10 Beloved Enthusiast Cars I Don't Care About at All

Yahoo

21-03-2025

Every car isn't for everyone. And some cars that some people hold up as legendary, iconic, and transcendent don't inspire much beyond a ho-hum from others. These are ten cars that are on my ho-hum list.
They are cars many people worship, and I don't get them. At all.
I don't hate these cars. I even appreciate some things about them. But then, well, I don't care. There's no excitement in them for me. No thrill. No spine-tingling anticipation to getting behind their wheels. They're just, kind of, blah.
Some cars are objectively bad. Everyone knows the Mitsubishi Mirage is trash and that the best Yugo is a dead Yugo. These, however, are undeniably not terrible. Some of them generate great numbers on the test track and a lot of people love the way they look. But, to me, the numbers are just numbers and these aren't lookers. It's all on me.
Since I started writing about cars professionally on January 15, 1990, I've been lucky to drive nine out of the ten cars I'll list here. And I have no great jones to drive the tenth.
This is a personal take. I'm not claiming here that my judgment is more precious or valid than anyone else, only that I get paid to share my opinion and then have the readers come back at me with poisonous comments. So have at it.It's a Buick Regal with some black paint and a turbocharger on its 3.8-liter V-6. Like all Buick Regals of the era, the interior was chintzy, the giant side window glass rattled inside the massive doors, and those doors were usually drooping on the hinges. I've driven several, and never found their engines engaging or all that powerful and the action of their 2004R four-speed automatic transmissions sloppy. Yeah, it looked good in black. So that's a positive. That everything else also sucked during this lousy era for American cars doesn't mean the GN didn't suck too.I have a massive love for the Ferrari F355 that proceeded this car, but the 360 is just too boring looking. Yes, it handles. Yes, it goes bonkers fast. And yes, it could still be had with a gated manual transmission. And double yes, there was the Challenge Stradale version that was better. But it looks like a Ferrari that melted into an anonymous blob. And every time I see one, I'm almost startled by my own indifference to it.Better in every way than the 360, but still a car whose looks are devastatingly boring. Plus, the car that succeeded it, the fabulous 458, was so much better in every dynamic way and looked fantastic. With the 458 around, why care about the F430?Go specification for specification and the Carrera GT should bring me to my knees. But while I've never driven one, the Carrera GT has always looked awkward to me, and its reputation for unforgiving handling at the limit has me a bit spooked. Is it my own cowardice that keeps me from loving the Carrera GT? It may well be.As a muscle car, the 442 was always the also-ran in my mind. The styling was the always goofy, the engines lazy, and there was nothing special about how it handled. It was a big dumb Olds even in its best years. I love the other GM A-cars like the Chevrolet Chevelles and Pontiac GTO, but never have been excited by the sight of a 442. My one appreciation for the 442, however, is that the 1976 and 1977 versions with their sloped noses and rear windows dominated NASCAR between 1978 and 1980 and looked awesome doing it.A half-wit, half-effort produced this successor to the Shelby Cobra with insufficient power from the 4.0-liter Oldsmobile Aurora V-8. Shelby's heart wasn't into it, and he was running on a new heart at the time. It was boring to look at and boring to drive. Alas. Only 249 were reported to have been made and I'm shocked anyone wanted one.Carroll Shelby died in May 2012 and yet his name keeps showing up on things that just don't interest me. Shelby pickups, Shelby rental cars at Hertz, Shelby-converted Mustangs… Shelby, Shelby, Shelby… it's just too much. Excluding cars like the Shelby GT500 which is produced by Ford, I'm completely non-plussed by the stuff wearing the Shelby name.It's tough to follow the outrageous legend that was the Countach, but why did the Diablo have to be so, well, conservative? Lambos have to be sort of nutty and insane, but while the Diablo has the right proportions, all the edges were rounded off and sanded down to a blinding blandness. Its successor, the Murcielago, was better. But Lamborghini never produced a mid-engine V-12 supercar as compelling as the original Miura or superstud Countach until the Revuelto last year. And the Revuelto is spooky awesome.The first-generation Range Rover, introduced in 1970, was something truly new: a supremely capable off-roader that was also comfortable, easy to drive and nicely appointed. Every Range Rover since then has grown more luxurious and less rugged in appearance and function. There's no doubt about the Range Rover's off-road ability, but with every subsequent generation it seems less likely to be used off-road. And no, pulling a horse trailer off muddy polo grounds does not count as off-roading.As a business decision, producing the Urus has been a wild success for Lamborghini. This SUV has been, by far, Lambo's best-selling model ever and it makes the company a lot of money. But it's not pretty and not special in that loony way that Lambos ought to be loony. It's built on the same MLB Evo platform as the Audi Q7 and Q8 and Porsche's Cayenne models, and there's nothing wrong with any of those vehicles. But this is supposed to be a Lamborghini. It should be more outrageous than it is.
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