Kinder Cars

I've been doing some research on what car to buy in the U.S., and as part of that I decided to look at Youtube. Youtube can be a good source of information not just from the videos, but from the comments as well.

However one thing I noticed while reading the comments is that people can be very passionate about cars and, more to the point, the nationality of said cars. It's simply amazing.

What I mean is, some people will not even consider looking at a foreign car, and apparently some people will not even consider looking at a domestic car. But it goes further than that; people will actually attack another person's character based solely upon the company of a car that he or she likes.

I had mostly forgotten about this tendency among people in at least America. I of course knew about it in terms of politics, but I had forgotten that it exists over such mundane things as choice in consumer products.

What I don't understand is why people take such things so close to heart like that. Why does it matter what someone else prefers in terms of cars? Why do automobiles bring up such strong feelings of nationalism among some people? And why do people try to make statements with their cars? Why not just buy what you like and let others buy what they like? It all seems rather childish if you ask me.