Shout-out to any nine-year-olds reading The Autopian, but I’m confident we’re almost all adults here and can agree that our tastes have changed since graduating from kid-dom to full-fledged Serious Grown-Up Person. Your favorite meal is an aged cut of beef served at a restaurant that doesn’t have pictures on the menu, not a burger at a place with an indoor playground. You don’t stab straws into Ecto Coolers, you sip expertly prepared Old Fashioneds. As for what you drive (or aspire to drive) well, it probably doesn’t have a giant bird on the hood like the machine kid-you dreamed of owning along with a luxuriant mustache. (Ladies, insert your own examples, I have no idea.)
To each their own, of course, but odds are you’re less into maximum horsepower and more into precise handling; more concerned with comfort and convenience, less dazzled by decals; not into scoops and wings, more impressed by crisp lines and classic proportions … you get it, and I don’t feel like coming up with more of these ying-yang things. You might be really excited to have a new Honda Odyssey on order. Maybe find yourself thinking about how sharp Camrys are these days. Ever spotted a nice 12th-gen Cadillac Eldorado and thought, “boy, it would be great to do a road trip in one of those”? We respect aaaall that. Adulting!
So tell us: What cars are you into now that kid-you would say are lame? Or flip it: What cars blew your mind as a kid that you now regard as cringemobiles? Heck, they might even be the same car. That’s the Countach for me. Naturally, lil’ Pete thought the scooped, straked, winged, and widened LP5000 was the ne plus ultra of bedroom-poster supercars, infinitely superior to the unadorned LP400. Not even close! Suffice it to say, I learned the error of my ways long ago. I’d still happily take either one though. Obviously. [Editor’s Note: I used to think the Audi A2 and BMW i3 were short and ugly, but now I adore them. I also used to think the Ferrari 360 was a bit boring looking, now I can’t get enough. -DT].
To the comments!
Topshot image credit: Dodge Caravan via Chrysler; excited guy by wayhomestudios/Freepik
When I was growing up, I thought that the Chevy S10 ZR2 was the pinnacle of cool. My older brother’s friend also had a brand new 90’s Monte Carlo in red that I thought was awesome as well.
Growing up in rural Ohio does that to you lol.
Oh man, I understood the prompt backwards. Oh well, kid me would not understand why I don’t care for trucks or big V8s anymore but driving lightweight sports cars will do that to you
I so wanted my ’95 S10 to be a ZR2. After I grew up some I had a ’19 ZR2 V6 and a ’20 ZR2 Bison ???? Duramax. Bone stock the Bison went anywhere I pointed it and pulled a 4k+ travel trailer with ease.
I’m a lunatic who, when writing a letter to my future self in 4th grade, hoped that by the time I read the letter would by then own a minivan.
Looks like I’m living the dream.
I turned 35 and started to like Porsches. I’ve always thought they were unimaginative, poorly designed flawed beetle relics. Now, man they are great. Actually I used to think the beetle was dumb, and the 2CV, in fact I used to think all Citroens were weirdo bizarro cars that deserved to go bankrupt, now, I think they are fantastic, not only their historical engineering but their styling and determination to be so friggin French!
I grew up in a Citroen family, hence having a 2CV as a free first car. Citroens were mostly weirdo bizarro cars that deserved to make the company go bankrupt. I like the weird engineering, I’m depressed that the current cars are sooooo dull.
I find myself looking at 90s Toyotas and a first gen Renault Scénic that I now love despite despising them when I was 10. But I still love Volkswagens and Opels and Fords that I absolutely adored when I was little so not that much has changed.
Oh yeah, forgot to add: I always kept a list of dream cars: a ’67 VW bug, a VW Vanagon and the same Opel Ascona C as my granddad’s. Now at 35 I did it, they are all three in my garage. The only one missing is a Landrover Defender but I can’t use the full capacity of that car so I won’t buy it.
