A “guilty pleasure” car is a vehicle that you have an affinity for, but there’s no real reason for you to like it. It’s hard to defend this choice of transportation. Yet you don’t care. You enjoy it, and no one else need give a damn. Or maybe it’s the sort of vehicle you’re slightly embarrassed to tell others you enjoy. That certainly counts as a guilty pleasure mobile.
What is your most embarrassing secret car affliction? Mine – this might cause me some grief – is that I really like the look of 991 Targas. In fact a Targa, PDK, 4S 991 might make a lovely daily. Can’t believe I just typed that.
— chris harris (@harrismonkey) December 5, 2019
I do not, however, believe a Porsche 911 Targa 4S counts here. Chris Harris knows cars. He knows them quite well and he can drive the tires right off the alloys. He’s also a terrific presenter. This tweet here though? I don’t get it. It’s almost like he’s fucking with us on this one. And that could be possible.
That aside for now though, let’s get back to guilty pleasure cars. What’s yours? My own guilty pleasure craft is the Cadillac Escalade. This goes back to the prior generation version though, because the new one is actually good. Or better. Let’s go with better. The past Escalade has loads of plastic, wobbly interior bits, and a price tag to match a mis-perceived sense of self-satisfaction. Yet I adored spending time with the big lug. The V8 engine was powerful, the seats La-Z-Boy cozy, and the on-road sense of invincibility was real. You sit up high, look down upon others around you, and mash the throttle to surge through highway traffic.
Our own East Coast Editor Kamil Kaluski has a choice in the same vein; the Infiniti QX80. That’s a great choice, as it’s a pretty ugly machine, yet I’d love to dash from here to South America in one. It would be a joy the whole way down.
What is your guilty pleasure vehicle?
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