Cool Cars for Cool Nerds

Nerds are cool now so I put together a list of cool cars for cool nerds.

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[SpeeedCo]

#1 gift for cool nerds: a Ridge wallet/knife/keycase

[michaelfaber]

The 'A' in Volvo stand for Aerodynamics.

[Jmiksnchz]

As a bicycle nerd, I can appreciate the canary yellow Klein in the background. I apologize, I was unfamiliar with your game sir.

[mattpsz]

My dad who works for Toyota borrowed a GR Corolla for the weekend and the mad man said he was gonna teach me stick on it. Although there were growing pains stalling the car, when I got it down the GR Corolla is the most fun I ever had driving a car. Then when I went on to drive other manual cars they just did not compare to the GR Corolla, the thing is a beast. Not only is it a pleasure to drive I have the great memory of my dad thinking a literal rally car is the best thing to learn stick on. Have nothing but praise for the GR Corolla, it became a dream car for me when I got behind the wheel of one.

[revelare_xvii]

Please have mercy James, we can’t take these prices increases anymore.😭

[Skiplives]

I owned two Saabs, and I loved both. The best wierd thing on the cars was the “Night” function which killed all the interior and non-essential instrument lights, including half the speedometer. It was a fighter jet thing, they found that a dark cockpit reduced eye strain at night. It worked too. Driving on a dark highway at night was a trip.

[Staatus_Quo]

I have a SAAB 9⁵ Sportcombi Aero, it's the later "Dame" version. I get people walking up to it all the time "Is that a SAAB? Do they still exist?" "My dad/grandma/uncle/teacher had one! This is so cool!"

One of my favorite experiences is driving that car as just regular people of all ages that remember them hit me up.

My Volvo V60? I get very occasional compliments like "That's a pretty car" but only true wagon and Swede enthusiasts ever talk to me about the car.

[grigorios]

Remember kids, what makes someone cool is:

a) not how much money you have but how you use your money
b) not how much things you know but how much of that you can teach
c) don't just copy what others say but research, learn and choose by yourself

[EricTudor]

Skinny, white collar, data-crunching nerd here. I knew nothing about vehicle maintenance until I purchased a 5 speed Ranger during COVID as a "learning opportunity." Now I've got 10x the "car guy confidence" and do 10x as many "truck things" as the guys who own $80k trucks in my rural Midwest community.

[gabrielhoffman]

I can’t express enough how much peace and happiness to see Volvo get some love.

From being incredible drifters, to beasts at the drag strip, all the way to them being genuinely safe vehicles… they really can do it all. They’re like the Swiss Army knife of cars, and it doesn’t get mentioned enough. They’re work with Polestar, the R-Design models, and just being one of the most continually aesthetically pleasing (debatable) vehicles in vehicle history, they’re great.

10/10 would highly recommend to a friend

Great videos, keep doing your thing

[Sixpointtwoliter]

You nailed the GR Corolla.

When I see them, I'm like "hell yeah. They're cool in a nerdy way. That guy driving doesn't care what people think."

And then I immediately say "I'd never drive it though"

[EzraAlbrecht]

I love these car lists James, don’t listen to the people that don’t like them keep making them!

[SAABSINNER]

2 years ago my dad randomly stumbled across a listing of a 2003 SAAB 9-3 (my pfp). It was posted for $500 and was "burning oil". Somehow we negotiated down to $150 and I bought it and drove it home spewing blue smoke out exhaust.
Long story short I pulled the engine and rebuilt the head in my garage. Found out the turbo had blown so I ordered a cheap used one from a junkyard.
After it was all back together the junkyard turbo still sipped on oil but it actually made boost and let me truly row through the beefy little 5spd manual.
Proudly named the ShaatBox, it took me and my friends on many adventures and never failed, junkyard turbo and all. After fixing this car I went down a saab rabbithole and have never come back.
Sadly, several months after fixing it, my dad had taken it on his commute since my family shared cars (due to a lack thereof), and ended up sliding off the icy road into a ditch. Totaling the car.