In HS I was obsessed with the 3rd gen F body. I drew the new Camaro all over my notebooks, memorized all the stats. Thought the interior was like a jet-fighter cockpit. Decided I would have one with a Gale Banks Engineering turbo and Doug Nash 6-speed.
Then, later, I swapped my 4wd Subaru for a buddy’s 84 for a weekend and was underwhelmed. By then I had already seen that they didn’t age well-that plastic nose warped & drooped, and that 305 wasn’t strong enough to really move the car. I had figured out that I like low-powered, lightweight shitboxes I could toss around with gleeful abandon.
The 3rd gen Camaro isn’t even in the top 50 cars I would have anymore. A split-bumper RS is, but not terribly high on that list. <sigh> Things change
My tastes haven’t changed, really. I always loved our family Volvo wagons, just wished they were sportier versions (Turbos) with manual transmissions, and with rally parts. I still love wagons that size, just that they are Subarus now. Volvo Amazon/140/240 and Subaru Legacy (1st through 3rd gen)/Loyale/GL wagons are the only things I really browse on Bringatrailer.
Media that influenced me as a kid included an early ’70s Volvo brochure and accessory catalog that we had at home (also had a ’70s Mercedes brochure in the house, but I saw them as the opponent), car magazines from the library starting in the early ’80s (Car and Driver mainly, but also R&T, Hot Rod, Motor Trend), and a coffee table book on the history of the car “The Book of the Car” (favorites from that book were a Datsun 240Z in a rally, and the Ferrari 365 Daytona). I liked the Ferrari 308 on Magnum PI, and KITT on Knight Rider, and thought the ’82 Camaro was amazing looking (the Car and Driver cover/article was one of the first that I read as a kid). But, even as a kid, I never aspired to own any exotics or sports cars, just sporty/rallyish, smaller Swedish or Japanese wagons.
17 year old Private Muppet drove a 2CV and desperately wanted a 4WD turbo rally car. Celica GT4, Delta Integrale, Impreza, didn’t matter, just so long as it was the fastest thing in any road conditions and wasn’t a Metro 6R4 (so, so ugly).
Many decades later and what I really want from a car is to get away with doing a few skids without having to go fast enough to get arrested. Hence GT86. I still love all the rally cars except the 6R4, I just don’t want to own one.
Edit to add: I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time driving someone else’s F360. I wanted to hate it for class and branding reasons, but it was brilliant. Like a big fast Elise, but with no room for your feet.
With freshly donned, rose tinted, child-view glasses I remember a time when I thought VW’s seemed like girly cars and Beetles were lame.
I remember hearing something about 70’s Beetles being considered classics and thinking “who cares about those, it’s not a Mustang.”
Thankfully, we gain wisdom and acceptance through the blessing of aging.
I like old Beetles now, and I’m pretty confident I could change child me’s (me’s?) mind about them with a simple conversation.
As a 17 yo kid I already had half a lifetime as a Swedish car nut behind me. I had converted lots of friends’ families to Volvo; my girlfriend’s, two of my classmates, the postman, of all people.
Enter my mom purchasing a new Kia Shuma. This car was crude. An agricultural engine at best, exposed metal inside, yoghurt cup grade plastics and it was so, so noisy inside. The straight up comparison even to a lowly S40 was devastating. My mom’s boyfriend followed up with the ultimate tin can, a Daewoo Matiz.
Over 20 years on I’m on my third Korean car, just about as many as I’ve had classic Volvos. My collectible is a Centennial JS350, Norway’s only and the only one ever sold in Europe, which has 37 similar cars, mostly V8, while mine is a V6. My daily is an Optima PHEV wagon, and, yes, the engine has already blown up.
Things change.
I was going to say my current car, which is almost identical to the caravan in the first image. However, kid me would have loved having captains chairs and all that space for road trips… which is also why I love that car today.
