Cars that changed your mind

Marjorie's question about cars you can't forgive (https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/cars-you-cant-forgive/195229/page1/) made me wonder about the flip side. What cars have completely changed your mind?

I didn't understand why my friend Charles didn't sell his GMT800 Suburban at 200k when he was looking for a fuel-efficient vehicle the last time gas prices spiked - "it's just not breaking down." I didn't understand why my friend Dave actually paid money for a Toyota pickup with 360k on it (which was in pretty good shape I must say) until I visited him again and at 430k it seemed to be still in pretty good shape. So when The Power Of German Lies TDI I smugly enjoyed was exposed to be a little guy who popped up in the computer at EPA test time, we decided to use the buyback $ to add a 100%-capable winter vehicle to the fleet and I bought a 150k mile 4th generation Toyota 4runner.

Simple to maintain, overengineered where it matters, uses no oil, reasonably comfy and at 218k it looks and feels like it did at 150k.

Now I understand.

I never liked minivans until I had to rent one back in '12 to haul myself and a bunch of training equipment 650 miles up to Albany.  It was at that point that I realized that the 3.6 Pentastar minivan platform with the Sto-n-Go seats is a damn fine platform for day to day duties.

Prius.

When they first came out, I used to think they were overly complicated and would be unreliable due to all the electronics.  Also celebrity hype .

But due to John Welsh leading the way, I now own two of them.  Great mileage (in this economy) is very welcome.

Long time ago, in an agricultural province far, far away, there was a 20 year old guy who hated Fords, liked Oldsmobiles, thought those funny little Japanese cars were useless, and didn't actually know that Volvo built things other than road building equipment.

Then I left the farm.  To Moose Jaw and an AMC/ Volvo dealership. Hmm.

To Saskatoon, and a Volvo dealership that had grown as a Datsun/Volvo specialist.  Well...

So, my first drive in a 244GL, vs a Concorde, then, my first time in a 510 with a2 liter, a pair of Webers and a big cam.

Life changing.  I still own two Camaros, but I also have 2 Volvos, a 510 and an sr20 swapped B13 Srntra.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

6 years ago I bought my first Prius w/78k miles and in this thread I said I was taking a leap of faith that the battery would be good.

I've since had 7 Prius pass through my hands with 3 still here. All have been great. 

When I was younger and dumber than I am now, er.. well, definitely younger... I labored under the impression that there was no such thing as a good Japanese car and that it was some sort of immorality to not buy a GM or Ford or Chrysler.  The funny part is that this was in the early 90s...

Anyway, my friend had an '86 Subaru GL wagon and he loved it.  I had an '84 Vette (Chev not Corv) that had a lot of, uh, character.  He went to replace the Subie and offered it to me at a good price.  I bought it and was immediately converted.  Best car I've ever owned.  I had a 96 Legacy wagon for a while and it was close, but I'll never forget that GL.

'76 Porsche 911 2.7 with Webers. Though I dug the look of 911s I dismissed them as really expensive six cylinder Volkswagens. Until I drove this particular car. Just...wow.

The Porsche Cup car I got a ride-along in at a track day once also helped.

My 986 boxster. That particular example wasn't great - it ended up being rougher than I thought when I bought it and some of the repairs were awful and then the clutch finally died right as I was preparing to sell it. But once it was sorted it drove and sounded so much better than a <$10k car had any right to. At the time it was both the most comfortable and most enjoyable to drive car I'd ever owned. It put up with any kind of abuse I threw at it (and there was a lot) and felt decent doing it. I bought it basically as a beater (specifically as a rallycross car after coming to the conclusion that I was never going to find a reasonably priced mr2) and it ended up being so much more than that. That car took me from not really having modern Porsches on my radar to a little over a year later upgrading to my current 981S. It's also directly responsible for a friend who was shopping corvettes and Camaros at the time ending up with a 911 instead.

Dodge Neon.  I remember when they first came out.  Went to a dealer and sat in one.  It felt a little claustrophobic.  I didn't like the way the roof seemed to intrude into the upper part of the windshield.  Felt like I had to duck down and peer out of it.  I dismissed it as a little POS car that sold because it was cute.

Fast forward ten or twelve years, and my wife is looking for a cheap commuter that gets good gas mileage.  She owned the Audi A6 at the time, but didn't want to run it into the ground.  She settles on a 1997 5-speed manual DOHC Neon Coupe.  It was in decent shape but had 180k miles on it.  Figured I was taking my life in my hands driving it home on the interstate.  That car won me over in 20 miles/minutes.  It had every right to drive like a clapped-out piece of cheap junk.  It drove with precision and a surprisingly solid feel for such a small car.  If I could find another one, I'd probably buy it.

