can a site around this them survive?

[AffiliateDreamer]

generally speaking, can auto related communities turn a healthy profit?

It seems these type of sites gather lots of traffic yet struggle to profit from it?

Are they basically like celeb. type sites? (too much traffic, very low $)

[MrSpeed]

In general communities/forums do not perform very well especially with the regular visitors. You can probably make enough to cover costs and have some beer money left over.

However a newbie to a detailing forum might get excited when he reads about the results that people get using the PC7424 polisher and NXT. There may be a chance to make a few dollars there.

When your goal is to make money you need to target buyers, not freeloaders looking for free information.

Of course there are exceptions to the rules.

[AffiliateDreamer]

well forums usually are talkinga about products, isn't that very similiar to review sites like shopping.com/epinions?