As a car enthusiast, I’m sure you’re getting pumped for new cars all the time, regardless of whether or not you plan to buy (or can afford) the latest and greatest from insert brand. Lord knows I won’t be buying a new car anytime soon, but that fact does nothing to curb my Heinz-Ketchup-commercial-like anticipation for spotting new models I’m into on the street and checking them out in the showroom. Holy crap, is that a baby Corey Feldman?! Oh, pardon me, I was just watching the video I hyperlinked there.
Back to car-ticipation. Though I’m always looking forward to lots of different new cars dropping, I am inevitably more rabidly interested in some than others (hence the query of today’s Autopian Asks). Back in my early high school years, I was on tenterhooks (it’s not tender hooks, I looked it up) for the C4 Corvette to finally appear in actual fiberglass. Like so many other kids, I had the spread ad for the car on my bedroom wall, and after a full lifetime-up-until-then of nothing but the C3, the idea of an all-new Corvette, especially one so sleek and futuristic and digital-gizmo’d, was completely enthralling.
Spacer
I was also tracking motorcycles closely at the time, and not long after the C4 dropped, Honda introduced the GB400 retro-bike that would eventually come to the States in 1989 as the GB500 with a boost in displacement to match the name. The GB500 was way behind the times in styling (intentionally, of course) which made the backward-looking Honda way ahead of its time as far as the craze for retro-styling goes. I was mad for the ersatz British look of the thing, and couldn’t have cared less that it was really just a boring Universal Japanese Motorcycle at heart and hardly a screamer with its 500cc SOHC inline four.
Retro would be a bit of theme for me, as another vehicle I simply couldn’t wait for was the New Beetle. My Dad had a Squareback followed by a pair of Beetles (the last a Super), and a 1974 Super Beetle was my high school transpo. So, like Jason, you might say I’m a bit of a Beetle fan myself. I will confess I was a bit underwhelmed by the car once I experienced it in sheetmetal (my sister actually owned a first-year model), but the anticipation was, once again, ketchup-grade.
Now it’s your turn: What’s The Most Pumped You’ve Ever Been For A New Car?
… or a motorcycle, or truck, or anything really. I didn’t follow the rules, so you don’t have to.
Slate is the first EV (and car) that’s had me genuinely excited for a very long time.
Other than that, I can’t imagine being excited about a new car.
(Admittedly, I can’t help but feel the new Prelude looks really cool.)
Still, I get excited for new cars in the same way I get excited for new smartphones.
“This is full of design choices I hate, lacks the features I care about, and has far too much factory malware and AI junk. Every brand is copying the same problems and there are no other choices.”
(Even the “better” options make me ill…for the smartphone example, the Fairphone 6 has no headphone jack, a camera floating in the display, etc.)
I also have no money, so I am the legendary internet-commenting non-customer who ruins everything.
As memories go, I could add runner-ups.
The Model 3 (saw it had a trunk instead of a liftback shortly after deliveries started, realized Elon wasn’t cool).Might have been a bit excited for the Bolt, just for the idea of more affordable-leaning EVs.ID.3 was cool (and not for the US).Ioniq 5 had me excited, but I was frustrated it was a crossover and too big.Ioniq 6 was a bit better, though I was also not a fan of sedans (see Model 3 disappointment above).I was hoping for the electric Veloster-like car that Hyundai N seemed to always be teasing with testbeds. Now that it’s finally surfaced as a concept…it’s full of AI garbage. (And also not for the US.)I’m sure I’m forgetting things…there was probably at least one that wasn’t a BEV (before the current Prelude’s power over my rational mind, I mean).
There was a sort of rising fatigue and frustration with them as “tech products” that would never really be what I wanted, though. I eventually stopped following EV news because it made me sad.
“Car enthusiast” and “tech enthusiast”. May as well be synonymous with “spent years without excitement for new releases by 2025”.
Edit: Ah, right. Saw someone mention Mazda. I was excited about one of the Mazda3 updates. The one where they did away with character lines and made it look really, really good. That was a non-BEV I got excited about. To a lesser extent, I thought it was cool they were making an inline 6 RWD Mazda6.
…I just looked it up, and I think that didn’t actually happen, and they only ever used that platform/engine for a crossover. Of course.
There was one time I put a deposit down on a car that wasn’t out and it was for what turned out to be my 2003 MINI Cooper S. A car I had for 15 years.
I don’t get into the concept scene. At all. I wait until I see what actually makes it through the sausage grinder and out on the roads.
I subscribed to all the car mags, because I liked to read reviews by people who are smarter or luckier than me who got to drive things before I spend money on them. And the peripheral content was fun as well. Just like this site.
The purchases of a 1986 Accord LX-i and a 2001 VW Jetta TDI were driven by the articles and photos of both.
Maybe my current ’17 Accord a bit. The reviews were enticing. But that purchase was driven more by a bit of nostalgia from my experience with the ’86. I had a friend who was pushing me towards a ’17 GTI. I test drove both. The GTI was fun, but I was still bitter about a warranty issue on the Jetta. And the Accord just seemed the more practical solution.
Although I tend to hang on to cars for many years (Jetta 16 years; eight years into the current Accord), I doubt I will ever by a new car again. The first two or three years of depreciation is something I no longer wish to endure. SBSD, here I come.
I do enjoy reading about what actually new cars make it out to the roadway, but I’m happy with what I have currently. So, I guess it’s enjoying living vicariously.
I was excited about the S197 Mustangs when they came out in 2005, I liked the retro look and finally bought a new GT/CS in 09.
