Just because we may like something doesn’t mean it’s the best in any manner. We can’t always determine what we like and why, but it would mean a whole lot to be able to objectively articulate a particular car’s misgivings. Below is a list of cars that I feel have a certain awkwardness to them, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from liking them.
The impetus for this story came as I was compiling a list of singers/groups with voices that people either adore or despise. However, this is an automotive website, so I can’t write about rock music. But what about cars that are somewhat polarizing? Yeah! And I can pair a car from a particular year with a singer’s music from the same year—this’ll write itself, right?
Okay, maybe it’s not as easy as that, but let’s see what I can whip up. I decided to skip Yoko Ono because it was too difficult to choose from so much of her output.
1968 Pontiac Grand Prix
As a kid, I loved anything with hidden headlights, and the fleeting sightings of the 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix were always a treat. But let’s be honest: This Grand Prix was a fine barometer of the design bankruptcy Detroit was about to experience en masse within five years. Once a fleet-footed full-size personal luxury car that influenced the industry, the Grand Prix ended up becoming a couch potato. Don’t get me wrong—I would lust for a 428 HO four-speed car like the one I looked at in Ann Arbor 25 years ago, but the Grand Prix is a bloated automobile that seems to have been caught in a production deadline before certain issues could be corrected.
While not a group familiar on this side of the Atlantic, the Small Faces were a seminal Mod band fronted by Steve Marriott, whose big voice was a love/hate affair for some. In 1968, the group launched “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake,” the group’s final album before Marriott left to form Humble Pie (which should be more familiar to Americans, just the Faces, the Small Faces’ successor, should be). There are folks who would say Marriott was the best singer in rock, but there’s enough in his voice that would make others recoil.
1970 Lotus Europa
This is one of the first Matchbox models I remember and, even as a know-nothing kid, I thought it was ugly. A chance sighting in Wilmington, Delaware (of all places) didn’t temper my perception. Adulthood hasn’t changed my paradigm much, although I have a certain respect for the attempt to design a mid-engine car around a particular chassis architecture. For those who enjoy sports cars and know how to drive them properly, the Europa was probably a neat car, but it continues to polarize in an “It came from Norfolk!” sort of way.
Around 25 years ago, I caught a movie called Stamping Ground, which featured groups performing at the Holland Pop Festival in Kralingen. The voice I heard was about as obnoxious as I’ve ever experienced, featuring a trilling quality that would put Jello Biafra to shame. There was absolutely no commercial value to the song “Drowned in Wine” even though there were hippies dancing to it. To this? I was familiar with Music from a Doll’s House and felt it was one of the best Brit LPs from 1968, but Family was a different band in 1970. Nonetheless, my interest piqued, I picked up the CD of A Song for Me several years later, which contained this song and others, and found it to be quite good. (If the name of the band sounds familiar, it’s because Ric Grech left Family to join Blind Faith.)
1975 AMC Pacer
My kindergarten teacher had one of these. I don’t recall any stigma tied to it, though later cars like the Spirit and Eagle seemed to be half-baked designs with little appeal compared to their Big Three competition. I even had a Hot Wheels die-cast with an engine in the rear, so the Pacer couldn’t be that bad, right? But popular culture has a way with ravaging certain things, and the Pacer became the butt of jokes for the 1970s and for cars of a certain era—even Wayne’s World pick up on that though, ironically, the flick was probably responsible for making the Pacer cool again. Much like the 1961 Plymouth, it’s the Pacer’s kitschiness that gives it strong collector appeal while others snicker from the sidelines.
I was recently reminded of Pavlov’s Dog after listening to a podcast about Iain Matthews. Wasn’t that the proggy group from St. Louis with the singer who sounded annoying? I relistened to “Julia” from their first LP from 1975 and, yup, the singer’s voice is an acquired taste. It’s somewhat interesting because that region seems to have been a hotbed of bands with progressive influences, with Kansas being the most famous, but there are other, more obscure examples.
1993 Chevrolet Corvette
Introducing a feature on a vehicle and having it trickle down to other vehicles is nothing new—witness the 1969 Mustang Boss 302, which featured smooth rear flanks that would be introduced on the rest of the Mustang range for 1970. However, manufacturers sometimes mainstream certain features that come off as cannibalization. The T41 option (the GTO’s Endura front bumper) for 1971-72 Pontiac LeMans models is a popular example from the past, and it’s still happening today with certain Audis and BMWs (with trim packages to mimic S-series and M-series performance models, respectively).
For 1990, Chevrolet introduced the Corvette ZR-1, which featured squarish taillights distinct from the traditional round. Those ZR-1 taillights were adopted across the board for Corvettes a year later, ruining the distinction the ZR-1 had among lesser Corvettes. This feature would last through the final year of the C4 in 1996. However, what’s most polarizing to Corvette fans is whether or not the taillights should be anything other than round, as has been a tradition since 1961. Are you this kind of traditionalist to a fault?
Manitoba’s Crash Test Dummies surprised everyone when its God Shuffled His Feet hit the charts, eventually selling eight million copies. The lead singer’s baritone was, let’s say, “different,” but that was part of the novelty that gave them hits like “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” (#4 on the US Billboard Hot 100). I personally haven’t heard their music in at least a decade and I don’t see a good reason why I should start. However, there are people who like them, if not the place to which their hits bring them.