One of the greatest perks of working for a publication like the Autopian is that making a bad choice with a car isn’t exactly ruinous – that’s just a Tuesday! Many of us made horrible car choices before assembling this team. Heck, I had questionable car-collecting habits long before I even left the IT field to become a writer. But now, we make the same bad decisions we always have and get paid to do them!
We’ve had a string of terrible company cars, from the ‘Ski-Klasse’ Mercedes that I mercilessly destroyed, to the $800 taxi that a shipping company mercilessly destroyed. Now, we’re doing a number on a poor and innocent Nissan CrossCabriolet. But hey, at least now it has cool Mustang wheels, a lift kit, and knobby tires! TheDrunkenWrench:
I have to admit, When you guys set out to burn money on terrible vehicles, you really commit to the bit.
I’m not sure anyone at the Autopian, except maybe Matt, knows what “sunk cost” means. Sid Bridge:
It might be time to lobby CarFax to add a new category to their records called “Autopian Experiment.” What has happened and what’s about to happen to this car cannot be labeled “Accident.”
Who Knows:
You forgot one of the most important factors in offroad ability: lack of give a shit. I’m assuming this metric will be absolutely zero, so this thing will be a beast offroad. Once the front and rear bumpers are ripped off, the geometry will also improve.
The team did just pencil me in for some future seat time, and you know how I roll!
David Tracy indicated that we have the center caps for the wheels, but we just didn’t install them to give the wheels an off-road look. A. Barth:
You know what would be fun?
If the caps were painted to look like manually-locking hubs.
Meanwhile, our SsangYong Rodius is still torturing Adrian. As did some punks who broke into his garage. Apparently, said folks must not have been interested in a Ferrari. CatMan:
Car thieves break into Adrian’s garage
See Mondial
“BOLLOCKS!”
Have a great evening, everyone!
Give credit where credit is due – Autopian and this incredible community gives reverence to the also-rans, to the dregs, to the forgotten and maligned. Every car has its place. Even if it’s an example not be emulated but to be a firebrand, it is given its due here. Praise the audacity that is the Murano CC – in the vein of the Plymouth Prowler and the Chevy SSR – the question that is only answered is “Why the hell not?”
Within the varying grayscale paintjobs (and red) we’re given these days, I’m still happy there’s some examples of automakers willing to fail (within reason) with a stupid idea as long as it could be flashy. When you stretch beyond the bounds of sanity is when you breach into the extrapolation of art. The boundary of taste need to be challenged in order to keep the tasteful bounds where they are and not to constrict to a singularity that is like a RAV4/CR-V existence.
Let’s continue to keep it a little weird.
Almost every single car that has ever been awesome has indirectly come out of some homologation requirement for a race series. I guess it’s on us to figure out a race series where a crossover will win before we get cool ones.
Oh, I had forgotten about the ski klasse project car. What ever happened to that after it broke?
Woohoo – thanks, Mercedes!
*does happy dance*
I wonder if Torch will have time to paint the center caps before he leaves…
I’m waiting for the Yokohama PR guy to call and say “You put the free tires we gave you on WHAT??”