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?
My fiance is a full-on Mach-E stan, so we’ll have one eventually. That might be the “nicest” car I’d feel comfortable driving, at least in a conventional sense.
But if we’re talking “prestige” … and not the movie with Hugh Jackman and David Bowie … it’d probably be either an X300-generation XJR or an R129 SL. I’d be too paranoid about owning anything nicer in the city, which is why my daily driver is 24 years old.
No limit, as long as I can still keep a beater or two for days when I don’t want to have to worry about other drivers.
I feel ok in a VW, but owning an Audi would make me feel like a class traitor.
Buy an air-cooled V8 Tatra and you are not a class traitor, just a more equal pig.
As someone who has purchased quite a few brand new vehicles, the most freeing thing (emotionally and financially) I ever did was sell them for crazy profit at the height of pandemic and go back to clunkers. I now daily drive a mix of 2006 300C (because Hemi) and a hail dented, flaking paint, beat up 2005 Suburban that drives like new. I no longer worry about parking anywhere. If someone parks too close, joke is on them. Hail in the forecast? Ok… Thief? Nobody would steal these. I keep the wife in something newish and nice, but for me, its all projects.
To answer the question though, I am eying a used Lexus LS460 once my daughter gets her license and takes my car. There is some truth in not being taken seriously when you pull up in old beaters.
I think I’d be fine with the standard luxury brands, your Mercedes or Cadillacs or whatever. I’d feel pretty weird stepping up beyond that to Rolls or Bentley or something. With sportscars, it’s more about look than price. Something flashy looking like a C8 isn’t for me, but a 911 or the like would be great.
I’ve wanted a 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton since I got a Corgi model of one as a Toddler. In Red please.
I once had a Mercedes Benz 300 SDL in very good shape, with the addition of bulletproof windows. It had all the fancy I ever wanted from a car. If I get something fancy, I want it to be a classic. I’m not into new luxury vehicles with all the bells and whistles at all, as I wouldn’t even use them. That said, I’m not opposed to nice cars, it’s just that my taste is very particular. I’ve been tempted to buy an Alfa Romeo 4C, for instance.
Bulletproof windows? Was el Chapo having an estate sale?
A Russian gentleman sold me the “glass” and parts. Car break-ins were a common occurrence where I lived and I’d been through two of them, which was incentive enough for me to seek these out. After installation, someone once tried to smash them with a brick to break into the car and the brick bounced back and hit them in the face. Karma at its finest.
You wouldn’t happen to have a video of that to share would you?
Also it might be time to move somewhere else if you’ve had two break-ins and one attempted break in.
I have no video, although that would have been hilarious to have recorded it. I no longer live there. This incident happened almost a decade ago.
If money was no issue, probably a 1932 Duesenberg SJ. In reality, my cheap self is holding out hope that I can save enough for a new Ford Maverick or Ford Ranger Hybrid (if it ever makes it to the US)
Dude! That is my ultimate car for if I ever come across a billion dollars. I would love to cruise around in something like a Duesey without the fear of scratching the paint and having to sell a kidney to get it repaired.
It kind of depends on how replaceable the car is, to me. I would absolutely take your Chiron or Rimac for a spin because they still make those, but I don’t even want to sit in your Delehaye or your $30 million 250 gto. Thank you very much for showing them to me, though.
Those vintage treasures can be repaired. They were made by hand, and while it will cost you, it is both a) possible and b) worth repairing any damage.
The scary thing is driving old mass-manufactured cars, as many things simply cannot be replaced.
Having become accustomed to my little red Mercedes-Benz convertible being parked up front at many valet stands in LA – I would have no problem re-entering that lifestyle again.
I can easily see us with His and His Bentley Continental GT V8s – His a green coupe, mine a red convertible.
I’m not a fancy/luxury car person. A mid-level trim of a small crossover is good enough for me.
Right now, any brand new car off the lot, except a Nisan Versa or Chevy Spark. I’m too paranoid drive around with that much debt.
But here’s the thing, if the car isn’t new, I care much less. I probably sound crazy. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like getting new shoes dirty, but once their dirty I don’t care. So a new car seems like a challenge I’m destined to lose, while a quality used car feels like moving into a nice airbnb.
So my limit for nice re-used cars is much higher, like low riders and resto-mods, something highly specific that was someone’s Rust to Riches level come up.
I’m a complicated person.
I don’t like buying new(ish) cars for the same reason. There is something freeing about driving a car that is not pristine. No worries about the kids riding their bikes around the car, no worries about door dings, no worries about scratches and dents. You can just use it and save your concerns for more important things. When I get a new (to me) car the worry starts all over again.
For this reason I actually don’t want a new car, ever if possible. But a 1-2 year old car, yes please.
Nicest car I would feel comfortable owning? An 87 Cavalier.
I love nice things. Luxurious, soft, expensive things. But I also drive every day through a very not-nice adjacent town (that has been screwed time and time again by the nice town I live in). I would feel like a dick driving anything ostentatiously expensive or luxurious. Probably topping out a the Volvo/Audi level.
