Let’s face it: some things that you wanted as a kid you were no longer interested in once adulthood took over. Sure, maybe you dreamed of being a firefighter or an astronaut, but as your twenties closed in, you realized that running into a burning building or riding a rocket to a place with no oxygen much less Uber service or a decent gyro joint was not what you first imagined it to be.
Cars are the same way. The dream machines of your grade-school or even high-school years might not have survived your more refined tastes of later years or simply the resignation that they wouldn’t fit with Real Life and Other Stuff. For me, it’s mainly the latter. In the early eighties, before I got my license, there were cars I flat-out loved and swore that I would purchase once I had the means. Once said means became available, the prospect of owning one seemed less appealing than just looking at a picture or watching a video.
If you subscribed to a car magazine back then, you couldn’t avoid the black-and-white ads in back by places such as Bayless Racing that sold kits to turn a dull Fiat 131 (or later Brava) into a replica of an Abarth rally car. These were the ones you saw in video snippets of the pre-all-wheel-drive days where they were never going in a straight line, tail hung out and spitting dust.
I thought this would be the coolest car ever to own, but as years went on, I realized I didn’t have the self-confidence to drive a loud fake race car and fully lacked the patience for seventies Italian cars (I know some people have had luck with theirs, but I can assure you that if I bought one it would catch fire within hours). What an awesome ride, though.
Some other car websites have declared that the Mercedes CLS was a highly influential and pioneering “four-door coupe”. Yeah, right. The 1976 Rover SD1 3500 would like a word with you.
Rover designer David Bache essentially took the shape of a Ferrari 365GTB/4 “Daytona” below and turned it into a hatchback sedan with a huge cargo area.
When British Leyland decided to finally import it to the US in 1980, I figured that one day I’d have to own one. Of course, fewer than around 1000 people agreed with me, and they stopped bringing it in after only a year.
Obviously, I can see why now. All of the issues you’d expect from a death-throes, labour-strike-plagued English auto industry were on display here. I wouldn’t touch one today with a thirty-foot pole. Also, as you can readily see, the American market headlights were terrible. If they’d added flip-up covers over the NHTSA-approved sealed beams like Ferrari did (and I just did below) I might feel different.
The Citroën SM is a masterpiece. I imagined one day buying one of the nonfunctional ones I saw sitting at a garage near my house, but over time the fear of breaking timing chains or hydraulic suspensions in a car that really wasn’t that fast put it further down my list. I could imagine that I’d spend tens of thousands on service and end up ultimately doing the same as Burt Reynolds did below:
How about you? If you really wanted a teal-colored Isuzu Amigo with a CHMSL wing years back but now don’t, that’s fine. I think you should change your mind, though.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
None. Either my child self had great taste, or my inner child is still running the roost.
(I was going to say Mitsuoka Le-Seyde, but then I realized I still want one)
Jeep CJ-5. Now I realize it’s an absolute death trap.
I think I’ll go with Porsche 928 which I loved in the 80s but today doesn’t seem as special except in the amount of maintenance it would need.
As a kid, I wanted all of them. Anything that looked loud and fast. I find I have outgrown that approach, which is why I honestly don’t get the appeal of Lamborghinis etc. to people who are old enough to actually purchase and drive them. It always seems kinda childish to me.
Any exotic car. Now that I know the value of money, and have even less than I thought I would by now, the thought of owning something THAT expensive gets my heart rate up.
When I was growing up I actually liked the look of the 05-11 Dodge Dakota and thought they were awesome. I am happy to report that I have matured, realized they are both hideous and horrible, and would never buy one at any price.
The Mustang II Cobra, Camaro Z28, or any Trans Am from the 70’s.
For the Rover, why did they use round instead of square sealed beams? They had been around for 5 years at that point.
If there is a wrong decision to be made, you can be certain that British Leyland did so.
This is the company that already had a great, 3.5-litre V8 and then continued to develop a new, 3-litre OHC V8 for the Triumph Stag – while their volume sellers were saddled with the three-bearing, OHV A-series engine well into the nineties.
The General Lee. Wouldn’t be caught dead in one now, but to 6 year old me, who didn’t even understand General Lee was once a living being, it was the ultimate car.
Oh, I wanted a TR8 quite badly…
…before I knew that “British Reliability” was an oxymoron.
I wanted a Mercedes-Benz 6.9 and a Maserati Quattroporte III.
Now I know they also have the fuel economy (another oxymoron!) that only a Big Oil Executive would love.
I dreamt of owning a Porsche 911SC.
Then I drove the subsequent Porsche 911 Carrera (Air cooled) – and I wonder to this day what the fuss was all about.
The Benz 6.9 and the QPIII should be fine – you shouldn’t own either if you don’t already have at least two other cars; fuel consumption will be the least of your worries for something you drive 200 miles a month.
This is true – However a third car is not a priority for me these days.
When the Explorer first came out, I was 16 and smitten with them. Really wanted one.
Then I became an attorney and learned of tread separations, rollovers and roof strength.
In hunter green, no doubt.
In the ’90s if I’d seen a 16-year-old driving an Explorer I’d assume it’s his mom’s car, so there’s that too.
