Entry-level Porsche, Mid-engine Corvette, or the mythical phoenix that is the Pontiac Trans Am, is there a car out there that, if they’d just build the damn thing, you’d be camped in front of the dealer to buy one?
Let’s try and keep some semblance of reality here- no $12,000 Ferrari, or Cadillac with an automatic hooker dispenser in the trunk. But if you’d really like a Viper shooting brake, or a Ford Fusion Ranchero, let us know. With so many makers cutting back on the models they build, there must be something that isn’t out there for you. So, what do you wish you could buy, but can’t?
Image sources:[RideLust,Automobile.com]
The lightweight, affordable, fun BMW that the 1-series is resoundingly not.
Mercury Capri / Cougar. Something to give some alternate flavor to the current Mustang. With the newish 'retro' styling, I would say Cougar, but my heart says Capri. (I love me some 4-eye foxes)
What I should have wrote: Aussie Ford Falcon.
WHY FORD WHY must you tease me with Rwd and modular V8, and turbo V6 family cars! Not to mention the UTE!
<img src=http://www.edmunds.com/media/2003/naias/mercury.messenger/mercury.messenger.f34.500.jpg /img>
I still wish Mercury's Messenger concept made it in to production as a new Cougar.
+1. My heart leans toward Cougar but I'd buy a Capri. I'd love to see something like a notchback version of the Mustang with a little more room in the back seat, maybe with Ecoboost power too (and manual transmissions of course.)
Datsun 510
Anything by Holden.
<img src="C:\\Documents and Settings\\user\\My Documents\\My Pictures\\cars\\hsv_e2_021"> and replace the *'s with <>'s
Ford Fusion "SHO" wagon. Hopefully I needn't explain why.
You took the words right out of my head. Well done, good sir. Great minds think alike.
I was going to say " a new Volvo V70R" but this is pretty much the same thing…
When the Trailblazer SS came out I really wished that they had made a 2-door version that would have cut out several hundred pounds of extra weight. Oh with some sort of paddle shift manual transmission too. 2004 was the last time that I was looking for a new car and I probably wont' ever look for a brand new one ever again. The wife's grandpa retired from GM so we got the employee discount, plus all the other rebates when we got our 2004 Trailblazer. I could have probably talked the wife into a SS and maybe even a two door, she wouldn't go for a manual transmission, but a paddle shift with a full auto mode would probably fly. The SS came out a few months after we bought out Trailblazer.
I still get to drive fun cars, I just don't want to pay the $$$ to buy them new. The wife gets the nice new(er) family cars.
I second Number Six and Alff's sentiments. Can't a fella or a gal get a small RWD car on the order of a 2002tii, GTV 1750, 510 or Mk1 or 2 Escort RS? I just finished watching some video of the 77 Lombard RAC rally, and I'd sell my soul for a 21st century equivalent of an Escort RS1800.
I'll third those. My suggestion above is in the "family mode" of thought that would likely dictate my ultimate decision, but if any of your suggestions came along – or my own, in the vein of a reborn, smaller (2-door-Fusion-sized?) RWD Thunderbird, I'd be a very happy dealership camper.
I've wanted one of these for as long as I can remember…
<img src="http://www.tanshanomi.com/temp/godoggo.jpg">
Okay, okay…seriously? Realistically? What would I really be not only camped out for, but willing to swing the monthly payments for? Either
<img src="http://www.tanshanomi.com/temp/soulchero.jpg">
…or…
<img src="http://www.tanshanomi.com/temp/SWB_RAM.jpg">
Do you like my hat?
… sorry, small children in home.
It's a party hat!
<img src="http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z231/triguy46_2007/toonces.jpg">
Pfft…..everyone knows cats make the best drivers
Since Mr. Circlez already mentioned the Fusion SHOwagon, I had to come up with something else. This turned out to be a somewhat difficult task.
