How do you define a 'COOL' car?

[C-ZETA]

My idea of a cool car is this:
1. If it has the right performance for what it sets out to do.

2. If it has the looks of its year.

3. If it can really compete with its rivals.

4. If in the case of originals they were real legends.

 

[homeforsummer]

My idea of a cool car is this:
1. If it has the right performance for what it sets out to do.

2. If it has the looks of its year.

3. If it can really compete with its rivals.

4. If in the case of originals they were real legends.

Y'see this interests me because, if we take the SportKa from the other thread as an example, you can more or less answer yes to all of those. Perhaps not the "legends" one, though the basic Ka is generally accepted as one of the best small cars of recent times.

As you voted it uncool though, surely there must be some more criteria you use? Or perhaps it's just something intangible - you can perhaps tell instantly whether you think a car is cool or not. I think when you start using statistics to base your decision on the issue becomes clouded. I can see, I dunno, a Vauxhall Astra going down the street and immediately think "uncool", regardless of which version it is, how well it's been modified, how well it performs... and yet I can see an original Lotus Elan going down the street, which probably performs much worse than even a diesel Vauxhall Astra, and is uncomfortable and leaks a lot, and yet it's immensely cool.

Objectivity of any sort cannot be a factor in coolness, in my opinion.

 

[Radracing]

It's an art form I tell you. No rules can apply. Majority rules! until it gets old. Cool today gone tomorrow?

Now if it's still cool after two decades I think it should qualify to be a future classic.

 

[zed300]

Cool and uncool, when cars are involved, is an emotion. How does it make you feel. Like putting on your favourite jeans, you have a certain sense of confidence when you wear them. Women seem to ride this same way of perception with their clothes and hair and make-up.
Cars make me think, I want or I wouldn't.
Yes peer and sight unseen, does have a persuasive manner on the cool and uncool, but seeing in the flesh decides it for me.

It's a feeling I get that decides it for me.

 

[niky]

A car is cool simply because it's cool... whether I like it or not. Even if I absolutely hate it... if it's cool, it's cool.

Your car can have the looks of an angel, the fire of the devil and the holy aura of Jesus himself... but it can still be uncool.

 

[homeforsummer]

A car is cool simply because it's cool... whether I like it or not. Even if I absolutely hate it... if it's cool, it's cool.

This has been the way I've been looking at it - but I do get the impression that many people are voting cool and uncool based on their like/dislike. I know it's hard to separate, but it's also important to know the difference. I personally quite like the Peugeot 306 GTI-6 but I voted it uncool in the poll. Famine apparently hates the NC MX-5, but voted it cool.

Apart from anything, it's the reason plenty of people drive about in uncool cars. They might like them, they might think they look the dog's danglies driving about in them, but to the rest of us they're the dog's dong. Ultimately if the whole world think you're a pillock as you drive around then I'm afraid you don't have a cool car. And at the same time, if you drive something completely anonymous that never turns heads then you're probably driving an uncool car too, regardless of how good it is or how much engineering or heritage it has.

It's also why a lot of people only ever own one Alfa Romeo. Very cool, but eventually drive them up the wall when it suffers a complete electrical failure every three weeks.

Hence if you like a car =/= cool and if you dislike a car =/= uncool.

 

[niky]

Alfas... sometimes great to drive, sometimes rubbish... always going to leave something expensive on the road behind them... but always cool. Usually frosty.

Except the Brera. The Brera concept was so far below zero it was swimming in liquid hydrogen. When they turned concept into reality and moved from the front midship chassis to a front-wheel drive one, it was like Mitsubishi pasting the Evo's nose on the Colt... only twenty times worse, because the Brera concept was, as mentioned, sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-zero.

And to add insult to fatal injury, the Brera road car doesn't drive all that well, either.

 

[Radracing]

Now a lot of people make fun of how uncool Mini Vans are and think that SUV's are a lot cooler. I personally love my Dodge minivan and hope to fix it up someday. I remember when it was cool to drive around in a Van back in the 70's when they put waterbeds in them. It was a total makeout car to be in. hehe!

