It's always the cars that you don't think about that suddenly trigger such a WoW effect later on. The auction of the Aero S1 motivated me to start this thread. Because the S1 is absolutely also such a case of transformation in my eyes.
Another quick example: Yesterday, a Porsche 996 Coupe came towards me, driven very sharply. At first I thought, what a cool car that was. The silver colour was shining with the fried egg lamps. It looked absolutely great. I know I always thought the 996 was ugly and I hated the car for 25 years. But lately, with the good turbo engine, very nice and so compact when in comparison the 911 series get fatter and fatter and get a wider and wider a***. The craziest thing was that I always hated the fried egg lamps (also as a cheap "equal part and money saving part" with the first Boxter). Of all things, I saw these lamps in a whole new light. It seemed futuristic and just cool, and maybe the designer's intention from back then is only now reaching me. The overall proportions and the relatively compact size of the 996 were very appealing to me. Something I hadn't noticed until recently. I would even go so far as to say that the 996 is the only 911 that very courageously does not play the dead horse of the 911 face that is always quoted in the same way during almost all 911 series.
Another example, I still have our Merc 220CE W124 Coupe 1st series MY 1992 since 2005. The car gets more beautiful every day. I would say it is in its prime to provide an aesthetic counterpoint to today's design. It seems to me that today many models of many brands are screaming for attention with sometimes aggressive sharp edged elements that in 10 years could just look old fashioned. With the 220CE, on the other hand, no line is too much.
Another case could be something like a Morgan or even an old Alfa of the 60s. That is not a counter design to today's design but it looks like it comes from another world. I think there is such a cycle in the life of a car design over the decades. As a counterpoint to today's cars, the 80s until 2000 are very popular at the moment, not only with those who were young then and remember them fondly, but also with the young people of today. Cars like the 80s Toyota Supra, MR2 or Nissan 300Z are very popular with young people. The other day someone came in a small Renault 9...a. car that used to be on every street corner but the first I saw again in 25 years….cool.
Do you also have examples of cars that were meaningless or even hideous to you and today you wonder why you like them?
