1969 Pontiac Grand Prix Minus Engine & Chrome on 2040-cars

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Here are a few of our automotive guilty pleasures

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. The world is full of cars, and just about as many of them are bad as are good. It's pretty easy to pick which fall into each category after giving them a thorough walkaround and, more important, driving them. But every once in a while, an automobile straddles the line somehow between good and bad — it may be hideously overpriced and therefore a marketplace failure, it may be stupid quick in a straight line but handles like a drunken noodle, or it may have an interior that looks like it was made of a mess of injection-molded Legos. Heck, maybe all three. Yet there's something special about some bad cars that actually makes them likable. The idea for this list came to me while I was browsing classified ads for cars within a few hundred miles of my house. I ran across a few oddballs and shared them with the rest of the team in our online chat room. It turns out several of us have a few automotive guilty pleasures that we're willing to admit to. We'll call a few of 'em out here. Feel free to share some of your own in the comments below. Dodge Neon SRT4 and Caliber SRT4: The Neon was a passably good and plucky little city car when it debuted for the 1995 model year. The Caliber, which replaced the aging Neon and sought to replace its friendly marketing campaign with something more sinister, was panned from the very outset for its cheap interior furnishings, but at least offered some decent utility with its hatchback shape. What the two little front-wheel-drive Dodge models have in common are their rip-roarin' SRT variants, each powered by turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines. Known for their propensity to light up their front tires under hard acceleration, the duo were legitimately quick and fun to drive with a fantastic turbo whoosh that called to mind the early days of turbo technology. — Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski  Chevrolet HHR SS: Chevy's HHR SS came out early in my automotive journalism career, and I have fond memories of the press launch (and having dinner with Bob Lutz) that included plenty of tire-smoking hard launches and demonstrations of the manual transmission's no-lift shift feature. The 260-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder was and still is a spunky little engine that makes the retro-inspired HHR a fun little hot rod that works quite well as a fun little daily driver.

Junkyard Gem: 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP

John DeLorean began his career working on Packard's Ultramatic Twin transmission, but he made his greatest mark on the automotive industry during his 1956-1969 tenure at GM's Pontiac Division. There, he helped develop the first production car engine with a quiet timing belt instead of a noisy chain, among other engineering feats, but his real fame came from the development of two money-printing models based more on marketing than machinery: the GTO and the Grand Prix. While the GTO gets all the attention now, the Grand Prix set the standard for the big-selling personal luxury coupes that sold like mad for decades to come. Today's Junkyard Gem is an example of the most powerful Grand Prix available at the turn of the century, found in a Denver-area self-service yard during the summer. The Grand Prix got front-wheel-drive for 1988 and a sedan version for 1990, but then something very beneficial happened in the 1997 model year: supercharging! Various flavors of the venerable 3.8-liter Buick V6 engine (itself based on the early-1960s Buick 215 V8 and thus cousin to the Rover V8) received Eaton blowers, starting in the 1992 model year. The Grand Prix didn't get its introduction to forced induction until the 1997 model year, but it kept the boosted option until the final Grand Prix rolled off the line in 2008 (the final Pontiac followed within a couple of years). This one made 240 horsepower, making it King of Grand Prix engines until the 2005 model year (when the GXP and its 303-horse V8 engine showed up). The very last year for a Grand Prix with a manual transmission was 1993 (there had been a three-pedal Grand Prix drought from 1973 through 1988, just to put things in perspective), so this car has the mandatory four-speed automatic. The Grand Prix lived on GM's W platform for its last two decades, making it sibling to the Impala, Regal, and Intrigue in 2001. Until the 2004 model year, every W-Body Grand Prix was built at Fairfax Assembly in Kansas City (no, the other Kansas City). Production of the final generation of Grand Prix took place in Ontario. It seems fitting that this car's final pre-crusher parking spot would be between two other GM products of the same era: a Monte Carlo and a Vibe. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Build your dream garage with this insane prize from Omaze

Autoblog may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability is subject to change. No donation or payment necessary to enter or win this sweepstakes. See official rules on Omaze. Normally when we write about Omaze sweepstakes, they involve a car that you'd never go out and buy on your own. A six-figure camper van build, a $300,000 Ford Bronco restoration, a Land Rover Defender that's so beautiful it should be in a museum. Today's prize might beat out all of those, because not only could you win a dream car, you'll be entered for a chance to win $100k cash to go along with it.  There are a lot of cars you can buy with $100k. You could buy a Land Cruiser Heritage Edition or a Mustang GT500 or 6 Chevy Sparks and start your own racing series. Personally, if I won that kind of dough, assuming I also won this Bentley Bentayga, my favorite of Omaze's current offerings, I'd probably use some of it to buy something quirky, like a Honda Element converted into a pop-top camper, or a restored/upgraded 60 series Land Cruiser. Think that's a terrible way to spend the cash? That's the beauty of it. It is completely up to you. No one can tell you what to do with it. Except maybe your spouse.  Here are our favorite vehicle giveaways we’ve found online this week: 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition - Enter at Omaze Regardless of what you think about Ford using the name Mustang for an electric crossover, one thing is for certain, the Mustang Mach-E GT is an impressive piece of machinery. Here are some numbers for you: 480 horsepower, 634 lb-ft of torque, 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and 260 miles of range. Price? Well, thatÂ’s really up to you, because if you enter to win this Mach-E GT. it can be as low as $0. Here are the specs of the Mach-E in question, according to Omaze: Maximum Seating: 5 Engine: fully electric motors Drivetrain: eAWD Exterior Color: Rapid Red Metallic   Interior Color: Black Maximum Horsepower: 480 hp  Maximum Torque: 634 lb-ft Acceleration: 0-60 in 3.5 seconds Range: 235 miles Approximate Retail Value: $75,500 Cash Alt: $56,625 Special Features: GT Performance Edition; panoramic fixed-glass roof; Ford Co-Pilot360™ Active 2.0 and 360-degree camera; Brembo brakes; RTR Design Package including 20” RTR Aero 5 wheels, Nitto NT555 G2 tires and RTR Speed Block graphics Win a Restored 1969 Pontiac GTO - Enter at Omaze Joel Stocksdale, News Editor: There are an awful lot of ways to build a restomod.