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I was just on the virtual horn with Mr. Berkowitz and we were discussing that for $47,000 the 430 horsepower Corvette is a fantastic bargain. We're also both young, dumb and childless. So Farago's pronouncement of the Corvette as a "death Car" has no effect on us. But then Justin dropped this bomb, "my girlfriend's mom, who is on her third Lexus SC430, told me she thinks the Corvette is the lowest class car a person can buy." Ouch. Take that, Vetteirati. And hey, with the Camaro still not in production, the lady makes a point. But not a great point. See my friends, next to Dodger Stadium yesterday I witnessed the scuzziest car imaginable. That's right, a Fox-bodied Mustang 5.0 with Truck Nutz. Seriously, beat that.
103 Comments on “Question of the Day: What’s the Lowest Class Car You Can Buy?...”
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Dodge Ram with Idaho Elk plates, and a BSU Bronco sticker. I refer to them as Ida-necks.
There you go, bringing class into it again…
At the risk of damning a fine ride with faint praise, the Corvette is definitely “classier” than a Viper.
TTAC needs a Top Gear-style “Class Wall”.
Here in North Georgia, we’ve always referred to the Camaro and Firebird as “Trailer Park Chariots”…high hair (with crispy bangs) required to drive. =)
If I had to choose a car that is currently on sale- probably the Chevy Cobalt. The Cavalier was easily the least-classy car on the planet, so the Cobalt carries on the legacy in all it’s mediocrity.
I vote for 10 year old civics/accords/etc with coffee can exhaust tips and Japanese stickers as their only mods.
Any lifted truck or SUV. The more flatbill-cap-wearing people inside, the better.
Justin’s girlfriend’s Mom has a point. Among people with some money who don’t care about cars, Corvette and Cadillac mean trash. My wife thinks the same and includes anything branded “Hemi.”
But I’m going with used stretch limo. And I mean used.
For new car, I’ll exclude penalty boxes because poor people need to get to work too. So I’ll vent at the clueless noveau riche and say Lexus ES/RX.
About 17-18 years ago, when I was working in Germany, one of my German co-workers asked me: “What kind of car’s a Camaro?”. My answer was: “When you read a news story about a drunk 30 year old guy getting into a wreck with 3 teenage girls in his car, he was probably driving a Camaro”. The German guy got what I meant instantly, and he also said that “Here in Germany, it’s always an Opel”.
I once saw a pink Pinto with a lift kit.
Justin – her mom told you that? I don’t know whether to say run for the hills or lock that down.
My vote goes to the donks. When your wheels are worth more than the car itself, you are the highest class of moron.
The newest, most expensive Ferrari, whatever it is at any given moment.
Lexus SC430 with your girlfriends mom in it.
Any car/truck where the wheels are the most valuable part.
sashazur, It’s somehow comforting to see how traditional GM values are echoed around the world in its various international brands.
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jpc0067, Funny you should mention limos… I think of most of the stretched ones as having quite a bit of fake class. They’re tarted up in all the wrong ways, without providing the things that a luxury vehicle SHOULD provide.
This realization came when I attended a wedding where the ample bride and her rather portly sisters were trying to squeeze through a perfectly normal-sized Lincoln rear door on what was the longest stretch limo that I had seen to date. Whatever happened to “limousine doors?” Doors that are extra-long and tall to facilitate ingress and egress. Anyway, the Best Man practically had to put his shoulder into it to shove those honeys through the doors and get the wagon rolling.
Um… hello people?
Vanilla Ice’s car with Truck Nutz?
You need to “beat that.”
I detect high snobbery coming from Justin’s GF’s mom (Sorry Justin!). There’s a lot of better-than-thou sentiment behind such a statement, coming from someone who doesn’t/can’t appreciate the world-class sportscar that the Vette is. The car is low-tech in some areas (a case of “if it ain’t broke…”), but it does what it’s supposed to do and does it VERY WELL.
