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Which Classic Cars Do Not Get Enough Love?
There are loaded questions, and then there are loaded questions about classic cars. Some of us will accept a legal definition of a 25+ year-old car being a classic or antique, but others will insist on items like chrome and carburetion as real classics. Any and all interpretations are welcome, because there are classic cars from every point in time that don’t get the love they deserve.
I once postulated that there are three keys to buying an affordable classic car. I firmly believe that a car’s affordability has a direct correlation to how many people love them, and certain brands, body styles, and eras of automobile production are not getting their just deserts.
I will kick start the discussion with one of the lower hanging fruits of lackluster love for a classic, one that is likely less desirable than the Buick Park Avenue seen at the top.
1995-99 Oldsmobile Aurora
The first-generation Aurora shares its G-platform underpinnings with other classics that don’t get enough love in my book. While front-wheel drive luxury and problematic Northstar engines are 1990s hallmarks that haven’t aged well, the examples that remain in 2025 deserve a better fate. This is especially true of the Aurora, which was a clean sheet luxury sedan with very few flaws when new.
Its unique, stunning styling and admirable performance suggested a resurgent Oldsmobile brand, one that never came to fruition. While many of us have positive memories of famous Oldsmobile products under the Cutlass name, I wager few of us show any love to their pricey ($30,000+ when new) luxury sedan aimed at Lexus and Mercedes-Benz buyers.
But that’s based on what I have seen. You, dear reader, have witnessed other classic cars get the short end of the stick. So now we put the ball in your court and ask you to post in the comments with an answer to this question:
What Classic Cars Do Not Get Enough Love?
Buick’s build on the Aurora platform, the sleek twi foor Riviera, is even mre ignored, but it was a soecial car, born at the wrong time.
Chevy Beretta fits well in this category for me. Despite lackluster interior materials of the day, the mechanicals were fairly dependable and, for its time it was sharply designed and competitive with other vehicles in its class, even winning an award early on for its clean under the hood appearance – one of GM’s first forays into the use of industrial design in the engine compartment.
Special editions such as GTU (88-89), Indy Pace Car (90), and GTZ (90-93) stand out in a crowd, but despite it being a model that people either owned, or knew someone who did, it is largely now forgotten except for a modest loyal following both in the US and abroad, or until one pops up at Cars & Coffee, where nice examples garner a lot of nostalgia.
Yes it is really over looked. I have seen many run 300k mikes. The paint might not look great and the interior worn but they always start and run reliably. Cheap to keep running.
Biased opinion, but the GM W-bodies, particularly the first gen ones, had some super cool variants. Turbo/intercooled, Quad 4 HO/stick shift, DOHC V6 stick shift, 3800 V6, quad bucket coupes and sedans, heads up displays, buttons galore, AQ9 seats, chassis/trip computers, combination lock glove boxes, wildly cool looking wheel designs, and more. What they lacked in build wuality they made up in “trying”. They could be plain jane beigemobiles but also optioned up with some very cool, very techy for the time stuff, and each of the brand variants (olds, pontiac, chevy, buick) had tuning, options, and styling bespoke to itself. Subsequent generations became more and more homogenized before disappearing into rental car lot nothingness, but that first gen still has a wow factor today.
Cool cars for sure. I had one. But a train wreck of quality.
Both the 90’s Riv and the Park Avenue of the same era. I miss my Park-it went to the Big Porthole In The Sky two years ago. Excellent cars.
The 90’s and 2000 GM FWD cars were a step ahead of most cars. They were solid reliable and bullet proof with a 3800 engine.
The real down fall was GM tried to add more power and FWD just did not cut it. They needed AWD and RWD.
Many NStar engines were great. My uncle gas gone 300k miles with two. The rest it was the need for head studs not bolts.
GM also was going broke and the interiors were where things got cut.
As for the W cars again the later cars were good but the V8 cars were a mistake. Heavy and detuned to not kill the transaxle kept them from what they could be. The 3800 sc was the better car.
Rust issues were a problem.
Early W cars were a train wreck of quality.
Having owned both a 1998 Grand Prix GTP Coupe and a 2009 Buick Lacrosse Super, I would disagree that the V8’s were a mistake. Both were a lot of fun to drive, but the Lacrosse had the far-better suspension setup for the ride and handling, and was much quieter on the highway. The throttle response on the supercharged GTP was a bit better, and the low-end torque came on very strong, but the LS4 V8 needed only a half-step to bring its acceleration to the same level. Mag tests of the times showed the GTP at about 6.6 0-60, and the Lacrosse at about 5.6, so the V8 (300 HP on the Buick) did pull harder once off the line. Torque steer could be something of an issue, especially on the GTP, but was easily manageable. The highway MPG was about the same, presumably due to the cylinder-deactivation on the Buick. No way would I have traded the great winter traction of either car for a winter-shy RWD.
I wish I still had either, or both, cars today.
I had a 04 comp g GTP it was ok and under 300 hp. It was the GXP with the V8 that was a mistake. They added weight and detuned it. The V6 was a better combo. The transmission could not take more torque.
