Back when I was going to Southeastern Massachusetts University, now known as UMass Dartmouth, I had a wide circle of friends about whom I knew their favorite bands, whether or not they had pets, their single or partnered status, and the like, but for most of them, I did not know what they drove. SMU hid its parking lots behind berms, so from campus, all you saw was brutalist architecture rising from terraced lawns. Unless I happened to be arriving or leaving campus at the same time as a pal, I wouldn’t see them coming or going. There was even less chance of me seeing the rides of friends who lived on campus, if they had cars at all.
Those with cool cars tended to let you know, and I counted a C3 Corvette, a couple of GTIs, and a few BMWs in varying states of disrepair. But for the most part, friends’-cars discoveries tended to be the usual suspects: five- to ten-year-old hatchbacks and hand-me-down family sedans and wagons, none particularly interesting.
And so, I was surprised when one friend – I don’t remember her name, it was 1987 – announced that her piece of shit car (as she exclusively called it) refused to start, and asked if I could take a look at it. Of course I said yes, knowing full well I’d be useless at diagnosing anything more subtle than a disconnected battery, or, I don’t know, an entirely missing engine. But still, non-zero chance I could be the hero. I was surprised when she led me to a gloriously brown Triumph TR7. “Have you been driving a TR7 all this time?” I asked her. “Yeah, when it runs,” she replied. Nonetheless, it was still a cool car, a two-seater wedge that I recall being excited to see as a younger kid and still mildly thrilled to see before me as an older kid.
Any coolness it had was lost on my friend. All she knew was it was brown, ugly (to her eye), and crucially, completely unreliable. I get it: Nothing less cool than a car you can’t count on. A few months of misery later, the TR7 was replaced with a Hyundai Excel in nice silver-blue paint with the much-desired “starts every time” feature. She thought it was the coolest car in the world.
Your turn: Ever Had A Friend Or Loved One Who Owned A Cool Car And Didn’t Even Know It?
Top graphic image: Triumph
I have a friend whose first car was a Mazda 323GTX and had no idea it was notable. She drove it correctly (like a lunatic), but thought it was just any other compact.
Years later, she was confused about all the excitement concerning the Subaru WRX coming stateside. She’d already been there and done that back in the ’90s.
For me, most cars I considered cool were either cars I wouldn’t want to own or couldn’t afford. But still cars my friends and peers drove. They were cool just because they were outside my usual.
I still feel that way.
Uncle Ed (a lifelong bachelor who lived with my Grandma, except for a stint in the Navy) had a series of work trucks, always Fords. But in the garage he had a 1968 Dodge Dart GT, red over black, in immaculate condition. He complained that it wasn’t worth anything because it didn’t have the right engine. I loved that car, and told him to let me know if he ever wanted to sell it. He wound up selling it for pennies to a guy at the local muffler shop.
What engine did it have?
It had a 273 V8, but he was listening to other people who told him he should have gotten the GTS with a 340.
Other people are always happy to tell you that you should have spent more money.
Aunt had an FC3S. Not Because she liked sports cars. But because she had bad motion sickness even when driving. The lack of vibration from the engine reduced the issue and she kept it for a long time.
She drives a Lexus now.
My parents made me save up money for my “first car” since I was about 12, but one day when I was 16 and had my license for about a year I was out riding bikes with a friend looking for nearby random trails we could find / make when I came across one of these for exactly $50 less than I had saved up. Test drove it for about 3 miles and decided I wanted to leave my bike there, drive home with the owner, and get the money to buy it. My parents refused to withdraw the money from an account in my name but with them as a custodian no matter what and I had to have them drive me back to my bike defeated.
It’s still the only generation of the RX7/8’s I haven’t owned.
(BTW, I also drive a Lexus, but it’s OK as it’s an IS300 Sportcross.)
Actually my dad had a line of cool cars I didn’t appreciate at under 10 years old.Ford Fairlane 500, Chevy Chevelle, Buick Station Wagon (moms car), Silverado 454 with a 4bbl, heck not even sure dad knew they were cool.
