Some cars are best left untouched in a garage. Some cars are best when driven but care is taken in their upkeep. But these 10 cars are better when you beat the living piss out of them.
10.) 90s Minivans
The thing about old minivans is that once you replace those damn kids with your friends, they are the ultimate road trip vehicles that can take anything without you spending a cent on them. DC1:
When you are broke and in university, they are fantastic. My buddy had a hand me down Windstar from his parents. We would just beat the shit out of that thing. Go on long ass road trips with them, drove down a hill like it was a Ferrari 348 (with 7 people in it), off roading to camp sites. Another buddy had a Previa, it took a beating, and kept going... what it couldn't beat was rust. But man, we had great time in those vans.
Suggested By: DC1, Photo Credit: MSVG
9.) GM W-Bodies
Knowing how to drive these will make them turn? Yes, according to themanwithsauce:
Dirt cheap, dirt simple, and about as good as dirt to drive. But it is highly satisfying to toss around. WHen you drive them right, you know that it's YOU driving the car and the car isn't just flattering your ego *cough*EVO*cough**cough*STI*cough* I recommend everyone thrash them around at least once in your life to gain a new appreciation for how bad can be good.
CaptainWompus agrees:
As a 3x W-Body owner, I completely agree here. (95 Cutlass Supreme 2 door - 3.4L DOHC motor - victim of 3 separate accidents - it actually totaled a car that hit me and I drove home fine, 92 Grand Prix SE 2 door w/ B4U package, and 02 Impala LS.) Getting the tail to slide out on that Cutlass was fun..
Suggested By: themanwithsauce, Photo Credit: skiturbo911
8.) Nissan S-Series
Zero to the redline in no time at all since 1976! Have you seen a stock one lately? Exactly.
Suggested By: JSWBlueS13, Photo Credit: zanthrax-dot-nl
7.) 60s Full-Size Chrysler
3 tons of indestructible American steel. Green Pig:
One friend owned a '68 Fury that he acquired at age 17 when it was already 10 years old and used it as his daily driver for another 10 years. He did not treat the car gently and would regularly load it down with newspapers to take to the recycling center.
I think he finally decided to scrap it after it would no longer pass NJ state emissions.
Another friend that I worked with owned a '67 Newport 4-door. At one time the car was maroon or burgundy, but the paint had faded to an almost purple color. One clear June morning, he and I, along with four friends, jumped in the car to go fishing off Cape Henlopen DE. After a day of fishing we had 2-3 stripers and a half-dozen flounder, plus a bushel of live crabs we bought from a van on the side of the road (best place to get crabs, BTW) and realized our cooler was too small to accommodate our catch. The solution? Line the trunk of the Newport with clear plastic sheeting then add ice. A lot of ice. 120 pounds of it.
Thus loaded, we returned home with our bounty, with melt water pouring out through the rust holes in the trunk. The car never skipped a beat, even with the A/C on at full blast.
Suggested By: Green Pig, Photo Credit: Gangster Car Driver
6.) Volvo 850/700-Series
You buy one for 600 euros around here (or like $1,000 in the USA - Ed.) and they will refuse to die. Plus, everybody loves Volvos.
Suggested By: Old Dirty Brick, Photo Credit: M.Peinado
5.) GM S-Series/Any Old Pickup
A clean pickup smells fishy. Patrick Frawley:
Old small pickup trucks especially domestics, especially a GM S-series. They were all but designed to be abused. Dents are like cool scars, rust is like your best friend's hair starting to go gray. Off-road them, slide them around snowy parking lots, load them with an apartment's full of stuff, do it all. the more beat, the more endearing.
Suggested By: Patrick Frawley, Photo Credit: order_242
4.) K-Cars
Get t-boned, then keep rolling! Umrguy42:
I ran *over* a fire hydrant with one (on accident, and just the the part where they connect the hose), bent the frame in 2 places, tore some of the body work up, and it kept right on going. And that was when it was like, 14-15 years old with plenty of miles on it.
I can vouch for this one, too. I was t-boned by an elderly lady in a newish Corolla in my old Reliant. Her car basically exploded into a bunch of bits and I drove my now severely dented K-car home.
Suggested By: Umrguy42, Photo Credit: DVS1mn
3.) Old Toyotas
Japanese quality: It's a thing. Jay_Hoff:
When you start to beat on it, especially with an exhaust leak, it just brings a smile to your face. Knowing that this piece of shit is more reliable than most cars out there.
For example my 96 Camry with 280xxx miles. Picked it up for a thousand dollars and put snow tires on it. I just took her on a 500mile trip with no issues. Beating on it around backroads, I still got 30mpg. And in the winter, I pass all the four wheel drive trucks and SUVs with ease.
Suggested By: Jay_Hoff, Photo Credit: Jay_Hoff
2.) Peugeot 505/205
If the 505 works in Africa (and it does), it'll take a bit of Lemons with ease as well. solracer:
Peugeot 505 Turbo S. You'd never think it but the 505 is nearly indestructible with its body made of some super-hard space metal and an engine (if you cool it properly) that just keeps going and going. We're about to run our 6th 24 Hours of Lemons race in three weeks and just like the other 5 we expect it will takethe abuse and bring us home!
For Europeans, the number of the beast is 205.
Suggested By: solracer, Photo Credit: DVS1mn
1.) Ford Panther
These cars have cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. primalzer knows that:
Panther platform cars, specifically the Crown Vic need to be beat to hell to truly make the car great. Potholes in the road? Whatever, run right through them. Bumps in the parking lot? Whatevs. Loading 6 dudes and 500 lbs of stuff in the trunk? That's all? It'll run for 300K miles, but the harder you run them, the better they get.
Suggested By: primalzer, Photo Credit: rustejunk
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