A year later and I now own a 1996 9000 Aero (also 5spd manual) and I already have plans to get another Saab. Love these things to death. The 9000 is just as fast as modern WRXs and handles very well even on its stock suspension (though the body roll is hilarious)

[snfriedm]

FUCK YEAH! I'm a nerd and I bought a '90 240 wagon like 3 months ago. It's painted gold, stock, auto, slow as shit, has almost 300k miles, and it's badass and I love it more than most things on this earth.

[ericzwart]

My first car was a '77 SAAB 99 Turbo. Was a hand-me-down from my dad who drove it off the lot in '78. Had 302, 000 miles on it. Learned to drive stick on it.
Got made fun of initially in high school when I got it. It was painted "coral white" which had a pink hue to it.
That thing was built like a tank and I and 2 friends could stand and jump on the bumpers. My mom told me that a 1990 corolla rear ended her and the corolla was totaled. The SAAB had a medium dent in the trunk. The mechanic literally fixed it with a hammer. it was good as new.
Plus all the weird design, features, and safety choices done. Ignition in between the seats. Heated seats. The front seat belts were just straps and you "buckled in" by taking the strap and putting it in a literal scissor-style clamp between the seats.
The cherry on top was it was WAY too fast for what it was stock. Then I modded the vacuum system to get more turbo noises and gained what felt like 10-15hp.
None of my friends had anything that could outrun it at the time and it started to get a reputation as at my high school "The Swedish Rocket".
It looked goofy as fuck, made hot-boi turbo noises, and was way faster then it looked.

After I sold it off when I was in college, I ended up owning two SAAB 93 SE and then a SAAB 93 Viggen.
The viggen was modded to within an inch of its life. It put down 386hp to the front tires.

I have moved on to RWD and V8s now, but have a soft spot for SAABs.

[celticyamum]

Honourable mentions (my list)
- Peugeot 106 GTi
- VW Scirocco (The relaunched one)
- VW Corrado VR6
- BMW E21 (or E30... if the current year is 2011 😏🤓)
- Porsche 914
- VW Kombi / Beetle (either-all, new or old as applicable)
- Datsun 180Y (if you're also gettin on in age)
- PT Cruiser (ifyky)
- any car that paved the way to the modern, well-known counter part - or the not well known version (e.g. the Toyota Celica Supra, Nissan Skyline R30)
- Japanese Kei cars

[lancefletcher]

Rangers, Sonomas, S10s, and the 2wd Tacos were the preferred shop trucks where I live for their entire runs. Ridiculously reliable, cheap to keep on the road, perfect for parts runs and junkyard picks, and (at the time) very car-like gas mileage. Also an underrated nerd truck — the Mazda B series.

[dhproductions]

19:19 Ah yeah, my favorite channel. Beeeeqs.

[RogueViirus]

As a current owner of a running and driving widebody Starion, yeah. You can't find parts unless you're going through one of the two or three guys who buy up every parts car in the country and then charge you "I need it now" prices. But anything routine maintenance wise (seals/bushings/etc) are readily available.

There's easily probably less than 3k of these things out on the road in the US. I think we've got like 10k members on the largest FB group and maybe only 100 or so actually have running and driving examples (at least those who post frequently) and a good chunk of them don't even see the light of day. I take mine out all the time and get loads of stories about people who have owned them or knew someone who had one in the 80s, but they haven't seen one out on the road since then. It's a blast to drive but is super slow by today's standards. Handles great and I can keep up with newer cars in the twisties, it just really doesn't have a lot of oomph to get back up to speed even though the full torque/boost kicks in at 2600ish rpm.

I do think BaT is a bad baseline for price on them, scouring the pages can net you a decent non-runner for $1-3k (that'll take you maybe a winter to get going again) and a good weekend driver for $6-10k (that will give you the occasional issue from 40yo parts going bad). Showroom quality run that $15-30k range. Swapped cars run about $15k for something with average grade fab work. Prices have been creeping up though, and the deal I got on mine just two years ago is unheard of now.

All that being said, I'll probably have this thing for life because it's a truly well fleshed out car when everything is going smoothly. Definitely way ahead of its time.

[tateganding]

Volvo 240s are extremely easy to work on, sparkplugs are on top of the engine. A guy told me at a c&c that the sweeds wanted to make a car that lasted 20 year because 20 years is how long a sweed usually keeps a car. Has a galvanized frame and the beforementioned safety cage,