What's your favorite automobile?
For me, I can't possibly pick just one vehicle for my favorite. Now, I will say that I prefer the styling of the previous generations. It seems that every modern vehicle I actually like or am attracted to for one reason or another, it's discontinued. That's pretty frustrating. One of my downfalls is that I prefer a manual transmission over an automatic. Today, it's a theft deterrent; however, I've been driving manuals since I was 19 and the reason I started buying manuals is because of my sleep disorder. I fell asleep at the wheel the first time at 17. With a manual, at a light, at least it will just stall if I doze off. I'm on meds to help keep me awake now, but until I was 30, I wasn't. A manual trans is unheard of in 2020. I had to special order my 2012 Fiesta in 2011 just so I could get a manual; not one was available throughout Canada and US. See... my family is a bunch of US union workers and my dad retired from Ford Motor Co. Therefore, I get A-Plan, making my brand new Fiesta a lot less expensive than if I were to buy something else a few years old at the time.
Now, I can't even order a manual in a US automaker's vehicle lineup unless it's a Mustang or a Corvette, which neither I can afford and those manuals are being phased out in 2021. 2019 was the last year of the Focus and 2018 was the last year for the Fiesta. I already warned my union family that the next vehicle purchase for me will likely be a Subaru Cross Trek or a Mini Cooper. They all understand my decision.
Anyways, to the point... here are some of my favorite vehicles:
There's a ton more that I LOVE, but I think I've shown you enough. 
What are some of your favorite vehicles?
I love AMC Eagle wagons too... and old Dodge 10 vans... and old GMC Jimmys and Broncos... and you get the point. I love cars and trucks in overabundance.
I was the only one of my friends who thought the AMC Eagle was cool.
I loved the fact that you could get a manual, 4x4 station wagon!
1938 straight 8 Packard convertible.
The straight 8 was an indestructible engine!
It totally was and beautiful to look at.
It's unfortunate that all automakers got rid of the straight 8 and the straight 6 engines.... but it's about making money. People drove those engines until they died and most often, they'd get half a million miles on them before going boom.
until 3 years ago i had an 84 F150 with the straight 6 300 with the 4speed manual, really low granny torque in first, that i had for 15 years , min maint. , it was a seasonal plow truck with an all steel 8ft plow. even after blowing the front diffs out of it , simply throw chains on the rear and she would power through a 6 foot snow drift given time .
it was still running when i GAVE it away as a parts truck, even though it was NOT road worthy any longer..
There are some pretty good turbo threes out there, now...
Yeah and it's crazy the HP they actually put out! When it's an all aluminum block with aluminum head(s) and a turbo... they can make them efficient and pretty peppy considering the size of the engine.
If we had to get a new car all of a sudden, it might be the new Buick Encore GX, because we have really appreciated the Encore (non-GX) we've had for six years. The GX has a turbo three. Everything I've read is complementary... within the limits of "Buick" of course.
Buicks always have been good cars. I'm bummed that they got rid of the Oldsmobile line though.
All of those car models go back to when GM was the world's greatest corporation and they made more cars and more types of cars than all the other auto makers combined. You see, every model was supposed to represent some group:
The Chevy was for blue collar people with solid jobs or young couples just starting out
The Pontiac was for more successful people or those just graduating from college
The Olds was for the white collar man of business
The Buick fashioned for the town doctor (the professional type)
The Cadillac was for the top executive
I'd bet that Alfred P Sloan would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that Cadillac was making trucks or if he could see how these model lines have become meaningless.
I loved the old Cadillacs with the tail fins along with the old Chevy Impalas. Of the foreign auto makers I like the South Korean car maker Hyundai, which got into the US market via a low price tag and a great warranty. Their cars were built to last.
I will always miss the feel of the bigger cars. They had the best ride. Beyond that, they were a statement. America is a big country with a nice big highway system. Europe is the place for small cars, unfortunately, my generation had different ideas.
My son's favorite cars are old Cadillacs and old suicide door Lincolns... he's 12. Can you tell that he was raised by two car lovers? He's got $330 stashed away and he said, "There's nothing I really want right now even though I have all that money." I told him that if he wants to start saving for a car now, he can get a darned good classic car for a few grand and then fix it up with myself and his dad. I told him that he could make that his goal; to save enough to buy himself a nice running classic that needs some TLC, but is still drive-able for every day use.
There are benefits to encouraging an interest in what we call classic cars. What helped make them classic was their signature characteristics. We now live in a time when so many car models look so similar and have all the same amenities - that goes right across international lines.
I hope it happens for him and the family!
I'm not into cars because to me they are utilitarian. However, that doesn't mean I want to ride around in a dull car.
