The key to car enthusiasm is not the car, it’s the enthusiasm. At AutoZone yesterday I saw two dudes very excitedly using a heat gun to apply crappy tint to the back window of a worn E100 generation Toyota Corolla. The car had been extensively modified in a way that wasn’t to my taste and, yet, I was having fun just watching them have fun with their car. Today’s review of the Maybach EQS680 SUV from contributor Daniel Golson surfaced a lot of feelings about fancy cars and enthusiasm.
I was excited to have Daniel to review this car because it’s not to my taste. I prefer the understated luxury of a Bentley. Daniel enjoys these cars, though, and it’s important for us to sometimes feature voices that are not exactly ours (though we do love having our own distinct voice as a site made up of automotive misfits). My sense is that there is no car too fancy for Daniel.
That isn’t to say we’re all dirtbags like David around here. Adrian drives an old Ferrari, Beau has plenty of nice cars, and Mercedes’s Phaeton love shows her to be a true appreciator of the finer things in life. While my BMW has more than 230,000 miles on the clock, it was still originally marketed as a luxury car. This whole experience had me wondering what the upper limit of “nice” is for most people.
Personally, I’d be fine with a brand new Porsche 911 T but I’d have a hard time justifying owning a brand new Zenvo (though I’d be fine borrowing one, ahem). My exact upper limit is probably an Alpina XB7, which costs about $150,000 and is all the fancy I can handle. There’s just something about owning a car that’s more expensive than my house that I’d have trouble with, although maybe if I had a nicer house it wouldn’t bother me as much!
What about you? What’s the nicest car you’d feel comfortable owning?
A surprisingly interesting question! I don’t think about it much but yes,i definitely would feel bad having an expensive car.
Mostly this is because i’m stingy.Make it something that appreciates in value and i’m there.
That leaves the door open for lots of interesting cars
Probably the nicest car I would feel comfortable driving without worries would be an S class Mercedes.
A Singer 911 would be classy, under the radar, and somewhat of a sleeper for speed/money. If you know, you know, but not over the top, in your face. Also, they’re gorgeous.
I have never spent more than $12k to buy a car for me to drive. But I’m not really enamored with the latest tech.
If I won the Powerball? I would have the world’s weirdest and probably least valuable car collection on the planet. It would be composed of stupid cars on 4×4 chassis, bodged together freaks, car-boats, and probably not a few of other people’s misguided, half finished projects.
I would drive them all. Some on the road, some in the woods. And I’d have something properly nice to take the wife around in. Something like an Auburn boat tail Speedster. But not an original. Kit car, but built to be daily drivable.
Plus maybe a McLaren F1 for road trips…
I gotta say 2 cars, #1 1984 Cadillac El Dorado – screams opulence and luxury but that 4100 V8 was its downfall so #2 without regret and awesome all around has to got to any 1984 Olds Cutlass with a 307 and if I could find a good one a Hurst Olds 442 with the lightning rods shifters – that’s style not over the top performance (1984) and had a certain “I don’t want to be on the band wagon feel” truly a gearhead car. Simple reliable and gets the chicks! “At least in the 90s”. Lol
Mine is very low. I owned a 2011 WRX at one stage with a few modifications, and honestly I felt uncomfortable in it. I sold it and own a beater late 1990’s ford which I daily drive and I love it. I love reading about new luxury and super cars but I could never own one.
I’d probably be overly cautious in anything with a six-figure value. But maybe owning it would change that. After all, most cars don’t appreciate, so I may as well enjoy it.
But I once owned a gun that I decided I wasn’t going to use because it was too nice and expensive, and I sold it after firing it just a few times, so maybe I’d just sell a valuable car if I had it.
I could pretty easily see myself owning cars under 80k, though. That’s where I know I’ll be comfortable.
My most opulent car was a 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, bought from the original owner. Loved it.
I’m pretty sure I can ruin anything. Use the floor as a trashcan,washed only by the rain, smoked/vaped in, non-mechanical maintenance or replacements ignored, body and wheel damage,take it through mud and gravel. Whatever it’s worth to begin with I’m sure I can knock a good bit off of that. Then it won’t be fancy anymore. So no limit, I’ll bring it down to my level if I have to spray paint it with primer.
The limit for me is simple: should I be driving this or being driven in it? I drive, so criteria 1. Is this a car I could drive everyday if I needed to? Look at the insurance policies on a lot of “hypercars” — low mileage required, and if “engine out” is in the maintenance catagory… No, criteria 2. Anything that doesn’t hit those categories is fair game.
