Bad cars you have a soft spot for?

*whistles and walks by casually*

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Yes they weren't terribly refined when new, GM didn't try to update them in any meaningful way, (save for side curtain airbags on the later 2nd gen models) somewhat slow, and their engines tend to burn oil, but I love how "right" my S-Series feels to drive. Great visibility, nice ride and in retrospect a much better car than the utterly miserable Ion.
 
*whistles and walks by casually*

800px-1st-Saturn-SL1.jpg


800px-00-02_Saturn_SL_.jpg


Yes they weren't terribly refined when new, GM didn't try to update them in any meaningful way, (save for side curtain airbags on the later 2nd gen models) somewhat slow, and their engines tend to burn oil, but I love how "right" my S-Series feels to drive. Great visibility, nice ride and in retrospect a much better car than the utterly miserable Ion.


I couldn't resist haha, it just happened to pop up on my youtube
 
Yes they weren't terribly refined when new, GM didn't try to update them in any meaningful way, (save for side curtain airbags on the later 2nd gen models) somewhat slow, and their engines tend to burn oil, but I love how "right" my S-Series feels to drive. Great visibility, nice ride and in retrospect a much better car than the utterly miserable Ion.

I kinda fancy the styling on cars of that era. They looked purposeful and practical. Sometimes the curvy, bloated look of some new models turns me right off! Considering the new ones just get heavier and heavier while not adding anything new to a purpose of the car.
 

Seriously now? What's the point of the airbag if a Crown Vic can plow through the whole car? This is what a proper side impact at 25mph should look like:
 
I kinda fancy the styling on cars of that era. They looked purposeful and practical. Sometimes the curvy, bloated look of some new models turns me right off! Considering the new ones just get heavier and heavier while not adding anything new to a purpose of the car.

Yeah, I'm torn tbh..I think a lot of the current designs look great, but there's definitely some nice looking cars from the 90's.

Seriously now? What's the point of the airbag if a Crown Vic can plow through the whole car? This is what a proper side impact at 25mph should look like:
*fancy Volvo's doing well in crash test* :p

I'm sure that the 2nd gen cars had additional side-impact reinforcements/door beams installed to account for new side impact standards, also the Crown Vic is a pretty heavy car haha.
 
i would never call this vehicle a "bad car", but it is know globally as the most "un-enthusiastic" car ever made.
i give you the Toyota Corolla.
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holding the world record as the Best Selling Car in the World (name plate) and with 10 generation's and almost 45 years, i had driven 5 Corollas of 3 different generations. a plucky little car that relies on it's solid build than flashy style. and the only car, that i know, that had used all 3 different drive trains (RWD, FWD, and 4WD).
but if you ever plan on using a Corolla as a "project tuner", you better be lucky enough to find one of theses...
ToyotaCorollaAE86GTVTrueno.jpg

and you better not refer it as a Corolla, unless you're bold enough to do it.
but i love this car because i consider it the ultimate underdog car. and i love going to tuner and track meets and being the only Corolla in a sea of Civics, Integras, and Imprezas.
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I like the way you present your XRS as a four door Lotus :D

I spent some time trying out friends' Toyota VVTi engines and they can be quite fun! AE86 ahem, will be very, very lucky to get one these days. The price of those are incredible, thanks to all too well known popular media.

Other sleeper cars I like include the Nissan Presea. Right it looks and goes like crap but look beyond that you might notice it has a super-low body for aero, and very lightweight design. It does not have B-pillars and the front doors appear to lock directly onto the rear ones. Well yes its front drive but I have seen creatively done up Proton Gen2s eat up tuned BMWs :D

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One of my friends had an '89 Civic LX 5-speed with 300k miles on it. It had two parallel racing stripes made of rust, no A/C, no power steering, and probably about 30hp. But what a great little car that was. Calling the brakes 'completely useless' would be quite a massive understatement, but that just meant that you had to get skilled at steering to avoid accidents very quickly. Of all the cars I've ever driven, that 20-year old-Honda incredibly was the one with the most soul. We were all very sad when my friend's dad sold it last year, but very impressed that he managed to get $2000 for it.
 
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