Carscoops has an interesting article about cars we didn't like at first but seem to have grown on us over the years. Click here. While the author points out two cars, the Porsche Cayenne and the Fiat 130 Coupe, the article got me thinking. Sure enough there are several cars that I didn't like or appreciate at first. Here are two. What about you? Do you have any?
The first year the Boattail Riv appeared I almost ran away in fear. However, it didn't take long for it to grow on me. A friend bought a '71 in '72. We sat on beach chair in his driveway and studied the lines while we had a few beers. The more I looked at it, the more I realized how bold, daring and unified the design was. Every line everwhere on the car complimented or enhanced the others. The interor was DDG. It seemed to me that this was the ultimate expression of an American icon, the full-size personal luxury coupe. It was huge. It was in your face. It was a bold, brassy, outrageously elegant lady in an evening dress and bare feet on the beach with a glass of champagne in her hand. I fell in love.
I thought this was an ugly little lump until I rode in one. It was a go-kart, a roller skate with flexible wheels. It was far more fun driving at its limits that anything I had ever experienced. I've been hooked ever since.
Here's a bonus third. The much maligned Aztek was not a very pretty design by any measure. But the interior was highly innovative and a very comfortable place to be on a trip. One day, it will gain some credibility as a very early expression of what came to be known as crossovers, a blend of car and SUV.
Sorry John K. but I have tried to like the Aztek but I just can't get there. From time to time I see a yellow one on parking lots and have even gone up to it to study it closely to see what I'm missing....I'm still missing it I guess.
What an interesting question....... I honestly can't think of even one car. The ones I hated as a kid; I still hate. The ones I loved as a kid; I still love. About the only car I can come up with is a late '60's, early 70's Nova. I didn't think much of them back then, but I do like them now.
For me it is the 1961 Plymouth Fury. I recall the first one I ever saw that year parked outside my house when I was just eight or nine; a 2drht. in silver with red interior. I studied that car for a long time; its outlandish grille*, "stuck on" tail lights, dash mounted rear view mirror, strange body lines....I couldn't believe that anyone would want to actually buy one. My neighbor had a gorgeous 1960 Impala 2drht., white over copper, parked in front of the Plymouth to further add to my negative first impression comparison. I felt this way for more than fifty years when for some reason I took a second look at this car and be damned if I found myself warming up to it. Coincidentally conversations began to spring up on this forum with a number of individuals also having similar thoughts (not a large percentage by any means...lol). I now like the car very much and have purchased several in various body styles from Buz. The 2drht. is one I particularly now love. Go figure. Btw...the next year the same thing happened; this time it was the outrageous '62 Dodge....I'm warming up to that one but still have a long way to go.
* John Roberts once described the grille of the '61 Plymouth as looking "like a bulldog chewing a wasp"....which I found hilarious.
Carscoops has an interesting article about cars we didn't like at first but seem to have grown on us over the years. Click here. While the author points out two cars, the Porsche Cayenne and the Fiat 130 Coupe, the article got me thinking. Sure enough there are several cars that I didn't like or appreciate at first. Here are two. What about you? Do you have any?
The first year the Boattail Riv appeared I almost ran away in fear. However, it didn't take long for it to grow on me. A friend bought a '71 in '72. We sat on beach chair in his driveway and studied the lines while we had a few beers. The more I looked at it, the more I realized how bold, daring and unified the design was. Every line everwhere on the car complimented or enhanced the others. The interor was DDG. It seemed to me that this was the ultimate expression of an American icon, the full-size personal luxury coupe. It was huge. It was in your face. It was a bold, brassy, outrageously elegant lady in an evening dress and bare feet on the beach with a glass of champagne in her hand. I fell in love.
I thought this was an ugly little lump until I rode in one. It was a go-kart, a roller skate with flexible wheels. It was far more fun driving at its limits that anything I had ever experienced. I've been hooked ever since.
Here's a bonus third. The much maligned Aztek was not a very pretty design by any measure. But the interior was highly innovative and a very comfortable place to be on a trip. One day, it will gain some credibility as a very early expression of what came to be known as crossovers, a blend of car and SUV.
John; I recall the first Mini Cooper S I ever saw up close; it was identical to this one shown. The owner was a guy who had just wrapped his white '62 Olds ht. around a pole and it struck me that he certainly had gone from one extreme to another with this replacement purchase. I loved it from that moment and still do.
Sorry John K. but I have tried to like the Aztek but I just can't get there. From time to time I see a yellow one on parking lots and have even gone up to it to study it closely to see what I'm missing....I'm still missing it I guess.
I think you nailed it with your comment above. The Aztec is just wrong, and no matter how hard I'll ever try, I won't like it. And in this instance, I can say NEVER!
For me, it's the '62 PLYMOUTH FURY. When it was new, I couldn't have used enough adjectives to describe how ugly I thought it was. As a 10 year old kid (at the time) who loved previous years Plymouth's, I just couldn't fathom what happened in the design studio to create such an odd looking car.
BUT, over the last decade or so, I've apparently mellowed a lot, because I've come to appreciate the '62 for being odd, but attractive in a way that I never realized before. I'm guessing because of it being so rare today at car shows, it has become more alluring to me. It now ranks high on my list of 1:24 scale models I'd like to see produced.
Love them all. Some I love or like more than others. If it has 4 wheels and a motor, whats not to like?
Gosh John, in that case it's a real shame then that you didn't win last year's Forum contest grand prize Trabant SS coupe. It deserved to go to a loving home.
Love them all. Some I love or like more than others. If it has 4 wheels and a motor, whats not to like?
Gosh John, in that case it's a real shame then that you didn't win last year's Forum contest grand prize Trabant SS coupe. It deserved to go to a loving home.
I'll get over it. You win some, you lose some. Not a big deal.
@sizedoesmatter, there may be some questions as to who the winner and losers were in that contest. I've seen financial portfolios that were diminished when the owner acquired a Trabant...not so sure about the SS coupe though.