Many Frat brothers had now awesome cars. One guy had a ’91 Pathfinder, another had an MR2 and there was an Integra in our midst. I really envied Ed’s ’90 Honda Prelude and Ben’s ’89 Acura Legend. Meanwhile I had an ’84 Fox body LTD sedan, then an ’88 Regal coupe. At least they kept me mobile – more than a blessing itself on campus.
I would happily own any of them 30 years or so on as a toy.
In 1959, my grandma bought my mom a 1957 Bel Air hardtop coupe in turquoise and white. I am not sure if it was really cool at the time or just a nice used car with a little style. When she got married a few years later, they traded it in on a 63 Galaxie 500 sedan. My dad had a 56 Bel Air hardtop coupe. FYI My mom’s car was in an accident and when they repainted it, two tone was out of style and they painted it all turquoise. Who knew?
From 1980-82, my friend drove hand me downs from her dad and older brother… big Dodge Charger and a screaming chicken Trans Am. Both big badass cars. We didn’t think they were cool at the time, but they had presence.
My first girlfriend had a 1986 Chevy Cavalier Z24 hatchback with the 2.8L MPFI V6 and the digital dash.
It was pretty cool back in 1990.
Still is, to some of us! The wheels – Chevy’s 80s interpretation of ’70s muscle car stock – are still quite cool in my eyes.
My grandma owned an LTD LX (the four door Mustang GT).
She neither knew nor cared.
In college, my dorm had the requisite “Real Genius” style oddball who was both brilliant and marched completely to the beat of his own drummer. The legends that surrounded him were amazing, but he was quite nice, and once he got to know you, very generous. Usually, you probably didn’t want it (“no really, an all weekend game of Dungeons and Dragons sounds great but…”), but when he said I could borrow his car, I couldn’t pass that up. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a well-cared for second gen Honda Prelude with a manual.
Returning it later with gas in the tank and a big bag of M&Ms (he’d sort them by color), I remarked what a cool machine he had. His response was “whatever…it’s old, it works, and it gets good mileage.”
He knew it was kinda cool and kinda rare, but I don’t think my buddy in high school realized just HOW cool and rare his Lancia Beta was. He just needed a cheap ride and found something different.
He got a good deal on it but it was always broken, always overheating, always boiling oil in the spark plug valleys. The last straw was when he closed his door one day, as one does, in the usual way, and the drivers window just exploded all over the interior.
That thing handled like it was on rails though, and made some good sounds when sorted. Definitely one of the coolest POS’s I’ve ever driven / ridden in.
Revives memories of my chronically ill Fiat 128SL that was more fun than anything I’ve driven.
My stepmother had some almost cool cars at various points in her life: a Sunbeam Alpine (the I4, not the V8 Tiger version), a late ’60s Mustang notchback (I6), a Gremlin (not the X with the 304 V8), and a first generation Jeep Cherokee (though that was an absolute beast of a 4wd – it pulled school busses out of the ditch in the winter time).
Of course she also had a ’77 Chevette, so there’s that.
I’m not sure where the Saturn L300 fits in the spectrum.
My first couple of years in college I did not own a car, so when vacation times rolled around I had to beg for rides home or face a lonely time on campus for the duration. One year before spring break I was bemoaning the lack of a ride only a couple of days before vacation when a guy we called SS (the shortened form of Stoner Steve) piped up and asked where I was headed. When I told him he said,”Dude, I go right by there! I can drop you off no problem. Only thing is my car is a real shit heap that sucks gas. Appreciate any green you could throw my way.”
Now you have to picture SS: he always wore a filthy green wool-felt floppy hat that practically covered his eternally bloodshot eyes, corduroy overalls that might have been tan to start out, a small rotation of plaid flannel shirts – usually unbuttoned – and heavily worn, high-heeled Frye boots with rounded heels. Hardly the epitome of a reliable driver. Plus, usually, a reeking joint between perpetually smiling lips.
“The exhaust leaks so I have to keep the windows down and it smokes some because it drips oil, but it’ll get you there. Plenty of room for baggage ‘cause there’s no back seat. I wanted to get a VW last
summer, but I couldn’t afford the ones I liked, then my brother said I could drive this until I saved up enough. I know fuck- all about cars, but only a dumbshit argues with a free ride, am I right?”