Nothing modern, that’s for sure. All I see them as is future trash when they depreciate to the point of being irreparable, and they’re all e-waste now so the worst kind of trash.
HOWEVER, I would drive the crap out of any luxury car made before, let’s say, 1990-ish. But in particular I’d love one of those fancy art-deco 1930s streamliner cars you see at Pebble Beach and museums and nowhere else. So much style, so much grace, so little bullcrap beyond gratuitous automotive artistry that’s easy to forgive because it’s just so frigging beautiful and that’s the point. That’s the fanciest car I’d be comfortable owning, just an old beautiful one-of-a-kind piece of history.
I have about the limit of my comfort zone… have 3 GT3RS including a new 992RS and other stuff,.
I am not really interested in supercars or even the 918 class of Porsche supercars or whenever comes next in Super EV land with the exception below.
. Have driven stuff like the Maybachs and the like, Alpina BMWs, Bentley Continentals and so on but zero interest in going any further. Too old for the mid-engined stuff and Ferraris/Maseratis etc are too much of a statement.
Except for one.
Porsche Carrera GT, the best car of any kind I have ever driven. V10 from Heaven.
Would do it in a flash.
Nicest car… Probably some European classic that’s in the category of “awesome!” but not a total museum piece: A110 or some kind of decent 356. Adrian’s Ferrari. For a modern car probably a GT4 RS, or maybe an Ineos Grenadier or something if I wanted a truck. I think “nicer” than that you start to get into really unpleasant compromises and pure ostentation.
I’ve got an 83 911 Targa in “driver condition” and that’s probably about the limit I’m comfortable with… though some day I’d really like a new(ish) 911.
Nah, you have the better 911. A red air-cooled Targa is perfect (insert chef kiss)
It would have to be a Corvette (for me a ‘59 or ‘60) because they are the nicest cars ever. I base this on the following anecdotal evidence: every time someone sees one they always say, “Nice ‘Vette.”
What constitutes “nice” seems like it depends on the genre. A “nice” luxury car is likely gauged on something like features… or maybe perception? A “nice” off roader might be gauged on factory equipment like lockers, sway bar disconnect, etc. A “nice” sports car maybe engine/suspension? Digging into this seems like it would be worthy of a post of its own, honestly.
I tried this… when I bought a Guard’s Red ‘86 944 Turbo about five years ago and (pretty completely) rebuilt it. Interior now looks new. Probably because it’s… mostly new. Paint is original… but I cut and polished it. Engine is rebuilt and is… almost spotless.
Visually the car is probably an 8/10. Maybe a touch above.
My typical ride? A 2016 Outback. I’m generally not comfortable attracting too much attention to myself… and even in high-rent DC it attracts more attention than I’m perfectly comfortable with. But it has all been “friendly” attention. The red certainty stands out.
I’d kill for a 928 S4. But would probably be killed before I could enjoy it. Or an old 6 Series BMW.
For a new car? Not sure I’d be comfortable with a new Porsche or BMW in my neighborhood. The house prices anywhere else would suggest luxury cars in driveways… but not here. Older luxury/classics that the owners work on? More in tune with my community.
A “nice” car would stand out too much in my neighborhood. But economy cars don’t make an impression in a workplace parking lot. I would want a Focus ST.
I was going to say “Ferrari 456 manual” but decided to check Bring-A-Trailer first and saw something odd. The last three to sell (over about two weeks?!?) were almost identical; all ’95s in an excellent color (Blu Swaters) with relatively low mileage. The most discernible difference was the mileage. The one that went for $65K in late September had 29K miles, followed a week later by an 18K mile example that fetched $26,500 more, with the 3K mile creampuff that sold six days ago bringing an eyewatering $210,000.
I suppose that points out a conundrum in answering the question. Niceness might not directly affect a car’s monetary value, but driving it certainly does. I think this is why many collectors seem readily inclined to sell off garage queens: Too nice is no fun.
“Nice” has a vagueness to it that I’m not really going to qualify, but I will say this:
My spouse and I were talking about a certain Reviews site doing a drawing for a Skyline, and I said that I wouldn’t know where to put it, because there’s no way I’m street parking it, even though people regularly park their Porsches and BMWs and brand new Broncos and shit around us. (Our neighborhood is very diverse from most social points of view, to be clear. These are outliers; the rolling stock of most of the area is your standard-ass 2000s Corolla or whatever. I just wouldn’t want to expose something that rare to thru traffic.)
