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
Great crop of articles today, excellent work.
Magnum’s Ferrari.
Now I understand it’s more of a “the Ferrari owns you” kind of deal, and am content with a Miata.
Me in high school – “I wish I had $5,000 for a Nissan 240SX”
Me in 2026 – “Why would I spend $25,000 on a shitty Nissan?”
WRX. Thanks to Gran Turismo in 1998, it was one of the first cars I ever really fell in love with. I was obsessed with rally, the whole nine yards. I couldn’t afford one until I got out of college ~2007, at which point I was interested in sportier things. The fun + practical recipe eventually made enough sense to push me to get a VA WRX in 2014 and I owned it for 9 years. Couldn’t say a bad thing about it.
But even if Subaru were to come out with an STI wagon that wasn’t hideous, I really can’t see myself getting one again. Not sure if it’s just “been there, done that” or not wanting that perception of “hey, another middle-aged beardy guy driving a WRX, probably works in IT.” Just no appetite for that. At least for now. It’s neat how our tastes evolve.
Crown Vic. They’re still cool hell but ACAB and they’re inefficient.
Mercury Marauder is the solution, and efficiency is a state of mind.
The sole ‘dream car’ I ever owned was a ’94 SHO, 5 speed. It was already high mile, but clean and rust free. I babied, upgraded and dailied for 6 years. I performed a timing belt change/valve lash adjust myself a few months into ownership.
I wanted a Geo Tracker/Suzuki Samurai.
I didn’t want an E36 M3, but as we grow and choose what doesn’t make sense, then realize what does make sense. well, here we are.
One ride in a C4 Corvette 20 or so years ago completely turned me off. Impossible to get in and out of (I was still under 30). Noisy, creaky, rattley, hard riding.
I’d rather have a same year F-body TBH.
I have vague family connections to the Porsche family (my Opa worked for the old man at one point and did some design work on what became the Beetle) and was obsessed with both the VW side (beetle and bus) and the Porsche side (356, 550, and 944, because I was young). Would I want any of these now? Nope. I’d take a bus with a better engine and some safety – and then it’s not a bus. And so on. I just have zero desire anymore to own any of these anymore. Drive one? SO fun. Own one? Oh no.
This is kind of hard because it changed as I got older. As a middle schooler getting interested in cars I remember loading up on folders for sixth grade that included: Bugatti EB110, Ford GT90 concept, Ferrari F50 and the Lamborghini Diablo. Coincidentally or not these were all also in NFS II if I recall. As I got older it became increasingly obvious that I was unlikely to ever own a Ferrari. High school me really wanted a Camaro SS, Audi S4, or BMW M3. Twenty something me really wanted a BMW Z3 M coupe. Now I just want a decently reliable awd hot hatch with a stick sigh
I believe the evidence in my back yard is clear that my automotive tastes have not grown more sophisticated with age.
Jaguar XJS, the V12. I thought V12 was awesome but would not want one now.
Flip the question sometime though. What car did you hate a a kid but would rock now.
Honda CRXsi. Not because it wouldn’t be fun, but because of the giant brodozers that plague the streets and would probably run me over without noticing.
Thinking back, I clearly had great taste in cars as a kid with one exception… 8 year old me really wished my parents had a conversion van.
As a kid I could quote pretty much any vehicle that graced the pages of Car & Driver or Road & Track. I remember asking my sister who had just bought a 1980 T/A why she didn’t get a 924 instead. But as a young car enthusiast I was head over heels for the Maserati biturbo after reading an article and then finally seeing one in person.
While the SD1 clearly has some Daytona influenced details (side trough and indicators especially), the car that most influenced the overall shape was another Italian GT the Maserati Indy.
When I was a kid I just assumed I would buy a C3 Corvette as soon as I could scrape together the cash. They still make me smile, but I will pass on owning one.
I loathed the C3 as a kid, but TBH would probably rather own one now than a C4.
Dodge Charger. Both the classic and modern. It’s not even that I don’t like the idea of a Mopar musclecar, it’s the fans that turned me off. And the absurd prices for old ones. And the General Lee paint schemes. At this point a Belvidere would do. With a slant 6.
One of my best friends has a Citroen SM, that he bought from his dad for £1.
You know which one of those two regrets this.
For me my dream/regret car would be an FD RX7. I’ve had a couple of FCs that were cheap, so taking a gamble on rotor seals was affordable. Now though it’d be a huge bill I’d have to pay.
Pretty much all of them and particularly any super cars that I had posters of back then. Over the years a few of them have depreciated to the point I could stretch to buy one but I’ve learned I have no interest in trying to keep them running – (parts cost or DIY labor).
Even the more normal stuff is just not worth it either. The build quality was terrible, the performance was lack-luster at best, and just plain ol’ age and mileage all make them more trouble than they are worth.
Other than some sentimental value on cars I already own, I’ll stick to modern cars.
Interesting question. The first car that came to mind was the Maserati Bora. First time I saw a photo of one, I wanted it desperately. Would I buy one now? Clearly, keeping something like that running would involve a ridiculous amount of time and money. I couldn’t afford to do that, but I can’t afford to buy something like that in the first place. OTOH, if I had enough money to buy one, I’d probably have enough money to find someone to keep it running. Just a couple of months ago, I saw one in Monterey and it was just as gorgeous as ever, so yeah, if I could afford to buy one, I would!
Oh my lord I had so many “dream” cars that wouldn’t fly today for my uses.
The last Ranger before it went on hiatus, Chevy SS, Taurus SHO (the last one), either RAV4 EV, the OG Insight, I was all over the place.
The Buick Reatta in today’s poll is a very fortuitous coincidence for this question.
I had to come to grips with this in my college years, but I wanted a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 forever…until I started reading forums and posts by owners.
I bought one for a pretty good deal a few years ago – immediately had an abundance of issues to keep me entertained. Definitely fun as a project car but it would have been an absolute nightmare to try and daily.
Most (honestly, all) of them, since they are either money pits or complete POS.
Once you grow up, you get responsibilities, and a bad car that burns your time, patience and money is something that (usually) you don’t want.
Maybe for retirement, having a project car is fine, but with kids and family, seems an avoidable headache.