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Cars That Matter, On the Road

Posted by David Kinney

The first ever Cars That Matter vehicle is now officially on the road. If you’re planning a trip to Scottsdale and Phoenix in January, or Florida (Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Fort Meyers, Amelia Island and lots of places in between) in February and March, stop by and stay hi. We have cool Cars That Matter stickers in two sizes to hand out, and we would love to hear your impressions of our price guide.

It took quite a few false starts, and lots of informal consulting, but, happily, I think we got what we wanted to take to many of the auctions and shows that we will visit in the next few months.

Our choice of rides to roll with? Well, that’s the meat of this story.

It took plenty of back and forth emails between contributors and friends, and, as you might have guessed, a bunch of strong opinions were expressed. The words “over my dead body” were not uttered (aloud, at least) but the winning vehicle also was among the most controversial.

The criteria included some coolness factor, storage space (hey, we do publish a book, even if it is pocket sized, after all….) retro look — oh wait, I mean “heritage design element,” as well as some degree of affordability.

One more thing — and it’s a big one — the Cars That Matter vehicle is wrapped with graphics from the book. Not a current book, mind you, but pricing from our pages, nonetheless. Just so you know, even when parked around the office here in Northern Virginia, we have witnessed quite a few instances of folks reading our vehicle — it seems it’s quite a conversation starter.

Some of the choices passed around included any number of older trucks, including panel vans and sedan deliveries, newer VW Beetles, Minis, and the Scion Xb (the “Box”). A Honda Element was suggested but quickly discarded. The wild car(d), and it was a good one, was a new Jaguar X-Type wagon (yes, they made a few in 2007; I was as surprised as you are). But there was that whole affordability thing we had to remember. Older trucks like panels and sedan deliveries? Just the look we were searching for, but two things — most of them are heavily modified with late model drivetrains, and their overall size, kept us away. The Mini was a good choice, except for that space thing, the VW New Beetle had no support after the initial suggestion. And the Scion? Another excellent choice, but wrapped Scions are not hard to find — they drive by daily.

Our final choice for our first event vehicle is a black 2008 Chevrolet HHR Panel Van. The HHR Panel is a new addition to the HHR line, with no rear seats and side windows (other than the driver and passenger ones). The HHR Panel has a clean and businesslike appearance. We got ours with the bigger 2.4-liter motor, a sunroof, leather seats, XM radio and quite a bit more.

Look for us at an event near you sometime in 2008. We promise to be one of the few HHRs well worth reading!

Dave Kinney