Five Things: the world's most desired extinct cars (part 2)
Monday, 15 February 2021
Following on from last week’s top five, this week we round out the ten most searched-for extinct models from manufacturers that no longer exist, thanks to our friends at Budget Direct Insurance who combed through the data.
We have dropped the #9 ranked AC Cobra from our list because it still technically exists, and before you even ask (again), the Holden Commodore is in a tie for 13th place with the Daewoo Matiz, remember?
Plymouth Barracuda
Released in 1966 as Chrysler’s answer to the Mustang, the Barracuda – like the Mustang – was based on a more pedestrian sedan (the Valiant), but unlike the Mustang it also shared a number of body panels with its donor sedan.
**READ MORE:
* Five Things: the world's most desired extinct cars (part 1)
* Weird ways five big-name car companies got started
* Great cars that arrived just a little too late
* Five cars with strange and silly design flaws
**
But by its third generation in 1970 it blossomed into proper muscle car territory, sharing its platform and engines with the new Dodge Challenger, including the mighty 300+kW 7.0-litre Hemi V8.
Sadly Chrysler killed off the Plymouth brand in 2001, meaning that a resurrected Challenger badged as a Plymouth Barracuda never happened. We naturally assume that a lot of the 75,000 monthly searches for the ‘Cuda are “why can’t I buy a new Plymouth Barracuda?”
Pontiac Aztek
How cool is it that one of the truly ugliest cars ever made attracts more than 72,000 searches a month? Even if it is just people Googling “WTF is a Pontiac Aztek?” because they saw it in Breaking Bad.
Pontiac had big plans for the Aztek, estimating more than 75,000 sales annually, but it only needed to sell 30,000 to break even on the development and build costs.
Unfortunately, people had eyes, so it only sold 27,322 during its first full year on sale (2001) and never got close to breaking the 30,000 mark before sales dribbled to a halt in 2007.
Bonus fact: the Aztek was actually designed by the man who designed the Corvette C7…
Saab 9-3
Holy Sensible Swede Batman, a Saab actually cracks the top ten on most searched for defunct cars!
But it isn’t really the Saab people should be searching for, as it is pretty much a direct result of General Motors ruining the legendary Saab 900.
The 9-3 was a replacement for the 900, which had gone from being a cool Swedish sedan to a rebodied Vauxhall Cavalier in its last incarnation, which says it all really. The 9-3 was just an extension of the sad GM badge-engineering the basically ruined Saab and ultimately led to its eventual demise…
Seriously, just Google “99 Turbo” if you want to search for a properly cool Saab…
Hudson Hornet
The fact that the Hudson Hornet is searched for online around 54,000 times every month could be because of its legendary racing career, or it could be because of its striking streamliner design that was still pretty revolutionary back in 1950.
But it’s probably because it was used as the basis for the character Doc Hudson in the original Cars movie, voiced by the legendary Paul Newman in his last movie role.
Doc Hudson was modelled after Herb Thomas’ “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” NASCAR racer and Doc’s racing career even resembled Thomas’ record-breaking run of the highest career win rate (55 of 228 races, or 21.05 per cent) and being the first ever two-time NASCAR champion.
Reliant Robin
Yep, that’s right – a tiny, weird fibreglass three-wheeler made in the UK gets into the top ten and is searched for 49,000 times a month.
And why shouldn’t it? After all, apart from its regular brushes with fame, a tiny, weird, fibreglass three-wheeler is just awesome!
The Robin is most famous for its starring role as the constant victim of the titular character’s aggressive driving in Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean series, as well as a starring roll (yes, that is spelt correctly) in an episode of Top Gear.
But it wasn’t Del Boy’s car in Only Fools and Horses – that was a Reliant Regal Supervan.