The earliest I can remember is a '59 Catalina coupe. My five siblings could fit across the back seat, while I sat on my mother's lap. Because sitting between my parents wouldn't have been safe.

@tapz: I see a major refresh for LeMons here.

It looks like an early Golf that suffered a horribly disfiguring accident and received primitive prosthetics, with which it continues to live, but at the cost of pitying stares every time it goes out in public.

@K5ING: Would these be examples of the infamous Manufacturers Hanover Bank advertsiting icon, the Anycar?

1980 Volvo 244. I got it for free at a time when that was all I could afford. It had 190K on the clock, a four-speed, a sun roof and CHARACTER. I had never driven anything so high mileage, so when the exhaust disintegrated and I was looking at a $400 tab, I chickened out and got rid of it.

@Jagvar: That is brilliant.

I see where this is going. VW has ambitions for global dominance, or so I've heard. To do so, they must become like the one they conquer. Hence, the Toyotafication of the entire VW lineup. Can't they just settle for Europe, and stay interesting?

This needs a price chop.

Our old neighbors probably thought we were ghost riding every day. My wife is 5' 0" in heels, and people on the downhill side of the street would see an apparently driverless Taurus wagon passing by.

The cult of me votes E24.

They can call it the Girlyman.

These are not the Einsteins of their little world. A co-worker once found herself in her car, surrounded by turkeys. She started it, thinking that would chase them off. They ran TO the car.

And since they weren't E24s, no one cared.

These.

The previous generation had a doodle-in-the-margins-of your-history-notebook vibe to it. This looks actually refined and finished. Hope the innards are the same way.

I have to say, Subaru seems to have jumped the model-bloat shark of late. I bought an '07 Legacy a few months back, and the size feels just right. But as I stood in the showroom among the newest Subies, it felt awfully crowded in there.

Looks a little like a modern take on a 356, but with the bubbly fenders to mark it as a Beetle. Definitely a bit more soul here.

So, Maybach is Damler's pre-emptive strike against Chinese knockoffs of Benz cars, right?

Meh. Another tuner.

I'm guessing the parts are so popular because people keep them running a long time, because they are very competent at their unexciting mission in life. Speaking as the former owner of a '97 that was alive and kicking at 173K.