10.) BMW M Coupe
No one expected BMW M to make a bizarre shooting brake version of the (rather lackadaisical) Z3 roadster, but they did, and it quickly earned the adoration of car geeks everywhere.
Suggested By: ThatbastardKurtis
9.) Autozam AZ-1
Ah, the Japanese Bubble Era at it’s finest. The gullwing doored Autozam (made by Mazda) was incredible, but it was too expensive to compete with other Japanese Kei cars, and so expensive that it encroached on the Miata’s territory.
Only 1990s Mazda would be insane enough to build a mid-engined, gullwinged city car.
Suggested By: feather-throttle-not-hair
8.) Cadillac CTS-V Wagon
Cadillac making a competitor to the M5 and E63 made perfect sense, but a wagon version with a manual transmission? Two things Americans don’t want are wagons and clutch pedals, but we got both and a 556 HP V8.
Thank you, Bob Lutz.
Suggested By: Nut4speed
7.) Mercedes-Benz R63 AMG
We’re not really sure why Mercedes makes AMG versions of nearly everything they sell, but we hope they keep doing it. It’s the reason why wonderfully confusing cars like the R63 AMG exist, a 507 hp MPV.
So few of these were sold, it makes an SLS AMG seem common. Now Mercedes needs to do an AMG Sprinter.
Suggested By: burglar can’t heart click anything
6.) Subaru SVX
To understand the SVX you have to take into account that it was made before the WRX STIs, back when Subaru was just a quirky import that was a barely blip on most people’s radars.
A Giugiaro-designed, $40,000 grand tourer from the same company that made the Brat was pretty strange, but it also might have been one of the best cars of the era.
Suggested By: Corey CC97, aka Silent Bob
5.) Buick GNX
The Grand National was already a pretty damn weird car to come from Buick, and the incredible GNX upped the ante quite a bit. All of them came in black and were faster than the Corvette, not that GM would ever admit it.
Suggested By: 472CID
4.) Lexus LFA
No one really understood why Toyota decided to make a Lexus supercar, or why they went absolutely insane designing it, but the world is better for it.
It was one of the most misunderstood cars of it’s time, but also one of the very best.
Suggested By: ADabOfOppo, Crazy Pills
3.) Volkswagen Golf GTI (Mk1)
Before the original Golf GTI you had practical cars and sporty cars, but Volkswagen decided to go where no one had gone before and combine the two, effectively creating the hot hatch.
A true game changer.
Suggested By: nermal
2.) AMC Eagle
The Eagle predicted the trend of jacked-up all wheel drive crossovers all the way back in 1980. It was a car that no one asked for, but was lightyears ahead of its time.
Suggested By: jariten1781
1.) Nissan Juke-R
Sure, why not put GT-R running gear into Nissan’s weird baby crossover thing? When engineers go crazy, great things happen.
Suggested By: POD
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day’s Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It’s by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
Contact the author at chris@jalopnik.com.