What do you guys think, cool or uncool? I don't know about dropping it thou, kinda went over the top.

Here is a link to the 2008 Caravan R/T
http://www.topspeed.com/cars/dodge/2008-dodge-caravan-r-t-concept-ar50699.html


Rocket power anyone!!!

 

[Famine]

Any more uncool and it could be the centre of its own solar system.

 

[Radracing]

Any more uncool and it could be the centre of its own solar system.

Hehe! good one.

 

[Stotty]

Any more uncool and it could be the centre of its own solar system.

LOL

That MPV is wrong in soooo many ways.

 

[Thatman]

Is it a Saab?

eh?

 

[Leonidae]

Saabs are uncool, they're Opels/Vauxhalls.

 

[Radracing]

Anyway, the Octane list - only 25 cars, but the first cool list I've ever seen where I don't disagree with any of the choices, even if they wouldn't be in my personal top 25. Incidentally, their overall coolest car was this:

The Jaguar XKSS - basically, the street-legal D-Type. The Mini was second

This is more of a classic car. It's pretty hard for a classic not to be cool since people will actually consider it for a car that can belong in a museum. I definitely would not argue this Jag as a really cool car.

Tha only Jaguar I would say is uncool is this:

Jaguar XJS

 

[homeforsummer]

And to add insult to fatal injury, the Brera road car doesn't drive all that well, either.

Apart from the Prodrive one, which is 100kg lighter and supposed to handle quite nicely.

Except, the Prodrive one is probably less cool, as you'd have to tell people it was a Prodrive edition, and any non-petrolhead would wonder why you were telling them it's something they've never heard of. And then you'd explain it, and then they'd walk away when you start mentioning rallying and Subarus. The best thing to do with a Prodrive Brera is to remove all the Prodrive badges and just tell people you have an Alfa.

 

[niky]

And if you try to explain to petrolheads that you bought the Prodrive version, they'll be wondering why you bought a Brera in the first place...

 

[homeforsummer]

Ah ha, but then you tell them you bought it because it's an Alfa, and then you tell them it's tweaked by Prodrive. They'd understand...

 

[MatskiMonk]

This isn't my personal view, but reading some of the above posts.. would it be true to say, cool = fashionable? ie. Just because somethings the current fashion, doesn't mean everyone likes it....

 

[TheCracker]

This isn't my personal view, but reading some of the above posts.. would it be true to say, cool = fashionable? ie. Just because somethings the current fashion, doesn't mean everyone likes it....

I don't think it really has anything to do with current fashion, or at least it shouldn't have anything to do with current fashion. A cool car will always be a cool car, just as an uncool car will always remain uncool. Fashions come and go but cool is always cool. Cool is hard to define, it shouldn't even be subjective, but it always ends up being so. Like HFS said above, people are confusing 'something they like' with 'something that is just cool'.

I like love plenty of cars that i also think are deeply uncool. I would love to own them, but at the same time would feel like a complete tit being seen driving them. At the same time there are cars that i despise yet consider very cool indeed.

 

[Famine]

This isn't my personal view, but reading some of the above posts.. would it be true to say, cool = fashionable? ie. Just because somethings the current fashion, doesn't mean everyone likes it....

If a car is fashionable, it's not cool. Fashion is fleeting, Cool is not.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Fair point.

Cool is too much of a personal thing I think. I love my car, and If I saw another one like it I would think "hey, that's a cool car"... but I'm under no illusions as to how poorly it would fair on the GTP cool wall.

I think for me, it's cool if it would make me feel good whilst driving it.

 

[Joey D]

If a car is fashionable, it's not cool. Fashion is fleeting, Cool is not.

Wait a minute, you just voted Cool in the Fiat 500 poll.

