r/cars vs r/MechanicAdvice

Side-by-side using public descriptions, members, growth and rule titles from SubMouse. Missing fields show as n/a. Adult communities are excluded.

Swap sides New comparison Related to r/cars Related to r/MechanicAdvice

Car culture hub vs repair advice

r/cars is framed as a large automotive enthusiast community for discussion, industry news, reviews and projects. r/MechanicAdvice presents itself as more than a simple car repair forum and points posters at sidebar rules.

In our directory, cars is much larger (about 7.4M, #106) than MechanicAdvice (about 2.1M, #516). Our directory lists MechanicAdvice among related communities for cars.

Use cars for enthusiast conversation; use MechanicAdvice when you need diagnosis help and can follow its posting rules (symptoms, vehicle details, what you already tried).

Choose r/cars for news, reviews and enthusiast projects.
Choose r/MechanicAdvice for repair troubleshooting with complete details.
Related-directory links do not mean every cars thread belongs in MechanicAdvice.

Written comparison based on public descriptions and rule titles · updated 2026-11-06.

r/cars

r/Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

r/Cars is the largest automotive enthusiast community on the Internet. We're Reddit's central hub for vehicle-related discussion, industry news, reviews, projects, DIY guides, advice, stories, and more.

Members: 7.4M
7-day growth: +943
Posts/day: 23.7
Directory rank: #106
Created: Mar 20, 2008
Submissions: Text or links

Sample mix: text posts 61%, links 33%, videos 6%

Topics: Cars

Rule titles (short names we collected)

No Incivility or illegality
No direct image or video posts
No ads/spam/blogspam
If you make a clickbait/cryptic post, mods may choose to mock you with flair
No political discussion / Code of Conduct
No polls, surveys, petitions, requests for funding
No witch hunts/doxxing
Non-member posts
No car purchase posts

Open r/cars on SubMouse

r/MechanicAdvice

Advice from experienced mechanics from several fields.

This is more than a car repair forum! Please read and follow the posting rules listed in the right hand sidebar.

Members: 2.2M
7-day growth: +2.6K
Posts/day: 268.8
Directory rank: #516
Created: Feb 17, 2012
Submissions: Text or links

Sample mix: videos 30%, text posts 26%, galleries 17%

Topics: Advice, Car Repair

Rule titles (short names we collected)

Advice- No "How F--ked/screwed am I?" Questions
No fake, joke, meme, illegal, malicious, offensive, unsafe, or AI generated posts/comments allowed
Be Courteous and Professional
One Incident Per Thread
No Tire, audio, video, used/new car, car insurance, suing a shop posts allowed on this sub
No Spam/Improper Linking
No Body Work, frame, rust or Detailing Questions Allowed On This Sub
Year, make, model, engine required on all posts

Open r/MechanicAdvice on SubMouse

Supported differences

Aspect	r/cars	r/MechanicAdvice
Public focus (from each community’s public description)	r/Cars is the largest automotive enthusiast community on the Internet. We're Reddit's central hub for vehicle-related discussion, industry news, reviews, projects, DIY guides, advice, stories, and more.	This is more than a car repair forum! Please read and follow the posting rules listed in the right hand sidebar.
Size r/cars is larger in our directory (about 3.4×).	7.4M members	2.2M members
Posting activity (our sample)	23.7/day	268.8/day
Common post types in our sample	text posts 61%, links 33%, videos 6%	videos 30%, text posts 26%, galleries 17%
Topic tags on SubMouse	Cars	Advice, Car Repair
Selected rule titles (short names we collected)	No Incivility or illegality; No direct image or video posts; No ads/spam/blogspam; If you make a clickbait/cryptic post, mods may choose to mock you with flair; No political discussion / Code of Conduct	Advice- No "How F--ked/screwed am I?" Questions; No fake, joke, meme, illegal, malicious, offensive, unsafe, or AI generated posts/comments allowed; Be Courteous and Professional; One Incident Per Thread; No Tire, audio, video, used/new car, car insurance, suing a shop posts allowed on this sub

What they share

Our directory lists each of these communities on the other’s related list.

Intent gap

Enthusiast hub versus repair helpdesk. Mixing them—posting a vague “car makes noise” one-liner on cars, or a show-off project on MechanicAdvice—misses each room’s description.

Where this comparison comes from

Directory descriptions, ranks/members, and cars → MechanicAdvice related link. Follow live sidebars for current posting requirements.

Members and public descriptions come from SubMouse's safe-for-work directory (as of 2026-11-02 UTC); 7-day growth measured from 2026-10-26. Posts/day and post-type mixes appear when we have an activity sample. Rule lines are short titles, not the full sidebar. Directory rank is listing order — communities outside the current Top 100 open in the info tool instead of a full community page.