I currently drive a Ford Ecosport, but my favorite car of all time was the 1990 Dodge Daytona I bought back when Mr G and I first got married. I cried the day we traded it in on a van.
My uncle loved his Dodge Daytona.
Gawd I loved that car. It was a 5 speed with 160 (180?) mph max speed. Mr G had it doing a hundred through the Denali valley.
I should have said boring, not dull. Boring cars to me are any sedans like Hondas, Nissans, those kinds of cars. Their style is just boring! They're old lady cars
Agreed. I suppose that is why I like Subarus, they have manuals and turbos and Mini Coopers for similar reasons and neither look like every other car out there.
I like suburus and a lot. I saw a Mini Cooper SUV that I just adored. I think it's called the Country Man. Of course, I can't get that car until I win the Power Ball
I would be buying a used Mini if I got a Mini. The Countryman is very expensive; especially brand new.
A Subaru Cross Trek on the other hand is inexpensive, especially in a manual.
Still own an 87 RX7. Built racing engines with a supercharger, programmable ignition, nitrous system, alcohol injection, racing suspension, wheels and tires, strut braces, Recaro 5 point seats, 500 watt Alpine sound system, etc, etc, etc......
It is the true definition of a money pit due to the fact that I keep blowing the damn thing up and keep destroying transmissions, rear gears and expensive Z rated rear tires.
We continue to have a love/hate relationship all these years later.
For the last 20+ years have been driving modified 4x4 Toyota Tacomas as daily drivers.
The regular cab 4x4 Tacoma might just be the best vehicle ever designed.
Isn't that how all project cars are supposed to be? Nitrous and alcohol injection will really do a number on an engine and it's components; that's why the funny cars are getting engine rebuilds after just a few runs... alcohol.
That RX7 has a Wankel engine?
I'm sure it does. Back in 1972 I bought my wife a wedding present of a little Mazda RX2 wagon with a Wankel engine. Perhaps because the car was small and light and that rotary engine was so powerful, she could leave a Mercedes back in the dust on a traffic light turning green.
Rotary engines of any kind are extremely powerful, but they're famous for leaking oil. I actually love a rotary.
I don't recall our car having an oil problem, so I guess we were lucky. However, the plastic gearshift handle broke off, so there was some pretty cheap construction in it.
Well... in a Mazda (rather than an aircraft rotary) would be considered "consumption" and not necessarily a leak, but if there was no oil consumption whatsoever, you were very lucky.
Exactly
Chargers and Roadrunners
I couldn't have guessed ......
Sparty said it before I could.
Two awesome vehicles right at the top of my list but I'd also add the Superbee
Roadrunners and old chargers make my list, up to 74. I think it was 75 that the charger went kind of cordoba’ish. The new chargers, blah. 4 doors just doesn’t look good. Another old mopar i really like is the 70 superbee. Really different looking front end but i like it.
Mine is a 70's drop top Challenger, preferably fitted with a Hemi
I kinda like my 46 Willys CJ2 as well .... it's a labor of love.
It's not a drop top but I do have a 1971 Challenger RT.
440 ?
Of course.
My husband has a 1945 Jeep MB that he restored, he would probably give me up before he gave up that Jeep!
I should add, he bought the Jeep in high school, he is 65 now. It sat for decades at his parents, then our house. He worked on it every so often, but since he has been retired for 6 years, it is his favorite project, although it is pretty much restored now.
Nice but you better start calling it a Willys or he may just trade you in.
😉
Ya, he has told me many times, "it is called a Willys"!
'70 Chevelle SS 454, '69 Z-28,
I like old Corvettes (I've had two) but they're expensive to buy and to maintain. You can never just buy the Chevy part. You have to get the Corvette part. That's a real thing. Alternator, muffler, it doesn't matter. And the Vette part always costs way more than the Chevy part.
I've also had two Mustangs I liked a lot, but they both blew up on me. I think that might be a sign.
In the end, I've had more pickup trucks than anything else. Usually Fords. Right now, my everyday car is a 2011 Ford F-150 Raptor I bought new. Best truck I ever had, for sure. Best all-around vehicle maybe.
Oh... I know. I used to sell auto parts once upon a time. I really liked the guy that called in claiming he had a 1983 Corvette.
though my friends tend to like chevelles, malibus , mustangs , chargers and the likes , i am partial to the mid to late 60s tempests , lemans and GTOS but nothing past the early 70s when they got neutered.
Yeah... it was the late 70s when Michigan finally had to get with the program for emissions. They were allowed to use up whatever stock they had left up through 1979 and that's why there were Pontiacs with Olds, Buick, and Chevy motors and the like [Chevy with Buick and Pontiac motors...].
