QOTD: What's The Most Underrated Car Currently On Sale?
With all the excitement of the 2024 New York Auto Show and all the related vehicle debuts, I am thinking about the state of the market.
Especially with the unveiling of the 2025 Nissan Kicks -- the Kicks competes with one of my favorite "underrated" vehicles. That is the current Chevrolet Trax.
I have my reasons for liking it -- click the link above to see -- and given how bad the first-generation Trax was, it's a shock that it's so good now. That's why I find it underrated -- many shoppers and enthusiasts might write it off because the first Trax stunk.
What about you? What car currently on the market do you think is underrated?
Sound off below.
[Image: Chevrolet]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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What about a QOTD for 'vehicle that you disregarded/disrespected/under rated in the past but in retrospect now admire/recognize as under rated'?
It could even become a series with a column dedicated to each decade starting in the 1950's.
Dacia Jogger. Under 20K, very reliable, very analog and very reliable. Sadly it would not sell in the US because while people say they want a cheap, simple and plain car, they don't. European's aren't as hung up about options. Come to think of it, these would probably sell well in Canada.
An Audi the Traverse is not. But it will run poorly longer than most more exotic cars will run at all and won’t kill you with routine maintenance expenses. I have 3 Ford’s. Sure, the interior plastics leave something to be desired and the paint is not show car worthy. But they start every morning, each requires less than a $100 a year in maintenance and I can get it repaired most anywhere if needed. In Dec 2016 I bought two cars, a Focus ST and a Subaru Crosstrek Limited. Both still doing fine and each has about 90k miles on them. The Focus has cost far less over the 7 years to maintain than the Subaru and only the Subaru has required a tow truck (2 dead batteries) I’m happy with both but enjoy the lower cost of ownership of the Ford and domestics in general.
Alan, I have been living in France for the past two years and Dacias are everywhere!