Which car is your opinion is flashier/classier?

ontheroad1970

This discussion has the matter of darkness about it.

mgfvvc

diystarter7 said:

... these awful battery cars are not for me.

Have you even driven an electric car. To be honest I haven't, but people who have will tell you (at least on YouTube) that they are so much better than ICE cars. Instant torque, super smooth, incredibly quiet. Given how few miles your current car has done you seem unlikely to have range anxiety.

Go on, take one for a test drive before you write the idea off. Next time I change my car I am going to at least test drive an electric car.

But Teslas are even common than X5s around here. While I'm more impressed by a Tesla than an X5 they don't turn heads any more.

Ditzy_Mitzy

[Deleted User] said:

Deleted_User said:

Doesn’t matter what car you have, there will always be someone with a better car than you unless you’re elon musk or Jeff bozos. 

Unless you’re trying to pull birds then what’s the point?

With a 7-seater?

Perhaps he's extremely optimistic...

You aren't really going to impress anybody driving one of those things.  Non-car people tend to view SUVs as the spawn of Satan and car people see them as boring; I'm in the latter category and wouldn't look twice at an SUV of description, they're just people carriers on stilts.  

iwb100

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

[Deleted User] said:

Deleted_User said:

Doesn’t matter what car you have, there will always be someone with a better car than you unless you’re elon musk or Jeff bozos. 

Unless you’re trying to pull birds then what’s the point?

With a 7-seater?

Perhaps he's extremely optimistic...

You aren't really going to impress anybody driving one of those things.  Non-car people tend to view SUVs as the spawn of Satan and car people see them as boring; I'm in the latter category and wouldn't look twice at an SUV of description, they're just people carriers on stilts.  

Are you kidding? Non car people love SUVs it’s why 6 of this years top ten sellers so far are SUVs. The rest your standard hatch’s plus the mini. People just gobble the things up. Absolutely those into cars, and I mean cars performance hate them. But then the luxury car end of the market they have taken over too. 

But to suggest people not into cars don’t like them won’t explain the huge success that SUV body style has over just about any other family size car. It’s insane. 

Username03725

Fascinating. OP wants to buy a car to impress people. Do excuse me while I go off into the steps beyond initial purchase...

Then what? Does 'impressing people' manifest itself as random strangers (or maybe people he knows) coming up to him and saying 'wow cool car dude'? Will that be enough? Or will he be relying on that knowing look and the almost imperceptible nod that passes between people who get it? And then having done that, is there an expectation of moving up a social group and suddenly being the centre of things in the pub or the nearest gentlemen's club, telling tales of daring-do etc? Or suddenly he's elevated to the head of the table seat for Sunday dinner and lauded by friends & family alike now that he's spunked 25k on a car?

I don't know but I'd guess that at best a couple of people might just pass comment in a positive way that meets OP's initial requirement - to be noted as the owner of an impressive car - and then nothing more will happen; life will go on exactly as before but OP has had his 30 seconds of fame at the cost of a car that doubles as a money pit and is still costing money 4 years down the line, when even the most ardent new admirer of said car doesn't notice it any more as it's just "Dave's car" and has been for as long as anyone could care to remember, if they did care.

So yh, a fascinating logic for buying something. 

NBLondon

iwb100 said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

You aren't really going to impress anybody driving one of those things.  Non-car people tend to view SUVs as the spawn of Satan and car people see them as boring; I'm in the latter category and wouldn't look twice at an SUV of description, they're just people carriers on stilts.  

Are you kidding? Non car people love SUVs it’s why 6 of this years top ten sellers so far are SUVs. The rest your standard hatch’s plus the mini. People just gobble the things up. Absolutely those into cars, and I mean cars performance hate them. But then the luxury car end of the market they have taken over too. 

But to suggest people not into cars don’t like them won’t explain the huge success that SUV body style has over just about any other family size car. It’s insane. 