What does the SC430 do well? Anything? If it’s intent is to make people who hate to drive look cool, I can’t even say it does that too well. Good handling? Nope. Good power? Nope. Good fuel economy? Nope. Good looks? If you’re after the used-bar-of-soap look, then yes, otherwise, Nope.
Does someone who buys the same safe-choice, “smart people buy Lexi”, BOOORRRINNGG car 3 times (3!) have ANY credible authority in such matters?
PS: I second the Donks.
@Juniper:
ROFL. Yup.
In New Zealand, having a mid 70s V8 branded either Falcon, Monaro or Valiant Charger and having a mullet with a large collection of ac/dc black t shirts was really bad but as those were crashed or otherwise disappeared from highways, the vehicle of choice became the japanese 2nd hand import Nissan Skyline. GTR if you could afford it but if you couldnt then there was the gt non turbo straight six 4wd below that was the sedan skyline then there was the 2.0 auto RWD sedan the poverty pack version. if you couldn’t afford a skyline at all there was a Cefiro with your name on it.
she thinks the (…) is the lowest class car a person can buy
Wow, how nouveau riche.
Pious with a “I love Hunting Accidents” sticker.
Really creepy “ped vans” are always classy.
Bonus points for fake ice-cream truck markings, or bubble windows to prevent small children from seeing out.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned the El Camino yet.
Any car with spinners, any 80’s Cadillac with “bling” wheels (and usually peeling/peeled paint), any car with Wal-Mart/Target/JC Whitney accessories.
All the jacked up Impalas, Caddies, Caprice and Regals I see around here with 24-30″ painted rims and the most stupid paint scheme you could ever think of. There are tons of them around here, I saw one this weekend that was painted this strange yellow and blue checkered flag all over it with bright yellow rims and was as high off the ground as an F-150. It was also barely running with the headliner falling down. Example
I second Cobalts, usually has to be painted on to the driver around here.
Any pick-up with a picture of Calvin peeing on another trucks logo. Or any Cadillac with gold trim & a fake convertible roof (bonus points if over 5 years old).
Easy, anything made by Dodge, Pontiac, or Chevy.
C4 Corvette.
Any vehicle with excessive ground clearance that isn’t used. It represents a disrespect for the crash safety and visibility needs of others. This would apply to SUVs and pickups that aren’t used in significant offroad exercises and, of course, any on-road car that is jacked up.
Skaro
“Any car/truck where the wheels are the most valuable part.”
So true. Its always amusing to see $2k+ rims on an old 80s Chevy beater that optimistically books for $1k. I even coined a term for it: Bli.
The are attempting to be bling bling but they only made it a quarter of the way.
TomAnderson:
“Any lifted truck or SUV. The more flatbill-cap-wearing people inside, the better.”
Bonus points a gun rack & right wing bumper stickers. for Where I used to live in Sacramento the official car of white trash was a old K5 Blazer in primer gray with 4-6” of lift and mud tires.
My girlfriend and I play a game where we rate lifted vehicles with numbers; the more overdone the lift the smaller the rating. The rating refers to the size of a certain part of the owners anatomy.
The only exception to this is if they appear to be serious off-roaders with a wench, rock rails, skidplates, recovery gear etc. A XJ, TJ or JK only needs 2-4” of lift and somewhat larger tires to be competent off road.
How about a stretch limo pickup truck?
It sounds like the punchline to a Jeff Foxworthy joke but they do exist. I had a good laugh the 1st time I saw one in Apex NC.
No hate for the Fiero? I grew up in Pontiac where these flaming pieces of garbage were built…and boy, were they low class…both the drivers and the cars.
Chrysler 300C and now the Charger with big chrome wheels.
My current fave is bling wheels. But I’ll definitely go with what Sunnyvale CA says several posts above.
In ’74, when I was a student at Tufts, where my parents both taught, one day I was driving around the campus in my father’s ’68 Ford Falcon wagon (which he’d bought used). I ran into a friend. “Is this the DaveMobile?” he asked me, with an implied “cool!” in his voice. “No,” I said, this is my father’s.
