We were as surprised as anyone to learn that the Toyota Camry was ending its 43-year run in Japan. It’s popular enough to live on in some form in places like the US even if it will no longer be sold in its home country. It got us thinking, though, if there was one model that might live forever. Which might weather the transition to electric vehicles, or be popular enough so that there will always been enough of an enthusiast following to keep it alive somewhere in the world?
What JNC will never die?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What aspect of car life makes you happy?“.
The first step to happiness in car life is having the car itself. To that end Lakdasa‘s makes sense with the point of buying the car of your dreams, knowing that you worked hard and earned it. CycoPablo mentioned having a car that so perfectly suits your life, as he’s experiencing with an appropriately named Honda Fit. ninjastealth mentioned the brotherhood of car people that speak the same language, and that’s also a big part of car life.
By far, the most popular source of joy came from driving the car itself. Whether that was speedie going for an early morning drive with nothing but the engine as soundtrack or Jonathon P. out for a spin on a sunny day with City Pop pumping on the stereo. Fred Langille was grateful to still be driving at his age, while Fashion Victim appreciated being able to drive a car of advanced age. Nihonnotekko noted that driving is something allows one to spend time alone, but on the other hand Randy Hone brought up the pleasure of driving similar cars with a group of like-minded friends.
The winner this week was streetspirit, whose ode to car friends really hit us in that red pumpy thing in our chests. There are so many aspects to car life that can be made better with car friends, and anyone who has a solid gang of them should count themselves lucky:
Car friends, nothing quite like car friends.
If we’d all spend a little more time in the garage with friends the world would be a better place!
(ignoring the verbal abuse suffered by stuck bolts that is.)Going on 100+ mile trips with your buddy for that one part made of pure unobtainium.
Spending weekends with your friends wrenching, running on pizza or BBQ getting a project ready before summer.
Supporting one another to do stupid things, one more pound of boost…brake a little later…just a little more angle… and once you inevitably crash, burn and break your car it’s all hands on deck so we can do it again!
that’s what makes me happiest, come for the cars, stay for the family!
Now if you’ll excuse me i gotta go pilot some black Honda Civics with green underglow on a DVD player heist.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
The Nissan Z. Mostly the 240Z, but every Z. When I got into the cars, the 240, 260, 280Z (S30) were the cars to have. They still are. Mine, the 280ZX (S130) was the black sheep of the line, along-side the 300ZX (Z31), but has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds. Now, the Z31 and Z32 are starting to see a resurgance in grassroots motorsport, the Z33, Z34 are both seen as “cheap speed” much as the 240Z was seen as 30 years ago, you can get all the reproduction sheet metal and parts to restore an S30 to factory condition now, there’s a number of companies offering parts to bring the S130 and Z31 into motorsport-ready condition or update the electrics. The Z is just so iconic and beloved worldwide, that even after the widespread adoption of electrification and the sunsetting of the ICE, there will still be Z owners sourcing combustion fuels and taking their cars out for drives or track days. Not to mention how fanatical and devoted Z owners are. And so I think once think once the last GT-R, the last Supra, the last RX-7 are locked away in private collections, once the last Civic is driven into the ground, the last Jimny is cut up to be a rock crawler, there will be people modifying, driving, restoring, rebuilding and racing Nissan Z-cars.
Toyota Land Cruiser. Hands down. You can probably just close the comments right now actually. There will always be a part of the world where it’s needed, usable, and will last forever. It might even be ideal for Mars, the moon, or whatever planet gets colonized next. I have no idea why NASA spent millions on a moon rover, they should have just strapped an FJ40 to Apollo.
I will try and make a claim from left field here. The obvious companies would be Toyota or Honda, and the obvious cars would be the bread-and-butter Corollas, Civics, Accords, (I guess no Camry). But I’m going to put the Nissan Z-Car and Mazda Miata on this list.
The Z is Nissan’s brand identity. It’s literally the car that’s keeping the company enthusiasm alive. You have your Altimas and Rogue crossovers, but Nissan always goes back to the Z as it’s brand image. Yes, the GTR is the “Legend” and that it carries a long legacy of racing victories, but the Z, in my opinion, still leads the company. Without it, you’d be back to the days of 1997-2002, where your flagship was the Maxima; which was still a worthy car, but obviously a fill-in.