Constantly high driver? Mechanically dodgy vehicle. Of course I said yes. So, at the appointed time, I was standing at the curb with my duffle bag ready to rendezvous with SS. As evening descended, from the direction of the satellite parking lot came the lumpy, rumbling blat of a V8 with a bad muffler. Soon enough a car with a single headlight (flipped to high beam) emerged from the gloom. The hood and patches on the right front quarter were gray with rattle can primer. Dazzled by the headlight, it took my eyes a few seconds to adapt and see that what had pulled up next to me was a (mostly) red ‘68 AMX.
“I know, man, looks like crap but I swear it’ll make it.” I threw my bag over seat, climbed in and off we went with SS herking and jerking the clutch until we got up to speed. Indeed it did make it, and I paid for all the gas. Gladly.
Great story – I can smell him from here!
He was fragrant.
Your description is somewhat reminiscent of John Kennedy O’Toole
Thanks, “A Confederacy of Dunces” is longtime favorite.
Shame it never made it to a wider audience, great book.
An AMX and a contact high. Envy!
YES – a former classmate of mine had a bugeye WRX wagon. She was the farthest thing from a car enthusiast, but her dad told her to get the WRX because it had some better safety feature(s) over the base Imprezza. She was astonished that me and my friends thought her “wagon” was cool.
A former coworker, who actively detested the concept of owning and caring for a car, had a bright red ~2007 Volvo S60R in the mid 2010s. She needed a car, went to the Volvo dealer used lot, picked “the red one” just because of the color, and did not care that it was actually a sweet ride. And promptly drove it into the ground.
My mom. Her car history included:
Late 60s Impala SS convertible (white with red leather).
70s boat tail Riviera.
80s Riviera with the 3.8L V-6 turbo.
Volvo 740 turbo wagon.
I knew a very stupid entitled guy that had a mk 4 supra. He bought new and thought it was just a 2 door Toyota. He never changed or even looked at the oil. He claimed didn’t know you were supposed to? Engine seized at around 30k miles. He replaced it with an sn95 mustang and kept saying how it was so great to have a sports car. Along with how terrible and unreliable Toyota is. I guess he woule get his oil changed when ford sent him recall notices. I knew he was among one of the stupidest people I’ve ever been around but in high insight he is even dumber then that. That Supra would probably be worth at least $60k today and that sn95 $3k it you are lucky. Not to mention the Supra really only asks for oil gas tires and brakes.
My dad had this terrible diesel rabbit. He pulled it out of some barn somewhere and had to pull the interior out from it being a mouse resort. This was in the early ’10s. My youngest sisters friends used to think it was so cool because it looked like the ae86 they see in their Japanese cartoons. A few wanted to buy it from him. But it was in bad shape. He sold it to some kid who had the same ideas.
While he’s obviously an idiot, TBF, prior to F&F movies, the Mk4 wasn’t regarded as a supra sports car, particularly if it wasn’t a turbo. Contemporary reviews were a bit muted, kind of like the modern reviews of the newest Z, and it tended to rate at the low end of the magazine shootouts against competitors. I remember reading one where the aged C4 beat it as a driver and in performance on a track, but IIRC, they might have given the nod to the Supra because of the better build quality.
I recall supra being viewed similarly as z cars then. Not muscle cars. Maybe not really sports car. But a sporty car. I don’t think the mr2 really got a reputation as a sports car until maybe the mid 90s even then it was still sort of of sporty. Most of the Japanese sports cars were sort of viewed like a slightly better performance mg. Of course no one in the US doing to 1000hp builds either. There were some outfits doing some things to them but very mild and not all that well advertised. There were people that flat out believe Japanese couldn’t do a sports car. Even when nsx arrived they didn’t think it was a super car or sports car just a sporty car. They always call the sporty Japanese cars a poor man’s Ferrari or Porsche sometimes Corvette. The same way the Lexus weren’t really seen and luxury or all that premium at first. It was just a Toyota with leather seats.