“You mean the head of the economics department drives around in this THING!” he said, the tone of voice now implying POS.
Of course, there’s a reverse snobbery thing that can go on, too (one that my father was not guilty of). One guy I knew in childhood, who now teaches at a prestigious university thinks everyone should drive around in a Toyota Echo as he does, in noble sacrifice to the planet (I may or may not have disabused him of this notion last summer). His take: it gets you wher you are going so you don’t need anything more. Of course, he has a great job, which affords research trips to other continents, and he waxes eloquent about the attractiveness of his wife–in other words, everything in his life is so good that if he doesn’t have the pleasure of enjoying driving, his pleasure quotient is probably still 98.6/100.
I think Jonny L’s girlfriend’s Mom is underrating the ‘Vette. It’s not my cup of espresso, but if GM did everything that well, TTAC woudln’t be having to run a death watch
How ’bout Excalibur.
The car trailer trash would drive if only they could afford one.
Sticking to new cars..
My list, in no particular order:
Lexus ES350
BMW 1-series
BMW 6-series convertible
Ford Mustang
Dodge Nitro
Smart Fortwo
Toyota Corolla
Then, you of course have add-ons like big chrome wheels, huge wings, and unpainted body kits, which will successfully de-class any car.
But seriously, her THIRD SC430!? What would possess her to buy that exact same car 3 times? I think any opinion from an exclusive Lexus owner shouldn’t be taken seriously.
90’s civic with chrome Dubs and rust all over the body. I’ve seen more than a few.
yournamehere:
Forgetting about he C3, are we?
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/400-miles-in-a-1981-corvette-part-1/
“Hey hey mama!”
I would have to say that any car that is purchased in pursuit of “class” or to pretend to a class is the lowest class of vehicle.
It’s hard to beat a Trashams or Camaros driven by mullet headed high school burnouts who roam the roads still listening to heavy metal. Think of the used car that would be bought by Beavis or Butthead. This type actually look up to Corvette owners.
Anything excessively noisy that doesn’t deserve to be.
Qwerty- not many of them left so they’re more of a throwback. Replaced by the mentioned fartcan exhaust Civics.
We have a limo driving around locally with a pseudo-Nascar paint job. That might work
For what I’m thinking is low class cars – I’d pick the Monte Carlo or really anything someone sticks a number on their car (ya know the Nascar #s). Silly to me.
Toyota Prius with bumper stickers: Save the Whales, Save the Trees and Obama ’08.
I’m Pretty sure the lowest class car you can own is a 1984 Pontiac Parisienne with a potpourri crown in the back window
Fender Skirts in the 80’s FTW!
Harley.
Oh, wait – that’s not a car. But close.
ANY non-Buick with the fake venti-ports on the front fenders…
Nothing says molester with a moustache like a rusted out Ford Econoline.
“my girlfriend’s mom, who is on her third Lexus SC430, told me she thinks the Corvette is the lowest class car a person can buy.”
Young women often grow up to be very much like their mothers, not always, but something to think about :).
I try very hard not to care how much “class” my car says I do or don’t have. My faded old ’89 F150 certainly isn’t stylish while I suppose by ’06 TSX might be slightly so.
In the end, I could care less.
As mentioned, driving an SC430 could say a lot about a person too. None of it good.
No votes for H2?
The Pontiac Aztek will always be in the running for any ‘lowest/worst’ list for years to come
Being in Michigan, my choice is any car that is missing body parts/bumpers/lights/windows/etc. that would not pass inspection in any state that had inspections. My favorite is a Chevy S-10 with a bent frame and crooked passenger door that was held closed by insulation foam spray and a rope. The driver’s cellphone was an iPhone.
Lose the girlfriend. The mother sounds like a jack@ss. If the daughter takes after the mother, the daughter sounds like someone you wouldn’t want to settle down with.
Does mama smile to your face and then stab you in the back when you turn away?