As time goes on my desires for a car are beginning to change. For so long, as you all know, I have resisted a "practical" family car. While Mrs. engineerd has not yet said those fateful words that will cause me to put he Mustang up for sale, and hopefully won't be saying them for another few years, I know that time is coming. So, rather than pining over Porsche's latest or thinking of upgrading to a Mustang GT, I've been looking at "practical" 4-door cars and trying to decide what I want. I've decided on several cars and only finances will limit me. One of those cars is the Taurus SHO. However, most of the other cars on my list are wagons. Why? Simple — once I have kids I'll have crap to haul around. The utility of a wagon, while still maintaining a modicum of handling (unlike an SUV) is alluring to me.
So, that leads me to my wish: an AWD Ford Taurus SHOwagon. In black.
Great minds do indeed think alike. I keep looking at the SHO, and wondering what it would take to transplant its fun bits into its Freestyle / TaurusX siblings (of which I own a Freestyle… which is exceedingly, joyously practical, if a bit dull). I try not to acknowledge that Ford actually could, and SHOULD, have already done this for us. Because that will make my Frankenstein just that much more epic…
That would be awesome! I am actually a little excited to see what Ford replaces the Police Interceptors with. They said it would be built on the Taurus platform and most likely include the 3.5L Ecoboost. That sounds like a SHO, but they also alluded to AWD. AWD SHO? Hell yeah!
Oh, come on; you don't REALLY need 4-doors, do you?
<img src="http://www.tanshanomi.com/temp/g8-2doorwagon.jpg">
I don't need them, she wants them. I pick my battles. If I get 4 doors, I can get whatever I want. If I can afford one, a nice used M3 sedan would be perfect.
Yea, substitute "automatic" and that's my situation.
And "four seats," but that's another story.
Hopefully Subaru will bring the Legacy Wagon GT back instead of that stupid Outback only edition. Same characteristics of AWD SHOwagon.
Any idea how close an Ecoboost'ed Flex is to a SHOwagon?
It should be pretty close since, IIRC, the Flex is built on the Taurus platform. However, the Flex is longer, heavier, and taller. So, while a Taurus will perform pretty nicely with the Ecoboost, the Flex will suffer from increased weight and drag. And a higher center of gravity.
YOU want four doors, because YOU are going to have to re-install those beastly car-seats after you take them out each of the very few times you get a sitter and want to go out with another couple and go someplace cool where actual adults go and talk like normal people and there is no parking because only adults go there so you can't take two cars because that's wasteful so please honey take out the seats and be sure to put them back in all hung-over tomorrow morning so we can get everybody to day-care and thank you honey this is so exciting!
Seriously, if I had to do it all over again, I'd get a minivan just so I could install those car-seats once and be done with it, and damn the mockery of my friends.
This is why I put all three car seats in one car and none in the other. If there are more than four of us, we can't fit in the non-car seat car. Two cars are needed unless my friend with the minivan is along. He has to take the kid seats out because he can carry three couples, thus saving the need for two cars and allowing me to drink.
Four doors with kids is a necessity. So is the drink.
The really fun trick is before you have enough car-seats for all three cars, and you show up to get the kids in the car with no car-seats and your spouse didn't leave the seats out of her car because she assumed you were, for some strange reason, going to come all the way back home to get the other car that had the seats. Big laughs all around as you buckle them in and pray Child Protective Services hasn't put up a web-cam yet.
Well, I had my deposit readied for the Pontiac ST. Jerkwads.
Truly though, I'd probably settle for anything with A pillars I could see around.
I really wanted a four-door Golf GTI PD150 in 2002. This model was sold but not here in the United States. (I instead leased a two-door gas-fueled 1.8T.)
I just spent 10 minutes searching through Jalopnik for a image of a concept car that looked a lot like a Datsun. I think Ford did the concept for the Tokyo Auto show in 2008 but I can't find it. Anyway, it was a smallish, squarish car that looked really nice. I guess it would be another vote for the car Scroggzilla, Alff, and Number Six are looking for.
