When Charles Floyd and his future wife got their first Jeep, a used slate blue 1997 Sahara with oversize tires, he noticed that a lot of Jeep drivers noticed him. “We are driving along, and people are waving at us,” he recalls. He asked her, “‘Why are people waving at us?’ She said, ‘That’s what Jeep people do. Jeeps acknowledge each other.’”
It’s known as the Jeep Wave, but giving the high sign to a marque mate isn’t restricted to Jeeps. Many brands have specific signals to acknowledge fellow owners, from a whole-handed wave to raising a single index finger from the steering wheel, flashing the lights or amiably tooting the horn.
But before you try to signal oncoming car kin, be forewarned. There are unwritten customs that are more byzantine than a lodge worth of Masonic handshakes; who signals first, how to signal and which models respond to which other models are subject to codes and conventions. Do it right and you certify your cognoscenti status with a fellow elite. A signaling faux pas marks you as a poser and earns you nothing but a chilly rebuff — and possibly a single finger raised from the steering wheel, but not the index finger.
What motivates otherwise sane people to concern themselves with who waves at whom first? At the root is basic human instinct. “I’m pretty sure it’s biologically built in,” said Roy F. Baumeister, a social science professor and author of an influential paper, “The Need to Belong.” “Being alone in the world is unpleasant,” he said, “and in our evolutionary past it was dangerous.”
Of course, Professor Baumeister said, “There is no ‘us’ without a ‘them.’” Brand loyalists vary vastly in how inclusive or exclusive they are. Jeep may be the most inclusive, with drivers lifting two fingers in a peace sign gesture to every Jeep regardless of model, although there are limits. One user’s post on the Reddit Jeep Forum cites the failure of other Jeepers to wave at her even though she made certain to “wave at every jeep except for the truck bc those are a disgrace.”
Owners of other brands may be even more discerning; Porsche, for one. Drivers of rear-engined, air-cooled 911s, which are in the tradition of the original Porsche design, tend to look askance at water-cooled variations, like the 996, as Tyler Gross and his wife discovered. “We were driving on the 101 in San Francisco, somewhere in the Bay Area,” he recalls. They were in their 996, one of several enthusiast cars they have owned. They spotted a 911 pacing them on the right. “My wife gave a thumbs up to a 911 owner,” he said. “He gave us a thumbs down.” That happened to them twice.
Which is slightly ironic, because the Mazda Miata, which has emerged as the universally beloved greeter, founded its signaling tradition on the example set by Porsche drivers. Codified in the first issue of Miata Magazine, an unattributed author wrote that among their “fondest memories” of their first Porsche was the exchange of high beams with oncoming owners. “We have had many requests to revive this tradition for the Miata Club of America,” the author wrote.
The Miata NA, the original design, gives its drivers a distinct advantage in the charm offensive: It appears to have a derpy expression thanks to its intake’s “say cheese” smile and pop-up headlights. People in cars of all kinds mime the pop-up lights with their hands, the way children used to pump a fist in the air to urge truckers to blare the air horn. Some Miata owners have made the most of that with a “wink module” that lets them pop up a single headlight in salutation. Moss Miata, which started distributing one such module year ago, says it has sold them in the hundreds — for a car model that has not been manufactured since 1997.
James Johnston, a member of the Bay Area Miata Club, added a technologically advanced wink module whose phone app lets him raise the left or right light singly, blink them both, move them sequentially like a stadium wave or half open them in “sleepy eye” mode. “At least once a week some kids make the hand signal,” he said. “And I enjoy their pleasure in seeing it happen.” At restaurants he sometimes sits where he can see people stop to admire his car. When they do, he activates the wink. “They will jump a little bit, but they’ll smile.”
Subaru is an odd hybrid of inclusive and exclusive. In some parts of the country they wave to one another, particularly Outbacks, but Subaru owners segment themselves further by adorning their cars with any of 34 lifestyle badges — free from Subaru — that represent their personal interests, from yoga to rally driving. The adhesive-backed plastic badges nestle together in a line to create something like a personal military campaign ribbon. The program is the brainchild of Tom Salvino, head of owner communication for Subaru. He noticed that Subaru owners plastered their cars with bumper stickers expressing their personalities, and thought, “Let’s give them a chance to show their passion for the brand.”
After six months of design, the program began in May 2010. It has now distributed close to one million badges, Mr. Salvino said, the most popular being the pets badge, with double the requests of the next most popular, road tripping, followed by camping, love, parks, pride, stargazing, hiking and the environment. Annually some are retired, some revived and new ones introduced. Clubs and organizations can request custom badges (for a fee). The badge program is popular enough to inspire a 4,300-member “My Subaru Badge of Ownership” Facebook page where members discuss all matters badge. And there is a steep resale market on eBay where a single music badge sold for more than $100.
Range Rover owners, fittingly for a car with an English pedigree, are subject to hierarchical rules as strict as Royal Court peerage protocols — premium models never acknowledge lesser models unless the lesser model acknowledges first. This is apparently true the world over, and even within model classes.
Al Shea, co-founder of LLF, a car sweepstakes website in London, posted a video explaining “I’ve learned you don’t just wave at every Defender — there are rules,” he said. “No. 1, don’t wave at the army Defenders,” he added, because they “just look at you and blank you.” Neither do vintage Defenders acknowledge modern ones, and don’t wave when in the Cotswolds, because “that’s like the standard car in the Cotswolds,” he said. “They look at you with utter disgust.”
Most acknowledgments are subtle, but not “Jeep Ducking.” It is a craze unintentionally begun by Allison Parliament in July 2020, when she wrote “Cool Jeep” in Sharpie on a rubber duck and left it on a stranger’s hood. She posted the “ducking” on social media and it caught on in a big way. Now people in an estimated 86 countries leave ducks on Jeeps they admire, which owners proudly perch on the dash. The larger the flock, the greater the bragging rights.
There are even accessories that let owners expand their dashboards to nest more ducks. While ducking is largely considered a granola-crunching, patchouli-scented act of kindness, some find it an affront. “Its a harmless bit of fun — I was surprised how many members at a local gun forum don’t like it,” one user posted on the Reddit Jeep Forum.
Years after Charles Floyd and Cynthia Anderson were wed, they begrudgingly replaced their blue Jeep Sahara with a Scion xA. Asked if there was a greeting that he exchanged with other Scion drivers, he said, “There isn’t anything like that I know of.” Unless politely ignoring each other is, in fact, the Scion owner greeting.
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