Many times when looking back at older cars, we seem to think that most of the classics were popular when they were in production. However, this cannot be further from the truth. In the case of many models, their popularity only rose many years after they were discontinued.
An example of this was the Jaguar XJS, which was in production from 1975 until 1996 – an astonishing 21 years! The XJS saw a number of updates over the course of its lifetime in order for it to remain relevant, but its popularity waned in the 1980s. As the truly popular cars from past eras have skyrocketed in value, cars such as these have become sought after, giving gearheads on a budget options to cheaper alternatives.
Luckily, these previously unpopular cars were usually based on other models and featured most of the same parts, resulting in them being relatively easily serviceable and repairable. Here are 10 classic cars that haven’t been all that popular when they were produced, which we’d buy any day.
10 Jaguar XJS
The Jaguar XJS was not specifically unpopular when it was new, but unfortunately, many buyers got fed up with it due to its awful reliability. The XJS was a luxury grand tourer built during a time when the British motor industry was at its worst – not only in terms of terrible cars but also because of labor disputes between factory owners and employees. This era of British motoring brought along some truly awful cars, many of which were and are still being made fun of on popular British car shows.
The XJS however, was probably one of the best cars to come out of this. Jaguar was struggling financially, so they created a relatively cheap car to sell in high numbers – a feat which worked. The XJS was in production – mostly unchanged – for 21 years until it was eventually replaced with the XK in 1997.
9 Chevrolet Corvair Monza
The Chevrolet Corvair is considered as one of the deadliest cars ever produced, which is strange as it does not look like it could hurt a fly. The Corvair was the first American-built, mass-produced, rear-engine, and air-cooled car. It was also the last – thanks to a design flaw that made the car extremely prone to spinning out, even when traveling at legal speeds. This was due to the exclusion of an anti-roll bar, allowing weight to shift freely over the rear axle and cause the rear tires to lose grip really quickly.
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The Corvair sold well before GM received over 100 lawsuits against the car, at which point sales plummeted from over 200,000 units in 1966, to less than 15,000 in 1968. Despite the Corvair’s massive handling issues, it remains one of the most distinctive American cars ever produced.
8 Mercury Cyclone
The Mercury Cyclone started out as an optional extra on the Mercury Comet, however became its own model in 1968. The Cyclone went on to sell around 10,000 units a year, however, this was still lower than the Ford Fairlane on which it was based. The Cyclone’s popularity waned dramatically in 1970 and by 1972, only 30 cars were sold.
The reason behind this was most likely the interesting styling for the 1970-onwards models, as they differed greatly from previous models. The best part about the Cyclone was that it was available with the 429 Super Cobra Jet, featuring a 7-liter engine and 4-barrel carburetor with a Ram-Air induction, rated at producing 375 hp.
7 Alfa Romeo Montreal
The Alfa Romeo Montreal is hands down one of the prettiest cars from the 1970s. Unlike the concept car shown off at the 1967 Montreal Motor Show, which had a 1.6-liter inline-4, the production version had a 2.6-liter V8, making 200 hp and 173 lb.ft of torque. The performance was enough to propel the Montreal from 0-60 in 7.4 seconds and on to a top speed of 220 mph.
The issue with the Montreal was that it was more expensive than the Jaguar E-Type and the Porsche 911, resulting in only 3,900 units produced in 7 years. The funniest thing about the Montreal was that even though it was originally shown at the Montreal Motor Show, the car was never sold in the US or Canada as it did not pass regulations.
6 Chrysler 300 Hurst
The Chrysler 300 Hurst was a special edition 300 Letter Series Chrysler built in collaboration with aftermarket parts manufacturer, Hurst. Only 501 300 Hursts were built, all of them in white with gold liveries, similar to other Hurst-Edition muscle cars from the 1960s.
The 300 Hurst also featured the interior straight out of the Imperial luxury car, with either column or floor mounted 727 3-speed automatic transmissions. Most 300 Hursts were fitted with a 7.2-liter TNT V8 producing around 375 hp, but two cars reportedly had a 7.0-liter V8 under the hood for promotional reasons.
5 AMC Eagle
The AMC Eagle was a weird type of car when it was launched in 1980. The original Eagle has a wagon body style but is lifted like a Jeep. Today, the AMC Eagle would make a lot of sense in this crossover and SUV-focused world.
AMC built around 100,000 Eagles over the course of seven years, including the various different body styles ranging from the standard wagon to the sedan, the SX/4, and the mildly interesting Limited Coupe. Even though the Eagle sold relatively well, it has mostly been lost to history, with many ending up on the scrap heap.
4 Jensen Interceptor
The Jensen Interceptor was a British grand tourer built in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. It was technically British, but featured an American drivetrain and was styled by the Italian Carrozzeria Touring coach-building company. The Interceptor was available with a range of American V8 engines and transmissions and could be optioned as either a coupé or convertible and even had the option of having all-wheel-drive.
Jensen produced about 6,500 Interceptors in the ten years the car was in production, however, with it being built in Britain in the 60s, many of the parts were from other cars. When it was being produced, the Interceptor was not all that popular, but since then, multiple companies have been set up to correct the car’s engineering, restoring it to what it should have been.
3 Oldsmobile Toronado
The Oldsmobile Toronado was a personal luxury car manufactured between 1966 and 1992. During this time, only around 40,000 units were produced as the Toronado had to compete in a heavily saturated segment of the automotive market. One aspect of the car which put people off from buying a Toronado was that it was front-wheel-drive when most of its rivals stuck with rear-wheel-drive layouts.
The Toronado has never really been at the top of auto enthusiasts’ lists when looking for classic cars due to the drivetrain, and as such was never as popular as the likes of the Lincoln Continental or Cadillac Eldorado. Interestingly, original reviewers actually rated the Toronado as having superior handling to many of its competitors. Unfortunately, this did very little to aid interest.
2 Mercury Marauder X-100
One of the lesser-known luxury muscle cars was the Mercury Marauder X-100. The X-100 was only available for the 1969 model year and all the upgrades over the standard Marauder were purely cosmetic. The X-100 was usually bought in black, with a few units in either light blue or cream. The Marauder X-100 sold over 5,000 units during the year of production.
Some upgrades included a revised interior with a choice of individual bucket seats, a bench seat or a luxurious lounge seat – with the transmission lever on the floor in a unique U-shape. The X-100 also had rear wheel covers to aid in differentiating it from the normal Marauder.
1 SAAB 99 Turbo
The SAAB 99 Turbo was one of the coolest cars to ever have a ‘Turbo’ badge, and yet only 10,000 of them were ever produced. It was one of the first cars to be fitted as standard with a turbocharger and catapulted SAAB into a whole new class. SAAB discontinued the 99 Turbo after only one year, but it was the first successful turbocharged production car.
Since the 99 Turbo, SAAB built upon their newfound style and went on to become one of the most-liked carmakers on the planet. They produced some fantastic cars and everyone – except the companies which owned them – liked their way of doing things. Unfortunately, the companies in charge had had enough and SAAB ceased to be in 2012 – leaving an everlasting legacy in the minds of gearheads.