Ford 02C1, from 2001-2002ish is what you are talking about, I believe.
Close but that was enough to spark the google engine. It is a Ford 021c (named for a Pantone color). Here is a link. http://www.conceptcar.co.uk/concept-cars/concept-... No powertrain installed in the concept so we can just imagine it is a turbo 4-cylinder and rear-wheel drive. Oh, and that color scheme could be made a bit less ice cream and a bit more 1970s GT MAN cool.
Close but that was enough to spark the google engine. It is a Ford 021c (named for a Pantone color). Here is a link. http://www.conceptcar.co.uk/concept-cars/concept-... No powertrain installed in the concept so we can just imagine it is a turbo 4-cylinder and rear-wheel drive. Oh, and that color scheme could be made a bit less ice cream and a bit more 1970s GT MAN cool.
Close but that was enough to spark the google engine. It is a Ford 021c (named for a Pantone color). Here is a link. http://www.conceptcar.co.uk/concept-cars/concept-... No powertrain installed in the concept so we can just imagine it is a turbo 4-cylinder and rear-wheel drive. Oh, and that color scheme could be made a bit less ice cream and a bit more 1970s GT MAN cool.
The Pontiac G8 version of the Bathurst-edition Commodore… or, VXR8, or whatever they call it. Now we gotta wait for them to start ALL over again with the Caprice version.
A Subaru Legacy wagon would be nice…
I have also always wished that Mazda would build a small sedan/wagon based on the Miata platform, in a similar vein to the BMW 2002 or Datsun 510.
1-series five-door, sport suspension, 4cyl and minimal frills to keep the cost to around $25K. Basically a Mazda3 hatch with correct-wheel drive.
I am driving the 2010 Speed3 right now… they shouldn't have added more power, but added lightness. The car is now nice inside, while I wish it was meaner… The front tires want to spin any chance they can…
Isn't it near mandatory that we include this image for this article?
<img src="http://www.comptropolis.com/article/images_1/homer-car.gif">
I'll have to agree with the Ford Fusion SHO Wagon… until I can think of something myself.
I want the S8 with a manual trans.
I want the RS6 Avant.
I want the M5 Touring.
I would like a new C-Class wagon (instead of the GLK).
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes and with a 4-cylinder diesel/6-speed stick option.
- A Mazda3 coupe (based on the better-looking outgoing generation) with a roofline shape like the Pininfarina-styled Volvo C70 retrac. I loved the front-end styling of the previous Mazda3 (I have one), love the silhouette of the C70 (which shares the 3's platform), but hate retractable hardtops. If I was really dreaming, I'd like it to have the suspension, brakes, and transmission of the Mazdaspeed3, but with the normally aspirated 2300MZR engine.
- A fixed-head coupe version of the Honda S2000. I love the idea of the S2000, but I don't like convertibles.
- A U.S.-spec Mazda2 with the 1.8 or 2.0 L MZR engine from the European MX-5, and four-wheel discs.
- A Ford Puma ('97-01 Fiesta-based coupe) with better brakes (perhaps borrowed from one of the hot Focuses). The Puma was a fun car, but the Fiesta brakes were a little over-matched.
- A Prius wagon. Yes, I'm serious. A hybrid wagon is a natural idea; I'm amazed that nobody has done it. The RX400h and Highlander Hybrid are not the same thing.
While I hate trucks, I am *amazed* that Hyundai and Kia have not introduced compact pickup trucks. This is a market segment ripe for exploitation, and it is, after all, how Nissan and Toyota established themselves here. The Kia Sorento is body-on-frame, it's about the same dimensions as a Ranger, and it has four- and six-cylinder engines; it doesn't get a lot easier than that. A cheap compact pickup with a 10-year warranty is a pretty compelling prospect, I would think.
Silly dreamer. Nobody buys compact pickup trucks anymore.