The third generation Honda Fit. Its rollout roughly corresponded with my retirement and move from NYC to Florida. I knew I’d need a car, and the lowly beast stole my heart. My only new car (and my 4th), and I still have it over 11 years later.
As for new cars I never bought, way too many over my 70 years, starting with the 1964 Imperial at the age of 8.
When Suzuki came out with the V6 Grand Vitara. My wife had one of the 1st Suzuki Sidekicks (2d, softtop, 5spd, 4wd..nothing else) in the area and we loved it, exploring many of the old trails in nearby National Forest (They’re all gated now unfortunately). It would go anywhere, any weather. Our family was growing, so we were excited when they released the Grand Vitara. It was still BOF, still had a real 2 spd transfer case and a V6 to boot!
Short lived excitement though. Developed an intermittent issue when downshifting into 1st/2nd coming of interstate. Dealer never found anything. Literally wouldnt go back into gear without sometimes without cycling the clutch/shifting back and fro…just every once in awhile! And newly arrived 2nd kid’s rear facing car seat didnt fit in back seat without passenger seat shoved all the way forward.
After that, we entered that dreaded minivan period. Still keep the original 1989 Sidekick for another decade until the rear seatbelt mounts rusted out.
For me it was seeing the new Monaro at the Sydney Motor Show. I remember just being amazed by it and its dark blue interior, how all the proportions just looked so nice and clean. It just seemed to make sense to me and I wanted it. I was 12 at the time so it was the perfect age for an impression.
I didn’t think it could get better and then four years later I saw the HRT427 and was amazed by it. Still disappointed they never ended up producing them, it was an epic idea.
There are a few for me.
First, the Nissan GT-R. The drivetrain was designed by people from the future, apparently, and had sedate enough looks to be less obvious on the highway.
The C8 Corvette is one that I love for what it represents: a supercar-styled, actually fast car with an LS engine, that is mass-produced and available for under $80K. The aftermarket is understandably insane, and as far as engine stuff, that was all already inplace for years before the release of this car. I love it as a platform for a mild-to-wild supercar.
Finally, there’s one coming out that I am anxiously anticipating: the new Toyota Celica. The styling concepts I have seen are just what I’d want out of a compact sports coupe. Toyota’s GR division has designed an engine that is powerful, efficient (enough), and scalable. And it’ll be back in RWD/AWD territory for the first time in over 30 years (the GT-4 wasn’t available in all markets, and is rare as hen’s teeth, so it’s really an homologation outlier).
I’ve only had one new car in my life, and I was pretty pumped about it… so much so that I put a deposit down on it two years in advance, making me third on the list from that dealer. It was a silver ’98 Mercedes Benz CLK 320 with AMG Monoblock wheels and Bridgestone rubber.
It turned out to be the most unreliable car I’ve ever owned, and I’ve had a bunch of VWs and an Audi, so that’s saying a lot.
I plan for the Slate to be my first ever new car and my 3rd ever car purchased running (I have only ever bought 2 operational vehicles in my life – the vantruck in its original 460 brown-on-brown form, and my daily the Grand Caravan).
So I really hope they make it through.
GT350, the 2008 Challenger, and C8. I was thrilled with the idea of a mid-engine Corvette. When I retired I found a very low mileage used one and it’s such a thrill to drive. Still can’t believe it’s mine.
I would love to see the Rivian R3x see the light of day.
This is almost embarrassing considering where the brand and its ownership ended up, but the original Tesla Roadster. It was exciting because it was something different than everyone else was doing, and it seemed cool. It was rhetorically brilliant to make it aspirational – recognizing that you couldn’t introduce the American market to an electric car that looked like a shoebox when the prevalent attitude towards the idea of an electric car at the time was this:
https://youtu.be/3-Qrnl7KOug?si=Q10H3BN0fRemqpWS
Runner-up is the Smart Roadster for similar reasons, even if that never made it to the US.
“What’s The Most Pumped You’ve Ever Been For A New Car?”
Well I’ve never owned a new car.
However, I’d say the car I was the most pumped about was my first car… a 1990 Ford Festiva. Because prior to that car, I was walking, riding a bicycle or taking public transit… or having to borrow a family member’s car which wasn’t always available when I wanted.
And after buying that Festiva, I had a 900W stereo installed that cost almost as much as the CAD$2000 purchase price of the car.
Ah the 90s!
Nowadays, instead of a killer sound system, it would be $$$ wheels.
Mazda unveiled the all-new, non-Ford developed “SkyActiv” generation three of the Mazda6 in mid-2013 as an early 2014 model.
I immediately fell in love with the design. It was perfect to me. Perfectly proportioned, smooth lines, just amazing. Road tests praised it and I just knew I needed one. But, my college car, a 2008 Mazda3 that I bought in August 2009 with a scant 12k miles, was fine.
So, I waited. Until October of 2015. My wife and I had been married for three years and decided that within the next year, we’d like to start a family together. The 3 was admittedly small on the inside and a rear-facing infant seat would render the front passenger seat kind of useless. Adding in our dog in her car seat (our “first child”, really), and we’d be cramped despite the 3 being a hatchback.
So, on 10/10/2015, I sort of sadly traded in my little hatchback and snatched up a Deep Crystal Blue Mica 2016 Mazda6 Touring with 6 miles – fresh off the truck and with wrapping still on the seats. It had the Bose stereo and sunroof package and was all mine.
I paid it off early in 2019 and I’m still driving it today. We just passed ten years and are nearing 100,000 miles (I worked from home for many years).