What kind of person is on their 3rd Lexus SC430?
Someone you probably don’t want to know.
civilian hummer and its clones
Take a classy car, say an S class Mercedes, put the biggest rims that will fit, chrome please. Tint the windows real dark, add woofers in the rear seat. Gold lettering for the nameplate and a chain frame around the plate. Pump up the volume of the stereo. There you have it, the trashiest vehicle possible. Substitute the MB for an Escalade, and the result is the same. Nothing wrong with a Corvette dude. The days of gold chains, hair “out to there” are over…
Ugh.. where to begin with this one? I would say an RX350 with that 50ish looking female trying to Botox and collagen the last vestiges of youth together while blabbing on a cell phone for me. Sound like anyone in this “article?”
Stage 3 Roush Mustang.
Or any Saleen.
Lots of fun, but terrible just the same.
I think I’d second the thought about the Cobalt, especially in four-door form. How anybody could choose that pile over everything else on the market is absolutely flabbergasting. Could only be a Chevy fan who hasn’t read anything, and most especially hasn’t driven anything else.
I think I’d open up another category, though, for the Chrysler 300. I mean, you’ve really got to have some kind of personality disorder to be seen driving one of those things. It’s the 21st-century version of the disco leisure suit with manly chest hair — add the gold chains if you’ve installed a custom grille on your 300.
I wholeheartedly agree with Cyril Sneer and johnny ro: a new H2 is really about as low (and as crass) as you can go. A new Monte Carlo isn’t far behind.
As for the rest of the horrendous used examples – at least their owners let someone else take the depreciation hit, giant rims and unpainted body kits notwithstanding.
The girlfriend’s mom is probably still mad over the time she got picked up, used, and left for something better by a Corvette driver in her younger days
Absolutely no stock should be put into what the average woman (and the average person that would buy an SC430) has to say about a sports car
I once saw a pink Pinto with a lift kit.
Just before you shot him?
The Clenet is/was pretty bad.
The 78-81 rubber bumpered Camaros. I once read them described as the ‘getaway car of choice for a guy and his underage girlfriend who have just robbed a convenience store’
But seriously, the El Camino. The all-time, no holds barred champion.
Escalade and Navigator. Especially current generation models.
I could totally roll in a pre-91 Caprice, slightly jacked up with 20″ wheels and low-aspect tires. I see them all around town, and for some reason the ghetto in me just wants one.
I’d leave off the spinners, though. Spinners are dumb.
Just to expand upon the Calvin offerings: Any car w/butterflies or stripper pixies/devils/angels. I think GM and Kia are offering those as factory options…
BTW: Have you ever noticed that chicks who get out of cars w/that crap on them are never weight/height/dental proportional? Bad as it is, whenver I see a female exiting said vehicle I assume: No dental plan, infected shaving bumps and very low self-esteem.
If the El Camino is the worst, then I’ve seen one on the lowest rung: This was in Queens, NYC, with a billiard table bolted into the bed, bondo peeling off the driver’s door that was at least 1/4 inch thick, with a medium blue exterior paint job and a RED interior!
BMW X6, the current car wearing a mullet.
Phil
Well, the all-time lowbrow ride has to be a ’78 Camaro, dark grey/black primer with slicks, dents & decals. Bonus points awarded for blown exhaust.
For vehicles now-in-production, the H2 stretch limo wins, hands down. Even better if it is the pick-up variant with a hot tub in the bed.
I love Camaros – never owned one but I wouldn’t mind doing so. Most cars today are so conformist that they blow.
Low class cars were the purple and plum colored strippo Hyundais of 5-10 years ago. Yeesh.
Any subcompact with a vomit spewing purple, green, or orange color… cherry bomb muffler, 24 bumper stickers, and a bent antenna along with a cracked windshield, and six or seven happy meals and half empty 7-11 and coke bottles rolling on the floor.
With something that costs less than 99 cents hanging in the rear view mirror. Testicles hanging off the trunk, and of course…. a W sticker.
