Many vehicles are designed to be really good at certain tasks, which comes at the expense of other abilities. A Ford F-350 can tow 20,000 pounds without breaking a sweat, but wouldn’t be particularly spectacular on a track. A Subaru BRZ could be your autocross weapon, but isn’t going to tow your 7,000-pound camper. Despite this, some cars have some real hidden talents. What cars are surprisingly good at doing what they weren’t designed to do?
I have a reputation in the American Smart community for doing things with the Smart Fortwo that nobody else would dare to do. There was a span of time of about seven years when I owned nothing but Smarts. Whenever I ran into a situation that would normally call for a different vehicle, I often made my Smart do it, anyway, instead of paying for a rental or borrowing someone’s truck.
For years, this meant that if I needed to tow a new motorcycle home, move some furniture, or move out of an apartment, I hitched a U-Haul trailer onto the back of my 2012 Smart Fortwo. These cars are not officially rated to tow anything, yet I managed to tow trailers around Illinois and Wisconsin for some 20,000 miles.
Now that I’m older, a bit nicer to my own cars, and not as willing to play with something of such questionable legality, I don’t tow with Smarts anymore. Instead, I take them off-road! I love proving that you do not need a three-inch lift and 35-inch tires to make a Smart decent off-road. In my experience of actually off-roading a Smart, a decent set of tall snow tires and some good technique are all I need. I’ve gotten my Smarts pretty much anywhere that a 2WD pickup truck can go.
But perhaps my favorite example of making a vehicle do what it wasn’t built to do was making a bone-stock, base Jeep Renegade rule at rallycross. At best, Jeep designed the Renegade to handle some soft off-roading. It was not designed to launch off of tabletop jumps and it was not designed to lay down some seriously hot laps on the track. But that’s what my group of friends and I did one weekend.
Our Renegade laid down some of the fastest lap times that weekend, and even the organizers were shocked because the field that weekend included modified side-by-sides, some rallycross-prepped cars, and at least one real rally car. Yet, here we were getting close to their times on regular street tires in a crossover with an automatic transmission that shifted slower than a teen driver learning a manual.
Here’s where I turn things over to you. What cars have you driven that were unexpectedly good at a job that they were not designed to do?
The Honda C-RV was never designed to be a delivery vehicle, and yet for rural mail carriers it’s practically one of the starter pokemon.
When you get started delivering, If you have money, you get a right hand drive jeep. If you don’t, you put a set of right hand pedals into a shit box caravan.
If you fall somewhere in between, you get yourself a CR-V. Easy on gas, good AWD, and plenty of room are all necessities that the CRV has in spades. But the real key is the lack of a transmission tunnel and tidy interior dimensions. This allows you to yank the center console out, straddle the middle of the car, reach the pedals and wheel with your left arm and leg, and deliver mail out the passenger window with your right.
The cherry on top is the abundance of parts, ease of maintenance (hate changing timing belts? Wait till you have to do it once a year) and the fact that they just refuse to break.
Jeeps are better, but cost twice as much and burn twice the gas. Imported Toyotas are cooler and just as tough but cost the same as a Jeep, need twice as much maintenance and repairs. Caravans are cheap and can make great mail rigs, but the lack of AWD makes them stressful in the snow. The CRV exists in this uncanny sweet spot of availability, reliability, cheapness, and functionality that makes them absolutely perfect, even though they were never intended to be used as a mini-ups truck.
This is an interesting take, and I have seen a CRV deliver our mail. However typically it’s either a new RHD Wrangler or an early 90s RHD Cherokee or an early 00s Ford Ranger.
Rhd cherokees are awesome, and what I started out with. But the prices have gotten insane. A lot of people jumped on the mid 90s Toyota hiluxes when they started getting imported, only to find out that the diesel ones are reliability nightmares and the gas ones are HORRIBLE on gas and need a new timing belt and head gaskets every year to stay alive.
Cherokees run about the same money, and suffer none of the downsides the Toyotas do. So a lot of people switched back to them. Then Covid hit. It’s about $10 grand for a 120,000 mile 20 year old right hand drive Cherokee now.
A friend of mine uses a bright yellow chevy aveo hatchback as his hunting rig. The stupid thing will keep up with another friend’s jeep on every trail they go on together. The only modifications to it are knobby tires, and he pulled out the carpets so he can hose it out. He’s taken it up every year since he bought it.
I’m a stay at home Dad and I shlep my 3 year old everywhere in the back of my BRZ. Just as fast in and out as any of the crossovers.
That describes my childhood in the back of multiple Zs and an Oldsmobile Starfire in the 70s, and I’m the better for it
I spent most of my childhood in the back of a Ford Probe. People really over-estimate needing four doors.
