Cars that you used to loathe and now wonder what in the hell were you thinking‽

Confession time, guys. We've all had them; those poor cars that we have mercilessly beaten with our jaded opinions only to discover that we liked them all along, despite whatever shortcomings they had, perceived or real.

Mine is the Buick Reatta.

When I was a young lad, the Reatta accosted me with its looks; the weird face, puny greenhouse, and that abbreviated rear. Who would ever want to be caught driving that? Never mind of course its weight and milquetoast drivetrain.

In spite of all its foibles, I madly want one these days. Make mine black with BBS mesh alloys from a Grand Prix; a 3.6; and of course the oft-derided CRT touchscreen.

So let it out, fellow GRMers. Stop worrying, and love the Malaise.

Why would you spend so much money on something that needs so much maintenance for less horsepower than a contemporary Camaro?

I still haven't driven one, but I sort of get it now.

The Tahoe. I used to think of them as a less practical, still massive suburban. Now I see them as awesome, reasonably sized tow vehicles.

Bug eye WRXs. Hated, hated, hated them when they were new. Now I lust after stock, un-abused examples.

Not me. I still hate all the cars I did hate, and love all the cars I did love. I'm stubborn like that.

while in high school...

my dad's '79 Corolla wagon with a 5sp. hated it. tried to kill it. failed over and over. eventually ran over a fire hydrant with it.

in hindsight, it was virtually unbreakable, almost as fast as my '75 camaro, and handled better.

GM trucks. Thought they were total crap. Now I appreciate that while not all great, they are very competent and a good value and cheap and easy to maintain and repair

I used to hate anything that wasn't powered by a V8 or a turbo 6 back when I was a teenager. I had passed up cars like a pristine 1986 CRX for $500, scoffing at their puny 4-cylinder engines. I'd love to have that now.

DSM's, although I had to own one before I loathed them...

-Bought my 1G AWD as my first car at 16. Loved it because it beat all sorts of cars in my high school parking lot and got oohs and ahhs from kids familiar with the first F&F movie (the only one out at the time).

-Had atleast two major failures every year for 5 years, including two blown motors. Before the 6th year, it "paperweighted" a six month old EvoIII 16G turbo that I slaved as a retail cashier for. This was my last straw and the "loathe" kicked in.

-Car needed work before I could sell it, but something new broke everytime I pulled it out or tried to work on it. This made the loathe worse. And the car just sat behind my Dads garage. At this point, I took every chance possible to give my DSM buddies crap and bad mouth them on forums.

-Eventually said DSM buddies talked me into going to my first DSM Shootout, which secretely allowed a little love to come back. The next year, said buddies talked me into getting the car atleast road worthy and taking it to the next Shootout. I did just enough to make it drive and made the trip. Driving it again secretly allowed more love in.

-Shortly after that, it started burning a ton of oil and I thought the motor was toast. I also bought a WRX. Both caused love to go away again.

-After two years of the DSM sitting, I made my regular Shootout appearances in the WRX. My previously stated buddies told me if I made it three in a row with the WRX, they would disown me. After two years of working on a Subaru, I dug deep into the DSM for the first time in around 9 years. It was so easy compared to the Subaru! Found out the oil consumption was due to another bad turbo and really crappy valve seals put in by a place that rebuilt the head.

-Got it on the road and made the trip, meaning I got to keep my friends. It got 28MPG's roundtrip, even with beating on in town around the event. I daily drove it until we got snow in November and it was netting 24/25 in mostly city driving.

Now I love them even more than before. I'm even afraid to go on Craigslist unsupervised, in fear of bringing another one home...

There it is. What self-respecting car guy would want a minivan, let alone a Town & Country? But then I started renting them and I fell in love. I want one with Stow-N-Go, the DVD screens and power everything.

Dodge K-cars. Always thought they were kinda crappy until I rode in my uncles turbo rampage. Holy mother of god was that an awesome car. The want is real now.

SilverFleet wrote: I used to hate anything that wasn't powered by a V8 or a turbo 6 back when I was a teenager. I had passed up cars like a pristine 1986 CRX for $500, scoffing at their puny 4-cylinder engines. I'd love to have that now.

I was actually kind of the opposite, mostly during high school...

I loudly and ignorantly believed that RWD V8 cars were gas guzzling and impractical, blah blah...

