Are my cars that odd that nobody knows what they are?

I guess the guess of a Datsun 210 really put me over the edge. No one knows what a damn 210 looks like,and why the hell would you mistake an RX-4 for one in the first place.

Maybe they are just berkleying with me.

For some reason the guy at the gas pump next to me got all uppity when I told him his Porsche SUV was a "really nice looking Sante Fe" !! Some people just have no sense of humor.

Opus wrote: I take it a step further, I have rebadged my Nissan Titan as a Datsun. (720 emblem up front and a 240z hood emblem on the back. All other Nissan emblems are removed or painted over to help mask them. I get a lot of smiles, but there are those that ask if they were making cars again. My answer is Yup, just last year.

Opus, that sounds seriously cool. Any pix?

Kia_racer wrote: http://justacargeek.blogspot.com/2010/02/1969-sunbeam-alpine-gt-alpine-fastback.html I had one of these a while back and people that drove Sunbeams didn't know what it was. It was only made for 2 years. Drives a little like an old Alfa, the inside front tire lifts if you are going fast enough. Still felt stable though.

Wow! Neat car. Strange thing, now that I've actually been such a "victim" of the kind of comments we're talking about..I find that if I don't know what something is, I don't even try to guess anymore. I just walk straight up to the owner and say, "that car's seriously cool, but what is it?".

Well, think of how unbelievably rare an RX-4 is in New England. The only ones that exist are drag cars at this point.

I hope you're bringing this one to Japan day at Larz Anderson this year!!!

I've never personally seen an RX-4. so... yeah, I could see that happening.

The back of my truck had a tacoma badge , it's been shortend to taco . Alot of people ask and i tell them the burrito version will be out soon , but not many will be shipped to the east coast .

Try driving an Opel for a while.

"Opel, who made that?"

Or taking this to the grocery store. The kid comes out with the groceries, goes straight to the back of the car, and you open the trunk lid... at the front. I debadged it, and used to tell people it was a vintage Alfa.

In reply to Mazdax605:

Well I looked in your GRM garage and didn't see anything I recognized...

I feel your pain. I mean, look at my avatar.

"Hey, what kind of car is that?" "It's a TVR 2500M" "Yeah, but who made it, Triumph?" "No, it was made by TVR and the model name is 2500M." "What?"

With the Spyder debadged the questions are retarded...

Is that really a 10 year old Toyota? Yes

Wow that must be expensive? No, it cost less than a Civic

Some dude in a Boxster thought it was a Boxster from afar and waved, I laughed and yelled "No dude its a Toyota." and he glared so I laughed some more.

I should sell it, my crappy VTAK Civic is the perfect innocuous car. Now, I stick out like a sore thumb.

To the OP, The RX-4 wasn't real popular when they were new. Maybe less so than the RX-3. I well recall both, but I'm 56 YO and they came out when I was in college. Do you know the production numbers of both?

Almost everybody that comes over to look at my TRIUMPH Spitfire at the gas station calls it an MG.

When most people can't even tell a new Camry from an Accord, they sure aren't going to be able to tell a 40yo Mazda from anything. When I used to drive my old '73 GTV around, it was called everything from a Ferrari to a Pinto. And it's funny now how few people can even recognize the 240Z.

Strangely, when I used to cruise around in the 600D, more people pegged it correctly as a Fiat than got it wrong. It always started it out with "I used to drive these in Italy."

Kia_racer wrote: http://justacargeek.blogspot.com/2010/02/1969-sunbeam-alpine-gt-alpine-fastback.html

My wife drove an Alpine (Rapier) in her teens. When I first saw it, it was serving as a chicken coop on her dad's farm. Now, it's a goat hill. It looks like it could have been a fun car, but it's just too far gone for me now.

I had a guy ask me if my ZX2SR was a German Ford. I said yes, and they only made 100. All I could do to keep a straight face.

I had a debadged grill on my Audi A4. Had a mechanic at a local garage ask me if it was one of those new peugots. Scary thing was he was drivng a previous generation S4.

One of my friends has a RX-4 which he races.

i remember someone on the old board telling how he annoyed jag drivers with "nice taurus convertible"

racerdave600 wrote: When most people can't even tell a new Camry from an Accord, they sure aren't going to be able to tell a 40yo Mazda from anything.

Maybe it's my age, but I find it difficult to tell a new Camry from a new Accord. With few exceptions, I don't think many modern cars have much personality.

racerdave600 wrote: When I used to drive my old '73 GTV around, it was called everything from a Ferrari to a Pinto. And it's funny now how few people can even recognize the 240Z. Strangely, when I used to cruise around in the 600D, more people pegged it correctly as a Fiat than got it wrong. It always started it out with "I used to drive these in Italy."

I get some of that with my Mk.2 Golf. "Yeah, when I was in the service, I saw a bunch of those in Germany..", like they were never sold over here at all.

Most people view cars as appliances these days, so most of them just don't know what the hell they are talking about. Just about every time I take my silver-with-red-and-charcoal-birds Trans Am out (when it actually runs, LOL) I always hear "Nice Camaro!!!" or "Sweet, it's Smokey and the Bandit!!!".

Me =

My friends were all impressed when I picked out every car in a parking lot at night. It is amazing how little people know about cars. I mean driving my Civic around I get ricer comments way to often because it has a GRM sticker on it and well it is a Civic.

Every time I take my Rondo somewhere, people point and say "look at that Kia Rondo." Never gets mistaken for anything at all. Perhaps I will add some NSU badges and really confuse people!

I've had similar occurences with many of the cars I've had. My Morris Minor 1000's were alway mis-identified. And I wish I had a dime for everyone who called the Renault 4CV I had in my first year of college a Volkswagon.

I once had a 6-year-old kid think my Elan was a Ferrari. To his young mind it met all the criteria: red, convertible, pop-up lights... But it's always fun when people think you're loaded.

Jay wrote: I once had a 6-year-old kid think my Elan was a Ferrari. To his young mind it met all the criteria: red, convertible, pop-up lights... But it's always fun when people think you're loaded.

Reminds me of that pic where the red NSX snuck into the Ferrari-only track meet!

Debadging an MR-S and maybe switching to some aftermarket headlights would make a lot of people mistake it for a Boxster. They're actually kind of hard to tell apart at a distance. It could be the poor man's poor man's Porsche