Hype is a funny thing. It builds a superhuman halo around certain cars, sometimes over time and sometimes immediately. However, sometimes the hype train misses our station. What iconic car is impossible for you to love? I’m talking about cars so beloved, you’d be a pariah if you said anything negative about them.
If you’re hesitant to answer, be assured this is (for the most part) a judgement-free zone. A friend of mine hates the Ferrari Testarossa. Adrian isn’t a fan of old British roadsters. It’s all good. Let me start with my own coldness to a hero car.
Everyone loves the Honda S2000, right? Winner of a zillion comparison tests, commander of strong resale values, bestowed with a legendary redline and a phenomenal shifter, you’ve probably heard it all by now. Actually, I should say that almost everyone loves the S2000, because I don’t. I respect it immensely, but love? It just doesn’t do the sports car thing well enough for that.
Let’s start with the steering. Honda went with an electric power steering rack, and since the S2000 was launched in 1999, steering feedback is an absentee. The ratio itself is reasonably fast, but your fingertips don’t pick up what the car is doing. Instead, keen drivers will have to rely on sensations through the seat and pedals, and that’s a disappointment.
Speaking of disappointing, the seating position isn’t great. On the stock seats, you just want to be an inch or two lower, something that just isn’t feasible. Oh, and that’s before we get into the frustrating inaccessibility of the powerband. Even the torquier AP2 didn’t properly get on the boil until 6,000 rpm, and given a 2.045:1 second gear ratio, a 4.1:1 final drive, and a 24.7-inch rear tire diameter, means the fun doesn’t really start until 52 mph or so.
Whether a bedroom poster exotic or a humble people’s car, today’s Autopian Asks is all about going against the grain. What’s a widely-loved car that you just can’t get behind, and why? As ever, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
(Photo credits: Honda)
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For me it’s almost any BMW. They’re ugly as sin, unreliable and the inside has an awful lot of plastic. Yet the people who worship them will never admit that the product is just meh
As a former BMW owner and (previous) fan, Their quality is atrocious. German engineering doesn’t mean what everyone thinks it means.
Any 911 after the original Turbo. Tired of seeing the same basic shape over and over and over. At least they don’t sound like a Beetle, but damned if they don’t still look like one
Mustangs…although I do like the classic 60’s and 70’s Mustangs
Any VW from the last 20 years.
They all have decent/good reviews when they come out, then 10 years later (or less) they are all clogging up garages with all kinds of expensive problems.
I don’t understand how some people (*cough* Mercedes *cough*) repeatedly buy into the idea of the goodness of VWs when they are all seemingly built to such a low standard.
Not hating, it just makes zero sense to me why someone would repeatedly sign themselves up to almost guaranteed automotive suffering.
Thank you! Any car can last hundreds of thousands of miles/klms if you dump enough money into it; therefore the mileage doesn’t always equate to a reliable vehicle. The lesson I’ve learned with my Toyota’s compared to numerous other brands is I don’t need to dump large amounts of money into it to get them to last that long. ‘German engineering’ isn’t what it used to be.
On my 4th VW and I would have to agree. I can explain a bit about why people (like me, up until this last one) sign up for it- The first one I owned was fantastic. Looked great, drove really well, felt like a lot of quality had been crammed into it at well below the price you would expect. Most importantly though, I put over 180k miles on it with no issues. It had a window recall and a blinker recall, but those were both paid for by VW, and took about an hour out of my day to get fixed. Regular stuff like oil/filter changes etc, and that thing was a rock. Loved it. It convinced me that the brand was something I could count on. The only reason I’m not still driving that car is because someone drove out in front of me and totalled it. Not a single other one has lived up to it. They still look and feel like they’re quality, but that only lasts a short time and then they just start self desctructing. My wife’s previous VW was also great (and older), but it also got totaled, but at least this time we had the sense to replace it with something that will last
The corvette is… OK? I guess? Not particularly special. Except the OG Sting Ray I guess.
I was in my boss’s classic 911 and it was loud, stinky, and uncomfortable.
I’ve been in many golf GTIs and… Meh?
Modern Bugattis hold no appeal for me. Same with super/hypercars.
Boy racer cars like the Evo and WRX are just cheap second-tier ordinary Japanese semi shitboxes. The S2000 is just one step above that.
Jeeps are crap cars and I value build quality and reliability.
Same comment about the Audi TT, which in addition is ugly AF.
Pony cars except maybe the screaming chikin.
OTOH some not particularly iconic cars really do it for me, like the Lincoln Mk VII, Genesis G90, or mid 1990s Roadmaster wagon. And some semi-iconic (I guess) like BMW 635csi, the newer Fiat spyder, Saturn Sky, Mercedes R107.