My 79 Firebird originally had an Olds 403 in it. Somewhere along the lines, someone put an Olds 455 in it and after researching the block numbers, the block was from a 1975 Olds Vista Cruiser and the heads were from an Olds 442, C cast.
Herbie the love bug is my favorite car.
I loved that movie as a kid!!! You know the game, "Slug bug"... I told my kids they're only allowed to hit me when it's a rear engine VW Beetle.
We called it "Punch Buggy".
But MUST be done ONLY for REAR ENGINE!
I really liked and owned both a 57 Ford, yellow and white, Fairlane hardtop with a "Thunderbird Interceptor" engine; and a 56 Chevy Bel Air, blue and white. Both had automatics and white side walls. The pics are fairly representative. Along the way I had a couple of VW Beetle's. Liked the styling back in those days, sadly lacking in modern makes and models
Absolutely!
My dream car is the 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. I don't want it all supped up.
I really like the 210 no post.
I love cars and trucks. To many to list and i’m not even sure i could name a favorite. Two vehicles nobody talks about that i think are pretty damn cool and fairly rare are the cadillac xlr-v and cadillac cts-v coupe.
Those newer Cadillacs are FAST too!
If you mean our favourite of the ones we have owned, then during my 53 years of owning cars (I have not driven for the past 14 years except a rented car when I returned to North America for 10 days 12 years ago), then during that time I have owned a Ford, a few different Pontiacs, a few different Volvos, a few different Toyota Camrys, a Peugeot 604 (the French Cadillac), a GM Cadillac, an Oldsmobile 98 that was so long you needed two curbside parking spaces to park it, a Buick, and a VW golf convertible, and among all of those, perhaps my favourite of all of those was my 1973 Pontiac Grand Am with the rubber-like nose.
However, back in 1959, the car my father asked the Jaguar dealer to bring over to demonstrate for him, the 1959 Jaguar Mark IX, was the car that will remain as the favourite car I have ever been in. When I got in the back seat and sank into the new sweet-smelling glove leather and looked at the solid burled wood drop-down tables, dashboard and other trim, I fell in love with a car that was not for the neuveau riche , not even for the OLD rich, it was a car for ROYALTY, and my father broke my heart by deciding to buy a 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville instead.
It was the car of my dreams, so twisting a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "It was a car, take it for all in all, I shall not look upon its like again."
Old Jags were gorgeous.
Junk... but gorgeous...
Yeah. As long as you had a second car you were okay. Those Jags didn't weather Canadian winters very well.
Beauty for sure. That's when they cared about what the interior looked and felt like!
Anything with four wheels, basically...
Currently, in Yuma, we have a 2014 Buick Encore - the car that created the subcompact SUV category. It's a real Buick - very quiet and soft... not gonna win on Woodward Avenue, but it will carry you cross-country in quiet comfort. We "tested" all the small cars on the market when we bought it (new), and it had easily the best ingress/egress. We're into our seventies, so that's more important now than 0-60 time.
With a couple of old-but-nice cars, I keep an eye on the market. If we lose one car, we won't replace it, but if we lose two...
Electric cars just aren't here yet. The best candidates, seen from now, would be the Renault Captur hybrid and the Kia Niro (same as US model).
Older T-Birds.
Not everyone can physically fit in those old T-birds.
1967 Ford Mustang 289 pony package convertible. Bought it 'totaled'. My dad and I rebuilt the front end, I did the body work and had it painted minny metal flake candy apple blue with a new white rag top. I drove it for less than a month before my dad sold it out from under me and never gave me a dime for it.
I also loved my 1989 Jeep Wrangler Islander. I got it in exchange for a landscape design. I took out the back set, tricked out the inside for camping and landscaping and drove it till the frame rusted out. It STILL didn't have 90,000 miles on it when I sold it. There was a bidding war but I sold it for a little less to a guy who bought it to rebuild for his 21 year old kids birthday present. I liked that idea. The look on the kids face was priceless.
Oh he's been dead for almost 20 years and I'm STILL pissed off at him about that and so much more.
That Mustang had a head on crash on Lake Shore Drive and we had to tear it back to the block. All new from there forward. Both quarter panels, hood, grill bumper and lights. We tore it apart, put it back together and I wet sanded the body before we sent her off for paint. White pony interior was MINT so we put on a White rag top.
Man that car was a honey!
Dad wanted to add a Mustang Mach 1 to his collection so he sold Beauty Blue.
Made you work for it huh!
