QOTD: What Weird Car Are You Always Happy To Find?

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

No, this isn’t one of those “one weird thing” clickbait-style posts. You know us better than that.

This morning, we’re asking about weird cars you enjoy finding in any condition. You know what we mean: the cars that appeal to you (probably only you) when they randomly appear amongst the detritus of life.

Given that lead photo, you know where the majority of my Kryptonite is found.

If it’s found at all, actually. Most of this tat from GM was reduced to fine iron oxide filings ages ago, particularly in the salt-laden environment that I inexplicably choose to call home. We one does appear, it is routinely equipped with a failing exhaust system and a brace of space-saver tires.

For whatever reason, it’s the W-Body in particular that causes me to unholster my smartphone and take a pic. Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, these GM10 cars — for whatever reason — still appeal to me in spades. Perhaps it is due to their appearance in my formative years as sedans and coupes aimed at families who appreciated a dose of style. Yes, even today, I do think these things look good – the wraparound rear window of the Olds and narrowed headlights of the Pontiac are two of the features that appeal even in 2019.

Their production numbers and shocking build quality assure they’ll never be concours winners but you can be certain this author’s head is on a swivel when he sees one in traffic. Perhaps these cars are at an age when they’re considered “just an old car” like people surely thought of a mid-60s Dart twenty-five years ago. Now, those mass-produced Dodges show up at car shows on occasion. Perhaps the same will happen for W-Body coupes in the year 2044.

What admittedly terrible car, no matter its condition, are you excited to see?

*edit: I had no idea Phil was writing up a W-Body for this week’s Junkyard Find. Great minds, etc … or minds similarly captured by horrifying examples of automotive dustbins. Same thing.

[Images: GM]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • Nrd515 Nrd515 on Sep 12, 2019

    A Plymouth Satellite or Roadrunner from '71 to '74, and the 4 door versions that survived many more years as mostly cop cars.. The first car I bought with my own money was the '74 Roadrunner I ordered in May '74. It's alive and more than well in the Las Vegas area, and I would love to drive it again. I recently was driving my '18 Challenger Scat Pack when I saw a stream of old cars heading towards me. Along with the usual Camaros, Corvettes, A and B-Body Mopars, and Mustangs, there was a mid '70's Satellite Sebring, in a decent darker blue(most every one I've seen recently is in a bad green, frosty blue, or beige), in what looked like showroom condition. I turned around, but got stuck at a couple of lights and couldn't find them again. A friend has seen that car at a couple of local classic car shows and he said it has a 440 and Torqueflite in it, and it looks new inside too. It's only change from stock, other than probably the engine, is it has loud custom dual exhaust on it. I would love to have that car.

  • DweezilSFV DweezilSFV on Sep 12, 2019

    Any FWD 80s GM A, J, N, X, L bodies. So schizo: trimmed like little Caddies and Olds and so many powered by tractor engines [2.0 and Iron Duke/Tech 4]. You can almost hear the disconnect all the way from Detroit. Still.

  • Fahrvergnugen cannot remember the last time i cared about a new bmw.
  • Analoggrotto More useless articles.
  • Spamvw Did clears to my '02 Jetta front markers in '02. Had to change the lamps to Amber. Looked a lot better on the grey wagon.I'm guessing smoked is illegal as it won't reflect anymore. But don't say anything about my E-codes, and I won't say anything about your smoked markers.
  • Theflyersfan OK, I'm going to stretch the words "positive change" to the breaking point here, but there might be some positive change going on with the beaver grille here. This picture was at Car and Driver. You'll notice that the grille now dives into a larger lower air intake instead of really standing out in a sea of plastic. In darker colors like this blue, it somewhat conceals the absolute obscene amount of real estate this unneeded monstrosity of a failed styling attempt takes up. The Euro front plate might be hiding some sins as well. You be the judge.
  • Theflyersfan I know given the body style they'll sell dozens, but for those of us who grew up wanting a nice Prelude Si with 4WS but our student budgets said no way, it'd be interesting to see if Honda can persuade GenX-ers to open their wallets for one. Civic Type-R powertrain in a coupe body style? Mild hybrid if they have to? The holy grail will still be if Honda gives the ultimate middle finger towards all things EV and hybrid, hides a few engineers in the basement away from spy cameras and leaks, comes up with a limited run of 9,000 rpm engines and gives us the last gasp of the S2000 once again. A send off to remind us of when once they screamed before everything sounds like a whirring appliance.
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