Reverse Chic, cars to get when everyone around you can afford a Rolls

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Comments

  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    I'd get a "Superfly" 1972 Cadillac Eldorado
  • taylor47taylor47 Member Posts: 23
    I can't believe nobody nominated the Pacer, of course it would have to have the mohave styled interior!
  • dpwestlakedpwestlake Member Posts: 207
    A 2 stroke SAAB. It's noisy and smokey enough to be really annoying.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    But very cute...people love them. A Pacer would elicit only ridicule, I fear.
  • ndancendance Member Posts: 323
    AMC Matador.......(in quite good shape,actually)

    One of these would make a hilarious hotrod. Go the whole pro-touring route, built to the hilt 401, Baer brakes, some Panasports, Richmond 6 speed, yee-haw!!!
  • bhill2bhill2 Member Posts: 2,605
    I assume you mean the 2-door Matador. That's the one with the headlights that made it look like someone had just goosed it. The 4-door looked completely different, and almost normal.

    2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])

  • ndancendance Member Posts: 323
    Say it ain't so.........there's *two* versions of the Matador, ... and the four door has a different front end? Oh man. Well at least there isn't any Roger Penske Autographed Edition NASCAR Version (I hope).
  • focusmatt2focusmatt2 Member Posts: 106
    to me the ultimate reverse chic is the AMC Concord woodie wagon with the massive wheels.

    It USED to be a status symbol in the intermountain west , along with jeep wagoneers.
  • rea98drea98d Member Posts: 982
    How about a 78 LTD wagon, with a 514 crate motor under the hood, hidden behind rusty body panels, faded paint, and steel wheels? Not only does it have the reverse chic look, it's got the HP to spank some serious yuppie mobiles, not only making them ashamed to park beside it, but be even more ashamed when they can't keep up with it!
  • nasdaqrobnasdaqrob Member Posts: 8
    here in Springfield, OH we have this thing called E-Check. All cars over 5(?) years old have to pass an emissions test to be streetable. There's a loophole though, in that if you prove that you've spent a certain amount of money TRYING to get the car up to standards, they'll let you pass. However, this goes against the whole idea of the low budget, and would take away from the POSness of the car.

    A friend of mine and I had the idea of "building" a reverse-chic car last summer. We were going to go with a different approach, though. We were each going to throw in $500 and buy the UGLIEST car we could find that still ran well, yet preferably still with rust boils over the sheet metal. We were then going to take it back to my garage and use a circular saw to cut off the top of the car, save the windshield. We'd grind the rough cuts down along the top(not for aesthetic reasons, more for personal safety) and then make a new top out of an old tarp with clear plastic "windows". Our next step would be a trip to the fabric store to buy a role of crushed velvet material to cover the existing upholstery. Add on some neon lights to the base of our baby (to make it even more obnoxious) and we'd have been set.
    It's just to bad the summer was over by the time we'd finalized the details. Oh well, maybe this summer.
  • egkelly1egkelly1 Member Posts: 30
    You don't know what it is? It is a car built up of other cars-usually it is best to have:
    -every door a different color
    -trunk and hood of different color (or gray primer is good)
    -bad muffler
    -rusty spots
    -fractured windshield
    -crushed velvet seat covers (prferably crimson or violet, or animal skin prints are nice!)
    -"NRA" bumper stickers
    -NO MORE than THREE mag-style wheels!
    You get the picture? Enough to make your yuppie neighbors cringe!
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    When I was younger I drew a cartoon about an orange tabby cat from Bronx, NY who drove the ultimate beater car. It was a white 1959 Chevrolet Impala four-door sedan with a tattered green cloth and vinyl interior. The body was completely rusted out, every panel badly dented with generous patches of primer and Bondo, perforated with bullet holes and covered with grafitti. It had 500,000 miles on the odometer and carried registration and inspection stickers from 1965. A combination of blue, black and white smoke came out of what was left of the exhaust system that covered every car behind it with a sticky gray film. All the glass and almost all the lights were cracked or broken. Out of four headlights, only two were still operational: the left low beam and the right high beam. The left high beam was shattered and the right low beam was missing and the socket hanging from the opening. The gearshift knob was the top of a beer tap. The stereo was a beat-up eight track that played old Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osborne and AC/DC tapes.
  • andys120andys120 Member Posts: 23,673
    I agree with Shifty that chic means something that people will look at and appreciate the style of. I once parked my '86 Mustang at a waterfront restaurant on the East Side of Manhattan, when we finished dinner I found that the Valet had parked it out front with the "lookers" (Jags, Benzes, Beemers and super bikes etc) rather than out back with the regular cars.
    Even in Greenwich a '65-'66 Mustang rag will get attention. Anyone who was in HS or college back then wanted one...and probably still does. Range Rover drivers will drool!
    You'll have "reverse chic" up the wazoo and still
    be driving something nice to look at and (optioned
    properly) nice to drive that doesn't cost the earth....restored ones go arond $20-25k.

    2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93

  • badtoybadtoy Member Posts: 343
    never knew you were a cartoonist -- udaman!! love your concept, and would love to see a copy of it, if you could scan it and send it to me.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,053
    ...that cartoon does sound pretty cool. Don't know how I missed your post earlier. If you can ever scan that it, I'd like to see it too!

    Speaking of reverse chic, I just had a flashback to my senior prom. It was back in May 1988. I was going to get a limo for my date, but she decided she wanted to ride up with her best friend and her date. We rode up in a beat-up '78 or '79 Lemans. It really didn't matter what year it was, because it had enough body panels pieced together from various years that only General Motors and God knew what it started off as! It was rusting, but just that surface scale that cars tend to get as the paint thins with age...no holes, at least! Mismatched/missing hubcaps, and I think one was actually a rallye wheel!

    To make a long story short, I had a miserable time. Basically, my date spent the whole night gabbing with her friend, and her date tried to hit on me! Looking back, I wish I'd asked this other girl that I was good friends with. She drove a Beetle. Now that would've been an interesting car to show up to the prom in!
  • jrosasmcjrosasmc Member Posts: 1,711
    A full-size B-body GM station wagon, anything from 1977-90. Nobody in their right mind would steal or want one of these things.

    There's a teller at my local bank whom I know quite well; she used to have a '00 Audi TT, decided she didn't want it anymore, then traded it in for an '02 Audi S4 Quattro. She's a big Audi enthusiast. Well, you should have seen the look on her face when I told her that I was going to purchase a '92 Caprice wagon (350) that would spank her Audis on the road!
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,053
    ...but then again, I've been told that I'm out of my mind before, too ;-) Make mine a '77 Catalina Safari though, with a 400!
  • focusmatt2focusmatt2 Member Posts: 106
    I honestly don't think it would spank an S4- unless a Caprice wagon goes 0-60 to the tune of under 6 seconds.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,053
    ...if you could catch it and run it off the road ;-) Or if you had someone behind the wheel of the Audi who didn't know how to drive a stick! As for real 0-60 times, I think the early 90's B-wagons, with the 185 hp 350, were good for about 9 seconds or so 0-60. The LT-1 models of '94-96 were probably good for under 8. Even though they were heavier than a sedan, they had quicker gearing to compensate for that.

    Still, just to show how far they've come, the '77 B-wagons, which usually had a 301 or 305 base engine, were probably around the 15 second range! They've come a long way, bay-bee!
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    ...a Buick Electra Estate or Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Can you really drive a Buick and have an "estate"? Just wondering.
  • ghuletghulet Member Posts: 2,564
    A 'teller' at your bank drives an S4? Wow, I guess we're all in the wrong business. Bank tellers around here make about ten bucks an hour........I guess you could buy an S4 on that, if you lived in it(-:

    I have a really ghetto second car sitting around the corner (actually, it's not mine, it belongs to a friend who's too lazy to sell it, but I can use it in emergencies). It's a two-tone blue, rusty 86 Ford Club Wagon, replete with french fry coated interior, bent front bumper (scares the kids off the street) and big V8 with fairly loud exhaust. It runs PERFECTLY though, I think we could sell it for the 302 alone.

    Doesn't quite fit in with all the yuppie-mobile A4s, Jettas and BMWs around here.....
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    ...my best friend drove a battered cream-colored 1980 Chevrolet Citation with a green hood and his then girlfriend, (now wife) had a extended-body 1978 Ford Econoline van that was the ugliest shade of '70s brown. Today they live in a nice gated suburban community. He has a brand-new Corvette and she a new Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. I could imagine what their yuppie neighbors would think if they still had the same vehicles when they were living in the 'hood.
  • focusmatt2focusmatt2 Member Posts: 106
    I dunno, my coworker and I barely crack $30K and he drives a 1999 BMW 323i, and all I get is a 1992 Mercedes 190E. I have sold the focus to my aunt so it's time to change my name!
  • ghuletghulet Member Posts: 2,564
    I can't imagine paying for a 99 BMW along with rent or a mortgage making $30k (I can barely afford my rent, bills and an old car on that much, I know). Something sounds like not right, unless his/her significant other is pulling down some bigger cash.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Nice thing about reverse-chic cars is you don't have to go into debt up to your eyeballs.
  • badtoybadtoy Member Posts: 343
    Actually, a Buick is the perfect car for a person with an estate -- at least the traditional version of a Buick (and the traditional definition of an estate). It's luxurious enough to convey you and your family in the proper manner, yet it is neither wasteful nor extravagent. Perfect for the country gentleman.
  • magnetophonemagnetophone Member Posts: 605
    ghulet, you'd be surprised - it sort of offended my sensibilities at first, but he pays about 600 a month to his lease.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Man, I could buy a house in Hawaii for $600 a month---LESS. (Of course I wouldn't have a job, but........)
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    $600 for a LEASE? He only makes $30K? Is he absolutely out of his cotton-picking mind? I make far more than that and have never paid more than $400 a month to OWN a car! What's he leasing - a M5? I love cars as much or more than anybody in the Town Hall, but not to the extent where it would put my financial health in peril.
  • magnetophonemagnetophone Member Posts: 605
    It's a 325i I believe.
  • jrosasmcjrosasmc Member Posts: 1,711
    A '78 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 2-door. A typical, classic late 70s personal luxury coupe.
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    ...John Candy's 1976 Mercury Marquis from "Uncle Buck?"
  • jrosasmcjrosasmc Member Posts: 1,711
    A nice '71 Lincoln Mark III?
  • jcphenryjcphenry Member Posts: 8
    from the early 80s. If the he headliner isn't already separated and sagging into your rear view, then give it a little tug. Put a few stickers on it. Or if you can't find a chevette, then how about a Dodge Dart Swinger, preferably with a crazed or sandblasted finish,
    but still with the daisy stickers on the quarter panels. You probably could get either one for removal value.
  • magnetophonemagnetophone Member Posts: 605
    Gosh, I always loved the Chevette.
  • timz58timz58 Member Posts: 44
    Basic Pea Green 4 door 71 Ford Maverick. Classy Car
  • jrosasmcjrosasmc Member Posts: 1,711
    Does anyone remember the first-generation Chevy Vans, based on the Chevy IIs, that were produced from 1964 until 1970? You know, the forward-control vans that look like Scooby's Mystery Machine? These vans had a standard four-cylinder, with optional straight-six; the engine was located in a compartment between the front seats. When you drove that van, you felt as if you were driving a bus because of its position. A friend of mine still has a '65 he bought new with 169k on it.
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