One for…well, anyone who drives really. I’m an eccentric billionaire and want to conduct an experiment.
I will purchase any 3 road legal cars (or bikes, I’m not a heartless monster) for you to drive, absolutely no strings attached. Well, almost no strings - the catch is that you’re not allowed to drive any other car ever again besides the ones which you pick. If you do I’ll launch an orbital EMP strike…to knock out the car’s electrics so it won’t start. Bwa ha ha! You’re also not allowed sell any of them off or rent them out to pay for a chauffeur; you’ll make no material gain other than the cars themselves.
I’ll sort out mundane stuff like insurance/tax costs and storage for your new garage. All you need to do is add fuel. If you stupidly write it off I’ll replace it with the exact same make and model.
Which cars do you choose? Or do you tell me to sod off?
There ya go. I really like my '06. But I’m really bummed about the new design for 2013. Won’t be on the Frontier truck frame anymore. Looks like it’s going uni-body.
Are we assuming you’ll pay maintenace, whatever it takes, indefinitely, or is the lifetime/repairability of the car a factor here?
If repairability isn’t a big concern, mine are:
Ferrari 458 - Ferrari Red
BMW 750Li - Black
2012 Range Rover
The Ferrari the fun driving, or arriving at showy places. The BMW for when I don’t want to be quite as austentatious, or if I’m taking a trip where comfort is the top priority.
For the last one, I figured I might as well get something that can move a lot of people or property, but I don’t know much about high end SUVs except that the high end Land Rovers are pretty luxurious while still being able to do their job.
Top of the line Honda Odyssey, because I need to cart my children around. It will get destroyed but I’ll write it off every 5 years and make you buy me one that isn’t covered in milk and feces. By the time my youngest is 18 I’ll just park it in the corner of the garage and never touch it again, unless I need to haul some plywood.
1999 Acura NSX - Alex Zanardi edition. It’s the newest, most comfortable NSX I can get that still has some balls and isn’t right-hand drive. This will satisfy my sports car/supercar necessities while still being somewhat reasonable to maintain, cost-wise.
BMW E61 M5 Touring, somehow made legal for North America, with a 6 speed manual. This is the hardest one, because I’m going to be driving it most often for the next 50 years or so, and I’m probably going to ultimately get sick of whatever I get. But this is probably the best bet for a multi-purpose daily driver that will stand the test of time.
Unfortunately the offer is limited to the here and now. Production standards really slip after the cyborg apocalypse of 2029 anyway.
The car will be kept in tip-top shape by my own mechanics and valets while its in storage, unless you wish otherwise. If you smash it up I’ll just replace it - I’m lumping maintenance in along with other ‘mundane costs’ like insurance and tax (again, the car has to be road legal - if you take the piss and smash it up on purpose then the law might want a word with you). The only cost you will incur is fuelling it.
As much as my wife would kill me, I think I’d have to be in the sod off camp. As a compulsive buyer of jalopies, I don’t think I have the willpower to maintain your forced automotive monogamy (trinogamy?). At least not when there’s two U-sell-it lots on the way to work and free Autotraders at every restaurant and gas station in town. The pictures in those are very suggestive, you know.
Although I could try to limit my buying of ancient junkers to old diesels, which would be unaffected by your EMP attacks.
Exceedingly niggling nitpick, but Pathfinders were never based on the Frontier and have been unibodies since '96. In '96 the Pathfinder switched over to a configuration similar to a Jeep Cherokee where they still used a truck-style drivetrain but switched to a unibody with a few key points reinforced. Before that, they were based on the old Nissan Hardbody pickups, but they switched to unibody the year before those became the Frontier. The Xterra is the true successor to the old Pathfinders, being a true frame-on truck based on the Frontier. But it is indeed lamentable that the Pathfinder is going into full-on car-based minivan mode in 2013.
A Subaru Baja, because I’ve always, always wanted a Brat, but I like the look of the Baja better, hehe.
Um…a Toyota Camry, because the last one we had ran itself INTO THE GROUND and still kept running. If you want to deck it out all nice and pretty, that’d be cool, but honestly, I just really like it’s legs.
And a Volkswagen Toureg or Tiguan, for the practicality.
Yes, I’m kind of boring. I could have said a “Vincent Black Lightning, 1952” or a “Red Barchetta”, but those would be due to second-hand sentimentality.
I’d really like a 1930’s area Chevy sedan, but…I’m being practical here.
Three? Why would we need three? There are only two of us, and only one of us drives. Mayyybe we’d need two, if I were to get my license, but really, anything over that is just a storage problem.
That said, since you’re in charge of maintenance, I’d like a 39 Ford. Or maybe a 53 Dodge.
1973 Chevy C-10 stepside pickup in bright red, carefully restored and customized to exactly resemble the one driven by Ryan O’Neal in the 1978 film The Driver. If you want to throw in Isabelle Adjani as well, that’s fine with me.
Thanks! I’ll keep an eye out for the delivery transporter.
While I am sorely tempted to ask for a Bugatti Veyron or something similarly exotic I’ll still opt for the unusual old-school Detroit iron. If the list was expanded I’d probably still go that direction, trying to get a complete set of 1970s AMC and pre-water cooled Volkswagens (admittedly not domestic but still incredibly appealing to me).
Are there any old cars that are no longer street legal in the country where they were originally sold? I believe that safety standards are based on the year of the car and that older cars are grandfathered, so you should be able to drive a genuine Model T pretty much anywhere in the US legally.
