Celebrating cars from the Miata RF to the Morgan Three Wheeler
You don’t have to be interested in cars to figure out that they are a homogenized commodity. All you have to do is look around at the sea of black and white and silver lozenges to recognize products being built to the same identical standard.
No one is competing to see who has the highest tailfins or who can go lowest and widest. Power is hardly ever mentioned and interiors are generally plasticky beige or black utility areas. How much advertising mentions styling at all, or power? Cars are sold on mileage, infotainment, and driver aids and I just fell asleep.
You might think regulations actually force automakers to produce boring cars, but that’s not true—there are plenty of fascinating supercars. Like anything, it’s a matter of willpower, and sometimes, money.
But you don’t have to spend six, seven (or eight, looking at you, Bugatti) figures to end up with a vehicle that stirs you—a Mazda MX-5 Miata RF starts at $31,000 brand new.
And how about that Miata? Every time I see the little folding hardtop RF I stop in my tracks. Who makes something like that? Just the funky dudes from Hiroshima who have always gone their own way.
But no, you say. That 37-pound Mazda is far too big—and has far too many wheels. Then you want the 82 thundering horsepower of an M3W—the Morgan Three Wheeler. They will sell you one from the factory with a WWII-style pinup girl painted on the hood.
You don’t have to buy an impractical sports car or spend much money, however. Daihatsu may have left the US 25 years ago but they’re alive and well and kooky elsewhere, with products like the seven-passenger Move Canbus (actual Daihatsu quote: “Canbus is made up of the words ‘Can’—representing that anything is possible—and ‘Bus’.”) with an MSRP of about $14,000.
While we’re in Japan, how about a nice Mitsuoka Viewt Nadeshiko (actual Mitsuoka quote: “Just the right size for a woman to drive”)?
I could say a lot about its intended classic Jaguar-esque neoclassical styling or Nissan microcar underpinnings. But I’ll just let you bask in this, the least odd car Mitsuoka makes.
OK, one more from Japan’s thriving wackycar market (and I’m not even mentioning Mazda’s Bongo!), a Nissan DAYZ ROOX (actual Nisan quote: “Gives you a sense of spaciousness and individuality and thickness”). ALL CAPS BECAUSE THAT’S HOW NISSAN WANTS IT.
More actual practicality, you say? Then the eternal Lada is for you, in 4x4 Bronto spec (actual Lada quote: “Bright and Strict: A new combination”). I’m sure 61hp from 1.7 liters will get you somewhere, eventually. Probably anywhere, actually.
There are dozens more, but interesting doesn’t have to equal strange. There’s nothing odd about a Volvo V90 wagon, especially in R-Design trim, just one of the most striking vehicles on sale in America.
Volvo and a few others show that there’s nothing holding us back from having all the heated cupholders we want, and something beautiful to get us around.