These Are The Cars You're Embarrassed To Admit You Love

I have always thought that the first-gen TT was amazing inside and out and would age extremely well. For a long time it seemed like people didn’t view it as a serious Audi, but I think that over time the consensus has swung back the other way.

Suggested by: Seagdor

Mine is the Cadillac ELR. Massively overpriced, wrong wheel drive, slow, and most of the car reviewers hated it. But every time I see one of these, I think, “how much are those on the used market now?”

Suggested by: bigmodernmess

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Saturn Sky.

Suggested by: ILOVESTUFF

The much derided Jaguar S-Type. Especially in R form.

Suggested by: ncbrit

A rebadged Opel that makes me want to cruise around with no sense of urgency or place to be.

Suggested by: David E. Davis

3rd-gen Mitsubishi Eclipse. I bought one new in 2000, bright red GT with a 5-speed manual. The V6 sounded great with the stock exhaust, clutch was like a rheostat for torque, shift action like a rifle. Parted with it after 8 mostly trouble-free years (voracious appetite for wheel bearings) and 165k miles once I could no longer get the hood to open. Bit of a pig on an autocross course, but that represented maybe 3 of the 165,000 miles.

Suggested by: FistFullofNeutral

People make fun.of it for being tiny and slow, but I really want a first generation Honda Insight. Purity of design for a single purpose vs. most modern vehicles that are bloated and designed to do everything.

Suggested by: gelmon

I’m not a convertible guy, but I enjoyed these things so much. The folding mechanism was a work of art (and it had a working sunroof!), and when paired with the VR6, it was glorious sounding with the top down.

Suggested by: FijiST

It was my first car (other than a v6 Dodge Dakota to haul around my dirtbike to MX tracks). it was small, had decent handling and power for a 17 year old , impressed da ladyz and I got away with parking it in the teachers parking lot at my high school cause no teacher thought a 17 year old would be driving a brand new sportscar. the few times I did get caught by a teacher, they just nodded and didn’t say anything.

Yes it was based on a old MB SLK with a fairly lethargic V6 and it was god awful in Ontario’s winter. but I loved it and it taught me a lot about car control. even the lease was zero down and a pittance for a high school job. had it for 4 years and I regret giving it up at the end with only 40k km’s. mine was in Alabaster white on black leather.

Suggested by: MZR-Canuck

Hope I don’t get roasted too bad for this, but the first gen Nissan Versa will always have a spot in my heart. I had a manual “brownish” one right after college and it was the perfect car for me at the time: good on gas, cheap parts and lots of space to carry the equipment needed for my job. I sold it to another engineer five or six years ago and he still has it and loves it for the same reasons I do.

Suggested by: Pablo Mejia