Wagons and minivans. Most surprising though is the Toyobaru twins. Kid/teen me might have been into them, but 28 year old me was heavily indifferent to them when they launched. Never would have dreamt a very similar 2nd generation version would out of the blue become the One Ring to my Gollum 10 years later.
Oh, Autopian, it’s like you still don’t know me at all after all these years. My tastes are pretty similar to the ones I developed as a teen – burgers, pizzas, 2-doors with V8s. Screaming chicken and Judge decals a bonus. I drive a minivan because I have a family and need the space, not because I like it (even though it outperforms my ’77 and ’86 Pontiacs). Trucks are utility tools to haul big/dirty stuff. SUVs offer neither sport nor utility; they are merely tall wagons that are less cool than a ’91 Country Squire with peeling woodgrain.
The Twingo 1. I used to hate those as a kid, but now? I’m dreaming about racing one in the Twincup championship.
PS: it’s “neC plus ultra”
SUVs and minivans.
Kid me grew up wanting a pickup or a coupe. Adult me owned nothing but pickups and coupes (all American at that).
Then in 2017 I settled for a 4Runner, and it was my favorite vehicle ever.
I also grew to love minivans over the last several years.
I don’t even have kids for crying out loud! Why in the hell do I want such things?
When I was a kid every sedan was for old people and the only acceptable mode of transportation had to be a coupe.. not this grand coupe BS, a legit 2 door. Adult me understands the struggle and is more accommodating to back seat passengers, whereas high school me could give two shits if you had any leg room.
My tastes haven’t changed wildly, I don’t think, although supercars leave me totally cold these days. Never liked sedans and still don’t, mostly. Never liked trucks and still don’t, mostly. I thought solar cars were the coolest thing when I was in elementary school and hoped they’d become practical in the future.
Little kid me would be bitterly disappointed that I’ve lived this many years and never owned a British (or Italian) 2-seater. Always loved 60s Jags and MGs and Triumphs. Thought the x1/9 and alfa spider were equally cool, although less common to see.
I was pragmatic enough to realize a convertible wouldn’t be ideal year round in a winter climate, so naturally the thing to have would be a Disco with the bi-level roof, naturally in BRG. Of course, young me would also be disappointed by my failure to realize this expectation.
We always had a wagon, until they stopped making domestic three row wagons. Then we got a windstar, which I learned to drive in. It was fine and as far as I know was pretty trouble free, but I hated driving it and couldn’t envision a future where I volunteered to own a minivan. So of course, I’m as surprised as anyone that I have a (shock horror) domestic (shock horror) minivan that I (shock horror) actually enjoy driving. I mean, who even buys a Chrysler anyway?
Eh, my tastes haven’t changed much. When I was 10 years old, I tried to talk my dad into buying a used Mercury Colony Park a neighbor down the street was selling (he wasn’t having it), and when I was 20, I bought a Cadillac Fleetwood.
I’ve grown over the years to have a stronger appreciation for small cars, but I still have a very strong affinity for big, comfy land yachts, and that’s something I’ve always had. When I was really little, like 5-6 years old, my grandmother’s neighbors had a Cadillac Brougham in black with a burgundy button tufted interior and a Camaro IROC Z in red with T-tops, and I though they had to be the coolest 50something year old asphalt company owners in the world.
The car 9-year-old me would have been riding around in: a 92-96 Camry.
Back then I was all about German cars (thanks to my dad’s old Mercedes), and anything Japanese was a second-class citizen in my mind (with everything else below that). But it was that beige 1993 Camry that we used for family trips and most other things, when that old Mercedes started showing its old Mercedes-ness. I grew up with that car. One of the few things I can remember from my toddler days was riding home in it when my parents had just bought it new. When I was 6 or so, my mother often left me in the car while she shopped (not on hot days, of course!). I became so bored I opened the glove box and started reading the owner’s manual – I eventually read it cover to cover, starting a habit of being fascinated by excruciatingly boring things that has only gotten worse over time. Eventually I learned to drive and got my license in it, got pulled over for the first time in it, and took it on my first solo road trips. That car managed to wend its way into my heart in a way that few things or people have.