Then I graduated HS and got a job at a Ford dealer. This was a year after they stopped making the 03-04 Cobra, but they would still come in for warranty work. I got to move one around the parking lot and it was life altering. Then a little down the road, a buddy let me bang gears in his 6MT LS1 T/A, which actually averaged him nearly the same MPG's as I was getting in an ION Red Line I had at the time.

I can tell both of my Cobra and LS1 stories with much more enthusiasm and detail than stories about first encounters I had with females of my past... I don't know if that's a good thing or not...

I'll say it, always saw them as chick cars until I was in my 20s:

I think early 90's Pointi-ack Grand Prix's have really grown on me. When I first moved here to the States in 94 I thought they were ugly plastic clad POS's. Now the look has had time to mature and I really like them. I have no idea of what they are actually like as cars, but the look good to me these days.

Ferrari Testarossa. Yes I came of age in the 80's, yes I was addicted to Miami Vice, but no I never liked side strakes at the time and mourned the loss of Crockett's Daytona (I didn't know it was fake when I was 15) I still can't say the Testarossa is a beautiful car, but I love it as it was such a car of the times and I'm seriously nostalgic for the 80's (up to Season 2 episode 11 rewatching Miami vice on Netflix)

I was never a fan of older GTV's as a kid, I thought they looked dated I thought the later GTV's like these were the dogs dangly bits. I seriously wonder WTF I was thinking, I still like the later cars, but man, the old GTV's are absolutely berkeleying georgous. My 8 year old self had really questionable taste.

Another Ferrari. The 365/400/412 series. I thought these were just plain when I was a kid, now I think they ooze restrained class and elegance.

I never hated this one, I always loved it, but as a kid I thought this: Looked better than this: I mean really, WTF?

Fords. All of them. I was an avid GM guy and nothing was going to change that.

WHAT was I thinking!?!

Not only does Ford have a great lineup of classic vehicles but Carroll Shelby's collaboration with the company has netted it some awesomely stunning examples that are hot to trot. Also, when it comes to newer 4-cylinder engines, I much prefer the Ford products to those of Chevrolet.

obligatory picture:

Old man Buicks and the like. They're making a lot more sense to me these days.

Miata. The answer is always miata.

Growing up in a place with the flattest straightest roads on earth I didn't get what handling was all about

Even a few years ago I scoffed at the idea that you could have fun with a car that was sporting a power to weight rationworsenthan minivans. So I tried to build my own car that would have double the power and 50% less weight than a miata. Then I went to autocross. Then I lost to miatas.

Andy car always broke, and I couldn't get it to turn. Now I own a miata.

Also minivans. Hated them. Then had two kids and owned a beige Honda minivan for 10 years and still miss it.

Appleseed wrote: Bug eye WRXs. Hated, hated, hated them when they were new. Now I lust after stock, un-abused examples.

Good luck finding one.

I had one and I thought it was a great car. Until the rust took over.

Srt-4's, always hated the neon platform in high school and when I left for Korea I thought dodge doing it was an absolutely stupid idea.

What changed me was when I got stationed in APG my friends wife's had one and he invited me to go with his family to Myrtle Beach, on the way down with myself, him, his wife, and son in the car we just happened to come across a group of modern muscle car d-bags and with approval of his wife we destroyed them multiple times.

When she beat me at least every other autocross in both my old MS3 and RX8 it just kinda resolidified my respect for them.

NGTD wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Bug eye WRXs. Hated, hated, hated them when they were new. Now I lust after stock, un-abused examples.

Good luck finding one. I had one and I thought it was a great car. Until the rust took over.

Exact same story with mine. My other factor was moving to an area where my only choice was a 100% city commute, causing the Subaru to barely muster 19-20 MPG's.

911s never made sense or appealed to me.

Thus, I'm on my second one now .

Nash Ramblers! Used to loath them, thought that they looked like painted metal June Bugs, now dearly WANT one ! ! !

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/1952_Nash_Rambler_blue_wagon_front.jpg

In reply to shelbyz:

Well I still think they are great cars.

The killer for me was the rust and as you noted the mileage. The combo of mileage and premium fuel meant that the cost of gas was about the same as our Explorer.

Grtechguy wrote: I'll say it, always saw them as chick cars until I was in my 20s:

Yep. Already been said twice, but I remember mocking a coworker's Miata as a chick/hairdresser car. This is mine:

Most of my cloths are out of fashion and I still can't dance, so three years in, I'm ready to call that myth "busted".

early 2000's Impala SS / Pontiac GXP's... I thought they were poser cars until I dug out some old magazines and learned they have LS V8 engines in them