Most people “get” most cars pretty easily. There are very few economy cars that would be mistaken for luxury and vice-versa; anything sporting or muscular tends to announce itself as such; and trucks gonna truck, even if the truck is something weird like a Hyundai Santa Cruz or a Cybertruck.
Then there are the cars that people didn’t (or don’t) get. The AMC Eagle comes to mind first and foremost, and I can recall my Dad musing with the other car guys in the neighborhood about just what the heck AMC was going for with what time would reveal to be the template for modern crossover SUVs.
Another example might be the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, which certainly looks like a very capable sports car by the standards of the era, but was merely dressed as one. I say “might” because I don’t think customers in significant numbers were confused by the Ghia, and VW’s ad is just an imaginative scenario. But maybe?
As usual, I put the word out to The Team in case they wanted to contribute, and Stephen (of Walter Gossin fame) piped in thusly:
I nominate the second-gen Chrysler Sebring convertible as a much-misunderstood car, especially after it took a massive depreciation hit. Here was an affordable “drophead” with full-fat GT body proportions (check out the length of that quarter panel!) and a handsome, sharp design for its time that was mostly ridiculed throughout its life. The Sebring was designed and launched as a near-lunxury GT-styled convertible with top “Limited” trims going for $30K in ’01, but was misunderstood as just another OK coupe, a mere rental car, nothing special.
Not helping: Having lower spec cars with cloth and cheaper interiors, having many sunshine state rental agencies purchase fleets of them when new, and having some oil sludge issues on the 2.7L v6 (only pre-02 cars – they quietly added a heater EGR and altered some internals (supposedly) to fix the problem doomed them from the start, especially with car culture.
When was the last time you saw one at Cars & Coffee? Or just saw one in general that was in good condition and looking like it isn’t about to head to the local Pick & Pull?
The cloth/canvas tops last about 13-15 years in the sun before starting to deteriorate. This lets moisture into the car, which eventually molds and ruins the interior. You literally have to buy a replacement top, or roll on with a ton of duct tape by age 15. Most of the time, Sebring soft top owners just get rid of the car by then instead of investing $2K into a new top on a $2K car.
And now, I put the question to you:
What Cars Did (or Do) People Just Not Understand?
Top graphic image: AMC
Initially at least, the Triumph TR7. Only available in coupe form at first; compare it to what preceded it – the TR6, a real hairy-chested old style British convertible. Combined with horrible build quality it’s no wonder it was a lemon, and only after the open top version was released did it start to become a more respectable sports car.
I see your Dunder-Mifflin Chrystler Sebring and raise you a late 90s Supercharged Riviera.
Bravo, good sir.
The thing about the Eagle was it was essentially a Concord tarted up with leather and all wheel drive. They were expensive as hell for what most people thought was an out of date pile of shit.
Btw the first real SUV in the way we think of them today was the IH Travelall, which was also really expensive.
The Renault Avantime. A prophetic name.
I was waiting for this one to pop up. And indeed. Perhaps the ultimate grand tourer.
I have been left waiting for the Renault Libertine.
Some were probably before their time by only a few years like the Kia Borrego, Ford Territory, and Holden Adventra.
In a completely opposite way, I am going to go with the Jeep Wrangler. People seem to think that they can serve another purpose other than offroading. That they make a good commuter car. This is definitely wrong.
Honestly? Short bed pickups.
I understand why people hate on them, but at the same time I’d take a pickup with a passthrough and a bed cap over an SUV any day.
It’s nice to have storage you can hose out.
What I want to see is more 2 door short bed pickups.
I saw a rare current-gen RCSB Silverado today. Honestly, it looked weirdly proportioned. Maybe because I’m so used to seeing Crew Cabs or RCLB, but it looked odd and something like a child’s toy. I wasn’t as pleasantly surprised as I thought I’d be.
Check this out!
I don’t know if it’s worth $46K to me, but seeing it made me happy.
Dig those wheels.
Needs red plaid seat covers to carry the theme inside.
It’s because they are designed to look good as crew cabs or extended cabs first and foremost.
Most crew cab trucks still look wrongly-proportioned to me. Especially half-tons. Half-ton pickups weren’t meant to have a back seat.
I would argue the GM trucks have weird proportions in general. The bed and hood are both waaay too high, and it ruins every body configuration. The doors just look like big flabby sails.
The current Fords look much better as regular cabs. I think the dip in the window really helps.
I would argue that there hasn’t been one of either that’s looked worth half a damn in a decade now. And Ram held off the ugly stick of current truck design until 2019 and joined them.