When we were kids my friend lived near a junkyard.After school we would go on our ATV’s over there after they closed and find cars with keys that ran and take them on the trails but they most were pretty useless.One day we wound up scoring an early 70’s Nova with a 250CI six,automatic transmission,snow tires,and posi rear.That car was an absolute monster on the trails and would plow its way through all the mud pits like nobody’s business.We ran that car for weeks until it finally overheated and died from all the mud caked on the radiator.We still laugh about that car from time to time.
A 1995 Cadillac Fleetwood is great to tow your race car with. Its factory rated to 7000lbs. The trunk will fit 4 17″ wheels with tires and close. I never did tow a car with it but used it a few times to tow a 23′ fiberglass boat, it did great and that setup had to be pushing 5000lbs with the fuel onboard.
Also a 4th gen Camaro or Trans Am will fit a bike with the rear seat folded. And with both wheels attached. They are A LOT more useful than the newer Camaros or Mustangs with mail slot sized trunk openings
I wish my BRZ had a hatch or lift back regularly
Al Dantes Jr. and his LS swapped RX-7!
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a41712592/american-rally-community-mourns-loss-of-beloved-grassroot-racer-al-dantes-jr/
This guy had 6 daughters and still found time to build and race his RX-7.
I used my 1966 Thunderbird as a truck to transport my Farmers Market setup several times. The trunk held my wares and a few cinderblocks to weigh the canopy down, while the folded up canopy fit diagonally inside the car with the passenger front seat folded down. Nothing too crazy, but I don’t think the Ford engineers ever envisioned this particular car hauling large bulky things to a farmers market.
I had a ’94 and that car swallowed an entire dorm room’s worth of belongings. All my stuff, the office chair, minifridge, you name it. Then 2-months later used it to move cross country.
The biggest thing that trunk ever took was a Sony KP-7220 projection TV/Coffee Table. Got the trunk lid within an inch or two of closing.
Used my ’96 Ford Taurus to haul enough salvaged bricks from a local warehouse demo to the back alley of my old row home, where I laid ~480 sq. feet down as a patio and built-in planters. Blew out the back shocks, but was worth it.
+1 would haul again.
I had an E30 325is that, due to its relatively light weight and limited slip differential, was remarkably adept at traversing fields of muddy Georgia red clay.
I have found that the best trucks are convertibles. I hauled tons of pipe ,lumber even a queen mattress set with a 91 Saab 900 turbo convertible. 2 weeks ago I hauled lumber and dry wall in my 76 Eldorado convertible and yes I have owned several pick up trucks. I also found that you can get alot in a gen 1 rabbit. I fit the front end of a 91 Cadillac Brougham in a 94 rabbit diesel. Both front fenders, core support, front header panel and the hood straped to the roof. The hood was bigger then the roof.
Can confirm, I’ve hauled boards of wood from the hardware store in my Miata with the top down. People with trucks might look at me funny, but it works.
No, they’re thinking ‘asshole’ showing them up.
For a while there I drove my grandma’s ford windstar(Fwd minivan), she ordered the option package that had no sunroof and the largest capacity fuel tank (40 gallons under the floor right in front of the rear tires) so it had a low center of gravity and you could thrash it harder down bad roads then you could most stock trucks, and with the quick release seats you could get several dirt bikes in there, when my cousin finally destroyed the Trans, he had 6, 50 gallon drums of used motor in there. And it got like 23 mpg even with almost half a million miles. it was a truly impressive vehicle.
With my ’67 VW squareback I have:
Gone offroad, towed a motorcycle, used it as a camper, carried three kayaks, carried a large load of lumber, and more.
First year Previa handles far better than one would expect. That mid-engine provides some excellent weight balance.
Even a regular Previa (not the AWD version) does very well offroad with the only challenge being dodging the rocks to avoid the rear shocks that reach almost to the ground.
My 1980 Celica was surprisingly good at taking 4 wheeler trails through the woods…. through streams and everything… when we were teenagers and wanted a good place to be off the beaten path. 🙂
Used my old na Miata to transport it’s own replacement longblock to the shop. Had to remove the decklid to get it into the trunk, but it fit. Was a decent offroader too, in spite of the coilovers…
Got you beat, After moving to Chicago I went back to bring my projects home, and drove my NA, 2 FB RX7 engines, and an RX7 transmission 700 miles back home. Had to remove the exhaust studs to fit the engines into the trunk, removed the passenger seat, and placed it between me and the trans that was now on the floor. At that point I think I’ve only driven it about 500 miles after buying it with a broken timing belt and bringing it back to life, so had no clue if it would make it. Ended up giving it to a lemons team after it had 260K miles and needed the space for another project, and they never ended up making it a race car. It was a lot “rust free-er” than what David would call a “rust free” car so maybe they just kept it on the road?
My 2019 Camaro and DIRT. It’s got a ton of suspension travel and fits 28″ all-terrains without rubbing. I’ve done dozens of rallycross events in it and take it on trails often. Not rock-crawling or anything, but it’s got surprisingly good articulation and geometry even at its stock ride height.