The Buick was designed to take more power. But anything with 300 hp at the front wheels is challenged for traction.
My HHR SS was tuned to 300 hp and you just can’t get the power to the ground.
I had a 2000 Grand Prix GTP. It was one of the best cars I ever owned. I put 336,000 miles on it. The cam shaft finally broke in two and the transmission wouldn’t shift into over drive anymore. I cried when I sold it.
I latter bought a 2002 Bonneville SSEI.
It had the same drive train but wasn’t as much fun to drive for some reason.
The sunroof leaked like a siv. After several failed attempts to fix it. I finally sold it. I have always owned Pontiac’s up till now and I think they were some of the best looking and most fun cars to drive.
The original Infiniti Q45, especially if it’s a Q45a with the fully active suspension. The suspension will fail of course (ours did), but when it works it’s a remarkable experience – it halves the perceived weight, makes the car feel like a big performance car. And the engine! I always felt that engine deserved a mid-engined chassis. The build quality might be the best I’ve ever experienced in a car – even the fuse cover near the driver’s feet was covered in padded ‘leather’ (with the real stuff used almost everywhere else). Man, I miss that car.
It was definitely a mis-marketed/advertised car. And it was not directly competing with the Lexus LS400. The design, manufacture, and ownership behind the Full-Active Suspension equipped Q45’s is quite an interesting story. Unfortunately, the upkeep of said suspension is uber-expensive. I would be mildly surprised if one in working condition, outside of the Nissan Vault, still exists.
There is also the Opel Astra F. Right now astra is a popular model in Opel, but the father or founder of all the modern Astra isn’t respected and loved which it definitely deserves. Only 1 country which does is Poland.
Mercury Capri, 1970-76. Light weight, German construction, and decent performance from the 2.0 liter OHC, and 2.6 V-6, it was the second best selling imported car in 1973 (After the Volkswagen Beetle)
Maybe if there were any still around most areas. I see a Capri about once every 5 years at car shows, and the Capri II even less.
Except the rear side windows ALWAYS fell out.
Well THAT would be inconvenient!
Alas, German construction or not, the rustproofing measures were subpar, even by the rather relaxed standards of the day. And it wasn’t just outer-body rust; instead, in the rust-belt, structural rot took most of them off the road in less than a decade.
Anything from the 80s doesn’t get much love. (outside of Radwood) I’m thinking of GM’s X Cars and A-Bodies, Ford’s Gen 1 Taurus, Chrysler K-cars, and all its Variants. I am sure lots of people had positive and negative experiences with all of them. However, they were familiar and now much thinner on the ground.
Although we look wistfully at the vehicles from the 50s and 60s, I just watched “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” and watched that road race with all those Ford, Chrysler, and GM Vehicles going full out, and we’ve come a long way.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d take anything from any decade!
The 1990’s era of Lincoln Towncars are generally panned as geriatric cars, and in fairness, that was the core demographic.
I lucked into a 95 signature edition and found it to be a delightful daily driver, as well as trouble free to own.
I suppose it depends on who you hang out with but I see that even various popular cars don’t get lots of love on parts. Probably because there are only so many of those vehicles and not enough willingness to make parts for them. Personally I see normal daily stuff doesn’t get love because it’s so “normal”.
We had a brand-new 1982 Corvette Special Edition in the unique silver-beige paint. At the time, it would have been a 1983. But the General had something new up his sleeve… and of course nobody knew what a C4 was until 1984.
Personally the “only” Vette for me is a C3, specifically the early ones with chrome bumpers. I stood transfixed beside a new 1969 in the parking lot, while my entire Grade 8 school bus was forced to wait for me! The bus driver eventually tapped his horn… but I was totally spellbound. These don’t get nearly enough love. People actually prefer C2’s (this will forever remain a mystery to me).
And the C4, yes of course at the time I didn’t like it so much. But today I like them more. And these days, these are a great deal, fantastic even. They’re practically giving away early C4’s.
Anyway thanks Mehta, for the trip down memory lane.
Thank YOU for reading and contributing!
I 2nd the Aurora and add the smaller Intrigue. These lasted years longer than many of the same-year competition with swiss-cheese rust throughout the body. Just wouldn’t die.
I like the looks of lots of the late 90s Pontiacs as well.
70s Fords that aren’t painted to look Starsky and Hutch (I like those too, but this is about what people in general notice/appreciate) –mid 70s 4 doors with the coke bottle fender line are one of the best looking 4 doors in my view.
To me the definitive make/model that does not get enough love has to be the early X100 Jaguar XK8/XKR models. Fast, beautiful & thrilling to drive.
Absolutely!
The business version (3 window coupe) associated with the 1950 Plymouth offers the lines of early to mid range 1930 coupes, cheap to run with the flathead 6 and very appealing to the observer. This car is my overall choice as an overlooked classic.
Excellent choice–these must be durable vehicles as the amount of them still around seems disproportionate to how many were sold. I met a young man who is using a ’49 as his daily driver in upper Michigan! How many other cars of that era could survive being a daily driver now? Since they remain inexpensive, why not?