What Car Put the Biggest Smile on Your Face?
Photo: Honda
Sometimes, we like a car just for the car itself. Maybe it’s fast, or off-road capable, or just plain looks cool — any of those is enough to earn a spot on a bedroom wall. But other times, we like a car because of what it does to us: Makes us feel something.
Today, we’re talking about the cars that made you feel like smiling. Whether it was an off-road monster, shuttling you to parts unknown for spectacular views, or simply a hard-accelerating EV that twisted your lips into a big dumb grin, we want to know: What car put the biggest smile on your face?
Photo: Honda
For my pick, I could go a few different routes. There was the Lexus GX470 in which I learned to drive, or the GTI (listed on eBay, that I never actually bought) in which I learned to drive stick. There was the ‘93 Miata, the first sporty car I ever owned, and the ‘05 Legacy that first got me out on track. Even the Rivian R1S, the fastest-accelerating vehicle I’ve ever driven, is a solid contender. But somehow, out of all of those, the car that put the biggest smile on my face was a beat-up Turo rental I had for four hours in LA traffic.
On my first-ever west coast trip, I got myself a Civic Type R for a single morning. The tires were bad, the interior was bad, the paint was… fine, and I loved it. The torque, the acceleration, the constant goading feeling that comes through the steering wheel and tells you to corner harder, brake later, get on the power earlier. It’s intoxicating.
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Please don’t judge the outfit. It was period-appropriate, mostly. Photo: Haley Saba
That Civic also shuttled me to Dominic and Mia Toretto’s house, an LA landmark that never seemed free of tuner cars coming and going. The current residents, who covered the front of the house in overgrown bushes and No Trespassing signs, surely loved that.
The car that put the biggest smile on my face was a ratty, rented Civic Type R. But what car made you smile widest? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll collect the best answers tomorrow afternoon.
