Question of the Day: Can You Find a Diecast Replica of Your First Car?

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

After I started getting weird diecast toy cars as LeMons Supreme Court baksheesh, my office has become crowded with stuff like a 1:43 scale Leyland P76 and a 1:40 Nissan Prairie. Yesterday, as I pondered the diecast custom vans that got away, I wondered: is it possible to get a diecast toy version of my very first car?

Sure enough, it is! Thing is, the toy version costs $49.99 shipped, or exactly one cent less than I paid for my ’69 Corona sedan back in 1982. There’s no way in hell I’m paying that much for a toy version of a car that was so ill-handling, underpowered, and shoddily built that the Toyoda family would be wise to buy every last survivor and crush it, for the sake of what’s left of the company’s good name… well, except for the fact that it’s impossible for a car freak not to love his or her very first car, no matter how terrible. So, how about you? If your first car was a Volkswagen Beetle or Ford Mustang, you’re in good shape. If it was a Matra Bagheera, on the other hand— hey, you’re still covered!

Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Scroggzilla Scroggzilla on Sep 02, 2011

    Sadly, there is no diecast version of the 1983 Ford Tempo in any scale.

  • 4runner4me 4runner4me on Jul 18, 2021

    While it was far from my first vehicle, I'm trying to locate a die cast or other replica model of my 2007 Toyota 4runner. I've searched online for over a year now, and have yet been able to locate one. Any suggestions????

  • Corey Lewis Facing rearwards and typing while in motion. I'll be sick in 4 minutes or less.
  • Ajla It's a tricky situation. If public charging is ubiquitous and reliable then range doesn't matter nearly as much. However they likely don't need to be as numerous as fuel pumps because of the home/work charging ability. But then there still might need to be "surge supply" of public chargers for things like holidays. Then there's the idea of chargers with towing accessibility. A lack of visible charging infrastructure might slow the adoption of EVs as well. Having an EV with a 600+ mile range would fix a lot of the above but that option doesn't seem to be economically feasible.
  • 28-Cars-Later I'm getting a Knight Rider vibe... or is it more Knightboat?
  • 28-Cars-Later "the person would likely be involved in taking the Corvette to the next level with full electrification."Chevrolet sold 37,224 C8s in 2023 starting at $65,895 in North America (no word on other regions) while Porsche sold 40,629 Taycans worldwide starting at $99,400. I imagine per unit Porsche/VAG profit at $100K+ but was far as R&D payback and other sunk costs I cannot say. I remember reading the new C8 platform was designed for hybrids (or something to that effect) so I expect Chevrolet to experiment with different model types but I don't expect Corvette to become the Taycan. If that is the expectation, I think it will ride off into the sunset because GM is that incompetent/impotent. Additional: In ten years outside of wrecks I expect a majority of C8s to still be running and economically roadworthy, I do not expect that of Taycans.
  • Tassos Jong-iL Not all martyrs see divinity, but at least you tried.
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