What are your top 5 most soul-less cars? Top 5 most soulful?

Most Soul-less:

1. Pontiac Grand-Am
2. Chevrolet Cavalier
3. Chrysler K-cars
4. Ford anything (excluding pickups pre 1975)
5. Toyota Camry (newer models...no wait. All models)

Most Soulful:

1. Mercedes Benz W123 class...okay, ALL models!
2. 1982 Peugeot 604 Turbo Diesel
3. BMW 2002
4. Volvo 1800
5. Audi A6

Note: These results are highly scientific, despite the purely subjective nature of the topic, and the ineffability of accurately defining the term "soul." Differing opinions will be subjected to the utmost scrutiny.


So...what are YOUR opinions?



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Matt
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Grey/black '84 300D, 194K

My opinion...for most soulful
1964 Ford F100 pickup
1971 Olds Cutlass convert
and maybe my MB 560SEL, 1989

I guess I'm just an engineer geek. I just can't bring myself to think of cars in terms of their soul. Even though my 240D has had a homing instinct for a half million miles and has only broken down once away from home, I still see it as a machine.

To me, the geek, terms for evaluating cars have to do with things like: reliability, performance, economy, ease of maintenance, etc.

I hope everyone who can relate to the soul of a machine enjoys this thread, and I will enjoy viewing the replies.

Have a great day,
Larry

soul: Any German car would do
1 BMW 325i
2 240D
3 VW Jetta A2 chassis
4 190e
5 300D Turbo

(top 4 were with manny trannies)

no soul:
1 Honda Accord
2 Toyota Camry
3 Dodge Neon
4 Ford escort
5 Buik




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'82 300D Turbo 215k miles

Larry - I understand the homing instinct of your diesel, but for some reason, even the cars that left me stranded still had personality..they always broke down with style! Especially on the cross bronx expressway at 1 am ! :D

Larry,

Of course you must understand that I don't genuinely think that a mechanical object posseses a soul. In fact, I don't believe a LIVING thing has a soul either, including you or me. What a fascinatingly ridiculous notion.

Perhaps I should substitute the word "character" for "soul." Now will you play along? ;)

Zoonhollis,

Thanks for trying to accommodate me, but I guess I'm STILL too geeky, I guess I just added a pocket protector.

Cars to me are machines. The strange thing is I would, in normal conversation, say that I love cars. When I examine that on this level, I guess what I mean is that I love the subject of cars.

Have a great week end,
Larry "the geek" Bible

Here are my choices:
Least soulful:
1. Pontiac Sunfire rental
2. Toyota Camry (any)
3. Chrysler Cirrus rental
4. Rusty '88 Civic sedan with automatic and Nader bumper stickers peeling off bumpers.
5. VW Rabbit 4-door automatic

Honorable mention:
A horrible, diabolical Renault Le Car my friend had in college. It wasn't soulless; it had the soul of satan. It never missed an opportunity to screw up in the most bizarre fashion at the most inopportune times, and the things under the hood appeared to be spoons, toilet plungers, wine bags, and flowerpots, which made it difficult to decide what to do to make it run again. I could just see the French laughing at us as we pushed it down the side of the road!

Most soulful:

1. '63 Jaguar E-type roadster
2. Early '60s Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spyder Veloce
3. '57 injected Corvette
4. pre-'74 BMW 2002 (biased; I have one)
5. MB 300SL roadster (up to '63)

Honorable mention:
A 1928 Packard I saw at a car show last weekend. It had sat in a barn idle since 1953, and it was obviously kinda banged up when it was parked. All the chrome had peeled off the radiator shell and headlights, bumpers, etc. The paint was faded to a leather-like consistency, and it had what appeared to be original ancient radiator hoses and clamps. Moths or something had eaten most of the upholstery, and there was a bullet hole in the rear window. But when the show was over, amazingly, the straight 8 ground to life on the first crank, and the thing chugged off down the road on it's own power. VERY cool!

Soulless,
1)GM vehicles, possibly excluding the V8 ponycars and the Vette.
2)Chrysler Products, Daimler merger notwithstanding.
3)Ford Products
4)Hyundai, all
5)Most Japanese cars

Soulfull
1)Any Porsche with Turbo on its tail
2)450 SEL 6.9
3)500E
4)M3
5)Geleandewagen, beastly comfortable and capable.

