QOTD: What Brand Would You Rep?

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

A thought struck me the other day – since joining TTAC, I’ve liked just about every Honda I’ve reviewed. I even found little fault with the Clarity, which I was otherwise neutral towards.

That doesn’t mean I like every Honda. I drove the Fit for 10 minutes at a media event last fall (no review … 10 minutes isn’t enough time) and while I found it pleasant, it didn’t resonate with me the way the first-gen car did. The HR-V is fine, but I don’t think it would be my first choice in that class. I have yet to drive the CR-V and Pilot.

Realizing that I like most of Honda’s present offerings, I started wondering. Were I to work for an automaker, forced to switch vehicles every 60 or 90 days in order to cycle through the lineup, which brand has a roster I like enough that I’d want to rotate completely through?

Honda obviously leaps to mind, based on the preceding paragraphs, but I’d also sign up at Chevrolet – I’d trade a month of hell in a Trax for a shot at all the Camaros and Corvettes. I could also see Subaru – there’s a reason for the brand’s popularity – or coddling myself in Lexus luxury, even if it means putting up with weird interior design.

If it were you, what brand would you pick? To add a little challenge to this, let’s forbid cross-brand driving. So if you pick Toyota, you don’t get Lexus, and vice-versa. Let’s restrict this to brand, not parent company.

As far as trim or model variations go, we’ll allow it. You can drive the base model and circle back to the top trim later. You’ll also get to try out each engine or transmission combo. So you can drive an EcoSport Mustang and later a Mustang GT, both the manual and automatic versions. And if you pick Chevy, you get access to all the different Silverado variations – and all the different Corvettes.

Or maybe a smaller brand tickles your fancy? Maybe a brand that sells just five or six vehicles is fine with you?

Go ahead, take a few minutes. Tell your boss you’re working on something important while you browse each brand’s site to see what lineup fits you best.

[Image: Honda]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Tstag Tstag on Feb 15, 2019

    Jaguar, just to cycle from the F type to the F Pace, to the XJ to the electric I Pace. That’s got to be interesting

  • Brn Brn on Feb 16, 2019

    Every time I go car shopping, I try to cross shop several brands. Every time, I wind up with a Ford product. Their vehicles are just a really good balance. So yea, it'd be Ford.

  • Lorenzo People don't want EVs, they want inexpensive vehicles. EVs are not that. To paraphrase the philosopher Yogi Berra: If people don't wanna buy 'em, how you gonna stop 'em?
  • Ras815 Ok, you weren't kidding. That rear pillar window trick is freakin' awesome. Even in 2024.
  • Probert Captions, pleeeeeeze.
  • ToolGuy Companies that don't have plans in place for significant EV capacity by this timeframe (2028) are going to be left behind.
  • Tassos Isn't this just a Golf Wagon with better styling and interior?I still cannot get used to the fact how worthless the $ has become compared to even 8 years ago, when I was able to buy far superior and more powerful cars than this little POS for.... 1/3rd less, both from a dealer, as good as new, and with free warranties. Oh, and they were not 15 year olds like this geezer, but 8 and 9 year olds instead.
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