What's the most interesting car you've ever seen driven by a non-car enthusiast?

Pretty much every car my grandmother had. She had no interest in cars, but my uncle is a huge car enthusiast, so she would drive whatever my uncle told her to. Her cars were:

• MK1 Golf GTI
• BMW 2002 Turbo
• Mazda RX3
• Alfa GTV6
• Renault R8 Gordini

Take your pick in whichever one you think is the most interesting.

SRT-10 ram pickup by an old lady who had no idea what she was driving. I talked to her in the gas station and complimented the truck and she responded that everyone says that but she didn’t know why or what a viper was after telling her it had a big engine from one. Still not sure what the story was there. Maybe she was playing me

Lady at Costco was filling up her Audi S6… the one with the Lamborghini V10. Her son was Air Force and asked her to “ use it from time to time” she just thought it was a normal Audi

My mom daily'd a clean 69 Camaro RS for a decade between 95-05 (give or take) and couldn't care less about it

My geriatric grandmother neighbor had a DB7 Vantage V12 Volante.

And she drove it often.

it ended up being about $70,000

jfc surely that's 7000? that's a whole new car... at least they're worth something now rather than nothing they used to be.

the story that comes to my mind the first is the neighbour to the previous owner of my RX-8, who had bought an RX-8 new when she was already in her 50s, just because she liked how it looked. She proceeded to flood it twice, then a service tech at the Mazda dealership sat her down and explained how to drive and maintain the car, warm it up, rev it out, etc etc. That car then achieved surprisingly high mileage (like 200k kms) before it was eventually sold many years later.

I knew a doctor with an Enzo and an f40. Both were investments he never even touched. His daily was an f150

An older lady (60-70 years old) that I occasionally see around where I live dailies a 2018-2020 STI.

My husband bought a Charger Scat Pack solely because it was purple

My mother daily drove a '70 Olds Cutlass W-31 from about '83-'87, she does love cutlasses but not much in the way of a car enthusiast. Yet somehow she was driving a 1 of 1352 Olds with so much cam it couldnt support vacuum brakes, as a preschool teacher.

XJ v12 driven by my 70 year old aunt

Knew a very nice Korean grandma who used to pick her kids up from school in a Mugen Accord EuroR here in Canada, one incredibly rare vehicle over here. She switched it to a VA WRX before settling on a Kia Stinger GT. No idea what she does or if she's into cars, but she definitely comes to mind haha.

We had a regular customer at one of my previous jobs who was like 70 years old and very put together and she daily drove her husband’s Exige with a lot of damage on the front bumper. Called it a pile but they didn’t want to worry about getting a different car so she was just slamming gears for all her weekday errands

Local middle-aged lady has a mint 2003ish Neon SRT-4, all stock looking.

Mother of a school friend from 20 odd years ago drove an E70 X5 4.8is

Granted its not even an M, but for the time period powerful suvs with quad exhausts where very rare, afaik husband bought it for her as a kid hauler

I once knew a guy who bought a javelin because he thought it was a Camaro

My high school principal had a supercharged Vett. Z06 I think? First one that went back to fixed lights (c6?) I'm not into vets and I was less into them in high school but we were pegged out in our Honda civic one night doing about 105mph (top speed was limited by number of occupants lol) and she flew by like we were going in reverse.

Saw her lights about a mile back, looked ahead and back and she was already on us. One of the craziest sounds ever. You hear the supercharger first followed immediately by nothing but throaty exhaust.

WEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAA UUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHMMMMM

and she was gone. Ask her about her car and you'd get "I dunno, I went to the lot and asked to see their most expensive car. They said it was fast and to be careful I think I'm getting used to it."

A early employee of Microsoft, a standard looking engineer ownes a Ferrari 250 gto, and drives it! I saw it at cars and coffee Seattle parked next to a clapped out civic.

50M DOLLAR CAR just out in the wild being driven as it should lol.

Ran into another Focus RS at a Costco, same color as mine. I was all excited and waving.