Lol of course not, which is why Ford stopped producing the Ranger in '08 like planned… Wait.
Actually AUWM I'm with you on that, although I still don't think Kia should make cars Hyundai on the other hand is in the right position to break into the light truck catergory especially if Mahindra is planning on entering the fold.
I don't give a toss about trucks, myself, but I hear people bitching about this, and it seems an easy concept for Kia. They've got the platform, they've got the engines — the development costs would be pretty low, and I imagine they could make money on a very modest volume.
In wheel electric motors that just bolt on to to whatever you got, want, had.
With in wheel switchable suspension, ABS, ESP, AWD, FWD, RWD and STUFF.
Like Neil Young's Lincvolt thing, only as easy as changing a tyre.
And the whole thing is powered by an ipod, and the ipod runs on lentils.
Howabout a Gladiator? <img src=http://images.intellichoice.com/images/AutoShows/Big/jeep_gladiator_concept.jpg>
Or this… <img src=http://www.joechan.net/2007stuff/blazer.jpg>
or this <img src=http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh148/bootz42O/Taurus/Ford-Bronco_Concept_2004_800×600_wa.jpg>
I'm done I swear!
Stripper. Six-cylinder. Falcon. Ute.
Works like a light truck (with heavy-duty suspension added), drinks like a Taurus. It's an obvious answer.
That's my foreign-market currently-built-vehicle answer. What prototype do I wish had succeeded? Well…
<img src="http://www.vikeboe.com/Galleri/volvomuseum/images/101-0184_IMG.jpg">
Intriguing. Is that a Volvo Shooting Brake?
Of a sort. Davey G. wrote about it way back when, incidentally, which I just found by Googlin'. I'd definitely import one and pull the VIN off a rusted-out 242 for it… if only…
Of a sort. Davey G. wrote about it way back when, incidentally, which I just found by Googlin'. I'd definitely import one and pull the VIN off a rusted-out 242 for it… if only…
"That's hot."
That three wheel'd thing Tanshanomi designed, SHOgun Fiesta (3.5L ecoboost midmount? Awww yeah) or a Thunderbird redux that would compete against the Corvette like the original was designed to do.
You get all sorts of extra points for the reference. And for actually think it would be cool to have.
(I briefly thought about posting the picture again, but I thought that would be gratuitous.)
A modernized Alfa Spider – the traditional Alfa lines, RWD, lovely multivalve twincam clad in aluminum castings, without persnickety carbs or mechanical FI nor mind-bending L-Jetronic, and a Getrag or other box with synchros that have a half life of something more than 5K miles. Note that this is NOT a Miata, which for all it's many wonderful attributes lacks the lines, the sweet tactile and aural traits and interior room of its Italian predecessor.
Anything that would turn these somnolent arrow-straight prairie roads into twisties.
+1 for making me look up the word somnolent.
Oh believe me, you get a heart-felt AMEN from me. After coming from British Columbia to Alberta, I feel like I don't even need to be paying attention to the car to get where I'm going. Climb in, aim car, take nap. Stupid prairies.
The Corrado knows its way home.
Sounds like Nebraska.
- A three place, mid engined 911, Maclaren F1 style (sigh).
- Cayman/Elise with clamshell access to the engine ala the Porsche 550. (can get aftermarket kit for Elise, but still…)
BMW 2002. Or a BMW that weighed 2002 lbs and had 200 HP.
A Micro minivan coupe with two sliding doors and a liftgate (teh Ford Eggwich). And a blower sticking out of the hood. And a kegerator.
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2492/4132271670_0f0796852f_o.jpg" width="450" height="298" alt="eggwich" />
Needless to say, I want to subscribe to your newsletter.
Wow, you are the King of Photoshop. How awesome is that thing?, and how awesome would any car be with a burger emblem on the hood? (A: Super awesome.)
