There aren’t a lot of cars that evoke enough happiness when I see them to actually make me smile. There are plenty that make me go, “Oh, I like those,” or “That’s a cool one,” but I’m not grinning about it like some psycho. Like, imagine me catching you exiting your Kia Stinger at CVS, and I tell you “great car” while showing all my teeth – you’d wonder if you were about to be carjacked.
There are scant few cars that make me smile (warmly, not crazily), but the ones that do are extremely wholesome and deserving. High on the list is any 20+ year old grandpa/grandma car in very nice condition still piloted by the octogenarian who purchased it. I invent entire storylines for these cars and people, real salt-of-the-earth types who know the value of a dollar and faithfully take careful care of their Crown Vics and Avalons and Chrysler 300s.
In a similar vein, I always smile anytime I see a formerly disposable car just out there surviving. There’s a Beetle I see on the regular, not unlike the one above from Bring A Trailer (where it sold for $5,700), that appears to run like a top but has endured far too many hot Texas summers and fender-bender repairs for its owner to have any concerns over maintaining its paint beyond rust prevention. Anytime I encounter an aged Civic or Corolla or Ford Escort or the like that some frugal person is just not giving up on (“250,000 miles and it still runs great!”), that just puts a smile on my face every time.
Your turn:
What Cars Are You Always Happy To See?
Top graphic image: Ford
A Subaru WRX in blue pearl. Always, always makes me feel better to see (and hear!) one.
Any manual car.
The other day I parked beside a honda accord and noticed as I got out of my car that it was a manual. I said out loud to my daughter. “Oh nice it’s a manual”. The lady that owned the car was walking back to her car and heard me. She said “Hey are checking out my stick” 🙂
Every time I’m driving my my kids and I or they see a nice car. They always ask me.
“Does car come in a Manual?”
Any classic car being driven when you wouldn’t expect it to be. The roads around here are caked with salt, yet I saw an immaculate Charger out and about just the other day. Another time in the dead of winter, I saw a very old lady driving a shabby Plymouth Valiant she had probably owned for decades.
Beetles and air-cooled VWs in general of course, and I know my Beetle makes a lot of people happy based on the comments I get on it pretty much every time I take it out.
Complete and total junker cars, like worse than what you see in the junkyard, still driving around. Mismatched, dented, or missing fenders, broken windows. A bumper held on with bailing wire. Missing headlights. Probably a massive, car-totaling accident in its past.
I live in Florida, the land of no inspections, so I’ve seen some real crapcans.
I’m happy to see any air-cooled VWs, FWD VW/Audi products from the 1980s and earlier, happy to see any car with a Harlequin paint job, happy to see any new car that has a bright colour (and not black, white or any shade in between those), Ford Festivas (as it was my first car), Miatas, any air-cooled Porsches, BMWs from the 1970s and earlier, Mercedes-Benz products from the 1970s and earlier, any Bricklin, any Delorian, any rotary Mazda, 1st gen Mercury Cougar, any Corvair, any Citicar/Commutacar, any car from a dead brand from the 1970s and earlier.
An El Camino, especially if it’s ’77 or older.
Non-Mustang Fox Body Fords. Although even the Mustangs are getting rare in the wild! There is a Fairmont wagon in my area that I see from time-to-time. I saw a late 80’s fox-Stang a while back, with antique plates! That did NOT make me happy! I can’t remember when I last saw an Aero-Bird/Cougar (other than in my barn).