A lemons raced, beat up, automatic, 928 "shooting brake." I had never driven a Porsche before and I didn't understand the hype. That 2.5 hour stint at CMP really changed my feelings. I've never felt so connected. I've since driven a 986 that was also absolutely amazing and I finally get the Porsche thing.

I had similar feelings about MB. The first time I got behind the wheel of an S Class it just felt "different." I had driven an A8L 4.2 and thought that was Luxury. The 20+ year older Sonderklasse  had a "feeling" that I've only been able to replicate in a different, 10 year newer, 300SEL. Nothing seems to be quite that comfy  but also road holding. It's what I dream a Turbo R would be like.

A drive around the block in a 1980 Saab 900 turbo taught me that cylinder count wasn't necessarily indicative of performance, nor was which end on the car the drive wheels were on. 

Brother brought home from the west coast an '86 Accord DX hatch. Like many in the Midwest/Great Plains, I was convinced that imports were semi-treasonous hype. Happily, he wasn't shy with the keys and I discovered how much fun a small, lively car could be! When it came time to find my own $450 car, I reasoned to myself that my brother's kept working despite his abuse, and that I wouldn't go wrong with my own. I ended up with a few more since. I'd still drive an Accord except FWD. 

Morris Minor. I think I paid $35 for it without a battery.  Oh and the brakes didn't work either. But We towed it home on the end of a rope behind  my buddies truck. 
 Or at least we started to tow it. 
   Suddenly I noticed the dome light coming on each time I let the clutch out to slow it down. ( no battery, remember? ) 

  Finally it was running.  Electric fuel pump in those. And it bumped into the back of his truck.  
 So we took off the rope and I drove it home without a battery. ( using the parking brake to slow down).  Yep the lights and turn signals worked. 
    A junk $2 battery core.  Refreshed by draining the lead sulfate out. And a can of brake fluid. I was back on the road.  In those days cars that got 10 mpg were considered easy on gas. Getting 35 was unheard of. Gas was as cheap as 19 cents a gallon  so even my 35 cents an hour job kept me flush. 
    It would start when nothing else would. In 20 below weather.   It kept running for a long time before neglect caused the engine to start spitting out connecting rods but still made it home.  Another $15 for a used engine  pulled and installed  with a rope and a 2x4.  
  I miss that Morris Minor Traveler . 

Growing up reading car magazines as one does, I kept hearing about the ultimate driving machine.  Had to get one, knowing nothing about BMWs I stumbled across an M3 at a Saab dealer.  After a short test drive I understood, it felt special. 

My next one was an E34 525i, it had a Close ratio 5 speed with a 3:90 read end, it was almost more special than the M3.  Mom adopted the 525 before I even titled it.  Her test drive was this, redline first, Dad yelled SHIFT!, grabbed second, Mom says this car likes me.  I didn't need it I already had one so Mom got to have it for a while.  Dad gave it a chip and some fresh suspension.  He kept praising that car for how it handled, when he passed I got it back for a few years.  Once driving it every day I understood, what a great chassis.  The M50, CR 5MT with 3:90 gears what a magic combination.   It eventually went to some gents from Chicago.  I want that one back.

Ditto on minivans. Even when we had just the 2 kids going from our Jetta/S4 dual sedan combo to the Odyssey was a game changer. Add two more kids and it's hard to think about how we would have survived in something else (I don't get the 3 row SUV's with smaller kids..)

Respect the van!

I'll echo the 986 boxster. I'd never driven one, and had grown up with an inherited dislike of German cars- and quite frankly resigned myself to never owning another euro after my MINI. the SKJSS needed me to test drive one. 

I almost lied to him and said it was trash so I could buy it myself. Not fitting in it was the biggest reason I didn't. That car was way more fun than it needed to be. 

In 99 things really came together for us and we were finally in a position of not having to worry about paying bills. So I decided that I would replace Mrs' very reliable 92 Jetta as it was coming up on the time where Volkswagens go from being reliable to very much anti-reliable. After shopping a bit I concluded that I could get either a newer car or a better, older car.  It was Consumer reports, or one of the Lemon aid books that gave the Cavalier a passing grade at the time, calling it reliable, though referring to it as only the most basic transportation. It was not, in my mind, one of the better cars, but it was newer, supposedly reliable, and in my modest price range. So in late 2000 I bought her a 99 Z24. It was shiny red, had a good stereo, plenty of power, was fairly new, and she loved it. It turned out to be, up to that time, the most reliable car we'd ever owned. Brakes and oil changes is all it ever asked for in the almost 10 years we owned it.

