I'm realizing that my criteria for a "neat car" has grown much slimmer in recent years.
Used to be that any higher-end sports car (say, a 911) would be the highlight of the day. Now, it either has to be truly special (such as a recent Lambo or McLaren) or a nicer EV. I can't help but wonder why some folks pour that much money into a modern supercar when they can be smoked (in a straight line, anyway) by someone picking up the kids from school in a Model S Plaid.
I think a lot of it just boils down to simply liking the car itself, so intrinsic value on whatever the owner personally likes is the main driver in a lot of cases. Like a Nissan GT-R is a full second or two slower than a Tesla Plaid at this point, but that's not at
all what the car is about! For a lot of people, it's about the story (handcrafted engines), the heritage, the aftermarket mods, etc. For me, I really like aesthetics & weirdness. My current car ('18 Ecoboost Mustang) has
very specific aesthetics that I like. I don't care for most other Mustangs at all. Like this design is a solid nope from me:
It looks like a giant Dustbuster to me. Not interested in this design at ALL (and yet my buddy has this exact red one below but in convertible & absolutely LOVES it!)
But the 2015-redesigned S550? Yup, that does it for me!
Entirely different design language, angles, lines, everything, love it!
I like how I fit in the S550, I like the visibility, how it drives, the MPG I get, how light & easy the clutch is, how the lines look, and even my specific color (royal crimson, sort of a dark red/purple shift with a tinted clearcoat). The car is fast enough on the 4-cylinder Ecoboost (0 to 60 in 5 seconds), but for me, it's not really about the numbers...I previously had a Kia Soul that was 0 to 60 in 9 seconds lol. So my main metrics & drivers aren't about performance at all, because by today's standards, a 5-second 0 to 60 run is pretty slow, given that a Model 3 Performance edition is 3.1 seconds out of the box haha!