I suppose we should firm up what a perfect car is before attempting to determine what cars come closest to achieving perfection, but I’ll leave the firmification process entirely to you. Does the perfect car balance comfort, power, and handling in equal and high measure? Or does it embody perfection in design and proportion, with other considerations scoring lower? Or is the perfect car the one best-built with precision tolerances and clever engineering to perform impeccably and reliably?
Probably all of the above, with different amounts of each ingredient, and I look forward to reading your criteria and most-perfect selections in the comments. As for me, my choice is a car that I suspect few would choose as the “perfect car” (spoiler alert: it’s the one in the topshot), but hear me out.
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My Dad was a big Beetle guy, and regularly extolled what he liked about them: they were cheap to purchase and operate, mechanically simple, and thus easy to fix and maintain. “There’s no cooling system to worry about, and you can set the points by the side of the road with a matchbook cover,” he would say. I don’t recall Dad ever actually performing the matchbook trick in the driveway or garage let alone by the side of the road, but I trust that it could be done. My Dad saw the Beetle was the platonic ideal of a car as basic transportation, and that vision stuck with me as well.
Certainly, many – most, even – cars could handily outperform the Beetle even when new examples were rolling off VW assembly lines, and today, a Beetle of any vintage is positively bronze-age compared to the technological miracles we take for granted as we go along our merry ways. But in it’s own way, to me, the Beetle is still very much a perfect car.
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
I will once again pitch the Toyota Matrix due to the fact that it can carry 113 Costco-sized Pumpkin pies. https://imgur.com/a/DHoya01
It has to be a hatchback (most practical config), it has to be handsome, it has to be entertaining to drive, and it has to be reliable.
2 nominations I’ve owned: 5th gen Civic hatch and 5th gen Corolla hatch.
Both could be had in sporty versions and were easy to mod and I regret that I don’t still have them.
The Civic was base but did everything I needed for it to do and I enjoyed driving it.
The Corolla was the FX16 with the MR2 motor and a head unit out of a Cressida and it was pure front-drive joy.
1) Mercedes station wagon, all are great but I like the S212.
2) Cayman GTS
My old 5MT FWD Subaru Legacy wagon. Large usable interior space with small footprint; economical for its time and will run on garbage fuel; can be fixed by anyone with minimal tools; adaptive ECU with MPFI and distributorless ignition, so it’s modernish, but dead simple; non-interference engine; doesn’t care much about changes in road surface or weather condition; durable enough to drive over curbs, traffic islands, or bomb sideways down gravel roads bad enough that the Post Office stopped deliveries on it without complaint; comfortable seats that I could literally drive for days without issue; excellent visibility, ergonomics, and HVAC; massively upgradeable; much better balanced than it would seem; and with a few minor mods for feel, it’s a better sports car in terms of fun to drive than my GR86. Resale value aside, I’d take that car back over any other car ever produced.
Lexus LC 500 and I’m well aware that it’s not for a racetrack and that there are faster cars out there. I’ll take your response off the air…………….
Passat B3 platform. The ultimate Volkswagen. Quirky, recognizable from a half-mile away, relatively reliable, tons of legroom, great handling, all the bells and whistles and upgradeable. My mom had a ‘94 B3 sport wagon w a 5-speed and a VR6, and we’d still be driving it if it hadn’t had a weird electrical issue that ultimately we didn’t have the patience to solve. Knowing what I know now it probably could have eventually been sorted but after 135k on the odo after owning it for almost fifteen years, and a couple of dead shorts in traffic, we decided to not take that risk. She drives an ‘09 Mazdaspeed3 now. But we both still miss that car.
Side note that late obd-1 cars are piss-poor at being functionally reliable in my experience. I think peak “good car” is between 99-2009. And of that era I’d prob choose a first-gen CRV. Those things are hammers. So there’s my actual “perfect” car.
8th generation Toyota Corolla. Built to withstand the apocalypse and so simple anyone could fix it. We had a 10 year old one which survived two teenage boys.
6th generation Honda Civic. Looks great, great visibility, handles well, decent power and efficiency. Just enough tech and comfort without all the complexity.
Perfect for what? The VW was perfect transportation in a certain way, and I would say the Prius might be the modern version. Enough space, but not wasteful, mechanically reliable, fuel efficient, plentiful.
The perfect car from a more broad sense of what a car is, including providing joy, beauty, whatever else is much more complicated, but it might be Miata.
What is perfect?
Let’s look at a perfect weekend for my wife and I. Maybe a backroad adventure in the mountains with stops at wineries and 5 star hotels. Sound’s wonderful and relaxing and a E-Type Jaguar would be perfect.
Except… It is impossible for my wife and I to go anywhere and not end up rescuing an animal or two or 10. Our weekend trips always involve animal rescue. Last one, we were driving along in a rural area and say a sign up for “Free Bulldog mix puppies”. So, given the crazy things that happen, something like our old Minivan is a better choice.