I’ll add to the Nascar # stickers any vehicle that has those Calvin pissing stickers. Or a non legitimate Type R sticker on any Honda, Nissan or Toyota (even seen them on Hyundais and Neons!)
Since some of the answers have little to do with cars themselves but rather with the owners of those cars, I propose a QOTD: “What is the dumbest thing you can put on your car?”
Neon with portholes. Check that – ANYTHING with portholes.
TomAnderson: “Any lifted truck or SUV. The more flatbill-cap-wearing people inside, the better.”
RedStapler: Bonus points a gun rack & right wing bumper stickers.
Double bonus points if there is a bullet hole in the rear pillar behind the front window from where the gun in the gun rack accidentally went off.
I believe I’ve mentioned this once before, but my stepmother has a Lexus SC she won’t shut up about.
Her kids are both car nuts (cool ones at that), and they love re-telling the story of how, about to sign papers at the dealership and take delivery, she completely wigged out and demanded to know why all the paperwork said “Toyota” on it.
To be honest, I still don’t even understand the question. But as a recent Seattleite, I’ve been intrigued (to put it nicely) by the “mobile homeless” here. A green and brown 1972 camper that smells like poop and vomit and has a distinct tendency to catch fire is certainly the lowest class of motor vehicle I’ve ever come across.
My 88 F150 with paint falling off the primer, top of cab and hood brush painted glossy gray (blue truck). Although I’ve only owned the truck a few years now, my dad owned it while I was in high school. When he needed the car, I’d drove this.
I put one of those Calvin peeing on Hobbs or whatever stickers I think my junior year of hs in ’94… it made it a week, when dad noticed it, he made me take it off.
Corolla may be number one, its a tough battle between a Corolla, DTS, A bunch of trucks, Maxima maybe, E-class probably, Corvette, SC430, IS350, 1-series, CLK (non black series), and Aveo.
I’d also like to add XLR
keepaustinweird
Neon with portholes. Check that – ANYTHING with portholes.
I agree wholeheartedly.
And add to that, cars with generic logos tagged on them.
A Honda Civic Type-R that isn’t really a Type-R?
A Hyundai Accent with a hood scoop?…and still sporting 14″ wheels?
A K-Car with a hood scoop and Mopar stickers.
Honda Civic with wooden rear spoiler, made from pressure treated lumber. And three different colors of lower body kits with scrapes and dings all over them. Swear to God I saw this.
Any late-model Cadillac or Lincoln with a fake vinyl convertible top, wide whitewalls, and wire wheel covers.
Lifted trucks with loud exhaust driven by urban cowboys. It’s as if their owners are desperately screaming “Hey! Pay attention to me!” Of course, they’re more precious when parked outside a 1985 Schultz mobile home with mold on all the windows and childrens toys scattered all over the yard. Oh, and don’t forget the kiddie pool with the family dog sitting in it.
Aren’t we talking about two separate things here? Taste and perception. For better or worse, many people judge others by what car they drive. The issue isn’t whether or not a Corvette, for instance, is a great car. I’m assuming the issue is what is a common perception of a “Corvette owner”. Today a Corvette is certainly an outstanding sports car,comparable to cars costing twice as much and pretty much owned by older guys/women with enough money to afford a 50K car. But for many years in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, the perception of a Corvette owner was a guy with grease under his fingernails, a pack of Lucky Strikes rolled up in his tee-shirt and a Brylcreem hairdo. Of course most of the people who post on this site are probably too young to have ever used brylcreem.
This topic should be broken down into two catagories: rides of the trailer park/housing project set, and rides of rich douch-bags with more money than sense or taste.
The poor:
About 10 years ago, the lowest form of motoring life was a Jersey Guido, wearing a wife-beater, driving a Camaro, or its more repulsive sibling the Firebird. Today, it’s any Japanese econobox junker with a section of aluminum bleacher bench used as a wing, and fart-can muffler. Any car where the tacked on JC Whitney crap and bling-tastic wheels are worth more than the car.