Unfortunately, my parents weren’t really “car people” and often neglected basic maintenance, only fixing things when it was necessary to pass inspection or emissions. The Camry started having problems that you would expect from a neglected 15+ year old car, but nothing that was really a showstopper – until one day it simply shut off and wouldn’t start. I am convinced to this day it was something easy to fix, but after having been nickeled-and-dimed by the car’s other little problems for years my dad had enough. I didn’t have the tools or the skill to try diagnosing and fixing it, so it was sent off to the junkyard, much to my dismay. For the rest of my adult life until now, I missed that car so much, even having dreams where it somehow came back to life.
After getting a new car, moving out, and starting my first real job, getting a Camry like my old one was always in the back of my mind. Every time I saw a decent-looking one in a parking lot, I would think about leaving a note for the owner asking if they’d be interested in selling it. When I had nothing to do I’d scan used car sites and Craigslist looking for a “good one” – which of course became more and more difficult as time wore on. But I had other dreams to chase and problems to work through.
Going through the pandemic was the final impetus – a reminder that life is short and not to put things off. And so, a little over 10 years since I bid my old Camry farewell, I bought a low mile 1994 for probably way too much money, even flying to another state to buy it and road-tripping it over 1,000 miles back. As soon as I opened the door, all the memories came back. All the sounds – the seat belt chime, the window motors, the door locks and handles, the A/C fan, the odd whine coming from the engine bay when starting from cold – were instantly familiar, as if I’d been driving my old car just yesterday. It’s not the same as our old family car (being a V6 instead of a four-cylinder, for example), but it still scratched my nostalgic itch. And it let me feel what driving one that hadn’t taken years of abuse was like.
9-year-old me would have probably thought it idiotic that anyone would be close to tearing up thinking about a 90s Japanese family transportation appliance, or that anyone would write a wall of text (sorry) about one, much less spend so much time and money on one. And honestly, I probably wouldn’t be able to explain it to him either. All I’d be able to say would be, “You’ll understand when you’re older.”
That was great. Thanks for letting us into your head there. I wish you many trouble-free years to make memories with your Camry
As a kid I wanted a Diablo, and an S1 Lotus Elise. Still want the Elise, not so much the Diablo. As for the flip side, even until I was about 25 I was dead set against ever owning a minivan. Now having owned 2, I really freaking want a Sienna SE woodland edition in that gorgeous forest green.
Musclecars.
I can’t stand gas guzzlers. Still can’t. I disliked them as a kid and felt they were poorly built crap. I like my cars to be light and nimble, which most of the older musclecars were anything but.
But there’s just something alluring about the brute force of a V8 engine forcing its mechanical output to the rear wheels that speaks to me. I like what that means, and generally, musclecars are the most efficient package I can find that configuration in without having to custom build something.
Kid me loved almost all cars, but wasn’t really keen on boring economy cars. Kid me was all-in on cars that had personality, be it design quirks, obvious flaws, or just temperamental unreliability.
Grown up me isn’t really much different, except that I also appreciate boring economy cars for their reliability while being less enamored with temperamental unreliability. I always enjoyed riding in my dad’s various German cars, and constantly wrenching on them was definitely a bonding opportunity for my dad and I, but I also don’t mind that my adult choice in Japanese vehicles allows me to wrench on them when *I* want to, not when *they* demand it, while still providing some quirks and personality.
Small Station Wagons.
I used to think that Colony Parks and Country Squires were the thing, but I’d turn my nose up at Corona and 210 wagons.
Now I see a little Japanese or European wagon (When was the last time you saw an Audi Fox wagon or a RWD Corolla wagon?) – I just want to give it a hug, tuck it under my arm & take it home with me.
I’ve wanted a 1992 Accord wagon since… well, 1992.
