Everything that has been posted so far has been spot on. I can see if from both sides. Being apart of many platforms you can honestly see whats out there. Watching peoples builds are a great past time. I remember with my first celica back when i was 15, i thought i was the coolest because i put a pair cheap tein lowering springs and i spray painted my hood flat black. Back then that was amazing in my eyes. Fast forward 12 years later, my current celica has the proper parts in my eyes that are installed. We all start from some where, we all have embarrassing moments in time which is what is great. I do not want to be apart of scene now a days. I build my vehicles to my liking. I see it from this point of view, do other members and strangers pay for my parts? If not then i could careless what they have to say. When I go to Import face off its great to see builds by others. From budget builds to no expense spared builds. I can not judge. But over all out of my SC, 3000gt, 6gc and my hemi platforms i own, I always like my 6gc people the best. sorry for the rant but its a good question/comment to make about the scenes out there.

I thought it was funny today, I was updating my mods list on my Celica and it got me thinking about how much I used to dream about what I've done to my Celica and how proud I am of the steps I've taken thus far. I guess that's why I think I'm just sad that there really aren't many to appreciate it... At the same time I'm glad I don't have a mainstream car because it makes my build that much more unique. It's so tough, I want people to appreciate my car, but not build garbage cars themselves, and also be mature enough to have cool meets without getting the cops called. It's just impossible.

I quit

I'm sure I'm not the only one here that appreciates it. Also after owning a variety of cars it doesn't matter what car it is you run into problems with assholes of some sort, I think the Miata drew the most negativity in the shortest amount of time. The Celica seemed to fly under the radar but when it did get comments they were only positive or asking if it was a Supra. The Firebird gets mostly positive comments with "Oh wow it's a stick shift" being the most common, but you get the occasional ignorant that thinks because it's a domestic it can't turn and what have you. Could be worse, could have a Honda. I've noticed you can have a really nice and clean car, with no ricey crap at all, but because it's a Honda people will still give you ****. Same with Mustangs, "Run into any good crowds lately?" There is no universally loved car, build the car for yourself and think of others' appreciation and compliments as the icing on the cake and not the whole cake.

Naturally this is going to be different area from area. I would have thought you being in Ca you'd be able to find some quality tuners. I haven't been in the tuner scene since I sold my celica. We do have a quality muscle scene here which I enjoy. A lot of stock cars that have a few mods but a lot of muscle that has a lot of time and effort into the cars.

I get where you frustrations are though you remember when the scene locally was better and now that you're ready to participate in the scene the current group of people are not what you experienced with you dad.