Turns out It was a little old woman who could barely see over the wheel. She probably thought I was insane.

just today i saw an old woman in what had to be her 70s driving a mint Nissan 240sx. i asked her " howd you end up driving one of these this is awesome" and she said " its the last car ill ever buy. it was a retirement gift to myself. bought it brand new." it still looked showroom. super cool

I was in a car club during my university days and we had some random guy join our FB group and post about needing help with his car not starting. I had nothing to do that day and agreed to meet him to help figure it out. When I arrived, he walked me over to a pristine, totally stock FD RX7. Trying to contain my excitement, I asked how he ended up with this car and he explained his brother was into cars but joined the military and was assigned to a base overseas for who knows how long. So his brother left it with him to drive it around every so often and keep it clean. I asked what he was doing before the issue and he said he just took it to the grocery store less than a mile away. The engine was simply flooded with gas due to the super short trips. I got it running after a google search and he offered me some cash for my time. I declined and said “I’d be good with you letting me drive it around town for the evening” lol. He gladly accepted and even let me take it out every so often so he didn’t have to worry about it himself.

My Grandmother has owned a few interesting cars. She’s had a 1998 Jaguar XK8, 1965 Ford Thunderbird, 2002 Thunderbird, but her all time favorite was her Chrysler TC by Maserati.

A super old lady in my town drives a stick shift Merkur - I’m sure she spent 30 grand keeping it on the road but loves it

There is an old lady in my town who drives a 96 turbo supra. It was her late husbands car and if anyone asks her if she wants to sell it she can get kinda upset.

I didn’t get to see it, but my mom had an RX-7 for some reason.

My mom just buys whatever she likes, always has. She drove a ‘55 T-bird for years, then mostly Eldos until they downsized in the 80s, then a Cavalier shitbox because she liked the looks(?!), a late 70s vette, an Allante and for her last car (she is alive but doesn’t drive) she bought an 86 Rolls.

Pops IS a car guy, but usually drove a company pickup daily. He did have a company car early 70’s El Camino with a 454.

My friend's family all drive Charger Scat Packs. The mom drives a wide body. She got it because it was purple.

was on the 405 in a shuttle heading to the airport, when i look out my window, and there's this beat to shit black 90s nsx driven by this older woman (60s at least). clear coat peeling everywhere, dents, scratches, interior is filled with garbage. who knows what the story is behind that. she very well could be an enthusiast, i just didn't have any type of chance to actually speak to her about it, so i'll assume she fits the scope of this question.

Not a proper enthusiast car but the guy i bought my first car from used his 3 door mk4 Golf with top spec BBS rims and the GTI interior and everything for his bicycle Business so he transported bikes in a 3 door hatchback golf regularily. No idea what made him think its the best car for it but hey i had a low mile mk4 that way

My mom is the worst about this. She owned a series of fun cars, all with manual transmissions, that she drove like an absolute granny. She had an Eclipse Turbo, then a Beetle Turbo, then an S2000. She shifted that poor s2000 at like 3,000 rpm. I drove it with her as a passenger a few times. I shifted it at like 8,500 rpm, and she was horrified.

When I was in high school, this girl pulls up first day of senior year (1987) in a 1966 white convertible mustang. It was pristine.

Her dad bought it at a junk yard when she was in grade school and slowly restored it for years until finally giving it to her as a graduation present. He gave it to her early so she could use it all year.

Everyone thought it was super cool and she had no idea why. She barely knew the name of the car and all she did was complain about it.

"It doesn't have power seats, it doesnt have a tape player, or this, that or the other thing."

Near the end of the school year we didnt see the car anymore and most of us figured she wrecked it, but it turns out she sold it without her dad knowing about it.

To make things worse, she turned the car in and bought a fucking Dodge Daytona! One of her friends said they gave her like $2k for the mustang because it was "old"

Her dad tried suing the dealership to get the car back but since she was 18 there was nothing they could do about it.

That car is now worth from 70-125k.

My Grandmother drove a Dodge Neon SRT-4 between 2007 and 2010 because she needed another car and it was just given to her by another family member.