After 23 years and around 270,000 miles, I’m giving up on my 2000 Ranger. (It decided to decorate its engine oil with fun, sparkly glitter made from bearing babbitt.) I’m replacing it with a 2024 Maverick AWD, which is about the most I’m willing to feel responsible for.
Anyone looking for a manual transmission, 4WD Ranger in need of an engine rebuild? I’m near Auburn, NY.
In this thread: gen xers and boomers and the rides they lusted after in high school. 😀
The nicest vehicle I’d be comfortable driving would be a used model of one of those new(er) Tahoe to classic Blazer conversions from Flat Out Autos.
Since I can’t insert a picture or a link, go to
https://flatoutautos.com/k5-tahoe
Maybe I’d scale down the rims and tires a little for a more vintage look.
Introvert here. My Pontiac G8 gets me more comments than I’m comfortable with. Then we got Great Danes, I never knew dogs could get cat calls. Then we got a baby and that’s 10x worse. What car encourages people to leave you alone?
Buy an old beater van from a construction company. Pretty well invisible, but that might be because it’s always in the shop for previously-deferred maintenance.
Cassidy, I feel you. I always complained that our Great Dane (RIP to the sweetest guy who ever lived) generated too much attention. Then the baby. And the second one. Two blonde girls. My god. Leave me alone, people!
When we had our first, and finally got into the world, I remember hearing people (mostly women) around me gasping at how cute my kid was as we passed. He was a month early, so he was a cute little thing.
An old Bristol, from before they got ugly: I would know that it was better than a Rolls Royce, but almost nobody else would know what it was 😀
The one that best serves my needs rather than me end up serving it.
It’s a tough question. I now feel comfortable with my 19 years old, 13k$ BMW but it wasn’t the case 7 years ago. I came to realize wrecking it wouldn’t crush me financially so I came to be comfortable using it.
However, at one point I considered buying a cheap-ish Vantage (35k$), which was a bit of a reach for my budget. Then I factored in insurance, gas and maintenance. At that point I realized it’d cripple my budget and I’d be afraid to take it out, which defeats the point of a cool car.
So I ended up with my 280Z that was initially way cheaper but will end up costing more than the Aston after the restoration, but since I can DIY maintenance and insurance is cheap I’ll run it with some amount of peace of mind (until the first ding on the new paint).
I think how prestigious the brand is also counts. Jealous stares in an Aston aren’t as good as thumbs up for a classic everyman sportscar you put sweat equity into.
I think I’d draw the line before a 911. A Cayman would be my upper limit I think. Used off course.
That Vantage, though. What’s with the English designing fabulous cars but unable to make them reliable?
It’s so we can say (in your best posh accent) “oh yes the jag / aston / posh car is in the shop again”, while not actually needing to own said posh car, and be seen with it, because they believe you that it’s always in the shop.
Balling on a budget taken to a whole new level.
The ultimate “my girlfriend goes to another school, you wouldn’t know her” move
Good God that’s genius! Way better than telling I do have an obscure (to French guys) Japanese car at the body shop for two years.
I actually think about this exact question regularly. Like, I love the *idea* of a being chauffeured in a Rolls like the picture above. The ride would be lovely and calm. I might come out feeling refreshed. But then I think what I would think of someone getting out of that car if I were sitting at one of the cafe tables. I would think that they are trying too hard to look rich. Or even if I got out of the car and met a friend waiting for me outside. I might feel a little conspicuous or embarrassed. Oddly, a Rolls-Royce on a wedding day would feel “normal” because it is to mark an exceptional day. Anything outside of that type of situation though, It just feels like it is “too much”. I feel like an anonymous SUV would be better for that role. Escalade or Suburban or Range Rover or even X5 or GLE, doesn’t really matter. Anything more than that though, it just seems a little desperate and “look at me”. My question going down that line of thinking though would be about the Mercedes Maybach S-class. It seems like the car was designed for the role described. Luxurious and yet invisible. Is it still “too much” though?
Interesting question. For a short term situation, say a couple of months, there’s nothing that would be too fancy (assuming I’m not paying for car or maintenance). Rolls, Bentley, McLaren, Ferrari, perfectly restored ’27 Franklin, pretty much anything would go for that length of time. But I don’t think I could handle anything like that for any longer than that. For long term purposes (again with someone else covering car costs), I’d be looking at an M5, a 911 or Cayman, maybe a cool sedan from the late ’40’s that was in mint condition. A C8 would be pushing it, but I might be able to get by with one of those.
It’s not the value of the car, it’s how I’d feel driving it around the neighborhood.
Gotta say that I simply love my Durango Hellcat. I’ve owned a lot of cars in my 75 years, and this one is the very best and most comfortable long distance cruiser I’ve ever owned (or driven).
The answer is yes? Yes.
Puffalumps won’t settle for anything less