These Are The First Cars You Ever Thought Of As Cool

What makes a car cool? Is it tasteful graphics? A well-shaped headlight? A flawless engineering pedigree? Is it the lines of body or the magnificent machinery beneath it that make it cool?

It could be all of those things, but I think what really makes a car cool is the emotional response it generates in the beholder. So I asked what was the first car to pull you in, and you delivered. Some of these are objectively cool cars—you'll get no arguments from me regarding a 1963 Corvette or the A-Team's van—but some were just cars that hit you at the right place, at the right time.

Take a look at what our Jalopnik community came up with

Child of the 70/80 here, so what we saw on TV and the movie screens made a big impact. The Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am, the Dodge Power Wagon and Camaro Z28 on Simon and Simon, Jim Gardner's Firebird on The Rockford Files, and yes, I reluctantly admit it — the A-Team's van.

From ReluctantFloridaMan

1970-73 Pontiac Firebird. I had loved cars from as far back as I can remember but one day when I was about 10 my dad brought home a 1972 for my oldest sister and it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. To this day it remains my favorite car.

Incidentally, after only about 3 months she backed into a poll in a parking lot and put a dent in the back bumper and my dad took it away from her and sold it (he was kind of an asshole).

From Dean Beyer

Probably my dad's 1985 Pontiac Fiero. He had it until I was around 6 years old when he sold it after buying a Dodge Dakota pickup. Technically the first car I drove, too! I remember sitting in his lap steering it up our street while he worked the pedals and shifter. Actual picture of it around he time he listed it for sale circa 1994.

And

Me too! I can still vividly remember walking into a showroom (probably the first time I'd ever been in one), and staring at the Fiero with wide-eyed rapture. They still look good today. It would be only a few years later that I woke up to one in my driveway on my 16th birthday. Ha! Just kidding. I got a 10-year old Datsun pickup that my dad had been using to haul cords of wood. Loved that truck too, but it was no Fiero.

From StalePhish, CoolHandTim and others

As a child of the 80's, it was the Lamborghini Countach all the way. I had the posters, model cars, Hot Wheels, lunch box, Trapper Keeper...you name it. Although I have seen the retrospective review by James May with the cautionary tale of "don't meet your heroes", I just don't care how hard they are to drive and would still sell multiple organs to own one today.

While I think it still exudes Italian sexy from every inch of its sheet metal, one thing that I might have overlooked as a child is that windshield wiper. Holy Cybertruck! That thing is large, in charge, and what appears to be blocking a good portion of forward visibility. I guess even supermodels have that one flaw.

and

It was the 80's and there was nothing on earth more radical than the late-stage Countach. Turns out there still isn't. Remember when you could buy one for under $100k? I sure do.

From paradsecar and From Give Me Tacos or Give Me Death

I have a vague memory of standing in a parking lot (a doctor's office, I think) with my father staring at a silver Jaguar XKE. I remember asking if it was a race car.

I eventually received a Matchbox version of the same car, which quickly became my favorite toy.

From Earthbound Misfit I

1993 BMW 325i

My parents bought me a 1/18 Maisto model for my birthday one year and I always thought it was such a cool car, that is still on my list to own one day. My model was black but love the look of this green example with a tan interior.

From Koshapig

Eagle Talon TSi When I wanted a car in my late teens. Ended up with my 'rents Acura Integra LS

From FusiliJerry

When I was very VERY young, I obviously thought the first car I was exposed to (my dad's car) was cool... and that was a 1972 Ford Custom that looked something like this:

I remember riding my tricycle around it and thinking it was 'better' than many other cars because it had FOUR headlights (while other cars only had two) and it was also 'better' because it had taillights that were bigger than most other other cars I saw.

By the time I was 4 or 5 years old, I didn't think it was a cool car anymore as other cars (such as the Camaro Z28 and the Porsche 928) caught my eye by then.

Now as an adult, style-wise, I think it's interesting looking in the 'throwback novelty' sense.

But mechanically, I now know these were huge pieces of crap by modern standards and in some ways, even crap for their time. The OEM carb it came with was very crappy.

I recall that my dad often had to try starting the thing 3-10 times and until it was warmed up, it would stall frequently. Hell, even when warmed up, it would stall occasionally.

And from a performance perspective, my current Honda Fit is better in every way... way faster, way better handling, way better brakes and way better fuel economy... while also having vastly better emissions.

From Manwich – now Keto-Friendly

There were, of course, all the wall poster super cars, but those things didn't really rank as low as "cool". There were an entirely different strata than that. The first car I remember thinking was super cool, a car that mere mortals could own and that I could actually see in the real world, was the Monte Carlo SS. Sure, there were Corvettes, Camaros, and Mustangs around, but anyone with money had one so they didn't really rate as cool since the school parking lot was full of them. The SS was the car that was kind of uncommon but still kinda sorta obtainable (insurance was back-breaking for me back then), with the muscle car look about it. It reeked of power and speed and specialness to me, be that true or not.

From Harmon20

The 1963 Corvette: I was too young to understand what the big deal was about the split-window—it was the complete coolness of such a slick sports car coming from us instead of the Brits or the French that grabbed little me. Styling that people lust over to this day—that's the '63 Vette.

From the1969DodgeChargerFan

A Packard.

My dad was a Jalop. When we went to visit his family, we would stop at a place that had a car museum next to the restaurant.

My memories are really vague about the place, because it closed when I was young.

The one thing I remember was that they had a giant Packard from the 30s that had a toilet in the back. Don't remember details, just Packard + Toilet. To the mind of a 5 year old, that was the height of luxury and thus the height of cool.

(As a guess, I expect this was a Packard chassis that had been stretched and a custom body that was setup like an early RV was installed. I vaugely remember the inside was like a living room with a giant couch and that little room where you could do your business.)

I still am drawn to Packards. I think they are one of the coolest cars made. Saw a Clipper this weekend and it made my day.

I guess, I will always be somebody's cousin.

From hoser68

No quite as exotic as what's been posted so far, but my first love was a 1989 Taurus. I was around four or five years old when my cousins had bought a new car. My family always drove beaters at the time, so a NEW car which looked like a god damn spaceship to me was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Also, on the inside it was NEW, and smelled NEW and had power windows and locks and a cassette player. Car left an impression on me. In summary, I now have the toxic compulsion to buy a BRAND NEW car every three years because new is fun.

From Covers86

When I was very young in the 1970s, my parents started buying me Models of Yesteryear cars. The first one I remember getting was the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. I was maybe five years old, and it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It was absolutely the first car I thought was cool. I was lucky enough to see one in London a few years ago. Still cool.

From JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

Our neighbor's Triumph Spitfire. I always liked how the headlight nacelles looked and that long sloping rear deck looked cool as hell to 8 year old me.

From David E. Davis

When I was little I would wake up very early in the summer and walk around the neighborhood by myself (different times). One day I spotted something so different and accessible (to a little guy like me back then) I was just smitten. It was a red TR3, spending the night at a house it normally didn't live at (I only saw it once).

Not the actual car of course but the low cut down doors and small size made quite an impression on a six year old. Some sort of perfect cross between a tootsie toy and a real car.

From glemon