More than anything, I’d be concerned about the condition. If it’s a pristine example of a car, I’m a lot more likely to worry about breaking it than anything else. And I assume there are things like certain trim levels of Mercedes or something that I’d probably feel too white trash for, but on the whole, I’d probably take just about anything for a spin. Super-/hypercars, if I had ’em on the track, sure. I wouldn’t daily them, but whatever, I’d go for a lap if I could afford it. My dream cars are bizarre–an F40, a ’90s 911, and an early Shelby GT350–and I obviously wouldn’t daily any of those, but I’d have to be comfortable with some level of “nice” for any of them.
I don’t even know what the “nicest” car I’ve driven is. An optioned-out Murano? My mom’s late ’90s Bonneville with a 3800? I sat in a new BRZ at the Chicago Auto Show once. Maybe that?
Probably a Volvo V60 or XC60. I feel guilty about denting or muddying up a luxury car but for some reason, I don’t feel that way with a Volvo. A Volvo to me is just a slightly upscale Subaru. It’s meant to be used and abused.
We bought a used low mileage 2021 F150 Lariat, and at first I was a bit freaked out about how expensive it was. All the fancy LED lights, power tailgate, etc seemed like a liability. Then I heard the B&O sound system and felt the ventilated seats, and now IDGAF.
It’s honestly been great, so easy to live with. It’s like a fast, comfortable 4 door sedan that averages 26mpg and can move a small excavator. Not many other vehicles can drop a plate compactor off at the rental agency at 4:45, then look good in front of a nice restaurant at 7:30. I’ve only ever driven beaters, so it’s a nice upgrade that really boosts our personal confidence and sense of professionalism. Clients seem to take us more seriously as well.
Other than nice pickup trucks which are a business purchase for us, (and thus kind of cheating) I could see owning a 90 series Volvo wagon, SUV or something similar, maybe an Acura. Probably comes down to infotainment. Toy wise, I could probably stomach a compact sports car like a 135i, 240i, a nice S2000 or maybe even a basic 911.
For me it would probably be something like a BMW E39 M5 or a BMW Z3 M-Coupe. Something that’s worth a bit of money but isn’t brand new or terribly exotic so I wouldn’t feel bad driving them. A brand new car would stress me out so much, I’d get upset over every new door ding and rock chip, whereas on a used car they’re all part of the character.
New cars are essentially throwaway items at this point. I’d be more nervous driving a cool collectible car that’s only appreciating now like a clown shoe or an R34. Cars like a Model S Plaid, right now, are insane… But in 20 years? They’ll all be scrap.
It’s actually better to damage expensive cars, because they always have enough residual value to justify a proper repair.
I never cry when some $$$ classic or modern exotic gets damaged, you know it’s going to be lovingly pieced back together, it would be insanity not to.
Older classics that are rare but maybe niche appeal, (say sub 15-20k) are only a minor wreck away from write-off and part out.
Sure, if you’re going through insurance and typical body shops. I’ve fixed enough crashed older BMW’s to know how to do the job properly, so that doesn’t scare me. Most body shops can spray paint competently, it’s the panel swapping, prep, de-trimming, masking, and re-trimming that generally falls short.
Yeah but something like a clown shoe or an R34 is much more fixable at the same time, because they’re cars with a fairly conventional unibody construction using normal steel. All these new carbon core, all-aluminum chassis cars are so much worse to repair if anything happens. And then you’ve got all the electronics and wiring that can go wrong, whereas an old BMW has the electronic complexity of a calculator watch.
Eh, if I were a new-found lottery billionaire, I wouldn’t be worried about the cost as much as the connotation of the car. Those “Look at me! I’m rich!!!” Maybachs, Cullinans, Bentaygas, etc., I would pass on as I just don’t want to come across as a show off. If I’m gonna be chauffeured around anyway, I’ll take an executive-trimmed Ford Transit or M-B Sprinter.
But I’d have no problem driving a Koenigsegg, Pagani, Rimac, etc. as those are simply special cars that offer a driving experience unlike anything on the road.
At my current salary, however, I wouldn’t want to pay insurance for anything over $100K.
If I can’t get a clean MB W140 or a v12 Toyota Century somehow converted to LHD – I’d dream of a second gen Infiniti Q45 or 2nd gen M45 restomod, or if brave enough – last pre-Olivier Boulay Mitsubishi Diamante with a Mivec JDM engine and AWD tranny swap.
There’s something badass classy to these sedans that has always resonated well.