature". LOL The most reactions are from men that feel like little kids, again.

h) But when you are talking about luxury car owners like Maserati, Tesla, DEFINITELY Porsche, and 100% BMW, Audi, Lexus, and Infiniti people.... these people stare at my car with daggers. I suspect it's because it's easily one of the top 5 most beautiful cars on the road, and it's probably the same price or less than the BMW m4-6 or Audi a or s 6 or 7. I think there's a buyer's remorse when they see my car, IE a realization they spent much more for potentially less. This is anecdotal and of course, my perception.
I bought this car for me, to enjoy commuting in. I didn't realize it was classified as a super car, nor was I really aware that I would get "looks", which was completely naive of me. I live in an area where Bentley, Aston Martin, Tesla, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Rols are ALL OVER THE ROAD. It's absurd. Maybe that desensitized me.... I've talked to local car owners about it, and they say when you get out of the SF Bay Area, it's a whole different ball game, and you need to plan extra time at stops because people are engaged and will talk about it to you.... so I am planning on that during my Glacier / Yellowstone / Grand Teton NPS trip this summer.... =)

I would love to know people's experience in rural areas... I imagine a fancy car is like seeing a UFO fly through town?

 

Fishbits - love it. Nice job.

 

Fishbits. Well said. I live in a fairly rural part of PA but within 30-40 minutes of Baltimore and an hour or better from DC. Closest "city" is one of about 40K residents is 20miles to my north. Reactions anywhere I go are very similar; mostly awe, smiles, curiosity soon followed by "wow". This is mostly Corvette country so the C7 is the closest most see to my Ftype. The nice thing is the Vet owners seem to have a deep appreciate for the Jag when they see it. I get asked more questions by them than I do others. Again an example of the car culture you referenced.

To my south in the land of Unhinged and Foosh, the reactions I have had are; "where did you buy that", folks practically corkscrewing themselves out of their cars to get a better look while driving or the reaction I loved hearing more than once...."damn....". The best reaction I ever got was from a Ferrari owner who came upon my car at a coffee shop, shook his head and said almost under his breath' "i should have gone with my gut and gotten that!".

Its a very rare beast even where I am, and I've only seen one in the wild. My son saw a white coupe in York once but most people at first have no idea what make it is and then a few seconds later it hits them. The next reaction is to ask me to rev it....its that sweet animal growl that then makes the smiles grow even more.

 

When people point and smile in my direction, I don't know if it's the car, the plate or me.

 

I live in the Charlotte, NC area but work out in the Pinehurst, NC area. Just in my short 2.5 weeks of ownership, I've seen 2 other F-Types where I live. One of my colleagues at work has one but we rarely cross paths at work due to the nature of our shift-work. So, this car is somewhat "common place" at both places. However, when commuting to/from work, I get thumbs-up, people pointing & gawking & guys in pick-ups/SUVs who want to race me.

Best reaction so far was in the Publix parking lot 2 days ago with my daughter. A Publix employee had just finished putting away groceries into a customer's vehicle parked 2 cars down from me. As we were getting out of my car & the employee walked by, she commented how very nice it looked & said, "Mid-life crisis car? Oh! Just kidding!"

I laughed & answered with, "I guess so if you also count the 3 Porsches I've owned."

 

My 5-year daughter was on the fence about The Sled. She actually cried when I came home with it & wanted to know why I didn't have the Porsche anymore!

Then we had a stretch of really nice days this past weekend & she & I spent a daddy & daughter day together. I put her Recaro Booster seat in the passenger seat & we ran errands with the top down. At the end of the day, I asked her what she thought of the car, "I like it a little bit," was her reply. The part she liked best was that the "it did the same thing with the roof that the Porsche (Boxster) did."

But, she said, "It's too noisy" -- referring to the exhaust note. She jumps whenever I start the car & the top is down.

(The comments from people that day when seeing the black car with bright pink Recaro Booster seat in the car was pretty funny, too. But I got those same kind of comments when I did that in the Boxster as well.)

 

Valet at a posh restaurant

Thanks for the chance to drive a manual shift Jag, I've never driven one with a manual shift- and then he goes and parks next to another F-Type convertible

 

This is HILARIOUS because I might ask you to die a fly-by in Ephreta, PA next to a funeral home. You must be near there, to some extent.... LOL My new father in law is a wonderful gent from the area, and runs a Corvette... but LOVES my F-Type out here. It's really interesting the gear heads liking this car.

I think there's possibly a bit of reaction against the Tesla people, and how boring that car is... so we're further positioned into "car lovers" and "I just want to get to B from A" people... It's less "this fun car" vs "this fun car", and now it's just YAY FUN CAR!! and we're all bonding over whatever brings us happiness. =)

 

Hilarious, indeed.

 

every valet...

[shuffle shuffle] [doin' mah jobby] sees the car [perks up],
but still [shuffle shuffle to the door] [still doin' mah job]

Then they see the stick shift.

They freak out.

They start falling on themselves how they heard about this, it's so fun, all these automatics are so dull, etc. One guy who does track days in his Mazda made a point.... people talk about automatic's being a bit faster off the line...

"WHO CARES WHEN YOU AREN'T HAVING AS MUCH FUN... that's the only thing you are winning out there".

 

Maybe that restriction in the clutch release is part of the "valet" mode.

 

Happy to run by the place in Ephrata next time I'm over in that area. It's only about 35-40 minutes away which just gives me another driving excuse. Perhaps when we pull together the next group meet starting in Lancaster we can take a quick run up to Ephrata and he can see 7-8 of them. And perhaps we can all help to "wake the dead" when we pass the funeral home.

 

Took the car to get detailed today and the following occurs:

Customer 1: "That your white Jag over there?"

Customer 2: "I wish!"

Me: "Oh, that's me actually."

Customer 1: "You don't look like you'd drive that"

Me: "umm...ok?"

Customer 1: "You look like you drive a Volvo."

Me: "......"

 

Hahahahaha! You should have replied that their tip was in the Volvo

 

That's certainly an odd comment.
Do you wear a bicycle helmet when you drive?

 

Lol ^ reminds me of last week when I pulled up to a brewery and stepped out of the F as an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a while was also pulling up. He said, "You look like the person who should be driving that car, like you're in some commercial or something...?"

 

ImNotFamousAnymore, let's trade looks...

 

LOL I was just totally baffled! What do you even say to that?!

 

Was that some kind of insult...? I genuinely don't understand what that means. lol

 

Me either. I'm still puzzling over it. Then later he mentioned that I'm driving an "establishment" car and that people with funny colored hair used to drive Volvos back in his day.

Uh...what? I think he might have just been a bit off his rocker. He followed all of this by telling me blatantly untrue stories about his time in the Marines in Pakistan in the 1970s...