Berlin, CT
I've been a "car guy" for about as long as I can remember (maybe longer than I've been an official "pinball guy", but that just wasn't a thing when I started playing in the 80's because pinball was so ubiquitous then, so everybody was too), starting as a 7 year old trying to learn everything I could about them, reading about them, talking to car guys about them, lusting after my favorites.
I started out with heaps that I could afford, and worked on them and fixed them up, and sold them for a meager profit to move up. And I learned along the way, especially about what I liked. I've had more cars over the years than I can even remember (I'm under 40), and finally got my first "keeper" (A 1994 1LE Z-28) when I was 19 or 20. I built a motor for it (practically in my college dorm room, haha), and upgraded the brakes and suspension as time went by. I bought and sold other cars, a mix of hot rods and daily drivers, and everything in between, but held onto that Camaro, even as I moved around the country, and no matter how much it cost to store/insure/register in various states. When I eventually settled down back in my hometown and had a good job and a house with storage, I bought another vehicle that I had lusted after for years (not a Grand National, haha, but I'll have one again). For pinball people, replace the car part with pinball machine, and it's a pretty similar story for most people.
I think the "cargument" thing, at least with "collector" or special cars (not your run-of-the-mill appliance Toyota Camry), which I'm sure has been said here many times before, is that they are both mechanical objects, with moving parts, that you have to be a little savvy to understand and work on yourself. Both have nostalgia appeal, and are purely luxury items that make their owners feel good, and have little, actual, utilitarian purpose. Sure, you can take your collector car to work every day, but very few people do that. I'm very fortunate that I have the luxury of going out to the garage, and just being able to stare at two machines that I have sitting there, that I have lusted after for years, and they are mine. And I drive them too. Fellow car folks know exactly what I'm talking about. No different than guitar guys, gun guys, airplane guys, watch guys, etc., etc.
So for us "car guys" and "pinball guys", there's a lot of overlap, especially in the type of people that enjoy the aspects of both.
Now I have a sudden urge to go for a country rip in one of the steeds, haha.
