What Cars Do You Love That Your Friends Just Don’t Get?

As a card-carrying Autopian, or even someone causally looking at this site, you unquestionably like cars. However, the ones that are possibly the apple of your eye might not have, how shall we say, universal appeal.

Your friends and family will almost certainly get why you want to empty the nest egg to purchase a red 1965 Mustang convertible or an NA Miata. But more than likely it won’t be that simple; you have more complex tastes than the average person, and average person might think you’re insane. What cars are on your must-have-someday list that your acquaintances would totally NOT get?

Driving in our neighborhood recently, we were passing a self-serve car wash when the 14-year-old yelled for me to stop immediately. My wife thought this was because of something horrible; in her mind, it turns out that it was. We busted a U-turn and pulled into the car wash lot to see what the kid wanted me to engage ABS for: it was worth it. Inexplicably parked inside one of the bays was a U.S. spec Renault 12, and outside was this with a FOR SALE sign in the window:

“What is that thing?” the better half said as we pulled up in front and stared down at it from up in the SUV. “That’s the ugliest car I’ve ever seen. Why did we stop?” My younger son concurred. The older kid who had alerted me to it noted correctly that it was a second-generation Lamborghini Espada, complete with a V-12 and “room for all of us.”

If this Espada wasn’t covered in rust bubbles, had a great interior, and really did have “low miles” despite the worn pedals, it might be worth close to the $100K the owner was asking. As it sat, he’d be lucky to get a third of that (as you can see on the Cars and Bids auction for it), but I loved it nonetheless. I didn’t even care that it had an “S” missing from one of the Espada logos (so it’s a rare “Epada”) that was self-tapped into the fender (this thing was ROUGH).

Of course, the spouse couldn’t understand why I and my oldest thought it was the coolest thing we’d ever seen, even before the V-12 had fired up (and probably smoked like a chimney). I bet most people would also think it looked like something you should step on, especially if it was in its original factory Kermit green color (which I would want to repaint it in at any cost).

At the same time, a while back we went to some house that was Craigslisting a used kid’s bike for sale. Just out of the Carcoon in the owner’s garage was something similar to this:

My full list of “cars to own” would have a 1975 Buick Regal Indy Pace Car down at like number 6708, right above a 1988 Mitsubishi Precis, a 1984 Chrysler E-Class, and a 1972 VW 411 with the heater channels rusted shut (sorry, Jason). Still, the bicycle seller obviously adored this malaise thing; it’s indeed amusing to look at, but in an ironic sort of way. However, in many people’s opinion and by almost any objective standards, other than great air conditioning, it’s a flat-out awful example of a motor vehicle.

This Buick is underpowered, gaudy, has laughable handling, is badly built, likely stumbles and chokes thanks to awful smog equipment, but so what? The owner seemed to be smitten enough to lavish Bugatti-level care on it. It’s not like I, a person who loves an Italian car that looks like a doorstop and barely runs, can criticize someone who wants to cosplay a pace car driver (it was actually James Garner in 1975). But yeah, I don’t get it with a car like this either. You might notice that in Europe they don’t make replicas of Formula 1 safety cars. There is a reason for that.

How about you? What cars do you go nuts for that your non-car friends, or even fellow enthusiasts, absolutely not get at all?

source: General Motors