For the normal person or the lesser Lexuses, but friends of the family owned a car dealership with MB as one of the brands and they were pretty shook up by the LS400. They stressed MB’s still superior safety over Lexus as Toyota pretty much only left them with that. But, yeah, there was a lot of . . . I’m not sure if racism is quite the right word, but definitely a kind of disregarding attitude or playing down of anything except reliability with the Japanese because they couldn’t dispute that. (One thing I know I’ve mentioned before was reading—from the same UK mag—an article on a Subaru where they stated the frameless doors made them look cheap, while an article on Audi complimented the frameless doors for being elegant. Considering history, it was odd to me how the UK seemed to adopt the German cars as their own and were very biased in their favor, though I suppose there was even more history with France, so maybe Germany made some sense in that light.) For the Supra comparos I was talking about, those primarily included just the Japanese peers (and I think I only read the one that included the C4) and the only car that tended to score lower than the Supra was the 3000 GT. What I remember the general consensus to be, the Supra was kind of heavy for the time, driver connection wasn’t great, and the handling wasn’t anything special.
LS400 was a wakeup call to everyone. They were pulling customers from everyone. But they were used to Japanese making tinny little cheap things and cars. Sc300 also has been massively underrated in the past. The Japanese made a big jump in the 80s with electronics after being decent to good in the 70s mainly with audio equipment.
It happened with car clubs and shows too the Japanese stuff started coming in and the old hot rod guys didn’t like it. Most of clubs and events that didn’t accept the new wave ended up dying off.
I think part of the British problems with the Japanese came from WWII and the aftermath. The whole forgotten army, burma, fall of Singapore. They sort of looked at all their colonies as inferior. Then the cold war they had west Germans as allies could put all the bad feelings on the east Germans and obviously cold war fears on them and the eastern bloc. Plus NATO then the EU sort of in this together. But they didn’t think about the Japanese any differently then they had before. They also didn’t have a faction to blame for what had happened in the war.
That’s a good theory on that. Thinking about it, I would add the Japanese eating their shipbuilding industry, the UK’s pride and once the source of empire. And of course, the inbred royal family has a lot of German ancestry, but I haven’t forgotten WW2 even though I was born about 30 years later and we weren’t seeing bombs falling on our cities from them in the US like they had twice in under 30 years. I don’t hold it against German people—I’m in some ways more Germanic in demeanor than American and I’ve met a lot of Germans and they’re awesome and funny, unlike the stereotypes—but I do to some degree hold it against those companies and somehow still see what they had once made when I see the brands.
In the US in the ’90s, the boomers didn’t care for me showing up to interrupt their row of identical “custom” muscle cars (over-restoration wasn’t a thing yet as the values were still reasonable) with my 260Z. Japanese cars were “Jap crap” or “rice burners”, but German cars got none of that. Hm, maybe it was just racism.
The Italians, Dutch, Norway got a lot of their ship building as well. Germany was able to rebuild and keep their ship building. Some could be uk built ships have been built in Germany. Now you have South Korea taking a bigger part of the really big special stuff with the Chinese having a huge amount of merchant vessels. Everyone was taking a bite out the British and their government didn’t make it easy for them. They had a lot of pide in ocean liners almost all their current big ocean liners / cruise ships are coming from Italian yards.
Losing the British empire could definitely be part of it. With the British colonial system of take everything back to London with no return it was on borrowed time. FDR told Churchill that multiple times and that they needed to chang. There are some that blame the Japanese for the fall of the British empire. But it’s basically true they really did cause the fall of the British empire even though they lost the war. The US just made it final. The people in the colonies saw the british and other European militaries could be defeated they were free after the Japanese so they announced independence. The us never really got involved militarly unless there was threat of communism. The dutch lost dutch east indies now mainly Indonesia after fighting a war there directly after wwii. That was a direct result of the Japanese too. As was Vietnam. The us told the dutch they had to pull troops and recognize Indonesia if they didnt they would be cut off from the Marshal plan. Alot of that happened with the British too. But we are in a era where so many don’t know history or bother to read history and everything is victim vs oppressor. They don’t realize the county they are calling imperialist broke all the empires for the most part without additional conflict.