It was so good, I bought one 5 years later to use as a commuter/project. That car ate up the highway miles, was way faster than it should have been, and after a few years my Son, needing a car, bought it off me. He abused that thing for years, and in the end sold for not much less than he paid me for it. Well, probably because I don't think he ever finished paying me for it.

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

After my first Mimi van, I went to a quad captain full sized Savana.  It could haul kids and pull a trailer.  Unless you were 7" tall there was no kicking the seat in front of you.

Dodge neon - went to buy cheap transportation and left with a great little car. Autox, track days and another neon (ACR) followed.

Dodge Grand Caravan, enough said.

BMW E30. I bought this as a BMW skeptic, but wanting to try something different. The i6, rwd, manual configuration appealed to me, but I was concerned about the legendary parts cost. Turns out BMW parts costs are actually pretty reasonable, and the fundamentals  of the car were just right.

Nathan JansenvanDoorn said:

Dodge neon - went to buy cheap transportation and left with a great little car. Autox, track days and another neon (ACR) followed.

Dodge Grand Caravan, enough said.

BMW E30. I bought this as a BMW skeptic, but wanting to try something different. The i6, rwd, manual configuration appealed to me, but I was concerned about the legendary parts cost. Turns out BMW parts costs are actually pretty reasonable, and the fundamentals  of the car were just right.

How strange that I came here to say the same thing about the E30.  I always grew up thinking it was some specialty thing with unobtanium and expensive parts, and I was always told you had to put unicorn pee in the tank or it would explode.  It was amazing the number of shops who tried to charge extra for an oil change or a coolant flush "because BMW"

Nope.  87 octane, 5w30, ATF in the Getrag, and parts everywhere.  I drove my cabrio until it had 200k and the only thing it really needed was an $80 junkyard ECM when the original died.

I disagree on the Neon, though.  I had heard all the hype so I borrowed one for a road trip.  I chose poorly.  Not my cup of tea.

Yep, minivans. I long to own one again. It's the only thing I miss after my divorce.

Mndsm said:

I'll echo the 986 boxster. I'd never driven one, and had grown up with an inherited dislike of German cars- and quite frankly resigned myself to never owning another euro after my MINI. the SKJSS needed me to test drive one. 

 

I almost lied to him and said it was trash so I could buy it myself. Not fitting in it was the biggest reason I didn't. That car was way more fun than it needed to be. 

Yes, the ergonomics (and the fact that porsche put all the important electronics under the driver's seat with zero weather proofing in a convertible) were my only true disappointment with the car. Luckily porsche fixed that with the later generations. Like the BMW comments above, there's a few parts that are $$$ for various reasons, but most of the parts aren't any more expensive than anything else. I think I bought replacement bump stops for like $3 each. Oil came from walmart. (though it does take 50-100% more than most cars) Rockauto has a surprising selection of parts for these cars. In a pinch I even managed to source a replacement alternator in stock at a local parts store for cheaper than anything I could find online. ...Just don't break an axle.

I am pretty good at assessing cars and rarely have reason to change that assessment, but one of the cars mentioned was that rare case.

I had little use for minivans, but when we were moving house about 6 years ago, I looked at renting one to transport stuff too valuable or delicate to leave to the tender mercies of movers. As we had a very long (several months while we did extensive renovation) move in period, it seemed like a better and less expensive idea to buy rather than lease a minivan. The model that sold me was the Chrysler Caravan with the stow and go seats. Folding them into the floor and ignoring them for 6 months gave us all sorts of flexibility without having to find a place to store bulky seats.

A friend owned a Grand Caravan with the higher level of creature comforts that ours and I could envision doing cross country treks in one of those!

I transported all our valuable and delicate stuff - stereo systems, thousands of bottles of wine and delicate antique furniture in the minivan, and then sold it. Owned it for about a year and all it cost me was about $1500  - a week or so of rental cost.

My E38 might have been that car for me.  I always kinda wanted one, but never for any good reason.  And I was always scared of the reality of owning one, especially with all of the BMW horror stories people seem to parrot around.  But honestly, it's been a shockingly good experience.  It's not hard to work on (provided you read the instructions), parts are pretty reasonable, parts and info are all available.  It's comfy, drives well, is generally docile, and it holds a ton of stuff.  It's almost a better Camry than an actual Camry, particularly when long highway runs at higher speeds come into play.  Even with the auto, the engine feels great when you push it a bit and the chassis is very capable.  Throw it around in the twisties and provided the road isn't super narrow (where the car starts to feel a bit unweildy) it's very easy to forget you're driving a rather large 4100 lb car.  

I bought the thing thinking "this might be fun, but it's probably a terrible idea", but at this point (3.5 years and 35k miles later) I'm left thinking "this thing is just a really good car"