Probably all supercars, they’re just too fussy, expensive, and I wouldn’t fit in half of them anyway.
I wanted a Delorian, I’ve looked at them over the years. My dad always used to laugh and talk about how terrible they were. I’ve been in a few and it didn’t phase me that much but something did. I’m not sure when I realized how terrible they were and I was not going to buy one but it’s been some time. I was interested when they started build them in Texas but those seem just as bad.
I also wanted a Countach and a Testarossa. Those are both don’t meet your hero cars. I don’t even really fit in them. And it just felt like something from the 80s.
The 2005 WRX STI. I thought it was super cool with the gold wheels, hood scoop, and wing. I still think they’re cool cars, but as I’ve gotten older the tuner performance pocket rocket cars don’t interest me as much. Between the economy plastic interiors, lack of good examples, astronomical prices for good examples, and overall roughness of them I don’t think I would enjoy owning one as much. They are really cool cars though.
I also went through a phase where I really wanted an old Alfa (thanks Top Gear) but then I learned how much they like to leak oil and generally not work. Really cool cars and I’ll always look at one at a car show, but I can’t find the motivation to actually buy one
A red 2nd gen Dodge Ram.
Cause the movie Twister left a HELL of an impression of me as a kid.
I have a few:
3rd gen Camaro IROC-Z. I loved these when I was younger, and nearly bought one twice. These days the nostalgia isn’t strong enough to make me actually part money for one, but I still enjoy the looks when I occasionally see one driving around.
Military HMMWV. I always thought these were super cool, but my experience with them as an adult has cured any and all interest in them and has instilled empathy in me whenever I see troops driving them on highways during training.
Old British cars. I loved the Triumphs and MGs, but my brother’s experience with his Triumph GT6, notably the electrical system he roped me into helping him with, made me realize that owning one would entail more work than I am willing to commit to a car I would almost never drive (I have a rock crawler Jeep to cover that base already).
Face it, I have the attention span of a goldfish in a bowl of strong tea. Even the cars I have owned over the decades I no longer want (except whatever one I own right now.)
Face it, I also have a terrible memory (and a lifelong love of strong beer), so I can’t even remember what car crushes I had half a lifetime ago. I remeber working in an automobile museum as a teenager, so I probably had a crush on, like, a million cars I never saw another one of again.
I bet you don’t even remember that some of the cars you had crushes on even existed to begin with. When did you last think of the second-gen Mazda MX-6, for instance?
I recall the Countach posters as a kid, I even wanted one at the time, though after sitting in one and understanding the reality of them, I would not really want one these days. it would just sit and collect dust and a good car should be driven and you should want to drive it. I also thought the Daytona Winged Dodge was way more interesting than the superbird and definitely wanted on of those, but the reality of dealing with driving it make them undesirable to me these days. Not that I wouldn’t likely try to make it work, I just know it would sit and barely get driven, and that would be a shame.
Aston Martin V8, Ferrari 330/365GTC/400, Lamborghini anything, 62 Corvette, Chrysler 300D or E, 65 Buick Riviera, 1st gen Ford Bronco, and the beat goes on.
Volvo 245, bigger and cooler – and much more expensive – than my parents’ Cortina.
Quite a yucky experience when I finally drove one: All that black plastic and the constipated sound of that giant propeller on the engine.
–Also thought the Austin Princess and NSU Ro80, which were both getting old at the time, looked very futuristic: Something about that wedge shape..
Never driven any of those, nor would I want to.
Oh, man, I loved driving my 245. A bit like captaining a ship, but it was also really narrow, so it could fit in slots where typical US-market cars would never. A poor man’s Bristol in a way. Also, the long wheelbase and phlegmatic temperament made for easy, controlled sliding in the snow.
OK, I’ll admit it, when I was a kid, I sort of wanted a neoclassic, like a Clenet or Excalibur, the 1930s gangster looks with modern running gear seemed appealing. But, that desire is completely gone now, they’re more monuments to questionable taste that would have people wondering if you were either a 1970s pimp, or an old rich white guy who also teleported from the 1970s. Sort of weird how tastes overlap sometimes
I loved British roadsters thanks to my uncles.
I wanted an MGB, a MGB-GT, a Spitfire.
Then i grew up and sat in them. Or on them. I dont fit in the mgb-gt at all. Or the spitfire. I would need custom seatrails to slide back more, and lower me to fit under the roofline.
I grew up in the northern Midwest where almost every vehicle was made by the Big Three and I never watched TV or movies, so all the vehicles on this list are, well, foreign to me.
As a teenager, my mom had a 4-door automatic Chevette. I always wished for a 2-door manual version. I still want one of those today.
Pretty much every car I liked as a 10-year-old (that’s as far back as my memory goes) I still like today.
The Chevette is one of the few cars where it’s worth it to go for a 2-door since it’s on a shorter wheelbase so the weight difference is pretty substantial, especially on a percentage basis.
K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider. The A-Team’s van.
When I was a kid I assumed I’d have a big garage. That….didn’t happen.
So my answer is a third car.