 

[Lucas]

Let us see my new idea of a cool car:

1. It needs to accomplish the goals it was designed to.

2. It has to look good (cute/strong but not trying to hard/etc.). Nothing too weird.

3. Enzo Ferrari despised the fact that people bought his cars with prestige in mind, instead of performance. Thus, even if the car is a Ferrari, it still may be uncool. If the car's predecessors were great, it doesn't mean this one is great too. I take this in mind when voting. If the car is good, but it has seriously become worse from its predecessors, then it's not cool.

 

[Famine]

Wait a minute, you just voted Cool in the Fiat 500 poll.

Yep.

The FIAT 500 is for people not fashionable or rich enough to buy a BINI.

 

[Joey D]

Yep.

The FIAT 500 is for people not fashionable or rich enough to buy a BINI.

I find the Fiat far more fashionable than then MINI, although this could be a matter of location. I see the crowd buying the 500, when it comes state side, as the same as those who buy Beetles. The MINI over here is typically bought buy older guys who want a weekend car or young people who either want to go around corners quickly, get fuel economy, or a combination of the two.

Sure you are going to get those who do buy them as a fashion statement but then again I think more cars can have the air about them.

 

[Famine]

I find the Fiat far more fashionable than then MINI, although this could be a matter of location. I see the crowd buying the 500, when it comes state side, as the same as those who buy Beetles. The MINI over here is typically bought buy older guys who want a weekend car or young people who either want to go around corners quickly, get fuel economy, or a combination of the two.

Nobody in the UK buys any model of MINI - save for the Cooper S - for how good it is as a car (and it is a good car). And only some Cooper S customers do so because it's a good car. Of particular note in the range is any cabriolet, which is bought because it's fashionable to do so.

The Beetle belongs to a different market - born-again hippies. If you're a humanities teacher in a primary school, are into clothes made of hemp, enjoy weaving your own baskets, dislike feminine grooming and think that, if you can find the right bloke to have several test tube babies with, Tarquin, Saphron, Emmalina or Zacharias would make a good name, the Beetle is for you. Particularly the cabriolet.

 

[niky]

Yep.

The FIAT 500 is for people not fashionable or rich enough to buy a BINI.

How did I know that one was coming. And here, you were complaining that we voted the Clubman "seriously uncool"... (yes, I know it was due to something else...)

 

[Famine]

I doubt that was me, given that I voted the MINI Clubman seriously uncool...

 

[ASH32]

I think there is a problem with how many of you are voting cool or sub zero for nearly every car. The cool wall is getting far too unbalanced and as a result, it is pretty pointless. It shouldn't be about whether you like a particular car or not. As of right now nearly 25% of all cars are Sub-Zero. Add to this the amount of cars rated cool is about 50%. That means there are 3 sub-zero/cool cars to everyone one car that is uncool/serioulsy uncool and that can't be right. You could argue that so far mainly cool cars have been polled and that that is the reason for this unbalance, but I don't think that is the case. I know this is a forum full of car enthusiasts and as such I am not surprised that people like cars, but if you all keep voting on whether you personally like/think the cars are cool, instead of whether they are cool in society, the "Cool Wall" will become/is a "Fan-Boy Wall" and as such I don't see the point of it.

 

[Lucas]

I think there is a problem with how many of you are voting cool or sub zero for nearly every car. The cool wall is getting far too unbalanced and as a result, it is pretty pointless. It shouldn't be about whether you like a particular car or not. As of right now nearly 25% of all cars are Sub-Zero. Add to this the amount of cars rated cool is about 50%. That means there are 3 sub-zero/cool cars to everyone one car that is uncool/serioulsy uncool and that can't be right.

Think of this: Would you enter a car in the cool wall knowing before hand it would be rated seriously uncool? I don't think so, thus it's not a bad things that most cars are cool cars.

I know this is a forum full of car enthusiasts and as such I am not surprised that people like cars, but if you all keep voting on whether you personally like/think the cars are cool, instead of whether they are cool in society, the "Cool Wall" will become/is a "Fan-Boy Wall" and as such I don't see the point of it.

What, am I supposed to vote based on what society considers cool? I have my own opinion (though flawed), thanks.