The 911 mostly because the Cayman is by rights the better car but isn’t allowed to truly BE the better car.
Any supercar since they stopped putting manuals in them.
Minivans piss me the hell off and has been a target of my ire since 1983.
Your take is bad and you should feel bad
Agreed. It’s one thing to dislike them visually, but a not-insignificant portion of pickup owners would be better-served (and getting better fuel economy) in minivans.
Plus even my dad’s 2014 Sienna has 250 horsepower.
What do you propose people drive instead of minivans? Honda Pilots?
My driving experience has been pretty narrow, so for the most part I’m repeating what others have said below.
Hey! Fourth gen Accords are great, and you should feel bad for saying otherwise. All subsequent Accords are lame mom cars.
Would the new Ford Bronco be iconic? Too early to tell I guess. If so that’s my nomination. The base model with the poverty spec wheels and tires is the only one I like and of course I’ve never actually seen one on the road. The sasquatch package which seems to be the default choice with the three foot wide tires sticking cartoonishly out the sides can actually put me in a bad mood.
I guess the RR Silver Shadow and its derivatives fit the brief, too. After the Silver Cloud they come up with a downsize Checker Marathon.
Tesla. It’s been downhill since the overweight Lotus.
The problem with the S2000 is that it has become too precious. Especially when one can actually buy a new ND. I would rather wring the hell out of a new ND than worry that my S2000 needs to be in some Honda museum next to the exhibit about Soichiro and the geisha/window incident.
I interpreted this question as “what cars do you not like that you “should” like or that you don’t know why you don’t like”, thus eliminating cars I actively dislike for specific reasons.
For me the answer is Maserati as a whole. I just don’t understand why it exists. Who buys one over the available alternatives?
Maseratis have never appealed to me, and I don’t know why. They just don’t “click” for me.
-80s Lamborghini Countach; it looks like a doorstop carved by someone who snorted too much cocaine, and is at least a half-ton overweight
-80s Ferrari Testarossa; see above, except it’s even FATTER
-Lexus RC F; that grille is hideous, and the thing weighs as much as a Chevrolet Silverado
-Bugatti Veyron/Chiron; get rid of all the baroque that necessitates pushing all this air out of the way and cut a ton of weight by making the thing smaller with a lot less useless luxury crap, and it would be a LOT easier and a LOT less expensive to go 250+ mph
-any modern Lamborghini; they’re like the Countach, but even worse in most of the ways that matter, even havier, and the level of performance-sapping design cues is abominable
-Corvette C8; up to and including the C6, Corvette was moving in the right direction. They were getting more slippery and top speeds were climbing greatly as a result, while fuel economy was getting to be decent in spite of the gas-guzzling V8 powering it. Then the Stingray came and reversed progress a little, but then the C8 came and brought the CdA values to the worst they’ve ever been for a Corvette in all its history dating back nearly 3/4 a century, AND the thing weighed almost a ton more than the original C1
911, all generations. The slant nose is the only one remotely attractive from the front, and the profile and rear views are just horrible to me on all of them. 928/AMC Pacer also sucks. E-type Jags. Audi TT. Bubble-butt C5 Vettes. I just have a thing against ovoid shapes I think.
I’ve always preferred concave surfaces to convex. The 68-73 C3 tail looks better than 74-82. 67-68 Mustang rear valance and taillights look better than 64-66. Notchback Mustang II looks better than the hatchback.
I think you and I are the ONLY people on the notchback Mustang II island.
Oh, and Dirthead Dave Chapelle. Just the 3 of us.
Me as well if I’m allowed
Allowed! The more, the merrier!
Woo hoo! I’m not alone!
Not to say the mustang II is my favorite by any stretch, but the notchback is better than the hatch, and the same goes for fox bodies.
I’ll join the island if allowed
Getting crowded now, but allowed!
I thought the 911 looked like a surprised frog when I was a kid but that was because the matchbox or whatever version I had was all wrong. When I saw one in person I thought it was cool. However the 944 turns me off. The original 924 is a nice looking car, and the short lived 924 turbo is even better, but something about a 944 puts me off. I kind of hate it.
I have a theory, and I swear this is not snark. Have you seen a 928 in person, ever?
Don’t tease: what’s your theory?
I have in fact, ridden in one. Once: not an exciting event, but it occurred.
I think it is very hard to photograph a 928 and make it look good. The Pacer familiarity comes out clear as day (which isn’t unintentional, Lapine and Teague studied together in the same GM design group). I don’t think it looks good even in Porsche brochures from the period.
But, when you walk up to it and see the proportions in the flesh, all that bubble-butt 70s-ness disappears. It’s a small, low, long-hooded shark. It’s the German E-Type.
