Been down this road before? Other unusual cars owned

[SnakeFarm]

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[unicycle]

I have a 2001 Pontiac Aztek. It got a lot of staring and Qs bc it's a pretty odd looking car. The public generally hated it. But I loved it. I did not, however, love Pontiac after they handled a breakdown very poorly, chintzing me out a few hundred bucks. I vowed not to buy a GM car again.

I drive the Smart so much now that I have to charge the Aztek's battery every so often to make site that it doesn't die (again).

My first car was a huge Ford (?) Grenada. I think it was almost the same size and weight as 3 Smarts.

[stevenvillatoro]

My most unusual, taken from a much longer list:

1955 Porsche Speedster 1500S - 5,400 original miles - flawless
1957 BMW Isetta (2) - Restored
1965 Porsche 'C' Cabriolet - 100-pt Hillsborough concours winner
1967 VW Beetle - 32K original miles - flawless
1970 Mini 1000cc
1971 VW Super Beetle (first car, stong sentimental memories)
1974 VW Thing
2002 Honda Insight
2008 smart

[mike-in-sa]

Long list includes Fiat 850's & Fiat X-19's FIAT=Fix It Again Tomorrow. My dad was a Fiat dealer in the 70's. The smart does not intimidate me.

[maxtraxduffy]

56 land rover alum body@and a bricklin sv1

[timhood]

Originally Posted by 2mutch

1959 Isetta 600 2-door, 4 person micro (mine was the same car in silver - man, I WISH this gorgeous show car was the one I drove in the 70s!)

Holy cow, that Isetta was definitely built before the word "safety" was invented! I would be absolutely frightened to drive that on today's roads! Rear-end someone in that thing and I'm sure it's a horrific sight for the EMTs!

Nonetheless, it's a cool-looking car.

[timhood]

Originally Posted by unicycle

I have a 2001 Pontiac Aztek. It got a lot of staring and Qs bc it's a pretty odd looking car. The public generally hated it.

That's an understatement, LOL! They hated it in droves! The Aztek styling was oddball to begin with, but then during the middle of GM's crazy plastic body cladding era, they added $1,000 worth of funky grey plastic crap all over it. It helped when they stripped all that stuff off, but the damage was already done (to say nothing that the naked car underneath wasn't much better. ;)

The Aztek never could sell as many cars a year as the smart has on back order. I remember hearing this quote once about one of the Aztek's competitive advantage features:

"...world's best built anti-theft device (i.e. its looks)".

[timhood]

The new Fiat 500 (review here)is a pretty cool car. It would have been on my list to consider/get if it was available in the U.S.

[stevenvillatoro]

Originally Posted by timhood

Holy cow, that Isetta was definitely built before the word "safety" was invented! I would be absolutely frightened to drive that on today's roads!

I've had two Isetta 300s, and routinely drove them on the freeway. They are very stable and comfortable to drive. (I heard a rumor that BMW was thinking about resurrecting the name in a new side-door design.) Safety? Hahahahaha. What's that?

[jkirsch]

In order of appearance:
1965 Datsun Fairlady Roadster (SPL311) - I really miss that car
1977 Yamaha RD400 - I really miss that bike
1978 Raleigh Competition G.S. - Campagnolo components - my daily "driver" for many years - still have it. This is a bicycle, BTW.
1971 VW Super Beetle - eventually tried to kill me
1995 Ford Contour - great car, too bad it's a Ford - it has to last until the Smart arrives in 2009/2010
1996 BMW R1100R - still have this