In Defense of Ugly Cars

In the last few weeks, there have been a flurry of related articles about cars--more specifically, what the authors are calling "ugly cars" or "nerd cars."

The prime offender is this BusinessWeek article, which publishes reader comments trashing cars like the Yugo, the Chevette, and the Gremlin.

Witness quotes such as "Absolute garbage BEFORE it was built" about the Chevette, and "You couldn't get scrap-metal money even if it was running" about the Yugo.

All of that is true--but it misses the mark. Not because those cars aren't terrible, but because their terribleness makes them interesting. At the very least, they're not boring.

We now live in a world of near-universal automotive excellence. Exotics abound. More common sports coupes and sedans perform like supercars of past years. Family sedans boast 250 horsepower--all while modern technology marries decent fuel mileage and emissions with this scorching performance.

Even subcompacts are depressingly competent. I've driven the Chevy Aveo and Kia Spectra, both of which look on paper as if they are terrible cars. Neither are.

This is all tremendously exciting, I suppose, but I miss the terrible cars.

Cars are like people--beautiful, perfect people are interesting from time to time, but if that's your entire world, they get very dull. That's one failure of some car magazines, I think--they overdo the exotics to the point where they become mundane and commonplace. There is beauty and wonder in all levels of the automotive world.

Even those homely, ridiculed cars from the above article are special in their own way--the Pacer represented genuine innovation in packaging efficiency, the Vega was among the best-handling American cars available, the Matador wagon was an excellent family hauler, and the six-cylinder Gremlin was arguably the original hot hatch. Well, maybe not that last part.

But these cars, like people, need to be judged by their peers. And even if you don't agree with the strengths of those cars above, realize that it's against a backdrop of Pintos, Vegas, and Gremlins that cars like the original Lamborghini Countach and Jaguar XJ-6 looked so special.

When it comes to showing off these cars, I'm as guilty as the next guy--so far I've been showcasing a lot of muscle cars and sports cars, but frankly the cars at the other end of the spectrum are just as interesting. Don't worry-- we'll have a lot of "nerd cars" in this space coming up.

The thing is, I like these cars. They evoke a bygone era--thousands upon thousands of people drove them and look back fondly on them. My extended family was a bunch of AMC fanatics that owned a Pacer, several Alliances, and a bunch of Jeeps. I saw a pristine blue Ford Maverick at a car show the other day that took my breath away--much more so than the 485th spectacular Chevelle SS at the show that looked just like the others. There's an upscale Seattle waterfront home that I drive past almost daily that has a Yugo and a Pacer in the driveway. They never seem to move--not much of a surprise, perhaps--but these are my people.

And, evidently, I'm not alone. Almost in rebuttal are these two articles - one from Yahoo! Finance and one from Yahoo! Business  describing how "nerd cars" are increasing in value thanks to nuts like me who actually like them.

I may be sick and deluded, but at least I'm not the only one.

--Chris H.

Comments

[smitty on March 18, 2009 at 05:22 PM]

These should be called "contrarian cars," Chris, and we don't care what the common herd says. Approval from the automotive contrarian minority, the best of the in-crowds, is the only reaction that registers with us.