I have a 1992 Accord wagon. You’re right to want one, it’s excellent.
I feel the same about the boxy Camry wagons.
Like many other millennials in the comments I grew up on American muscle cars, but my boomer dad’s cohort have made those unobtainium so I’ll have to wait another 20 (and hope I’m alive still) to buy one super cheap at an estate sale.
My list of guilty pleasure cars is quite long so I will end with the worst offender.
At the ’99 Cleveland auto show I thought the Aztec was quite cool. Mostly because it had a tent, cooler and loud paint. I cringe at this still, I asked my old man to buy one and thankfully he ignored me.
As a little kid, my much older brother subscribed to Hot Rod and another muscle car mag (don’t remember which), so I read those cover to cover and loved the crazy customs they would show. Didn’t pay much attention to production cars.
As a preteen and early driving age teen, I was fascinated with production cars that were, well, different, like the Citroen DS & SM, Saab 99, Merc 190 SL, and the like. It drove my dad, a diesel engineer (think gens as big as half your house that run power plants), absolutely nuts, as imports were rare to forboden around my part of the world at that time. His one experience with a VW Fastback (absolute junk) bought for my brother sealed it that I would never have anything different until I could buy it myself. Well except when he got the Fastback running after sitting in a field for close to 10 years as my first car (which ruined me for life on VW).
I still wish I could have a DS, a 99 or a 900T (at least I had a 900T and a 93 for a while), or a 190 SL, but those days are long gone, and what I want now is the new Prius.
Dreaming of something different as a kid and what is really needed as an adult definitely has dimmed the buying desire for different, but I can read about here at least.
My first car in high school was a 1978 Camaro base coupe with a powder blue interior. Loved the car, hated the interior. I wished so hard it was black or tan. Now? I’d give anything to have an interior in an actual color, even powder blue. The outside, too – kid me wouldn’t believe how hard I’d rock a 70s triple-green car right about now.
I’m 51, and I don’t remember not being in love with cars. Most of what I loved as a kid and a teenager, I still do. Also, there are a lot of cars from back then that I either already liked, or at least secretly liked – I’ve been waiting for the rest of the world to agree with me how cool old school rear wheel drive V8 American station wagons are for decades now.
But generally speaking? I never got “sleepers” as a kid – a fast car should look fast! – but now, I love them. Speaking of 70s green, and being a second-gen F-body fanboy, I have dreamed of a 1973 Firebird Esprit in Verdoro Green, the “secretary’s car” kind – whitewall tires, wheel covers, no spoiler, maybe even a white vinyl top – but with an angry 400 under the hood, the 1979-81 WS6 suspension with four-wheel discs, and perhaps a vanity plate that reads “ZZZZZZZ.” Another secret warped part of me has always wanted to take the plainest four-door Dodge Dart/Plymouth Valiant from the 70s I could find and stuff a 6.2 Hemi in it with the quietest exhaust I could manage, put it on a real suspension with 16-inch steelies and the original dog-dish hubcaps, dress in grandma drag, and go stoplight trolling.
But I love them all. An 80s Corolla wagon with a 1JZ. A square-body Chevy Caprice with wire wheel covers, velour interior, and C4 Corvette goodies underneath. That insane V8-swapped 1958 Beetle from a while back. A fleet-spec Corolla with The Fast And The Furious hiding behind plastic wheel covers. No matter the brand, the fandom, the culture, or the country of origin, few things tickle me like a lot of go-fast in a plain brown wrapper. The older I get, the funnier people effing around and finding out gets.
Oh I enjoyed that, definitely having a sleeper is so much fun. We had an old Taurus SHO that shocked a corvette or two, and the 93 would eat up so many different cars in the twisties, that was fun!
One of my favorite cars ever was an accidental factory sleeper. I love this.
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/limited-rarity-1968-ford-ltd-brougham
I’ve read that before & it’s an awesome story!