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90 300GE 5sp
95 740iL
86 944 Turbo

Souless:

1- The Dodge K car (POS All Star)
2- Ford Pinto and / or Festiva
3 - Hyundai, Daewoo, Nissan, Mitsubishi,etc
4 - Minivans
5 - Mercury Cougar (early 80s)

Hon. mention : Gremlin

Soulful:
1 - 63 through 67 Pontiac GTOs
2 - American Motors Hummer/GMC Tahoe Denalli
3 - Any S-Class Mercedes Benz
4 - 58 Caddy Convertible
5 - 60s Ford Cobra / any Corvette

Honorable Mention: 80s Buick something, I cannot think of the model name, but in high school, this Buick hauled bottom!!!! Only thing was is that they put an ave. tranny on them and they discontinued them.


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'89 420 SEL
'90 300 SEL
'68 Olds 88 Convertible
'84 300 SD (sold it)

Would that be the Buick Grand National with the turbocharged 3.8 liter V6 ?

Bingo Larry, that's it - the Grand National! What ever happened to that car? That thing never lost a race. So much, so much lost, so much forgotten.

The Grand National was a tire melter but so was the engine! Awesome car though!

My country butt prefers the following-

Soulful
1. 68-71 Cutlass
2. late 60's Buick Rivera (as my friends like to call it, sorry Geraldo!)
3. My Grand Wagoneer
4. 81' Peugeot 505 td (paid $200 for it and spent $35 to get it going again and drove for 2 years before death)
5. 63' 190c

Soulfree
1. Eagle Premier
2. LS 400 (sorry mom)
3. Volvo s70 (sorry dear)
4. Ford Explorer (serves its purpose with the dogs and Seadoos. Great stereo! I see five at every redlight.)
5. Most of Enterprise inventory

Joe Golden
98' s70 21k (for sale)
98' Explorer Limited 41k
83' Wagoneer 213k
01' c240 (deposit)
84' 2 300d's and 91' 190e (gone)

Soul:
Fiat 124 Abarth Spider
BMW 2002 tii
Porsche 911 RS
Alfa Romeo GTA
Citroen DS 21

No Soul:
most domestic
all Asian imports

Most Soulful:
1. 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Coupe "gullwing"
2. 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO
3. 1994 Ferrari 512TR (the best of the testarossas)
4. 1964 Jaguar E-type
5. 1988 Bentley Continental Convertible

Honorable mention: 1987-1995 Range Rover Classic (sentimental reasons. You either love these beasts or you hate them)

Jesse
98 C43
94 Range Rover

Note: my responses are only for vehicles that I have owned and/or driven, although that automatically excludes lots of interesting cars!

Most soulful:
1983 Mercedes Benz 280SL, Euro, 5 speed
1987 VW Vanagon Syncro, 5 speed
1979 Dodge W150 Power Wagon, Club Cab, long bed, full time 4wd, 4 speed NP 435 trans
1989 VW Cabriolet, 5 speed (daughter's previous car)
1998 VW Beetle, TDI (daughter's present car)
These vehicles weren't necessarily the most reliable (especially the Dodge truck), they just had the most character. Curiously, all were/are stick shifts!

Most soulless:
1987 Chevy G15 conversion van, by far
1967 Dodge Dart
1983 Dodge 600 ES
1995 Ford Club Wagon 150
Almost any vehicle Hertz rents, especially a 1999 Buick Century I rented in Las Vegas
All but the Dodge 600 were/are automatics.

John R. Boyce
Bismarck, ND

Good:
Cobras
Early Lamborghinis
Jaguar XKEs
Early MB SLs
Anything Aston Martin

Bad:
Gremlins
Pintos
K-cars
The early 80's square Caprices
Buick Road Master

Thought I would only go with cars I owned. If you are looking for MBZ in the list, you will be disappointed.

NO Soul (No taste when I bought these)
-- 1962 Ford Econoline Pickup, with Mustang I6 (the engine fell out on the road one day)
-- 1973 Ford Torino (4 dr, with bench seats!!)
-- 1987 Pontiac Bonneville "POS" (traded after 4 months, utter garbage)
-- 1996 Ford Taurus SE (wife's old lease)
-- 1992 Ford Explorer (can you say NVH?)

Lots of Soul (not in order, still sometimes no taste though)
-- 1994 Taurus SHO (another wife's lease)
-- 1985 T-Bird Turbo Coupe (a light nose with a 4 banger turbo did wonders for this car's handling... trust me)
-- 1959 MGA (didn't last long but sweet)
-- 1972 Fiat 128 (I'm 6'6", what a blast to actually fit in, nevermind drive, for an underpowered econocube. Itty bitty Michelins drifting at 34mph)
-- 1963 Chevrolet SS '327 convertible, posi, Muncie, 375HP, red with dual whips and chrome
-- 1988 Lincoln LSC Coupe (Don't knock it until you've crossed country in it)
-- 1969 Dodge Charger 440, Same color as on Dukes of Hazard (Can you say TORQUE?)
-- 1967 MGBs -- A pair, one rusty, one a parts hound
-- 1997 GMC Yukon (Like driving your living room -- just don't try to stop. Soul was realized in full one day when we did an on blacktop pulling comp with my friends Expedition. I dragged him backwards up the street in 4lo, with his tires smokin and snorting til he stalled.)
1967 GTO -- ooops, almost forgot it, had to come back and re-edit!

