9 Classic Cars that were Ahead of their Time

Posted on 10/26/2019

in Tips and Information

Posted by Car Guy

Most of the time we love a vintage car because it’s vintage. They’re special because they’re rare, out of use, nostalgic. But often the best thing about a classic car is that it’s unique, and sometimes being unique means thinking ahead of the curve. These are some antique cars that were years ahead of their competitors in terms of tech and design, and still hold up as unique, must-have vehicles.

Aston Martin Lagonda

Image credit: Charles01 / CC BY-SA 3.0

It’s one of those cars that you either love or you hate. I quite like it. Series 2 models were one of the first widely-available cars with a digital touchscreen display. Yes, the screen didn’t really work, and Aston Martin abandoned the idea after a couple of years, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Lagonda was definitely looking forward, not backward.

General Motors EV1

Image credit: Wikimedia / RightBrainPhotography(Rick Rowen)

Speaking of firsts, you can’t get much better than the EV1, the first mass-produced, mainstream electric car. Back when Tesla was a twinkle in Elon Musk’s eye, General Motors was leasing this car to an exclusive club of adventurous owners. GM ended up crushing most models as it thought electric cars would never be commercially successful, so if you come across a survivor know you’ve found a collector car.

Porsche 959

Image credit: M 93

It’s scientifically impossible to have a list of classic cars without bringing up Porsche. They’ve made some beautiful cars over the years, but the 959 is not just a pretty face. When it rolled onto the roads in 1986 it was called the most technologically advanced mainstream car ever made. It started life out as a rally car, which explains it’s top speed of 197 mph (317 km/h), but Porsche decided to produce a limited number of road-safe models and has inspired pretty much every sports car made since.

Honda Insight

Image credit: JoachimKohlerBremen

Honda took a page out of GM’s book with the Insight and created a classic car with a not-so-classic engine. Along with the Prius, the Honda Insight was the first mass-produced hybrid car in America, though it never made it the bigtime like it’s Toyota cousin. Despite its smart engine and sleek design, the Insight was discontinued in 2006, making it a collector car with a special place in automotive history.

Pontiac Aztek

Image credit: Alexander Migl

Ok, I’ll admit, when I picture a vintage car the Pontiac Aztek is not the first car I think of. It may look like a knock-off Transformer, but the Aztek was a crossover car before they were cool. Also, it came with a removable console that doubled as a cooler, and an attachable tent, so that’s something. Now, no one is going to say the Aztek is the best classic car, but if it’s good enough for Walter White it’s good enough for me.

Citroën DS

Image credit: Charles01

This classic car is a two-for-one because Citroën came up with two ways to be ahead of the game. Way back in 1955, the DS was the first car to have hydraulic suspension and the first mass-produced car to have disk brakes. All in a smooth and sophisticated body that makes you feel like you’re in the Jetsons. To this day, the Citroën DS turns heads as one of the most exotic cars on the road.

Tucker ‘48

Image credit: Sicnag

Seven years before the DS, American entrepreneur Preston Tucker had a dream. Tucker dreamed of a car with disk brakes, a rotating headlamp, and seatbelts, which were quite the innovation back then. But the dream never really made it to reality. Tucker ceased production after only 50 units before an accusation of fraud led to a well-publicized investigation and trial; Tucker was acquitted, but the trial scared off any potential buyers. But the limited run made the Tucker ‘48 into an instant classic car: one Tucker ‘48 was sold at auction for just under $3 million.

Audi A2

Image credit: Charles01

The Audi A2 is twenty years old this year, but it’s so modern it could have been released yesterday and no one would bat an eyelid. A lightweight and efficient daily driver, the A2 was one of the first cars with an aluminum body, but it failed to take off when it was first released. This classic car only found its audience in the second-hand market, where drivers discovered how ahead of its time the A2 really was.

Lamborghini Miura

Image credit: Jörgens.mi / CC BY-SA 3.0

Last but not least, the car that some call the world’s first supercar. As the first example of its kind with a mid-engine, the Lamborghini Miura went on to inspire countless supercars. Like the Porsche 959, it was the fastest on the road when it was released, and has a silhouette you’re not likely to forget in a hurry. It occupies that enviable niche of classic cars: old enough to look vintage, but innovative enough to always feel new.

Insurance Classic Cars

Here at Leland West, we are experts in the particular kind of insurance classic cars need. We know that collectible vehicles are often bought as investments or showpieces, and therefore carry a higher price tag than the average car. We also know that, when damaged, classic cars might need expensive or bespoke parts and specialist care. That’s why we’ve developed insurance with classic cars in mind, so you can be sure your investment or showpiece is covered.

 

Popular Questions:
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 Here Are the Five Weirdest Mopar Cars Ever Made

Mopar is a pretty weird word in and of itself. You may not even have heard the term before because it doesn’t actually pertain to a specific type of car so much as an organization that exists within another more well-known company. 

Mopar refers to the parts, service and customer care division of Chrysler Automobiles, and it’s odd sounding name comes from the term ‘Motor Parts’. The ‘Mo’ and ‘Par’ being the operative syllables here of course.

The origins of this word date back to the early days of mass market automobiles in the 1920s, when Chrysler were releasing a brand of antifreeze and needed a shorter name than Chrysler Motor Parts to print on the bottle.