My car is actually pretty close to the same shade of white as the White Castle burger boxes, and I've been thinking of ways to make a sticker to work it onto my car. I only think about this when I'm really drunk and lonely, aka Friday nights.
Once I figure out the newsletter subscription button, I'll be reading the Maymar Times every day. Much appreciated!
A modern pickup truck with a load height of less than four feet would kick ass.
A proper Cadillac Sixteen. Who doesn't love 16 Cylinders?
A lightweight, simple, affordable, rear-drive two door wagon/shooting brake that seats five, and is available with a turbodiesel four-pot and a manny tranny. Sort of a Vega Kammback/Jetta Sportwagen mashup (with a pinch of Honda reliability, please).
Speaking of shooting brakes and Honda, I always thought a fixed-roof S2000 with an MGB GT/first-gen M Coupe-like roofline would have been the cat's pajamas.
I want this, dammit
<img src="http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2008/03/Pontiac-G8-El-Camino-01.jpg">
Small RWD hatchback – about 2500lbs, sub $25,000. I'll take it from whoever's willing to give it to me. Hyundai, I'm looking in your general direction (whether they throw a hatch on a Genesis while taking off several hundred pounds, or give an Accent RWD). I just want something cheap and practical, but still fairly fun
A modern version of this?
<img src ="http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/666435/26brake_slidetwo.jpg"
<A HREF="http://[address]"> [link text] </A>
It's a standard HTML tag.
*img src="image url"* and replace the *'s with <>'s
For huge images, please remember to add width="500" after the url quotes to keep it from mucking up our pages!
Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but lately whenever I try to make a post with an image, the whole post is deleted.
Are there some rules that I'm not following? I'm using the same format, as you described above, that I've used in the past. I'll post the comment, it shows up properly on the page, but when I go back to it, it's gone.
Suggestions?
Since we're in class, is there a way to set it up so it just automatically expands all "replies"? It seems like if I click enough replies buttons, after a while it does it by itself, but if I navigate away when I come back I have to start all over. I don't want to miss anything.
Alas, no.
We've requested that feature from Intense Debate, but it's sort of like requesting reliability from Alfa Romeo.
Can't You/they change this basic parameter of "max. 25 comments" for expanded comments to something bigger, say 50 comments? Would help at least until better solution is created.
I'd be down with that, or a Vega Cosworth (if it was any good), or a 2002 Touring, or an AE86, or an MGB GT, or whatever – like I said, I'm not picky.
<img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/11/24/automobiles/26brake_slidetwo.jpg">
I don't think this post could be complete without this…….
<img src="http://www.comptropolis.com/article/images_1/homer-car.gif">
But I'll agree with the Fusion SHO wagon until I can think of something on my own.
Mazda made a SHO-esque wagon and around four people bought them. It was the previous generation 6 wagon with a manual 6-cylinder. I found one in AutoTrader last night but I still have two years on my lease, so it'll forever be the one that got away.
Last time I was car shopping, I'd have killed for one of those. They exist, but are as ephemeral as ghosts, it seems.
I want this, dammit
<img src="http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2008/03/Pontiac-G8-El-Camino-01.jpg">
Chevy Corvair, with the turbos and canvas roof. Sat 6 people, good gas milage, and after 1964, good handling.
For me, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Drogo Breadvan is an inspiration. In light of this, I wish Ferrari made a 430 Scuderia Breadvan today. If that's too outlandish, I guess a W12 Phaeton Breadvan would do.
The Dodge Duster
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MybxAcUwkFI/SD5_6dfksyI/AAAAAAAABSI/ZnFEbk7z4zQ/s1600/2010%2BDodge%2BCharger%2BRendering%2B(2).jpg"/>
A mini pickup truck, preferably a hybrid. Something with a smaller bed than a Ranger or a Tacoma.
I do not believe I have it in me to keep up with managing a website like it! Nice job and I really would like to see you keep up the pace for a good long time.
Hi there I like your post
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