I used to see one around town when I was in college, but either it or I was moving every time I saw it. I’ve never seen a live one up close.
The Cadillac ELR – people seemed to go crazy over how great it looked, but I really never saw that, just looked like a squashed door stop with an inflated sticker price to me.
Also the Toyobaru – perfect size, perfect packaging, good price, fantastic to drive, but all the style of a stackable washer dryer set, which feels like kind of a miss for that market segment. The facelift is better, but still, a bit anodyne.
I wouldn’t mind having one, but I never have, because something about it just doesn’t make me want to have it enough to really pull the trigger
I have a weird dream of building a sleeper ELR. I think they look great and having one that could perform would be pretty cool. LS might be too obvious and might not fit, but a hotted up Ecotec maybe?
Full sized SUVs. To me they were just gas guzzling behemoths driven by people with too many kids and/or too much stuff.
I was always a fan of the Suburban – until every car maker came out with their own, and every mom replaced the minivan or the station wagon with one.
I remember seeing the Nissan Armada parked in the mall when it launched here in the US. I remember thinking it was absurd, definitely some kind of joke, right? No “car” could or should be this big. I was much younger then.
I guess if there was an “iconic” one I didn’t like in particular, besides all of them, the Excursion. I rode in one a couple times, and the first time I was sure it was going to change my life because it was such symbol of wealth. It was like being an oversized base model f-150. Everything felt cheap, not at all like I expected from this bus a doctor chose to drive his son to school and himself to work. It’s entire draw really was “it’s really fucking big.”
That’s disappointing (about Excursions). I’ve heard their suspension is stiff, but I always thought their interiors looked…well, decent.
Of course, if it’s a family of 3 and you’re not towing or hauling or being the local carpool guy…well, should you be buying something like that anyway?
I feel a little guilty! This was 20+ years ago, so who knows what I missed or didn’t know. And it was definitely nicer than the Dodge van (not minivan, like church or cargo van, with seat fabric coarse enough to grate hard cheeses) that was our own family truckster for a time. But the big flexible pieces of injection molded plastic didn’t really say luxury or even aspiring luxury to me.
So, this is an irrational one, but I’ve never been a fan of the Murciélago. I love literally every other Lamborghini, especially the strange ones (aside the Urus, but that dislike is rational). I love the Miura, I get excited by the Espada, and got downright giddy the one and only time I saw a Jalpa. What really cements the irrationality is that my favorite Lambo of all time, and honestly probably the only supercar I would actually want to own some day, is the Aventador. I don’t know what it is that the Aventador does for me that the Murci never did, but boy does it do it well.
Ferrari Daytona.
I just don’t think it’s an attractive car with it’s overly large amber front corners and Nebraska Sandhills flat hood and front end. It’s just…boring. I don’t get the hype at all.
I don’t think I’ve been a fan of Ferrari styling since the 550 Maranello.
I actually like the 2000s models 599, F430, 612 Scaglietti as they have the much improved interiors, but understand they are not everyone’s favorites. I haven’t been a fan of anything since (except the FF which is more about the shoe car side profile). And just to be clear, I’m talking the 60s Daytona, not the SP3.
The Jaguar F-Type’s looks. I don’t think it looks bad, but I remember everyone freaking out over how it was the best looking car on sale (in the mid/late 2010s). I think its styling is only fine, and this is after its looks grew on me over time.
Every Corvette from C3 forward to today. This is strictly an aesthetic bias. Just don’t respond positively to their looks, so regardless of their performance characteristics, or lack there of, whichever the case, they do not appeal to me. ‘67 and earlier Vettes, however, still grab me by the balls.
The C3 Corvette is the single sexiest body ever created by an American automaker, and I will die alone on this hill if necessary.
What would you like on your tombstone?
That is the correct take.
The early ones with the thin blades were voluptuous and enticing. I won’t stand on that ‘single sexiest’ hill with you—but I’ll at least play a water hose over the crowd to dampen their torches …
It’s pretty good, but I prefer the C2. Also, C3 got worse as it aged, I hate the 82. Gotta be a 72 or older with the vertical tail light panel and the vertical rear window.
I’m going to try and avoid cars that are of a kind that just aren’t my jam. Which basically means I won’t be mentioning any highly capable off-road vehicles, it’s just not my area of interest. For me, the Camaro, all generations, would be it. When available, I generally preferred the Pontiac Firebird, right up until the 4th edition when neither of them were particularly attractive to me. I don’t care how bitchin’ it may be, just not for me.
Escalades and Hummers for me. They are monstrous wastes of all kinds of resources, including street and parking space, mostly driven by people who just want to pretend they’re badasses. (Apologies to the 0.2% of those who buy them and actually use them for towing, hauling, work, etc.)