Over time the word has become much more common and tends to be used as an inclusive classification for all vehicles built by Chrysler. Essentially all vehicles built using Chrysler motor parts will be referred to as a Mopar.

And if you were searching for a Mopar car to purchase this would encompass more than just Chrysler. There’s also the vast majority of Dodge, Plymouth and Imperial cars which use the same parts. Still, best places for search are usual - huge sites like Edmunds, Cars, Find the Best Car Price, KBB, etc. 

So although it’s a weird sounding name, Mopar cars are not a particularly weird thing in general. That doesn’t mean however, that there hasn’t been some specifically very weird mopar cars made in the past. 

Here’s five of the weirdest ones:

1.    Plymouth Reliant

Chrysler’s K-Car line was noble in its intention. It arrived on the scene in the 1970’s when the restrictions placed on cars for the purpose of safety and environmental control were limiting performance and appearance.

K-Car was an attempt by Chrysler to maximise the potential that they actually had at the time by including features such as front-wheel drive and a traversal engine, while failing to do anything particularly spectacular in terms of how the cars looked.

And that’s how we ended up with models such as the Plymouth Reliant (among other models that all looked basically identical) which was almost offensively bland to look at. Both inside and out it might as well have been designed by blind people.

Its small-cylinder engine gave little in the way of horsepower and this was somewhat to be expected, but there is really little excuse for the aggressively unimaginative design. It wasn’t exactly reviled at the time though, and perhaps that’s because people had become too disillusioned with car prices to care much about how they looked.

And although that’s an easier thing to overcome nowadays in the age of online auto marketplaces and buying guides, it’s an understandable problem. Still though, no one is pining for the days of the Plymouth Reliant that’s for sure. 

2.    Plymouth Breeze

The Plymouth Reliant was not an attractive car, but that’s mainly because of how uninspired its design was. The Plymouth Breeze is a little different, because this one looks like there was an active attempt to be ugly.

And it’s somewhat unclear how something like the Plymouth Breeze actually happened. We were well-past the complicated days of Chrysler's dubious K-cars and into a more open and innovative period in the ‘90s.

This was a pretty positive time for Chrysler overall but for some reason there were a couple of glaring black marks on their record and a couple of genuinely awful cars from both an appearance and performance perspective.

Breeze’s mainly had a four-cylinder engine which allowed for a measly amount of horsepower which didn’t really seem out of place given it’s ugly and intrusive cab-forward design. It gave the impression of a lumbering, hideous creature slowed down by the weight of its nose.

A dreadful car in every sense of the word but luckily one that has been mostly forgotten among the primarily positive history of Chrysler products.

3.    Jeep Commander

Jeeps in general do seem to have a little bit of a shaky reputation. I mean on the one hand they are definitely functional. A large powerful vehicle absolutely has numerous uses and they can look fantastic.

But the shaky rep is not exactly unwarranted. When a jeep isn’t done right, it can be absolutely disastrous and that is absolutely the case with the Jeep Commander model, the existence of which is arguably more baffling than the Plymouth Breeze.

The intention of the vehicle was to be comparable to something like a Grand Cherokee or a Hummer H2 in terms of size and space but ended up not even coming close in terms of being as functional.

The appeal of those cars was the amount of seating space, usually offering the third row which was relatively uncommon at the time. The Jeep Commander had this, but no grown adult could really sit there comfortably.

And on top of that, it’s design was nowhere near as sleek as the Cherokee or the Hummer, making it basically just a big ugly mess of a vehicle.

4.    Dodge Nitro

In terms of their larger vehicles, Mopar models tend to be quite lacking in general. Apart from their Jeeps, the Dodge Nitro is one of the few models they have which is an attempt to compete with other SUVs out there.

The failure of this model though is perhaps a large part of the reason why Mopars tend not to venture into this territory because this thing is an absolute disaster of a car and will do little in the way of enticing buyers who want a good sized family vehicle.

You might see a Nitro and think it will get the job done for you if you want an SUV style car. While it’s not pretty, a lot of SUVs and similar models aren’t, it does look like a spacious and powerful choice.

But it’s looks are deceiving. And so is it’s name. There is nothing about this lumbering piece of junk which justifies a name like nitro. The 3.7 liter V6 engine was showing its age even at the time this car was being produced and it could never be relied on for speed.

The inside was nowhere near as spacious as it appeared and the interior design was hideous to look at. Again, it might look like something that works, but it can’t be trusted. If you’re looking online for something new and you see this in your search, keep clicking.

5.    Chrysler Cordoba

I’d like to say that the fact this abomination was produced way back in the late ‘70s, it’s somewhat forgivable because of the time period, but even back then this was an outrageously horrible car. 

Just from looking at it you can see that it’s got a big, bulky exterior but is decidedly unspacious inside. And that might be kind of okay if all of that bulk was designed to allow for a powerful engine, but that most definitely was not the case.

And the engines were either 360- or 400-ci V8s which absolutely devoured gas and this was at a time when the gas prices in the United States were sky-rocketing, rendering this model far, far too expensive to justify it’s dreadful appearance. 

The Cordoba mercifully didn’t last long, and it probably contributed in a big way to Chrysler having to take so many cost-cutting measures as the ‘80s approached. 

For the most part, Mopar is a reliable source of high-quality motors, but like all companies there have been no shortage of bad decisions and shoddy products over the years.