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GParker
'99 E430

[This message has been edited by GParker (edited 08-24-2000).]

Another 2 cars that had a lot of soul were the 40s something Tucker and the 81 Delorean.

The Tucker was way ahead of its time, colored cars, revolving headlamps, rear air cooled engine, etc. Also the Delorean was a big hit in a blockbuster movie with futuristic styling. Delorean was also one of the designers of the first GTO a while back.

Both Tucker and Delorean were innovators and were ahead of their time, so ahead that people were not ready for their designs. Not for a lack of quality or style, but due to finanacial backing did they fold. Gutful risk takers are perhaps the most soulful of all.



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'89 420 SEL
'90 300 SEL
'68 Olds 88 Convertible
'84 300 SD (sold it)

Most soulful:

1. Lamborghini Miura SV
2. Bentley Continental T
3. Mercedes AMG Hammer
4. Cadillac Seville STS (WITH Northstar)
5. Ferrari 250 GT California

Least soulful:

1. Minivans (duh!)
2. SUVs (except the mighty G-Wagen)
3. Most Japanese cars (Kia, Daewoo, etc..)
4. BMW 524td
5. Dodge Dart (yuk!)



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Rgds,
Aaron Greenberg
MB technician
Precision Motorcars, Cincinnati, Ohio
'67 250SE Cabriolet
'77 450SL
'80 300SD
'85 380SE
'86 420SEL
'89 420SEL
'93 300E 2.8
'74 Jensen Interceptor Mk.III
'81 DeLorean DMC12
'84 BMW 745i Turbo

British-American Soul: Jensen Interceptor Convertible (383 ci)

French Soul: Citroen SM [Cheap French Soul: Citroen Deux-Chevaux in Charleston trim]

Swedish Soul: Saab Sonnett (the anti Volvo)

Italian Soul: Anything with a mid engine painted red. Front engine red cars with prancing horses on 'em qualify as well.

Japanese Soul: uhhh, uhhh, wait, I'm thinking, uhhhh.. hmmm, well, uhhh. Perhaps a German car instead.




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GParker
'99 E430

I think the only Japanese cars that had any soul were the early Datsun roadsters, maybe the early '70s Datsun 510 (a poor man's 2002), the first generation 240/260/280z (78 was the last year, I think), and the most recent ('93?) Mazda RX-7. With that car, Mazda tried to build a real sports car, without all the fluff had become standard on the z-car and the hideous Mitsubishi 3000GT, but the public rejected it as too harsh, etc. But the bare-bones R-1 version sure hauled ass and handled well!.

my cars that I loved
1) 1991 190e with 288,000 miles, AMG body , wheels and suspension. Still own it.
2)1968 El Camino, It was great being a cowboy in Philly. (Penn)
3)1966 Olds 442 sigh
4) Any benz convertible
5) My 87 16 valve

hmmm.... my soulfull cars would be (in no order of course :D )

Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec
Volkswagen MK1 GTi
Volkswagen MK2 Rallye Golf
Nissan President.

Hmm.... I know I'm forgeting something.... oh yeah my car W202 280 Sport. hehehehe. But I must admit I'm still not fond of my W202.

Still don't feel that MB sould stuff. I guess after more time with it.... I still love the dubs though!!!!!

Paul,I lost your addy. can you email it to me so I can send your disk?

And thats my WERD!




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My name is Joey and on both mercedesshop and vw vortex i am known as nokia8860.

My top 5 "street cars" with most "SOUL"

#1 Lamborghini MIURA!!!!!!!!
#2 most Ferraris
#3 cobras
#4 mini coopers :D
#5 early Porsches (356s & 911(2)s) PRE-74


least soul or none at all
#1 every car that ever came from asia!(yes, even the Z)

#2 most(if not all) US built front-drive cars

#3 most suv's

#4 minivans

#5 did I mention asian cars? and yes, I've owned a few, even raced a datsun 110 & 510 in SCCA. Still, no soul, that's something you can't COPY.

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Soul [Personal experience]
1. 1986 911 turbo
2. 1983 300D-T
3. 1973 Volvo 164E [250K - no rebuild]
4. 1896 Peugeot 504 D
5. 1983 Volkswagen GTI

No personality
1. Majority of SUV's
2. SUV/car hybrids
3. Most "average" cars built after 1990

Gregory