2nd gen Honda CR-V. It will not die. It’ll go to Costco, it’ll go to Alaska, it’s invisible to cops, modern enough without being fussy, so ubiquitous that every mechanic is familiar with it, and regularly is still a daily driver with 200,000 miles on it.
It is “enough”…it will not make your heart flutter, but neither will it break it.
I know that someone already mentioned the Element, a CR-V in Timberlines and flannel; a CR-V does all the same things as an Element without drawing attention to itself. A CR-V does not know how to draw attention to itself. It just does the job, punches out and heads home.
That “exploded” view of the Beetle is just an oddly satisfying photo.
My close-to-perfect car (at least in my head) hasn’t been built for 40 years–the M-B W123. Make mine a 240D with a stick. A close 2nd would be a Peugeot 505 Turbodiesel with a stick.
As the old saying goes, one shouldn’t meet their heroes. And the odds are I will never sit behind the wheel of either one of these.
I will be interested in reading everyone else’s idea of perfection and the stories behind them.
i like the droopy trunk on the 504. But 505 and 240 are cool.
I am going to say Triumph TR7 because Jason digs the taillights.
Miata
I quite enjoy the 1988 LTD Crown Victoria that I had in high school. Mine (a special factory order by my Great-Grandfather) was an “S” code that was really only intended for fleet sales or police departments. It had the 302, was optioned with A/C and AM/FM radio. Otherwise, the interior was navy blue vinyl as far as the eye could see with room for 6 in seat belts. The vinyl landau roof was deleted, it had basic hub caps, and was painted in plain Oxford White. The trunk was cavernous, every repair I ever needed to make was cheap (and there weren’t many repairs), it cruised at highway speeds, it got pretty good gas mileage, and it could drive over most any surface without complaint. It was easy to get into and out of (as was seen by the average driver either being in their 70s or a cop weighed down with a mess of gear), it was comfortable (see again, the average drivers and it being a fleet vehicle where people would sit in it for hours), it was fairly simple, and I think the styling of the mid-cycle refresh that debuted in ’88 is still one of the best looking cars Ford has made.
Plus, considering I had a 1992 Lincoln Town Car Cartier Edition just before it, I feel comfortable saying that simpler is better. The change to a more aerodynamic design and the use of the 4.6 weren’t dramatically better. Styling became more a sign of the times, things got more complicated, and with the Lincoln, it just felt like more for the sake of more. Air suspension, power open/close trunk, digital dash, it all adds up to complicated and expensive.
Considering everything about it, the LTD Crown Victoria feels like an unconventional, but strong, contender for the title of perfect car. At the very least, I think it is a pretty perfect American car (which isn’t the assignment, but I’m trying to acknowledge my limitations and defend my love for the LTD).
2014 mazda5. Post 2011 safety features. Great size – enough for costco runs and city parking and road trips. Sliding door. Third row. Available in a manual. Roof rack for that 20 cu ft sears cargo carrier if you really need it.
Damn fine choice.
This is a solid answer, but I don’t think it would be a finalist once we got past the beauty competition. The first gen Mazda5s looked better than the newer ones.
Second-gen Acura Integra GS-R
8th generation Olds 88 (1977-1985).
It checks off all the boxes – Comfort, reliable, quality, fast enough, economical enough, snazzy enough, not sure how you could fairly improve upon it.
BMW E46, particularly the ZHP equipped sedan. Everything is so right about that car.
1988-98 Gm pickup (gmt400). Perfectly straddles the line between modern and classic pickups. Fuel injected, some safety features, easy and cheap to work on. 350/454, 5 speed available. Perfect size, great on road, good off. Pulls like a train with a 4.11 rear. Fun to drive, simple honest styling for an honest truck.
Oh- and the reel light under the hood, and a vent for the AC pointed directly at your…lower bits and pieces.
As little as I care for them, the corvette, particularly C5 and up, is one of the best good at what it does cars ever made. It’s attainable power, cheap to operate, good in a straight line and in curves, easy to look at, and a (mostly) pleasant place to be.
It is the vanilla ice cream of sports cars. There is probably something you’ll like better, but nothing everyone likes better.
Most perfect all-around? 90’s accord wagon.
If I could find a lightly used ’94 EX wagon with a stick, there’s no telling how much money they could take off my hands.
I always wanted to swap an S2000 engine in one and convert it to RWD.
That’s an ambitious project! I think I’d be okay swapping the drivetrain from a Civic Type R. A 315 HP wagon kind of makes me giggle.
Jeep XJ Cherokee. Early 90’s version. Room for a ton of stuff and 4WD. Everything in that vehicle is easy to work on. I’ve done emergency repairs with duct tape. Not always the most comfortable, but will do almost anything you need and then some.
Naa. Dog slow. Totally unsafe. Shoddy. Wasteful.
I dunno about perfect but my 1994 Probe GT 5M and 1988 300TE Longroof are on my list of most missed cars I have owned over the last 40 years. Nothing else even comes close.
VW Amarok V6 diesel. Affordable, goes, stops, turns, hauls and tows. “One good car”.
I saw one in Mexico a few years ago. You forgot “handsome.”