It seems like pickup truck design takes a great leap forward on about a 20-year cycle, give or take. That makes us overdue. It’s been a minute since the 1994 Ram, just like it had been too long since the square-body 1973 Ford F-Series and Chevy C/K. Please, Big Three, enough with the brutalism. Stop trying to make every pickup truck look like a Soviet apartment block. Sharpen your pencils, put on a pot of coffee, put your heads together, and give us the next great truck design.
Or, just ask The Bishop to do it.
Like what International did in the early 60’s with the C-99 series which was a ultra short pickup, they look pretty cool.
The 1986 redesigned and downsized GM personal luxury coupes, Eldorado, Toronado, and Riviera. People didn’t understand these vehicles weren’t designed and built to be “personal” or “luxurious,” they were designed and built to be cheap and shitty. Consumers lacked appreciation for the finance department’s insistence that the styling be almost nonexistent, the powerplants be gutless, and that each model must be uncannily similar to the other one. Eldorado sales declined 72% in 1986.
I think you answered the question a bit too literally…
I think customers understood them perfectly.
The El Camino.
Australians got it and kept making utes far longer than in the U.S.
Now there’s only a few hundred kindred souls (if you include spouses) that make the trek to Elcofest in Elkhorn, Indiana for the annual gathering.
It sure would be nice if GM would make a small competitor to the Maverick but offer it in two configurations: A 4-door with the 4.5′ box for the people who carry more passengers than stuff, and a 2-door with a 6-7′ box for the El Camino fans who just want a small truck without a rear seat.
Kind of like the concept The Bishop wrote about here.
Ha, see my comment right below.
Here’s a photo of mine at Elcofest last year, surrounded by almost 100 other El Caminos.
Best of luck with your “ute” project.
I own a car I kinda don’t understand – the coupe utility or “ute.” It doesn’t do car things as well as a car, or truck things as well as a larger pickup. I suppose it made sense for farmers back in the day who only had one vehicle to drive into town when trucks were still basically used as tools.
I say this despite being the owner of a Ford Durango project myself, but I only bought it as a novelty because a good friend was selling it at a price I couldn’t refuse, and it’s the intersection of the venn diagram showing my love of Fox chassis Fords, rare/oddball models, and my Australian roots. It’ll probably never haul anything in the bed.
I think that back when those were introduced, the gap between the ride quality, cabin noise level, performance and drivability of a car and truck was far wider than it is today. Trucks were more or less tractors that could reach road speeds and keep the occupants dry, while a car (especially a full-sized one) had become a really nice place to be. A ute would allow you to haul dirty loads without having to deal with the primitive front axle, slow steering ratio and spartan cabin.
I think what made utes obsolete was trucks gaining market share and getting serious NVH and chassis dynamics development thrown at them. Once trucks were close enough to cars in comfort and drivability, there was no longer a reason to bother with putting beds on cars. Now, “utes” like the Maverick and Santa Cruz only beat BOF trucks in fuel economy and purchase price.
The downside of all this improvement is that 1/2-ton trucks now cost as much as you might have paid in the past to have a 1/2-ton and a mid-size car.
Here’s an underdog that nobody seemed to get, and half of you probably don’t remember.
The 1988-1994 Subaru Justy 4WD. Subaru fans barely acknowledged it because it wasn’t a “real” Subaru due to an inline, not boxer 4-cylinder. Hardly anyone else even knew it existed.
It was as fun and lightweight and tossable as the Ford Festiva. But with 4WD (*not* AWD) it would get you to work before the roads had been plowed.
(It was also the first car sold in the US with a CVT, but the less said about that the better.)
I almost bought one, that came with a whole parts car. Only reason I didn’t was because snow tires in it’s OEM size or similar were unobtanium. The next largest tire size I could get snow tires for were so large that it would massively up gear it, tires would rub the tops of the fenders when you hit bumps, and you’d have turning circle larger than some school busses. So you lost all the advantages it had.
That’s why I didn’t buy it.
It was heavier and more sluggish than the Festiva. But, arguable, in America every small car is misunderstood – they’re not just for people who can’t affors a larger car, but just want smaller.
The 4wd Justy was manual only! You could get the CVT or manual on the FWD version.
You could indeed get a 4WD CVT Justy 🙂
Huh, TIL. Must’ve been a late launch, I know they were adding models well past the halfway point of the run, and not just tape-and-spoilers “special editions”; the 5-door wasn’t offered in the US until at least 1990.