The cod wars might have played a role too they had west Germany on their side. Fishing towns died almost over night, they didn’t trust their government at all after that. It really was a string of bad governments and I think most recognized that. Maybe some ill will towards iceland and international courts for the the fishing industry decline. Some even cite it as a reason for brexit. Still seems to be significant ill will towards Argentina for the fauklands. It’s almost like the only mea culpa the British accept is being on side in a conflict.
The Japanese also came in early to buy factories of former uk brands. That might have had something to do will it. Instead of looking at their failure they blamed Nissian and Toyota. Plus fishing especially with iceland.
The car shows I used to frequent in the 80s and 90s even though most were in an area of well read, well traveled people. Were pretty much anti anything that wasn’t American unless it was something super weird. Anything that wasn’t American were called foreign junk or jobs. Japanese also got the rice burners . The people that really hated the Japanese cars I remember calling them jap crap. That somehow felt more ignorant to me. They always seemed stranger. Perhaps because even the guys with the Japanese cars were calling them rice burners for a period. Im not sure that term has fully died out especially with motorcycles. I haven’t heard ricer in a long time though. Part of that might have been how the Japanese got deep into the market everyday cars. Their brands were loosing and looking more like the Japanese cars. The Europeans besides vw never really got to that level. They were just viewed as an oddity, professors, or bankers car.
It was probably a mix of boomers and the greatest generation. They had all the same stuff. Especially 2 door 55 chevy, t buckets and 32 33 coupes, Chevy and ford mussle car. The Mopar guys were actually more inclusive back then. Most of them had moved to other brands. It probably helped the Mitsubishi logos stamped all over most of the then current Chrysler stuff. They saw the writing on the wall. But still had their classics. I believe boomers created the Corvette math. That seemed like it happened with the c4. I don’t recall ever seeing an earlier gen with that.
I know a 90 something year old man that had a string of volvos in the 50s driving around the country. He said people were always looked at him funny and wondering what he was doing with that foreign job. VWs still ostracized probably until the 80s. They were just cheap junk cars or counter culture. Still the hardliners didn’t like them. Alot of the military that bought early ones back parked then or sold them after a few years. My grandfathers friend had a ’52 he got that way. He always said he liked the guys car and he just gave it to him when he got a new ford.
Around 1974 I worked with a woman who bought a Saab Sonnet because it was “cute and different.”
Never, mostly because I was the friend who owned the cool car lol. I also had friends with cool cars, but they weren’t oblivious to it.
In the mid-late nineties my girlfriend’s roommate had a pristine red 3rd gen RX-7 Touring. Traded it in for a Honda del Sol.
This was before I was born, but my dad used to tell me about how my grandmother at one point in the early/mid 70’s had a ’68 Plymouth GTX that, as far as she was concerned, was just any old used car that she bought. If I remember dad’s stories correctly, the original engine had been blown by a previous owner and replaced with a basic 318, so it wasn’t quite the full-fat muscle car it originally had been.
Navy friend in the day had a new 84 or 85 CRX. I think to him it was just another cheap car.
Way back, I had a friend with a VW bus that got in an accident that made the side door inoperable. He gave it to a friend in need who complained about it being a POS. I wonder if either of them think back on that and think that the broken PNW rustless bus is probably worth a condo down payment these days.
My ex from 25 years ago had a first gen MR2. That thing was lit! So much fun to throw around. She hated it and convinced her dad to get her a boring ass Passat instead.
We did not last long.
We had an early 1985 MR2. Great little car, kept it for over 20 years.
VAG has long been the cause of young women’s bad decisions. Surprised it wasn’t a Cabrio.
VWs were very popular with women for a bit before they all got burned byt hem and moved to CUVs from other makers. Maybe it was that they drove decently enough, had (fake) good build quality, and decent, but subdued looks? Either way, I’ve ended up working on too many of them or hearing about their myriad problems and I came to hate the POS.
Oh they still are into Audi cuvs. Influencers claiming it’s basically the same car as the influencer up the chain’s Bentley, Porsche, or Lambo. VAG influcer pyramid scheme
First car I bought with my own money (and my first dream car) was a 1989 MR-2 Supercharged. Kept it for ten years, upgraded it a bit, it was a wonderful car. Doomed me to want mid-engine two seaters for the rest of my life.