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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.

Japanese tuner adds 1980s rally flair to the Suzuki Jimny

Since its launch in 2018, the fourth-generation Suzuki Jimny has been modified by a long list of tuners from all over the world. We've seen it turned into a mini Ford Bronco, a Mercedes-Benz G-Class lookalike, a clone of the original Land Rover Defender, and a small pickup truck. The latest Jimny-based builds explore a completely different avenue by giving the off-roader a look inspired by rally cars from the 1980s. Designed by Japanese tuner DAMD for the 2024 Tokyo Auto Salon, the builds are called Little 5 and Little Delta, respectively. The name says it all: the Little 5 is a tribute to Renault's 5 Turbo and 5 Turbo 2 and the Little Delta draws inspiration from the Lancia Delta Integrale. While both models were hatchbacks, the retro look works surprisingly well thanks in part to the Jimny's small footprint and boxy proportions. Both builds receive the same basic body kit, which includes a deeper front bumper that looks much closer to the 5's than to the Delta's and flared wheel arches, and they ride on OZ Racing wheels. DAMD fitted the Little 5 with a redesigned front end that brings rectangular lights and Renault's diamond-shaped logo, "NON-TURBO" decals on the doors for a touch of humor, and a roof-mounted spoiler. Blue paint adds a finishing touch to the look. Painted red, the Little Delta gets a specific grille with four round lights and bright trim as well as a specific spoiler. DAMD hasn't released interior photos. It looks like the Little 5 uses standard Jimny seats while the Little Delta receives front sport seats. Technical specifications haven't been released, either, but we have a decent idea of what's under the hood. Suzuki offers the Jimny with two engines: a turbocharged, 658-cubic-centimeter three-cylinder fitted to base models in Japan and a naturally-aspirated, 1.5-liter four-cylinder offered in the rest of the world. The decals on the Little 5's doors suggest power comes from the latter, which develops 102 horsepower. We don't know what's next for either concept, but we wouldn't be surprised to see both body kits join DAMD's catalog in the coming months.  Related Video Featured Gallery DAMD Suzuki Jimny Little 5 and Little Delta Aftermarket Design/Style Suzuki SUV Off-Road Vehicles

Suzuki considering Cappuccino revival?

It's not a secret that a few of us here at Autoblog have a crush on Japanese Kei cars. The diminutive sizes and cheeky looks of most of the segment are certainly endearing factors, but it was the sporting Kei cars of the 1990s that made for the most delicious forbidden fruit.
Suzuki's entry in that time and market space was the Cappuccino, a rear-wheel-drive coupe with a removable roof and roll bar, powered by a 657cc three-cylinder motor. The car hung around the Japanese market until 1997 (and was booted up in Gran Turismo form for years after that). Now, rumor has it that the little coupe could be getting a reboot around 2016.
The reports are still a bit short on detail; some indicate that a new Cappuccino could be built up on an existing Kei platform from Suzuki. If the new car were to keep the RWD layout of the original, however, that would mean building up the model on the live-rear-axle bones of the Suzuki Jimny or Carry.