I think it's a bit chicken and egg.   Do SUVs sell because people actively prefer them or do people buy SUVs because that's what's available.   I suspect there are some who would actually still prefer a large saloon, but practicality intervenes.  The best fit for their needs might actually be an MPV but they see it as "uncool" so an SUV or a crossover is a compromise.  (And the actual difference between an SUV and a crossover is a bit blurry).

Some people who "aren't into cars"  just see them as appliances.  They care about cost first or safety or space for children and junk.  Whether it impresses anyone else is way down the list.

I think Mitzy also refers to people who are somewhat anti-car (often eco warriors) who will consider an SUV as even worse than a small hatchback.

Sea_Shell

Having given this more thought, what does impress me and turn my head are older "classics", that are in mint condition.  Usually 70/80s cars.

Capri

XR3i

Even early golf/fiesta/escort/astra etc.
Doubly so if they are a convertible!

They are rare now and so really stand out as unusual.  Not the ten a penny boxes everyone drives these days.

Username03725

Sea_Shell said:

Having given this more thought, what does impress me and turn my head are older "classics", that are in mint condition.  Usually 70/80s cars.

Capri

XR3i

Even early golf/fiesta/escort/astra etc.
Doubly so if they are a convertible!

They are rare now and so really stand out as unusual.  Not the ten a penny boxes everyone drives these days.

The trouble is that current classics are exactly the ten-a-penny boxes that we drove without noticing years ago. Ford's sporting versions went stratospheric years ago  - decent Lotus Cortinas have long been north of £50k, you won't find a nice RS2000 for anything less than mid-30s now.

But even the run of the mill stuff that we just shrugged at when it failed its last MOT and ended its life in Ivan's yard now fetches a pretty penny. A Mk2 Escort 1.3 shopping car in reasonable nick is £10k and above these days; it makes me wince that we wrote two off rallying them (buy an Escort, gut it, seam weld it where needed, fit the right gear) and then just find another for £300 to start again after a close encounter with a ditch or a tree. Then again, if we'd all kept our cars from then they wouldn't be rare so would still be worthless...

Grumpy_chap

Sea_Shell said:

Having given this more thought, what does impress me and turn my head are older "classics", that are in mint condition.  Usually 70/80s cars.

Capri

XR3i

Even early golf/fiesta/escort/astra etc.
Doubly so if they are a convertible!

They are rare now and so really stand out as unusual.  Not the ten a penny boxes everyone drives these days.

Now, that does make one think.  We have our "old" car, and it is just the car we've owned since it was 6 months, but twice I've had positive comments in the past year.  One was a new colleague at work "I see you are into your classic cars" and the other was filling with petrol "that reminds me of my youth - my first car".  

Not bad for a 97 Fiesta.

Not sure that has really reached "classic" status yet though.

Never any such comments for the newer Focus (07) - that's just an old wreck.  Nor for the newer Fiesta (17) - that's just a car.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Grumpy_chap said:

Sea_Shell said:

Having given this more thought, what does impress me and turn my head are older "classics", that are in mint condition.  Usually 70/80s cars.

Capri

XR3i

Even early golf/fiesta/escort/astra etc.
Doubly so if they are a convertible!

They are rare now and so really stand out as unusual.  Not the ten a penny boxes everyone drives these days.

Now, that does make one think.  We have our "old" car, and it is just the car we've owned since it was 6 months, but twice I've had positive comments in the past year.  One was a new colleague at work "I see you are into your classic cars" and the other was filling with petrol "that reminds me of my youth - my first car".  

Not bad for a 97 Fiesta.

Not sure that has really reached "classic" status yet though.

Never any such comments for the newer Focus (07) - that's just an old wreck.  Nor for the newer Fiesta (17) - that's just a car.

Is your Fiesta the shape with the ellipsoid headlights or the square ones?  It's possible that certain  people might see it as being older than it really is, given that nothing really looks like the old Fiesta any more.  I can't think of them as 'classic', however, as they still just seem like normal cars.  Perhaps I'm loath to admit that cars I have owned are now classics!