A Car Spotter's Guide to Washington, DC

The capital of the United States of America might not be the first place you’d think of for car spotting. I’ll admit that as a lifelong resident of the DC metro area, it’s not that great a city in general. However, if you know where to go, it’s actually possible to find some really cool stuff around here. This post will cover the best places, how to get to them, and what you might find.
(Note: I don’t own a smartphone, so there will be no pictures of cars. However, I have near-total recall for car spots so just trust me here. -Paul)

Transit

DC traffic is absolutely garbage. If you want to get anywhere in a hurry, use the Metro. Despite what you may read online, it’s safe, reasonably efficient, reliable, and cheap. You need a SmarTrip card, these are available for purchase at CVS and Giant stores, and inside Metro stations at the blue kiosk. The trains are card-only, buses take $1 bills and small change in addition to cards. Metro stations are easily identified by large glass & metal roofs above the entrance escalators, as well as brown columns with colored stripes on them corresponding to the lines that serve that station. For example, the Columbia Heights station is on the Green and Yellow lines.

If you require assistance on your trip, there are maps, price charts, and Metro Transit Police kiosks in every station.
Metrobus stops are identified by red and blue signs, most in DC have shelters.

For additional information, visit https://www.wmata.com.

Where to go

As with most car spotting, follow the money. Georgetown, Logan Circle, and Embassy Row are all great areas. If you feel like venturing out into the suburbs, Old Town Alexandria in Virginia is a good bet. M, S/RS, & AMG models are pretty popular, along with Maserati and Alfa Romeo. Porsche GTS/Turbo/Turbo S models are frequent but usually in dark colors, so keep your eyes peeled. Ferrari/Lamborghini models are a special find, Bentleys aren’t that common, and a Rolls-Royce is a major unicorn. Less exotic but just as interesting: there are metric tons of Volvos, classics & vintage muscle is always a treat but mostly only around in the spring/summer months in the suburbs, and there are some R32 GT-Rs rolling around. On a good day, I saw the following:
FJ80 Land Cruiser
Ferrari 458 Speciale
1957 Chevy Nomad
Slammed Hawkeye Impreza
Toyota Supra A80 (stock, manual, turbo, dark green👌)

Events

There are car shows yearly around my area in the Maryland suburbs. Kensington, Rockville, and Aspen Hill all have them during the summer or fall, plus there are loads of Supercar Sunday or Cars & Coffee events all over the DC area on the weekends (easy to find online). There’s also a massive car show at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center every February. In conclusion, thanks for reading my longest post ever, and don’t forget to comment & upvote!