And I'm sorry, but the '70 Pontiac had about the least subdued nose ever.

That car could get through law school on the strength of its beak alone.

Then there's the '59 Pontiac with a look-at-me split in the grille that carries on to this day. (It's no coincidence that Knudsen became general manager of Pontiac in '56, and the grille became split exactly one major design cycle later.)

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(Sad that I have to go back a few years.)

The Mustang, but only insomuch as we appreciate the early Fox-bodies now.

Maybe the Astra. Maybe. Maybe not.

The T-type Buicks are still appreciated today. I suspect the Cobalt/HHR/W-body Impala SS will end up the same way.

It sounds weird, but possibly the third-gen Eclipse? The first/second are well-established as flimsy tuner cars, but the third's kinda bloated and more of a secretary's car. No worse than a '73 Mustang though.

I think the first-gen xB will be collectible, as will the Element (to a lesser extent, sort of the Fairlane to its Chevelle). Utility is universal, whether it's cool or not. The Ford Transit might be able to join these ranks.

The neo-GTO was underappreciated due to its generic styling, but I think it'll come into its own.

I've got to be missing something. WRX/STI and Evo are self-explanatory... hm.

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I'd wager on any Civic Si, although with this generation they're not exactly rare.

Oh, here's one: the VW GLI. Everyone knows the GTI's gonna remain very popular, especially the Mk.V since it brought life into the marque again. The GLI doesn't sell nearly as well, even though the Jetta sells like mad. People are going to remember the GTI, but not all of them will remember its sedan cousin, and I think it'll have its own niche.

We may well reach a point in 20 years when the Infiniti G35 of today will be thought of as the E30 is thought of today. After all the Bangle Bimmers are dead because the stupid computers gave up, the judges are going to be stencilling "ない別のたわごとG35" on all the Infinitis at LeMons South 2029.

I think today's Audis are going to be well sought after. Mercedes's best modern designs were in the '90s, BMW's... well, BMW's ended just after the '90s, but Audi didn't really hit its peak, in my opinion, until very recently. We'll see how they age, but I think they're going to do quite well. While I'm on the subject, I think the Mk.V Passat, post 2001.5 refresh, is going to be sort of a classic, since it was the generation in which it was really on par with its Audi cousin.

Don't hate me for saying it, but the NHW20 Prius is going to be desired. Think about it: in 20 years, alternative fuels may or may not be the standard; regardless, the current model Prius is going to be looked back upon as a revolution. Where the Insight and the first Prius 'failed' the second generation took the world by [electrical] storm, people were on two-year waiting lists for them, and automakers left and right were trying to one-up them, whether Honda with the cheaper Insight or GM with the plug-in Volt. And they won't all be dead, either--San Francisco is in the process of retiring a fleet of Escape Hybrid taxis that are still running perfectly at 300,000 miles each. Worth a thought.

The first xB is definitely a future classic. I'm not sure about the Element--utility is universal, yes, but if one looks for utility, he's more likely to buy an 'old car' than a 'classic'. I have a feeling the Cube's going to be the xB's second, and the Transit may be a good call.

I wonder, if the crossover succeeds in killing the minivan--it already did at GM--are we going to start thinking of minivans as we do today of wagons? As of this writing, no minivan is considered a classic (well, all pre-Sienna Toyotas are classic in my book, but that's me), and the 1984 Caravans that are still running are transporting poor kids and garden equipment. But our generation grew up in minivans. I was in minivans constantly, '92 to '00, I went to Disney World in one of them, the first car I drove was one of them... we're going to reminisce about Previas and Grand Caravans the same way everyone does about wagons today.

I suspect any high-performance version of anything is going to stay desired. Even (especially) the TrailBlazer SS, Grand Cherokee SRT8, Vue Red Line, and especially the Ram SRT10, for being utterly ridiculous. In fact, aren't the GMC Syclone and Xtreme already approaching this status?

Whew... fun game. I think this should be in the smoking lounge.

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Good call on the Cherokee SRT8/Viperam. Let's move it to the lounge.

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