At the outset, the Cars and Coffee phenomena started out to be something extraordinarily cool. You have a grassroots event consisting of salt of the earth people getting together on a Sunday morning at the local coffee shop to talk cars. In theory, it was brilliant.
Like-minded individuals bonding over a cup of Joe and comparing note about the latest car news was great. Hell, we loved going to our local events. But as the events started to grow in size, so did a lot of things that were, frankly, unwelcome.
First came the rather unnecessary shenanigans brought forth by the "hoon" crowd. You know these fools. They think they're talented drivers that can drift anywhere, rev their motors without reason and will attempted to do a burnout or donuts for any gathering provided there's a slight chance they can get a tiny bit of attention. We think these types were not breast fed enough as newborns.
Second came the dealers. While we don't mind dealers as they can be very helpful when it comes to ascertaining information about all-new products, one thing we do not like is being shilled to at a grassroots event. Please don't hand out your business cards. We know where to find you when the time comes to make a purchasing decision.
Lastly, the dreaded "runs" associated with cars and coffee events. While it used to be a simple meet up, mini rallies or "runs" have become incorporated into the meet up. In some cases the organizers put them together, in others they simply are a biproduct of getting this many folks together. What it leads to is some seriously dangerous driving on an early Sunday morning when most folks are loading up their kids in a minivan and heading to the park with the family pup. Why these predominantly untalented drivers feel the urge to NOT take it to the track is beyond us.
Though it started out as a rather interesting way to connect with the car community, it has become clear to Agent 001 and myself that we would rather be caught dead than find ourselves getting a 60-minute lecture from an owner about his 1953 Delahaye, or sitting around in lawn chairs having pissing contests much about nothing.
What say you, Spies? Has Cars and Coffee gone from a GREAT idea to the BIGGEST sh!t show going?