It wasn't on purpose really. I had looked at that truck with my boyfriend and another truck (83 Dodge D50 with a 4 cyl diesel and a 5 speed) on my own. I told everyone that I was seriously considering the Dodge because it was a diesel and would last a lot longer, especially with a 5 speed manual. However, because the 84 Ford Ranger looked prettier and was an automatic, my boyfriend at the time convinced them that I needed that truck while I was at work. They took MY money, bought it, and went to put gas in it and it wouldn't start after they put gas in it... there was a HOLE in the #1 cyl piston! The engine that was in it... a 2.8 V6 made in Germany; yes, Ford had a 2.8L V6. Parts were no longer made for that truck. I had to search for MONTHS for parts for it and it became the never-ending money pit. That Dodge... I saw it 4 YEARS later and still running without any problems at all. I told my parents that I will be making all decisions about vehicle purchases for myself and never to get involved ever again! They knew / know nothing about cars and I know what'll last and through a little research, one could find out that the motor in that Ranger, was discontinued for a reason.
1971 Ford Torino 302 V8 cu automatic.
It was a stealth car - didn't look flashy but amazing acceleration from a standing start. I only sold it in '88 when my mechanic told me that, while the engine was still going strong, the frame was rusting out - I seem to have a similar problem.
My two favorite care look somewhat similar. The 1974 Fiat X19 convertible with the removable hardtop that fits in the trunk in front, and the 1974 SAAB Sonett convertible.
I miss the days when cars had individual characteristics. Now they all just look like turtles.
I've always called it "a lump on four wheels".
So.... yes, it isn't a beautiful shape. But it manages to put a lot of volume in a short wheelbase.
I loved my Alfa... but at the end it was downright difficult to get in and out. And that was a dozen years ago. I haven't gotten more supple since then.
Ingress / egress are important to us now...
tell me about it. I won't drive anything I have to fall into or climb out of any more.
The only time my short ass has any problems is when the vehicle is too tall and does NOT have "oh shit" handles to pull myself up into it.
When I look back on the dozens of American cars I have owned, leased or drove as "demos" ( for 28 years)
and a Honda, Nissan 240Z, AH 3000, Jags, a couple of Toyota's, LR and an Infinity Q50
the Q50 was the only impressive car but it was too small.
This C 300 puts them all to shame. Solid, comfortable, AWD, 4 cyl turbo that gets 30mpg and hold its value.
last 2 cars I've owned were both lexus. just got rid of my rx with 381K on the clock. my previous sc400 had 256K on it and the only car I ever owned that would do 150mph, stock. mostly drove ford trucks thru the 70's to the 90's with a smattering of other manufacturers briefly represented, but honda or toyota products are my go to vehicles of choice.
The wife swore by Toyota until we had a few engineering challenges.
The speedo & tach stopped working because the signal goes through the anti lock brake module.
Dealer repair is over $2,200. mostly for a new servo which comes with the module and a complete fluid change/bleed.
Found a used one for $150.00. teased it off the servo and replaced it on the vehicle wthout
having to get involved with brake fluid. Now there's a mini industry refurbishing the old modules.
Same car was recalled for oil consumption, misaligned rings from the factory, parts never available,
we passed out of the recall due to mileage while waiting for parts. Cheaper to just add oil every month.
Now when we go anywhere, she just gets in the Mercedes, lol.
they do love making those combo components that cost $1K to replace. my lexus pet peeve was a radiator overflow reservoir that had split the seam. $430 for the replacement plastic, I spent $5 on epoxy instead. luckily my mechanic was as cheap as I was and there were lots of OEM toyota parts that crossed over to lexus if you did your homework. same part, but different part number. I wonder where they learned that.
TO & LE often have the same part # with different prices.
KIA, Hyundai & Mobis have the same pat number in red, blue or grey boxes.
Three different price structures with HY usually the most expensive; same parts.
At least Lexus is made by Toyota, so it's pretty easy to figure out that a lot of the parts are carry over. However, with my big block Olds 455, there's only one rear main seal available and it's the rope type famous for leaking like a sieve. Through tons of research, a rubber seal from a Ford 460 will work just fine. Now... how did someone figure that one out!? Completely different automakers and completely different engines, but the rear main seals are interchangeable. There's a lot of little tidbits about things like that available and usually from people that work on those things all the time... or work in an auto parts store.
... at my age, there's some automotive trivia I will never need to know.
Good to know, thx for that information
1970 Mustang Boss 302. A rocket ship but terrible cornering. A poor suspension system, but man was it a go fast car.
Yeah... they were meant for the strip, not the street.
My first car after I got out of the Army in 1966.
1962 Ford Galaxy 500 XL convertible.
Some of the most beautiful cars ever built were built by Delahaye.
The Delahaye MS 165 V12 Cabriolet
1936 Delahaye 135 Competition Court
1949 Delahaye Type 178 Drophead Coupe