I think the car loyalty thing is quite parallel to the team loyalty thing. Why are you an "X" fan? Because of parents, birth, being a student, something.
Why are you a GM guy? Because your Dad was (usually).
I was a GM guy way back, as was my Dad. I had a GM credit card which yielded some large discounts at times. I had the Chrysler minivan of yore because nobody else made one comparable in 1988. That thing ran forever with few glitches. I changed my own oil and spark plugs etc. Four cylinder, easy to work on, single point injection.
I went back to GM after that, a Buick, a Caddy, another Caddy, then the GTI. My wife wanted something fun, I wanted something fairly practical. It was both.
Now the little sport ute thing which is ... pleasantly boring.
I owned a Ford Pinto briefly, it was pretty much junk I thought. I bought it off a friend who was given a poor tradein value and sold in a month later.