My Dad had a Festiva for a while, out of the repo lot. Man, that car was awesome. Light as a feather, a manual, and we only had to fill it up once a year.
*3 cylinder, not 4 😛
The Justy is the best Subaru ever sold here, and a CVT is the only way Subaru can ever get 30 mpg LOL
I feel the Honda CRZ was completely misunderstood. The original CRX was a fun economy car and so was the CRZ but now any sporty Honda gets beat down that it’s not an Si or an R with 300+ horsepower.
I think the issue was that it looked sporty and had the lack of utility of a typical sporty car, but wasn’t all that sporty to drive and was marketed by Honda as an eco car, but mileage was mediocre and the Civic hybrid was right there without the utility compromise and, IIRC, it was even cheaper or at least not any more. Maybe they should have had a range like the CRX had, with the hybrid taking place of the HF, a standard non-hybrid model, and maybe an Si, but the hybrid would have cost more than a straight ICE version that would have been faster, had more room, and any mileage penalty would have been small. Or maybe it wouldn’t have mattered all that much as it was still a small car being sold in the US with a similar larger one for about the same price and performance.
IMO the handling would’ve been sporty enough for a 5-door, 5-seater Insight Si with the manual, but they never offered that combo.
Entirely Honda’s fault for naming it that. That evoked memories of the CRX, which the CRZ wasn’t. They should have called in the Gen2 Insight, and then it wouldn’t have been so misunderstood.
This. Plus, they completely shafted themselves by cancelling the CRX and replacing it with the Del Sol.
Honda should’ve offered non-hybrid versions of both the original Insight and the CRZ. They’d be so light and so fun too 😀
Indeed. It was Honda’s attempt to prove that hybrids could be fun to drive cars. Alas no fun hybrids for the people…
It looked cool, but the gas mileage was so much worse than the original Insight, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me .
At the risk of being a broken record for my continued support of the Merkur Scorpio, I nominate it. Great car murdered by a pathetic sales organization.
I don’t disagree, but I’d add the XR4Ti. Americans (myself included) did not understand the racing cred of this car.
The XR was a gas to drive hard. So much better than the mustangs of the era.
Funnily enough Ford entered Merkurs in the 1986 ETCC in preparation for what was to come the following year.
https://transport.kelsey.host/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/MERKUR-XR4TI-02.jpg
I think one could say that about the entire Merkur brand. They should have just been Mercurys, or Lincolns if they needed to recoup the costs from federalizing.
Ferrari Luce. People didn’t get that it was a naked cash grab and not some kind of passion project.
You’ve just described every Ferrari for the last two decades. Stellantis should have kept their ownership. They’d be worth at least double the current valuation (assuming they didn’t manage to faf it up).
Fair.
For that matter every Ferrari road car from Enzo’s lifetime.
You means it’s not just a fancy Corolla?
The Smart Fortwo.
Expectation: People thought it was an economy car, sort of like a modern Geo Metro.
Reality: It’s a city car that’s designed to be easy to park, with basically every other function being secondary. Of course, the reality of what a Smart is doesn’t make sense outside of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York City.
My aunt has owned a Forfour (of the rear engined variety) for the last 10 years. It has an amazingly tight turning circle and fits everywhere in old European towns.
Clearly the answer is the Miata.
All these people that keep buying pickup trucks just underestimate the Miata’s cargo hauling capabilities.
I carried an RX7 engine, transmission, diff, and axles from SC to Chicago in a first gen once… (I did have to remove the passenger seat and put it on top of the engine upside down though)
The Miata Logistics subreddit bears this out beautifully. It can haul whatever your creativity allows you to dream up.
Mustang SVO. Period. Still one of the best handling Mustangs ever but it didn’t have a V8.
That was the origin of the Saleen.
Excellent one – I’d say that it was the best handling Mustang ever *because* it didn’t have a V8 (this coming from a guy who owned an ’85 GT in the era). Car guys knew what they were capable of, but push/shove, they were about $5k more back then – and they didn’t make V8 sounds. The typical Mustang driver (aka – me) was in it for the 0-60 and 1/4 mile, with handling being a “nice to have”, but not a necessity…until we went into the wrong curve too hot and the thing understeered like a bastard (don’t ask me how I know that).
Going by relative sales numbers, I might argue the Prius v (at least, in the U.S.).
You take the already-excellent balance of a Prius between fuel economy yet still having a deceptively roomy interior with plenty of legroom for the back seat, and reduce the fuel economy by a little in exchange for more space…it sounds like a winning formula to me.
