Well, I daily drive a VW Passat, which has a definite "we wanted to build a German Accord" feel to it. I'll need to see how well it holds up at 200,000 miles to see how it compares to my wife's Accord, but I got a good deal on it thanks to the fallout from VW's emissions control team showing a bit of excess creativity. We'll see if it makes it past 200,000 miles like my wife's Accord.
But one of the bigger cases might be with nostalgia. Chevy seems to have sewn up that bit of the collector market - look at '50s cars. The '55-'57 Chevy seems to be the car that people think of for that particular decade. Somebody might also think of a '59 Cadillac for '50s cars. Maybe an Edsel for being a memorable failure, a Corvette, or a Plymouth Fury if Christine made a big enough impression. Any other normal American car from that decade is going to be a lot less collectable.
The '60s aren't quite as drastic, but still, look at how much a Chevelle is going to go for next to a Ford Fairlane, Buick Skylark, or Plymouth Satellite when the condition, model year, and options are comparable.
I had a first gen Ford Fusion (07 V6 AWD), and it was a fantastic year-round car in Canada, I could even powerslide it in the snow. Bought it with about 50k kms, sold it at 175k kms, and had exactly 1 non-maintenance problem (AWD transfer case/driveshaft, covered under warranty).
Just cross reference the list to the Ward's 10 best engine list from the year, and if it's on the Ward's list, run, don't walk, away. Anything on the Ward's list means that cost of ownership will be nightmare fuel in 7-10 years.
I think a lot of lower end cars are not desirable but good cars. I have a Fiesta and it's been so great...minus the electric power steering going out. Other than that, a little stuttering randomly from a light with it's PowerShift tranny, it's been a wonderfully decent, great mpg vehicle for 7 years and counting
Also, I think the Korean brands are looked down on because it's new-ish to the American shores (yes, I know it's been like 30 years, but giving cars away, like one did at one point, likely didnt help their image, overall, of quality)
Just my thinking
In reply to hybridmomentspass :
In that mindset, I would definitely nominate the previous generation Elantra Sport. It wasn't a Civic Si or a Jetta GLI, but they're a damn fine, decently engaging potential daily driver that will be dead nuts reliable if you keep the carbon build up on the intake down, for 200k.
In reply to hybridmomentspass :
I definitely see more and more people being open to Hyundai and Kia, but every so often I'll come across someone who still thinks Hyundai sells cars on par with some of their original offerings here in the U.S.
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
That's pretty much exactly how we felt when we got the keys to a 2019 model–with the manual, no less. It was more on par with the Civic Sport at the time, but was still a brilliant car.
I'm confident that the upcoming Elantra N will give the Si a run for its money.
In reply to Colin Wood :
My only issue with the Elantra N, is the exterior design. It is certainly polarizing and it's a miss for me. I respect them for stepping far outside of the box and designing something that frankly looks French, but the lighting reflector is going halfway up the hood contour line doesn't do it for me. I commend them for taking the risk though, a decade from now they will still stand out when the competitors within the market from the same timeframe will all blend together.
All front wheel drive Buicks. Decent, generally reliable cars. But desirable ? Aspirational? No, to the hell no.
In reply to Appleseed :
^This, H-body LeSabre's and W-Body Regals. The 1993-2005 models are still like cockroaches down here in retirement land. The one thing they did best is ferry people around in living-room couch comfort. They are hard to kill. Especially with the 3800 Series II
