We all contain multitudes, don’t we? That’s from the title of a novel I’ve never read and if I’m honest I don’t really get the significance of, but somehow it seemed like a good way to start this, because all of us as car lovers do have multitudes of ideas and feelings about all sorts of cars. And alongside the cars we love and admire and hate and revile there are those cars that, while they may not be our favorites, they’re cars that we feel strangely protective about. Cars that we have to speak up and defend when we hear them maligned, because deep down we know they deserve better.
I suspect we all have cars like this, leaking oil in the parking lot of our mind. Cars that we find ourselves in a genuine argument defending, as part of our brains float up and above, watching the conflict, wondering, hey, how did I get here? Why am I yelling at a dude for talking shit about a car I’ve never even owned? And yet here we are.
Mercedes told me for her that car is the Smart ForTwo, and I get that. She’s owned several, and they’re often the target of ridicule, undeserved, I think. For me, I think there’s two: the Fiat 500L, which I’ve defended on these very pages, and also the Yugo, which takes an extraordinary amount of bullshit from the world at large, and I think, needs me to defend it.
I once made a whole video defending this car, which I now own:
Man, now I’m getting worked up again, just imagining all the slights and eye rolls and dismissive comments that Yugos and 500Ls are inspiring, just by being mentioned. But I don’t think I’ll ever stop defending them.
Why am I like this? Who the hell knows? But I bet I’m not alone. I bet almost all of you have some sort of car you will always defend, and I want to know what they are, and why they make you feel the way you do, and how you defend them – everything. I want to know everything, always, forever.
So please tell me.
Anything Jeep with the 4.0 and a manual. I have two examples from 91 and 92 and they’re both still running strong, driven them both for nearly ten years. One has an ax5 and the other the ax15. The 92 is rusting much less but the 91 was apparently a Baltimore police car.
Most of the problems with these have been down to shitty skinny Chrysler wire, and everything going though the ignition switch, but otherwise general maintenance and they just start up and go as daily drivers!
Have to get into the ’92 on the passenger side cuz the latch mechanism failed and I dealt with this on the ’91 but the ones in the junk yard were all the same, down to one lil piece of plastic. As far as I know there”s no aftermarket replacement even with all the XJ support from crown et al.
Anyway, those are my jeep shitboxes that keep on going and going, the ’92 my brother gave me had literally sat for years and just fired it up after checking the oil and new battery and gas wasn’t too bad and damn fired right up!
This wall of text is love for the jeep 4.0, not for any particular body cuz they all suck from this era for oxidizing to fuck and horrendous electrical management.
The 1976 dodge colt by Mitsubishi. I know..
I couldn’t afford a 510 so I built this thing to as close as possible…what a hoot.
Cars w/ loud exhausts. As long as it’s not the middle of the night have some damn fun!
The VW Golf – I drive a Mk VI TDI version and it’s been an excellent vehicle in most use cases. I routinely hit 40mpg’s with in-town driving, and will only increase that figure when I get the chance to highway drive. It’s 2.0 turbodiesel is a fun, peppy go-getter that makes it zippy, lovely bolstered seating (in even the non-GTI!), and manual! It’s also deceptively roomy inside, being able to fit 4 adults comfortably if needed.
It’s a dying breed, these hatchbacks, being replaced now by the CUVs that make zero sense to my brain (worse mpg’s in most cases, poor use of interior space, oftentimes ugly design/layout, and relatively impractical). I’m attempting to start a Golf wave (will include any sport variant – GTI, R) around my town. If you know…you know.