On the other hand, I’ve heard it said that maybe it was more on Toyota for pricing it too high, which I don’t feel like looking into at this moment. Still, 44/40 mpg for 67 cubic feet behind the front seats ain’t bad at all. ~2 million+ Prii and Prius Primes out there, but only ~150k v’s were sold. Even the Excursion sold better than that.
The Prius-V was a station wagon. Americans HATE station wagons for unfathomable reasons. I got my mother to buy one, she absolutely loved it. Sadly my idiot nephew killed it.
More of an MPV?
Wikipedia calls it a compact MPV, but the manufacturers seem averse to using that label in the U.S., from what I can tell.
Those never do well here either. You can’s sell a five-door hatch unless it’s on stilts and has delusions of butchness.
The Prius V is an unbelievably practical car that could serve 90 percent of people’s needs.
Unfortunately, practicality seems to be toxic to desirability.
I used mine earlier this month during a move to tow a 900-pound U-Haul trailer, and got it weighed during the process and later calculated “oops, I had the car [not the trailer, just the car and estimated tongue weight] 50% overweight.” And it didn’t give me any problems on the drive.
Not like I plan to repeat that, but I feel some smug satisfaction like “I’ve probably done more truck work with this thing than ~50% of pickup owners.”
In Barcelona it is extensively used as a taxi.
Extensively used as taxiis all over the US as well. To the point that they are quite difficult and expensive to buy used.
To this day my mother in law’s favorite car. She was in early on the Prius, having the first gen, but she absolutely loved her V.
I’d love if Toyota would put out a new Prius V instead of the Tesla-fied Prius on the market now. I love my Corolla hybrid but the hatch, extra cargo space and better gas mileage would be a no-brainer upgrade.
I often ponder what I’d do if anything happened to my v. I now have better knowledge of the long-term ownership concerns of 3rd-gen Prii, and might be more inclined to just get a Camry or something…but I’d still prefer something with a hatch…and I’d miss the better fuel economy…
Luckily it’s not an immediate problem. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
If the V had sliders like a proper MPV, ifI’d have been all over that. I can keep hoping they’ll bring the hybrid Sienta over someday .
I disagree with SWG- That Sebring seems pretty easy to understand. It sounds like if you fit into the Venn diagram of ‘Chrysler Customer’ and ‘Liked Convertibles’ (AKA sunshine state rental agency) it was a tempting package. Obviously if you aren’t either of those things you would never buy it.
My suggestion would be the Honda Accord Crosstour- The much maligned prototype of modern crossover design.
In fairness to the Sebring, it wasn’t really that different in target audience than the mopar stuff that Mike Brady’s solid respectable patriarch drove – I know he had a base model Barracuda at one point, but also a lot of less exciting stuff.
The model year that never existed?
I wonder if that confused buyers
The Sebring convertible was always the retired/almost retired couple car where I was. Kinda like Buick in the late 70’s/80’s when you saw one you kinda got out of the way.
I think the mis-understanding was more between where the DiamlerChrysler Marketing team wanted this car to be in the marketplace and what they were aiming for with the upper trim packages and such and the actual reception that the car received.
They made a $30K (~$60K today) “Limited”, near-lux convertible with those proportions/styling and seemed to want it to be something and achieve something more than “Chrysler Customer” – “Likes Convertibles” – “In Need Of A Rental At Disney/Florida”.
They tried to change the narrative with a bit of overreach and didn’t.
Americans didn’t ‘get’ the ’70s era Mercury Capri; but it was a hairy-knuckle Hard Man’s car (as Ford Capri) over in the British Isles. Spec’d with the Cologne V6 it was a whole lot more fun than the Mercury Cougar of the day.
Even worse was how the Capri name was then more weirdly used here – first on a slightly more refined Mustang, then on a oddball sporty but not sports car convertible.
Wasn’t the original Barchetta design beautiful?
I still want one.
Still disappointed Capris and Miatas look worse.
The Sexy European”
There are still some decent condition Sebrings rolling around here in God’s Waiting Room, FL. Driven by blue hairs, top firmly UP lest it muss the ‘do.
The trouble with them is that they were uglier than the first gen, and just felt like they were built out of compressed crap. And not terribly reliable crap at that. That said, I had a few as rentals and there are few occasions where putting the top down on a nice day doesn’t put a smile on my face. But I would never have bought one in a million years.
I think Americans generally are fundamentally incapable of understanding non-exotic Italian cars, or ANY French cars. C’est la vie.
