For almost any given object, there’s a certain unspoken set of general criteria that help give it its status of whatever-ness. Like, for a teapot, there’s certain expected parameters and traits that let us recognize it as a teapot, no matter the design. Sort of a Platonic ideal. Cars have this, too. With that in mind, what car violates this ideal the most? What car is least like a car?
This is sort of a weird question, but I think you get where I’m coming from. It’s asking something vague, more of a feeling than anything quantifiable. Some cars feel more like cars than others, if that makes sense, and I’d love to know what fully functional cars have deviated the most from the Platonic form of “car.”
I’d personally nominate the La Quasar Unipower City Car. I think they’re really bizarre and cool, but it feels far more like a tiny Internationalist glass skyscraper (or, tollbooth or greenhouse) on wheels than it feels like a car, even a boxy one.
So take a moment and maybe take one of those pills you keep hidden in your desk and tell me — what’s the least car-like car?
Contact the author at jason@jalopnik.com.