Wasn't aware of this before but here it goes

>drive stock Miata
>retard in a lifted Tacoma nearly rear-ends me because he was looking over my car and on his cell phone
>get cut off by soccer moms, bro trucks, tailgated for no reason in normal speed, moderate traffic
>can't merge quickly or safely because the top of my car is below the window of your average retard-mobile

>install ISR catback
>car now sounds like a Formula Atlantic
>spits fire every shift when it's warmed up
>merge onto highway, let loose with my right foot the song of my people
>BP4W screaming bloody murder from 3500 all the way to redline
>still only doing 60 MPH
>anyone with their window down is now deaf
>drivers give me plenty of room, do not ride in my blind spots or cut me off
>slow drivers ahead of me let me by
>hear a pop from the exhaust, immediately see the car behind me back way off
>young people give me thumbs up
>old people get really mad
>cops don't give a fuck

>normally people get out of my way and try to give me room and are safe drivers around me

I drive a cheap-ass RX-8, and get the same treatment. I think it's just something people do when they assume you car is fast or expensive.

When I drove a Civic, other drivers treated me like shit.

There's various degrees of shitbox. If your shitbox is a *total* shitbox, people avoid you because they know you don't give a shit if it gets dinged, dented, or totalled. You're an unpredictable force of destruction that these people who sold their souls to the stealership for $400 a month fear worse than death.