I love driving ahead lots of used cars. It’s basically a spectator sport for me, which is exciting and exciting and full of hope but also disappointment. Every once in a while, I’ll come across something unexpected, like a Chevy SS or Jeep Wrangler Unlimited LJ. When this happens, I tend to spend the next few miles nursing a sore neck and shoulders from the force of the whiplash. So, I want to know which car made you do a double take as you passed a lot of used cars?
It doesn’t have to be a model that has caused an ordeal as painful as the one I’ve described, as long as it surprises you in a way that makes you question your own judgment. It made you wonder if this was silver Chevy SS have you seen, or just a humble gray Malibu. Because if it really was one SSthen you’re making a mistake in not going back and looking in the cockpit to see if there’s a manual transmission, or, at the very least, ask what the price was. right?
How wrong I was when this happened to me late last year as I approved a used lot. I even did a triple take but still didn’t come back. One of the other great mistakes of my life—which has been, and I suppose will continue to be, full of them—was casually dismissing a E36 M3 in Dakar Yellow at a local second-hand dealer. I was fresh out of high school at the time, just a silly kid who thought the five-speed manual transmission in that particular M3 would be a pain to drive. I started college early and thought I should find a more practical used BMW.
I passed that M3, but I still look at the same lot when I pass it. I like to imagine that the BMW will be there all these years later, waiting for it to come to its senses. I guess I search every used car lot for that unicorn, stealing glances through the rows every time I see a hint of yellow. And I often look for that silver Chevy SS, because there can only be one change of stick. And you? What car makes you do a double take every time you drive past a used dealer?
