For the area that this forum (and UBRF prior) caters to, OT is a necessity. Its the social aspect that keeps 99% of the active posters here. We considered getting rid of OT on UBRF a bunch of times, but it would have meant the death of the forum, and I think the same holds true here. People come here because of a common interest, cars, to shoot the shit and socialize (OT). As solely a car forum, its impossible to compete with the huge, worldwide forums for specific brands with regard to technical info, so it would essentially become a local-meets-only and classifieds bulletin board. The people who enjoy the social aspect and also contribute to the automotive forums would likely leave and go to their respective brand specific forums. Personally, if there were no OT I’d probably stop coming here and stay on saabcentral, hondatech, and tranceaddict. Sure, you’re going to get some toolbags who have no automotive knowledge and only post threads (stupid ones at that) in OT, but thats life. If they suck bad, delete them, if they are really morons or trolls, then ban them. Thats life with forums and part of being a moderator 
The only thing I miss about being a mod was the mods only section. Its nice not having to deal with people’s messes.
I’d say keep it the way it is :tup: