Our Two Cents: 7 cars that we got wrong at first
In the last episode of Our Two Cents, Hagerty Media’s staffers shared the first vehicles they reviewed in their career in the automotive media business. Some were expected, some were creative in ways that only make sense in a Web 2.0 world, but each provided an entertaining look behind the scenes.
That is our mission in this series, but Hagerty Community member @hyperv6 asked for more.
This story should have taken another path: Cars you reviewed back then that you see much differently today.
How often have we seen cars get awards that turn out to be a major lemon a few years later. Motor Trend‘s Car of the Year has suffered this fate many times. I today have many old magazines and read these reviews and now with hindsight can say this story would be much different today.
That’s a fantastic question! I posed the question to the staff here at Hagerty Media. Let’s see what cars we reviewed “back then” that we see differently today.
The Mitsubishi Mirage is actually awesome
Boy, I am glad that executive editor Eric Weiner mentioned this car. I was one of the few journalists that heaped praise on the affordable little gas-sipper—and for good reason. However, it was less about the product and more about the finances.
Should you buy the Mirage over its sub-$15K competition, or any “superior” used car? Maybe, but given the combo of a low asking price, $1000 rebate with 1.9 percent APR (this month), robust 10-year warranty, and new-car smell unavailable in used cars, you’d be forgiven for heading straight to a Mitsubishi dealer, using the extra monthly cash for food, gas, shelter, children, baby momma/daddy drama, medical bills, credit-card debt, college debt … see where I’m going with this?
Not everyone was thinking along my lines, at least back then. Eric Weiner has wisely changed his tune: “I was pretty harsh on the Mitsubishi Mirage back in 2014. It had a little to do with the fact that there were (and are) so few shameless budget cars. Now that new-car prices have gone insane, I think a cheap-but-honest thing like the Mirage is not so bad.”
The Ford Maverick is now a terrible value
Matthew Fink, branded content writer and car-detailing guru, has a beef with the state of affairs for the Ford Maverick. After heaping praise on it in his review, he realized the resale world of these featherweight trucks is more than a little unfair:
I reviewed the 2022 Ford Maverick in December of 2021. I loved it and noted how impressive it was that Ford was selling a brand-new, pretty great truck for under $20,000. However, I didn’t realize how great that price really was. CarMax is selling used base, two-wheel-drive models for $33,000 now. As of this writing, I can only find three new Mavericks for sale at all central Ohio dealerships combined, and they are over $40K, loaded.
I now see that $20,000 Maverick as more of a game-changer than I realized—if Ford could keep up with demand! There is nothing even close in the market, especially considering Ford doesn’t charge extra for the hybrid now.
The BMW 318i (E30) legacy
Steven Cole Smith, our special projects editor and McFish expert, has changed his tune on the first vehicle he reviewed, a 1985 BMW 318i. While not the performance darling of the 3 Series lineup, it proved to have a staying power that he appreciates.
Of all the cars reviewed by my colleagues, few have maintained the sense of purpose mine has over the years. The BMW 318i that I reviewed doesn’t exist anymore, but the BMW 3 Series certainly does, and it has maintained its assignment as the family-sized entry-level model, despite the presence of the 1 and 2 Series. The 330i starts at $43,800 now—more, even counting inflation, than the four-cylinder 318i I tested in 1985 was—but it remains a solid, fun-to-drive car that is as happy carpooling as it is carving corners. Long live the 3 Series.
The Ford Bronco Sport is too popular
His love for Love’s truck stops may be as strong as ever, but Imola’s motorsports editor Cameron Neveu has soured on the Ford Bronco Sport. As with Fink and the Ford Maverick, it’s common to dislike a vehicle once popularity changes its trajectory.
A couple years ago, I shot the Bronco Sport early in its run. Like, really early. I don’t think I had even seen the new, big-boy Bronc’ yet, so I had hearts in my eyes for the Escape-platformed stud. Right angles, retro-inspired touches, and decent off-road capability. But now everyone and their cousin has one. They infest Michigan like whitetail deer.
In 2023, I’m less enthusiastic about the ride, sure, but I would still take it over any other compact sport utility.
Minivans need more love
Fresh from rewiring his 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo, Insider’s senior editor Eddy Eckart takes a moment to dig deeper. One of his earlier automotive experiences has matured over the years.
I’m just a spring chicken in this auto-review world, so I’m going to reach back to my youth for this one: Minivans.
I didn’t like them one bit when they infested the roads in the ’90s and was disappointed when my parents picked out a ’92 Grand Caravan (though it did its best impression of ’90s sporty in dark green with gold lace wheels). I now recognize the value of being able to haul stuff. That, and I love how automakers are still using the minivan as a platform to implement crafty innovations that maximize space or distract little humans.
The SL500 was indeed a proper Merc
Aaron Robinson, editor at large for Hagerty Drivers Club magazine, gave us a heckuva story about his time with the R230 Mercedes-Benz, so let’s get right to it.
It’s all a blur, an endless series of Corvette and 3 Series comparison tests. But one that stands out in memory is the 2003 Mercedes-Benz SL500. I was pretty hard on the styling because I thought Mercedes being Mercedes, i.e., conservative, shouldn’t have bent so much to the winds of fashion with silly design embellishments like those giant hood vents. And at the time we used to like to make fun of the Mr. Peanut headlights on all Benzes of that generation.
Mercedes was so steamed by the review that it sent a hit squad over from New Jersey to bitch up a storm in Csaba Csere’s office. He kept me out of it, which was to his credit. And now I think the design has held up pretty well and it has proven to be one of the better looking SLs.
Once I sent a mocking email to Don Sherman about a glowing review he did back in the ’80s of the Renault Fuego, in which he wrote that the car was likely to cause American gas jockeys to start speaking French with reverence.
He replied with words to the effect that I should live so long to see all my mistakes of judgement come back to haunt me.
Maybe we weren’t critical enough of the Neon
Joe DeMatio, veteran of the car-journalism industry and our magazine’s senior manager of content, takes the opposite approach. Maybe we sometimes look at cars through rose-colored glasses. As previously discussed with the Dodge Avenger, Chrysler was riding high in the saddle in the 1990s. But perhaps its story was a bit too much like that of Icarus, and the Neon and its three-speed automatic and less-than-ideal long-term quality is why it never reached the rarified air (and customer loyalty) that the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla did. But let’s allow Joe to speak for himself.
There’s a lot that can be said, in retrospect, about Detroit’s efforts to respond to the superb cars from Japan in the 1990s, but one car in particular that kinda makes me wince now is the Dodge/Plymouth Neon. It was cheap and cheerful, and it looked great and drove incredibly well, but it was poorly bolted together and it was introduced with a three-speed automatic transmission, laughable even back then.
I distinctly remember that the trade newspaper Automotive News did a story, some time after the car launched, describing how Toyota had bought a Neon to dissect it for competitive analysis, which all automakers routinely do. Toyota operatives described the Neon as being basically a prototype. Meaning, in the Toyota manufacturing system, a production-spec Neon would be several generations of development away from being offered to the public. That’s how unrefined it was and how shoddy its construction was, compared with that of the cars against which it was ostensibly created to compete. Now, I know that many people drove Neons happily for years, and passed them along to family members who drove them for years more. I know that the car has served amateur racers faithfully and affordably for decades, and I personally had one of the best drives of my life in a Neon SRT-4 in rural Kentucky circa 1998.
One could argue that the Neon’s affordability compensated for its faults, and that Chrysler was doing the very best it could with the engineering and production resources it possessed 29 years ago. But the automotive media establishment was so eager for Detroit to score home runs, we routinely turned a blind eye to obvious failings from the home team.
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This is why I never listen to so called experts. They are like food gourmets, if it doesn’t fit their palette it is not for anyone.
WOW ! … thought I was the only person that had something positive to say about Chrysler Mini Vans and the Neon … almost had to stay inside at night in fear of retribution.
I’ve had one of each w/ NO regrets and as far as bang for the bucks ? … they were like the Plymouth Valiant and Dodge Dart.
Lots of people seem to wish they could buy a cheap, basic, reliable, small truck or car. You can! Just not in America.
My family had two first generation Neons. An early stripped down 96 two door automatic my oldest daughter drove and my car, a 1999 Neon ACR. They definitely made refinements all the way around on those cars but here’s the deal. Beyond one blown head gasket on my daughter’s car, which I repaired with a replacement head gasket that completely fixed the issue, neither car ever saw a mechanic’s shop. My daughter absolutely beat the bell out of her car, never got it tuned, rarely changed the oil, and although it had that crazy paint bubbling issue, she could not kill that car that car. No kidding. Her driving style was gas pedal to the floor or brake to the floor or both. She sold it and it timed out town for years. My ACR never had a maintenance issue ever. I went through pads and rotors a couple times, raced it at the local road course, commuted 40 miles to work. When I sold it, the paint and interior looked like new and it ran like a top. The thing had a 7 point cage and OZ wheels. Every mountain road was a Porsche eating funfest. That car never developed a rattle. Great little cars. Don’t listen to cocky Toyota engineers. Their LEAN engineering isnt always all it’s cracked up to be.
My daily driver is a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan with 120K miles (stop and go city driving) and it has been perfect since Day 1. I really wanted to get a new Ford Maverick but am now totally disgusted with them and with the sales practices of the dealerships. I’ll check out the redesigned 2023 Chevy Colorado soon.
All done with Fords I’m using a Grand caravan as a daily and have Chevys in the garage to play with go get a Windstar and see if you can get over 120,000 before the tranny says bye bye
The myth that american cars were good enough was perpetuated by people who could not admit American quality was an oxymoron. They lied to themselves, swallowing the bitter pill of phoney patriotism. Who’s standing now? The “american” brands have pretty much given up on trying to compete.
People laugh when I bought my Grand Caravan. They told me I didn’t need it because I don’t have kids. But the seats awful flat, so I keep all the seats folded flat and use it like a pick up truck. If I buy 4 x 8 sheets of plywood or drywall, I can shut the hatch and it can rain and nothing gets wet, unlike it did with my old pickup. If I ever get six friends, I can haul them around too. I can sleep in it during a road trip. It does everything I need and gets great mileage, and with 283 hp, it gets out of its way very well. I have a Mustang convertible, but my minivan is my favorite ride.
Ugh. The seats all food flat, not “awful flat”
To this day, I still daily drive my 1989 BMW E30 325iS. The E30 is both an excellent investment car and a very well engineered vehicle that is mechanically reliable given routine maintenance. They have very few electrical problems since most of the electrical parts came later. Fun to drive with nearly 50-50 front to rear weight distribution. Sadly, they are becoming hard to find in decent unmolested condition. I have been driving E30s since the 1990s.
Minivan is the best work vehicle. Easy access to three sides of the massive, dry storage inside. My Sienna tows 3500 lbs. I’ve towed car trailers, snowmobile trailers and a trailer with a skid steer on it. Over 250,000 miles and going strong. When it fails, probably get the hybrid version. Better mileage while still being able to tow 3500 lbs.
Some musings, I had a mutt my cousin Vicki found at the school bus stop around 1959. We named her Maverick because the ABC show was so popular then. She would only eat pancakes if it had real butter on them! Better than the car namesakes! Omni, I was stationed in Germany in 1996 and needed a car. I bought an 86 Omni for $900. It has an AT, vs. stick, a real plus there for a wife’s car! I sold it 8 months later when my tour was up for $1300. I had people pleading me to sell them the car because it had the AT. It ran good and never died on me.
The Caravans, we had two of them, the 84 Dodge and later the 96 Plymouth version. Both were very good cars, the 84 had the Misubishi four and it was a charm. Ditto for the Plymouth V6.
Having been in Germany for nearly four years total, I am not enamored by the expense and maintenance requirements for a Mercedes or a BMW. There were a good reasons why so many Germans chose Opel or VW back then. My 18 Buick Regal TourX is an Opel build, imported by Buick. Very nice car!
After driving gm cars for years, I bought an 88 dodge shadow for a winter beater. I’ve been driving chrysler products ever since. They’re not over engineered nightmares like gm. I’m driving a 2004 neon right now with 200k and going strong. My wife had a 2011 chrysler 200 and was hit broadside at 55mph. And flipped her car over 2 times. She walked away with nothing more than bruises. My only knock is the rust issues but they all do here in the Midwest.
Must be a shortage of automotive topics
So did anyone ever review a “YUGO”.
Up in MN, we used to say the reason they had a rear window defroster was to keep your hands warm while you were pushing it!
I worked in Detroit in the mid-1990s and a Chrysler VP told me about how Ford engineers broke down a Caravan to compare with a Windstar. Once Ford’s guys had the Caravan apart, their reaction was “Oh, shit!” Chrysler just had a far superior vehicle. And one last comment. I bought a Chev Volt new in 2013, put about 80,000 miles on it. I wish I still had it. It handled well, seldom needed gas, and with a hatchback was very useful. With just my wife and me, four seats were adequate. Maybe it should have made this list