How are Americans supposed to understand something they very rarely, if ever get to even see?
By having open minds.
By that logic all Earthlings should also understand the autoskitterlogs of Zephlon 4.
Right..
The Volt, even GM’s own PR people often struggled to explain how it worked
Honda Del Sol. It’s not a perfectly balanced Miata, or a speedy Civic si, but basically the car version of a (pre 4 door) Jeep Wrangler – a fun times, open topped sporty vehicle. Always felt they deserved more popularity.
I bought one for my daughter. She liked it but I loved it.
That’s a good suggestion. A friend had one and I get why people were disappointed that it wasn’t a CRX like the previous two (i was also a fan), but evaluated on its own merits rather than what it wasn’t, it was a decent car. It was a sporty convertible with a more practical top (that really tightened the structure when installed) that had all the performance for people like my friend who aren’t big car people or hardcore drivers, they just want something sporty looking, zippy, and fairly responsive. For a road car at fairly legal road speeds, it was plenty fun and had Civic reliability and mileage. At that time, almost everyone made a FWD coupe, but few of them were convertibles and the Del Sol was probably cheaper than all but the bland Paseo.
I drove a Del Sol si from ’94-’96 and a vtec from ’96 to ’05. Great car. It was like driving a go kart. You sit very low but it has plenty of leg & head room for a tall guy like me.
There’s a lot of cars I don’t get. Just last week I bid on an Apollo GT but I didn’t get it.
I had a Nissan Cube that no one really seemed to get. The little fuzzy dash mat especially. But That car was amazing, easy on gas, so much space indie, i am 6’5″ and it fit perfect in front and in back. It could carry a ton and park anywhere. I think Americans just don’t get these little Japanese things.
I find that the more intelligently designed a car is, the less Americans understand it. The average American wants their car big, dumb, and bought by the pound as cheaply as possible. Except today they are willing to wildly overpay for pickup trucks for some reason that completely baffles me.
Because most cars are overpriced crap.
Most truck owners won’t tolerate unreliable or unrepairable.
Car owners noticed.
And yet those two words very much describe current pickup truck production. <shrug>
Still applies enough to matter.
I’ve shopped carefully to avoid most issues, and modified many parts.
My 4 cylinder Ford ranger is a perfect example of very tough.
I needed more towing ability, so got a full size.
I left 1000 pounds of concrete in the bed for some time, going in a wildly steep gravel drive. Ranger would not handle that.
All stock past the transmission, truck wasn’t bothered.
I do hear complaints about the newer truck versions.
A shop I rely on has converted some fleets to mechanical diesels for less downtime.
A Ranger is not a modern truck. The issues with trucks from the past 5-10 years are absolutely ridiculous. Possibly more so than the insanely inflated prices. Even Toyota can’t seem to make a reliable truck engine anymore. You shouldn’t have to modify a new vehicle to have it be reliable. At that point, just buy an old one.
My little $800 utility trailer can handle 1000lbs+, having that in the bed of a truck doesn’t impress me much.
Have you moved a full half ton of concrete recently?
Could have been more actually, loaded to the rails.
On a non adjusting suspension, it made the rear end waddle. It’s clear I need a rear antisway bar. Trailer is easier to get away with weight.
I just moved 300 gallons of chemicals on my heroic single axle bike trailer with 13 in tires. I got worried 3000 lbs was bottoming out the springs, and the tires were untested for me, so I went slower and slower going home. I made it home five hours later, and I couldn’t be happier with that trailer.
For the record, Cummins in the pickup is a tier zero, no electronics.
International is a tier one, 2005.
I’m not sure I’d buy anything after 2010.
I just moved rather more than a full ton of flooring tile, so yes. With these:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PR72BBwyrmCVDqos9
Who needs a truck? I did make two trips out of an abundance of caution – it’s rated for 1250lbs, so wasn’t overloaded. The tow beast is a whole lot more fun to drive when I am not hauling building materials around too.
I sure wouldn’t buy anything new. Literally everyone I know with one is having issues. My contractor buddy had RAM buy back his unfixable $110K Cummins-powered truck a couple years ago. The replacement is having problems too. My neighbors lost the transmission in their fancy $85K Silverado when it was only six months old last year. Quality.
The Suzuki X-90. Suzuki didn’t even understand it.
I used to sell cars with a guy who was nuts for these. He had one in Pristine condition. He seemed to really like the transmission, he said that it it revved and shifted in such a beautiful way.