Core77

Take any decade from the '40s to the '70s and there's at least one American car from that era I'd love to own, with so many classics to choose from: The '49 Buick Roadmaster, the '59 Caddy, the '61 Continental, the '71 GTO. Then you get to the '80s and '90s, and I can't think of a single jalopy from that era I covet.

In the amusing but sad "Classic Cars of the Clunker Era?" Wheels Blog columnist Norman Mayersohn asks if any of the vehicles from that latter era "hold the potential to become keepsakes, or is it just as well that pretty soon more than a million will have been crushed and shredded under the cash-for-clunkers system?" (He's referring to the U.S. Car Allowance Rebate System, which doles out cash if you trade your crappy old car in for a new one with better fuel economy.)

Mayersohn manages to find four cars from the '80s and '90s that might one day actually become collectible, but I gotta tell ya, it is not a pretty sight. Check 'em out here.