[V8] All the Best Cars have been built. #2

[Roger Woodbury]

It's hard buying cars if you live in Maine unless you are completely retired
on Grandmother's Trust Fund.  If you work for a living you have a reasonably
hard time affording a new car, unless you one of the minority who have
either a very high paying technical or engineering job, a specialized
medical type, or perhaps a business owner in a business who actually makes
money.  I fall into the later category, and have had some years when I made
some money and some that I didn't, like beginning in 2005....but let's not
talk about that.  Things were a lot different for me in the '80's when I
owned a couple of insurance agencies and was traveling all the time. Then I
could justify buying pretty much whatever I wanted to buy because most of
the cost was written off on the P&L line marked "depreciation".  Those days
are long gone now, and I have never had the luxury of Grandmother's Trust
Fund.  

In thinking about the three vehicles that we have in the garage now, I have
been reviewing all of the cars that I have owned over the past fifty years
trying to sort out the ones that I have liked a lot and the ones that I have
liked less.  Basically all of the cars that I have owned were purchased
after a search for something or other, and there have been relatively few
compromises.  Some of those purchases have been happy and successful, some
not.  Some purchases were wise, and some were made poorly and with ill
advised intentions that came back to bite me.  But from the list, and from
what is an annoying predilection to constantly read about cars and trucks, I
have begun to assemble the best cars that have ever been built, and have
largely come to the conclusion that the best cars have already been built.  

Now, it can be argued successfully that new cars are better for this or that
reason.  In truth, they are safer today than ever before; more efficient
today than ever before and better designed than ever before, especially from
a general utility standpoint.  But I would have to argue that having an
airbag positioned to pop out from every conceivable angle, and having an
engine that needs little to no service for 100,000 miles isn't necessarily
BETTER, because after plunking down twenty or thirty or fifty grand for zero
maintenance dollars over the next 100,000 miles isn't really a good trade
off if one computes the present value of money.  Probably the truth is that
over the years I have gotten just plain cheap, and look for value rather
than newness, preferring to buy (or perhaps just able to buy) miles
remaining and eschewing the excitement of shiny new.

So I have decided to assemble Roger's List of the Ten Best Cars Ever Built
and write the list here.  I am sure that there will be major disagreements
with my list, and that is well and as it should be.  It would please me NO
END if a lister in Bosnia-Herzegovina disapproved of my list because I
didn't include the Yugo Sport 43sx because of its remarkable ability to lose
it hydraulic system only to be replaced by a 34cm piece of 3mm bailing wire
that at the same time would enable the clutch pedal be used to pop off a cap
of Jagodina, kept cold because the heater never worked to begin with.  

All discussions of contrarian nature are welcomed.

Of course it is important to list some constants because I don't want to be
accused of playing favorites with just a few makes or models.  Here then is
my list of prerequisites, and you will have to forgive me if these
prerequisites rule out some otherwise outstanding cars produced by some of
the better manufacturers in the world.

In order to make Roger's list of the ten best cars ever produced, the car
must meet the following criteria:

1.  For the purpose of this list, I am going to include only those cars made
for and sold in, The United States of America.  This will leave out a whole
lot of cars made by companies like Citroen, Fiat, and some notable others
whose vehicles have had wonderful success, are wondrous examples of
engineering and imagination, but if they weren't imported for sale here in
the USofA, and I therefore couldn't be tempted to buy or even drive one,
they won't be included here.

2.  The automobiles included in this list must serve a general purpose of
some sort.  Thus a specialized Ferrari, for instance, won't be included
here, because I know of none that can be depended on to carry more than two
people for much more than 100 hours without needing several thousand dollars
of specialized mechanical resuscitation.  Well, that's an exaggeration, I
suppose, but in reality there are very few Ferraris about, and fewer
dealers, and their absence here won't amount to much. Certainly the folks in
Modena won't be brooding about this, I don't' think.

3.  The automobiles included in this list must be serviceable readily in
areas aside from New York and Los Angeles.  This of course rules out
Ferrari, Maserati and a host of other exotics if they weren't ruled out by
number two above.  Also parts must be available readily with no more than 48
hours delay for those parts that would keep a vehicle off the road.  

4.  The automobiles included in this list must be usable on a year round
basis, although true "all weather" capability isn't mandatory.  Thus while a
car might not be particularly great in a howling Nor'easter, that doesn't
mean that it doesn't belong on the list.  Some cars just prefer to remain in
the garage until the plows have done their work.

5.  The automobiles on this list need to be drivable by any licensed
operator of either sex, under most conditions.  That means that a car with
or without a clutch may be included, and power accessories such as steering
while not mandatory, needs to be considered, because cars that require
biceps like Arnold Schwarzenegger shouldn't be on the list.

So, that's it.  Basically only those five requirements will be used in the
selection of Roger's Ten Best Cars Ever Built.  Now, I am going to hedge my
bet and think about this a bit more, because I may add a few more
stipulations and I also want to spend more time assembling the list.  

In the meantime, perhaps you will start to assemble your list so that a
righteous good battle royale of favorites can be launched right here.  

I'll start posting my list tomorrow, or perhaps on Saturday.  

Roger