Hummers bother me a lot more than Escalades. At least Escalades have storage space, right?
Mind you, I agree with your overall sentiment.
Having driven an S2000 extensively on the track (where it really shines) I totally get the hype around them. I’ve never felt like the steering was vague or uncommunicative.
But overrated cars for me? I guess it’s all those Hellcats and high-power Chargers and Challengers. Anyone can throw a ton of power in a car and make it go fast in a straight line. I know all that power should be exciting to me and maybe driving one would change my opinion, but they don’t really do anything for me.
Over the past few years, I can’t seem to bring myself to care about all the latest supercars and hypercars. I grew up watching Top Gear and loved seeing all the weird, wild and wonderful stuff automakers put out. But now, idk, they just don’t do anything for me. Maybe it’s because new models are basically just splitting hairs to be only slightly better than predecessors.
And Teslas of course.
In order to appreciate the S2000, you need to own one, not test drive one. You never get a chance to understand it from a mere test drive. Owning it, you’ll understand driving it around the block, nothing to talk about. Own one and you’ll understand you’ll want to keep it above 5K RPM, and the engine is happy to live above 5K. The S2000 is most appreciated on a track, carving a mountain road, and in your garage because you just beat around a track and backroads and it keeps on going, very reliable.
I owned two of them, sold the 1st one, regretted it, bought a 2nd one. Eventually replaced it with a 987S. 987S is a Cayman on steroids with a bit higher maintenance costs. Engine isnt as smooth in the upper RPM ranges, but I also dont need to be in the upper RPM ranges to enjoy it.
Yeah, you can’t really appreciate the S2000 if you keep the revs under 5k. My dad and I share the track car, we recently got it chipped so Vtec kicks in somewhere around like 4500/5000k(?) and it definitely made a difference. Otherwise engine is stock, just a bunch of aero, brake, and exhaust mods to wake it up and make it stick to the track like glue.
Interestingly enough, my dad wants to get us a Cayman to replace the S2000 as our track car. I think he’s tired of driving a stick on the track, and wants to go faster. His 2020 911 isn’t as fun on the track as he thought it would be. He pays for all of it so I don’t care, but I will genuinely miss the S2000 if we part with it.
I think the Miata shifter is absolute ass and detracts from the experience.
Which generation? The NA’s shifter is sublime
I’ve driven two friends NB’s and they were pretty high mileage. Shocked at how heavy the clutch was too.
It could be worn out. I owned an NB that I bought with 130k miles and the shifter was ass until I rebuilt it. The various shift boots were ripped, and various springs and clips were busted and came out in pieces.
After rebuilding it, it was much better.
The two I’ve driven were high mileage NB’s with shockingly heavy clutches so you might be right.
A well-functioning stock NB Miata clutch is the furthest thing from being heavy, so I think you had a bad experience on some tires out / poorly maintained ones.
You, sir, are hilariously incorrect.
Audi TT, at least the early ones, and I am talking based purely on its looks.
Ohhhhh I’d understand this take if it was the opposite. I’ve always thought that they looked amazing but were let down by the fact that they’re just Golfs underneath. Dropping near Boxster money on something that’s FWD and build on an economy car platform is always what hasn’t sat right with me about TTs.
I’ve driven one, but it wasn’t the model to get. Fiancees mom has an 04 but it’s the 1.8t with an automatic and man, that combo kills absolutely any fun you could have with that car. Maybe the platform is good to drive, but I’ll never find out in that car.
While I agree about the TT, the later TTRS could do 0-60 in under 4 seconds.
People think the R is the ultimate Golf, but the TTRS really deserves that distinction.
TT RS isn’t about the 0-60 times, it’s about the swan song to the Inline 5. Uhg much want.
The Mini Cooper S wasn’t designed for driving enjoyment, it’s design was solely based on fitting the most amount of people and stuff in the smallest footprint.
It became the daily driver of most F1 racers of the era.
It’s nice when things work out like that.
I think your post was meant for another comment, as I didn’t mention Mini Cooper S.
But, I will say a Mini Cooper is an engaging car to drive which has to do with the design overall. It’s stubby and scrappy.
It was another example of a car that was really great at something that it wasn’t specifically designed for.
To me it looks almost exactly like the New Beetle. I don’t mind a Beetle looking like a Beetle (in fact I always thought they should’ve gone smaller and even more retro), but it makes the TT look slow and cheap!
Circa 2000, there was a new beetle show car in Toronto with the front and rear clip from a TT grafted on. It really looked like it was born that way, and caused most revelers, including myself, to do a double take.