The Miata will always be around. Much like the Ford Mustang, it’s the last non-SUV in the lineup. It’s the whole zoom-zoom jinbai itai whatever you call it philosophy that provides as backbone to the rest of the lineup. The sportier car will be the “RX,” but in today’s society, that car will never come back, unless reincarnated as a hybrid-electric. The company will go out of business if there wasn’t a Miata. It’ll continue selling the rest of the lineup, but eventually the brand will wane, as its brand image isn’t present anymore. Just look at Infiniti.
MX-5 Miata…because Miata Is Always The Answer!
If you mean which car model will never die, I would have to say the Subaru Outback. Not only has it always been a solid choice in its class, it has gone from being a compact wagon-ish thing to a crossover SUV as market demand shifted away from the former and more to the latter. Seems like the Outback name will live on, morphing into whatever the market is most interested in.
BUT, if you are asking what specific vehicle will last the longest, it has to be the Toyota Hilux, particularly the first few generations. As demonstrated spectacularly by Top Gear, those little trucks just won’t die, regardless of the abuse they are made to endure.
*at least as long as Subaru remains in business.
Eventually everyone and everything dies. So no platform or name will live on being produced forever. Even trucks will disappear when another mode of transport or AI takes over that we will not need or even *can* move any longer.
Thankfully, I will be gone as well.
I’m interpreting this as which nameplate won’t go out of production. I’d say Civic and Corolla, but I will pick Corolla as winner by a hair. Not only has it been in production longer, but Toyota has not been shy from using that name on multiple models. So while there’s a chance a small-ish 4 door sedan will no longer exist, there will be *something* in Toyota’s showroom with the Corolla badge for at least our children’s children’s children.
I think there are two ways to look at this. Which car is so core to the company, and so significant in the market, that the company will not kill the name, even if they change everything about it? There are quite a few options that might fit, but I think that, of all of the options, the Honda Civic might just be it. It still sells in huge volumes, even as the sedan/hatch becomes unfavourable and everything apparently is supposed to be a cross-over/SUV. Honda throw new tech at it with enthusiasm, and will have no hesitation to replace the ICE part of their hybrid powertrain with more batteries, and keep selling Civics forever. It’s not only their oldest continuous name, it’s also the platform that everything else in the line-up is derived from. First you have the new generation of Civic, and then all the other cars in the line-up have their updates over the next 3 years. It’s foundational to Honda.
The other way to look at this question is to ask which cars will people continue to drive, and fix/nuture until the end of time. And while there are a few, I can think of only one that is so beloved the fanbase might start refining their own fuel to keep the fire burning. Until the end of time, you can go anywhere in the world, and will find a J-series Toyota Land Cruiser owner trying to drive home from there.
In time, each successive generation of Corolla and Camry inevitably become the most common and accessible JNC’s.
I can’t count how many times I’ve lied to myself along the lines of “I’ll never look at a 9th gen Corolla the way I do an E70 chassis”. Well, here we are, and I notice them more than ever.
JNC’s are so practical that even the dullest commuter car example will forcibly invade your heart over a certain timeline. Whether I like it or not, there are automatic FWD Corollas parked among the big Mikunis, sequential turbos, ATTESA’s, 4WS systems, double wishbones, and 8,000 + rippum redlines in my dreams.
Popular models from the 70s, 80s and 90s.
While there are a ton of guys buildings in a sense of American styling (cutting for widebody, fabrication of many parts and big engine swaps like LS), there are a lot of guys that are kind of unsung heroes sticking to restorations and keeping these cars out of the extreme limelight.
It’s a very much difficult situation, where you have Civics, Corollas, and even the Z – line of sports luxury. But the one that comes above all is the Skyline GT-R. The Hakosuka and Kenmeri genereations give a classic feel, the R30 and R31 generations give more of a sleeper vibe, the R32 and R33 are the insane dominators of the track, and the R34 and R35 generations are the supercar-shaming monsters. Each generation has a different feeling they express, getting more people to favor them with each generation. The upcoming R36 shall show hybridized/electrified domination as the prior generations have done. No matter which Skyline you’re refferring to, there’s always a racing heart that goes into that model. Each generation has racing heritage, while they can also be stylish, underrated, and have astronomical aftermarket support. Civics, Corollas, Land Cruisers, and even Zs are spectacular cars/trucks, but it’s impossible to imagine a world without the Nissan Skyline GT-R.