Your Love For Unexpected Cars Is Unlimited And LTD

“What Cars do you love that your friends just don’t get?” This was the question The Bishop posed on Friday, and I can’t think of a more relatable question for an Autopian than that. Speaking for myself, “You like those?” is a common refrain from my non-car-people friends and family when they catch me pausing to admire (or even snapping pics of) what to them are random worthless hatchbacks and utterly uninteresting grandparent conveyances. Likewise, they are dismayed when I’m much less moved by whatever rich guy’s toy the valet has decided was fit to park in front of the fancy steakhouse. Or is that parking spot based on presenting a big tip up front? Is it the restaurant owner’s car? I’ll Google it.

And now, in no particular order and chosen by my whim, here are a few of your choice replies for the cars your friends just don’t get (and will likely require a three-figure tip to get parked anywhere near the front of the steak place).

LTDScott
See screen name. I’ve been into the midsize Fox-platform Ford LTDs since the ’90s.
The 2nd car I ever bought while I was in high school was an ’85 LTD, then I learned there was a rare high-performance variant of it, then I found one scouring the paper Autotrader magazine and only identifying it by the presence of black trim shown in a tiny black and white photo. I’ve owned six since then.

For a long time these were just unloved frumpy used cars and you had to be a weirdo like me to appreciate them. Nowadays that has changed, as the rising tide of Fox Body Mustang prices and interest has lifted all ships, and now the “odd Foxes” are getting a lot of attention and love.

In general, if I had Jay Leno money, I’d have a warehouse full of “performance” variants of otherwise boring ’70s-’90s cars, even though most were just lipstick on a pig.

I have parked an LTD in the topshot just for you, Scott (apologies if “LTDScott” is actually on your driver’s license). And if I may, an LTD in that trim might be the most invisible car I’ve evet seen. I love that.

Joe the Drummer

I’m basically right with you on the car you named – generally speaking, COLONNADE ALL THE THINGS.

I think mine would have to be a variant from two years earlier, which I have named here before, because I would see a guy on the streets when I lived in Portland who had one that gave me feelings in places: 1973 Buick Century Gran Sport. 455, 4-speed, and loaded. A true gentleman’s muscle car. It was basically exactly this car.

No A-body had better fenders. Such swoop. Wonderful. But to the normies, “Gross, the 1970s.” Forget ’em.

TheJWT
Toyota Verossa because it’s ugly, Lincoln Continental Mark V because it’s big, anything with a 1G-GE because they sound like an F1 car while making 150hp, and a Skyline Japan (the one after the Kenmeri and before the R30, that nobody outside of Japan seems to care about), because I think they’re neat.

I had no idea these were a thing. I wouldn’t say it’s good-looking, but man, I can’t stop looking at it.

Jack Trade

Ford EXP. Esp the froggy first gen.

I know they’re objectively bad cars, but there’s something so compelling about Ford greenlighting a small fwd everyday sport coupe…that’s actually a freakin’ two seater.

The thought process had to be the product of some sort of auto enthusiasm warped into something to (improbably) get by the accountants.

Don’t get me started on the EXP. I’ve had a thing for the “froggy first gen” since the commercials started popping up when I was in junior high. I’ll take mine on those four-hole phone-dial wheels, please.

Elhigh

I’m here for late-70s – early 80s AMCs, but not the Renault models. Things that were re-engineered and heavily massaged Hornets and Concordes make me happy. And the Javelin and Matador Coupe, which was startlingly attractive in every way that the stablemate second-gen Matador sedans and wagons were double-plus fugly. It’s hard to believe they’re even related. I’ve never owned one, but I’ve always been uninvolved bystander-proud of what a scrappy little company with no budget was able to accomplish.

I’m too money-constrained to try it, but one of my fantasy garage stalwarts has always been a last-generation AMC Jeep Wagoneer. I would repower it with a 4.0 HO from a post-2000 Wrangler or similar for more up-to-date engine controls.

I like Chevettes and Citations. I like the Chevette kind of the same way you like a three-legged dog with heart problems, running around gamely with his four-legged friends. He’s struggling to keep up and they’re probably not slowing down for him, but he wobbles along to the best of his ability. He’s charming and pitiable, just like a Chevette. It might be kinder to put him down, but you don’t.

I like the Citation because it’s one of the cars I learned to drive in. Nobody else has anything good to say about them, but what the hell. You never forget your first.

Obligatory X-11 shout-out.

Y2Keith
1970’s American land-yachts, especially in 2-door form. Peak Bro-ham era. They’re just so unapologetically baroque, to the point of being a parody of themselves. They drive like something that hails from the swamps of Sqornshellous Zeta as they flollop, vollue, and sometimes willomie down the road. They’re diametrically opposed to anything an enthusiast should be enthused about. But they’re terrific Interstate cruisers. And they were what was new and shiny when I was just a wee lad, and well-preserved examples are getting harder and harder to find, and dammit, I miss the stupid things.

Land-yacht respect and even love are the mark of a True Autopian. There is no purer expression of being “pro-car.”

Thank you for all your wonderful replies! In case you missed it, today’s Ask is already up.