I genuinely never would have guessed this. Rallycross in a Camaro sounds awesome.
A Triumph Spitfire can haul a lot of lumber if the top is down. You get a lot of looks at Home Depot loading it too. Also took an entire hardware store’s new POS system from Maine to Vermont in it, and on it (trunk rack). Three computers, a small laser printer, and two receipt printers, all in their boxes. It was a perfect fall week at peak leaf-peeper season – I couldn’t not take it on that work trip.
My ’92 Peugeot 505 SW8 was surprisingly good on an autocross course for something the length of the Queen Mary with the power of a hyperactive squirrel from it’s 2.2L non-turbo mill. Brilliant steering and very sure-footed, plus a factory LSD to keep what little power was there on the pavement and not spinning a wheel like so many cars do.
1st. gen Ford EcoSport.
Built upon the 5th. gen Fiesta, the Brazilian-designed crossover was built to take South American aspirational Karens and their wanna-be-macho husbands to work and to shuttle the kids around.
Turns out it’s huge inside, and (with rear seats fold down) an excellent device when you are moving flats. Also, decent-ish off-road capability considering they are FWD cars with the power of an unconcerned squirrel.
I’m curious if said Renegade could do another rallycross after that one though. With enough of a “devil may care” attitude, lots of cars can be driven quickly. Once.
Without looking I’m certain people have mentioned The Answer.
But I will add the early Scion xB (maybe the 2nd gen too). I added some bits to it and autocrossed it, and took it to the Dragon a few times. But I also carried a clothes dryer, two large duffle bags of clothes, a new in-the-box RC car, and a grocery bag while my (ex)girlfriend was still comfy in the passenger seat.
Probably could have added a hitch to pull a Harbor Freight trailer. (I did on my MR2).
The Boxster is a surprisingly capable 4-season car and grand tourer. With the rearward weight, it gets plenty of grip on snow, the small cabin heats up very well once the engine is warm and the flat floor skids over deeper stuff that would’ve snagged other cars of similar ground clearance.
My only Winter gripe is in that the 2.5L engine’s huge cooling system (9L of oil, 17L of water) takes a while to warm up. Silver lining, the heated seats are pretty potent so only my hands, feet and face freeze off.
As for GT duties, 130L of storage up front and another 130L out back make it surprisingly practical on a road trip for 2, the cabin is relatively roomy and quiet, and it yields damn near 30mpg highway.
This will be my daily driver as long as I remain heirless.
As a fellow lover of a Boxster as my daily, I will echo all of your praises with the caveat that it is terrifying to drive on icy roads. Down here in North Carolina a real snow is rare, but we will occasionally get a very cold snap followed by some precipitation that turns the roads into sheets of ice (they put down a brine, but no salt or sand to help traction). One memorable time (Feb. ’14 – “Snowpocalypse”) it started snowing at lunch and quickly developed a nice layer of ice. With the mid-motor and very fat tires on this light car, I was soon sliding sideways down a long hill on my way home in fairly heavy traffic. By the grace of god, no impacts occurred and all the other drivers gave me a wide berth until I could get to a parking lot at the bottom and hike the rest of the way home. In retrospect, those summer tires probably didn’t help.
It must be absolutely horrifying to drive on Summers on ice, I run Direzzas for Summer and Wintrac Pros when it cools down, but I have to admit I’ve almost never encountered true smooth ice, it’s always snow, hard-pack or slush here in Michigan, which the Wintracs dispatch handily.
My Bentley is surprisingly good at auto tests. For the fifth year running I have won my class at the local club. Admittedly the pre-1940 touring car class does not have a huge number of entrants, and it takes ages to rearrange the cones both before and after but I get a solid silver trophy. (It is definitely a trophy, not an egg cup).
You have GOT to post a link to a video of your vintage Bentley running an autocross!!!
I will try, it is a bit like an aircraft carrier competing in a dinghy regatta. I will try to get someone to video it one day.
The Scion XB is apparently really popular with the elderly because it’s so easy to get in and out of.
And +1 on the Miata mentions from a guy who regularly sticks a gear bag, a 5-string bass, and a backpack in the trunk and a Rumble 100 amp in the passenger seat. The NA Miata is a cargo beast.
The Scion XB is also quite popular with the very tall people crowd. I had a coworker who was over 7 ft and he purchased an XB because he fit extremely well in it with the high roof and apparently seats that move back plenty far.
Years ago I took my Dodge Omni GLH off roading in the desert and I was able to climb up some hills with liberal application of throttle that my buddy in his YJ Wrangler was struggling to go up. Light weight and FWD likely helped.
When I was a single guy in my late 30s, I was driving a minivan. It turned out to be an incredible lady magnet. Apparently, a minivan tells a woman “this guy is sensible and family-oriented”.