Yuppie douche-bags:
Excalades. Hummers. Any hybrid with “holier than thou” bumper stickers. Most any “luxury sports car” — Lexus SC430, Cadillac XLR etc.
BTW, the image of the girlfriend’s mother makes me cringe. Botoxed, mall-crawling, waste of flesh residing in her vinyl-clad, particle-board suburban McMansion. Use that daughter as a temporary fluid receptacle if you’d like, but do not say, “I do.” I can guarantee you that the poison was passed on in her mother’s milk.
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned T-Tops
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned T-Tops
Because t-tops are sweet, duh.
A guy down the street has a green Grand Am with huge nostrils on the hood and a gigantic spoiler the size of a surf board.
So it’s basically the Mustang in the photo minus all the performance potential.
Toyota Camrys with gold emblems.
Or anything with truck nutz. I’m not a prude–I’m all for offensive lyrics, scantilly clad women, and violent video games, but truck nutz offend me.
No one has class anymore. Especially since Cadillac brought to market the Escalade. It’s been downhill since.
SUV stretch limos–especially stretched H2s.
A limo should be purpose-built, like the old Fleetwood 75s or Mercedes Pullmans.
Almost as bad as stretch limos are “riced-out” small cars with ill-fitting body kits that are oil
burners, to boot.
Wow. Major hate going on here. Conclusion? There are no low-class cars, only low-class people.
I agree with skor… I vote for any high-end SUV where the driver is ostentatiously wearing a Bluetooth cell headset. Tacky. You can have money (or debt) but no class.
As Theodore pointed out… Stereotypes based on cars rather than the people driving them is stupid.
Some broke-ass redneck who works at a gas station might drive a ’93 Ford Tempo every day, winter or summer… rust, hubcap missing, goofy bumper stickers… But the same ’93 Ford Tempo could also be driven by someone like me (minus stupid bumper stickers) as a winter beater while my wagon is safely stowed for the winter.
Jonny Lieberman
Um… hello people?
Vanilla Ice’s car with Truck Nutz?
You need to “beat that.”
Tribeca with Truck Nutz. Maybe not classy, but… it’s a hybrid.
“…where the driver is ostentatiously wearing a Bluetooth cell headset.”
Ostentatious? Not really. In fact, in many states hands-free is the only legal way to use a cellphone while driving. California’s law in that regard kicks in on July 1st of this year.
John Horner, they wear them ostentatiously, as if to broadcast their own importance. The attitude is undeniable. Don’t quibble!
I apologize to everyone, I don’t want to derail this into a discussion of cell phones and driving. Just describing the totems of the booboisie as I see them.
they wear them (bluetooth headsets) ostentatiously, as if to broadcast their own importance.
How does one wear a bluetooth earpiece “ostentatiously”? Is there some way of clipping an earpiece to your ear that is the equivalent of wearing an izod lacoste polo shirt with the collar turned up? Is it akin to the yellow-gold Rolex? What is it? Do you prefer to see more one-handed steering?
John’s right. Whatever’s ostentatious about wearing bluetooth earpieces, you’re going to see alot more of them. Which I suppose will take the ostentation right out of it.
Phil
Well if I take comments from car drivers to heart I would say that my bicycle is the lowest class thing to ever hit the road. (Except that it only costs about $370/lb)
Gee if I can go back in time:
Yugo
Chevy Vega
Phil, the detail about Izod is exactly what I was trying to describe! Chills ran up my spine.
To clarify, high-end SUV + Bluetooth headset (no doubt used to make tomorrow’s spa appointment) = ostentation. Of course Bluetooth in and of itself is not ostentatious, but its use in a high-end SUV is. I stand by “ostentatiously”.
Also, “one-handed steering” doesn’t bother me at all (I drive a stick shift), but pervasive lack of attention does, Bluetooth or no Bluetooth.
No one voted their own car?
How about lowriders and anything with hydraulic lifts that can be pumped up and released while driving?