No idea what happened to that car, she ended up selling it for an Impala or something like that.

Saw a tall blonde girl at the gym in a last gen Automatic BRZ with one of those bedazzled steering wheel covers.

My uncle’s best friend drove a silver 2001 Proton Satria GTi back when I was a kid. It had factory Recaro bucket seats, the handling was tuned by Lotus and it had a 5 speed manual transmission. All the switchgear was typical Mitsubishi from that era. The funny thing was that he bought the car for next to nothing, since the local Proton dealer packed up shop in the early 2000s and got rid of their new old stock vehicles.

He used to pick me up from music classes when my dad was tied up at work. I vividly remember staring at little things like the silver color radio, the fake rivets surrounding the shifter, the white dials in the gauge cluster and the orange backlighting on all the switches and gauges at night. I got excited whenever he came to pick me up.

Also a physician story. Worked with an older physician, of a Cadillac-driving physician generation. One Monday we're talking about the weekend and he mentions he bought a new car. "What kind," I asked. "A Corvette," he said matter of factly, no bragging or really anything, he could had easily have said, "another Cadillac." So I'm pretty excited for him and start asking all sorts of questions, most of which he legitimately has no idea, as he's not in any way a car guy. So finally, I ask, "I don't get it, why did you buy it?" "I liked the color," he said. It was green, like kelly green, and his last name is...Kelly. "Uh, ok, and do you like it," is all I can muster in response. "Yeah, it's pretty nice. Not too good in the snow." was his answer.

Aren't most cars are driven by non enthusiasts

When I was in the Air Force, there was a young guy who was getting kicked out. At some point we figured out that he had been borrowing money from another Airman to the tune of $6,000 and had not yet paid him back. The First Sergeant made him come up with a plan to pay him before he got out. He ended up giving the guy his mid-90s turbo, AWD Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. This was a very sought-after car at the time (slightly post Fast and Furious). The kid had no idea what he had. He also got kicked out shortly afterward so I have no idea what happened to the car.

Mercedes SLS - Middle aged woman at the supermarket, complimented her on the car, she said it's ridiculous and she hates it, and her stupid husband bought if for her, and she misses her Camry.

My best friend responded to a newspaper ad (yeah, we're old) for a Corvair from a widow at a decent price. He got there and he saw it was a Corvette. Lady, this is a Corvette! She responded with "Does that mean you don't want it?"

MF drove Audi urquattro and didn't give a fuck. I offered him rather nice amount of money for that car and he just replied: "nah it still runs good for me" Fucker sold it few years later to some balkan redneck that ruined it with plastic body kit and lack of basic care and it ended up on scrap yard. Damn some people

I think the most common scenario for this kind of thing is the performance trims of theoretically normal cars from big brands.

There's someone I work with who has an AMG GT 4 door and has absolutely no interest in the car beyond it being an expensive Mercedes.

Similar experience in the past with someone who had an X5M for the same reason - I'm imagining the mindset is "What's the top trim X5 you sell?" and just buying that one without actually understanding the nuances of which would fit their situation/make the most sense.

Old woman driving a mitsubishi pajero Evolution I'm sure she had no clue what she was driving

Neighbor has a blue F90 M5 Comp. I’m in Silicon Valley and she’s a tech worker, recent immigrant to the US, and has 0 interest in cars. Hell it even has a student driver sticker on the back.

In my hometown there was an old lady driving around in a purple VW Corrado G60

Torontonian here. Asian mom's driving Lamborghini Urus's.

I think the realtor for the old apartment i lived in. He had a really clean white BMW 750 IL. The one time I got to talk to him about it, he said he just liked how smoothly it cruised on the highway and that it had plenty of power even at highway speeds.

There are quite a few older ladies still driving S2000s because you couldn’t get an NB Miata with a power top.

I can’t think of many examples as a lot of people in my life have been into cars in some capacity. I guess the best example I can think of is a friend of mine who has a stick Volvo S70 T5. Their grandparents bought it brand new, then their parents got it handed down to them. My friend in question knows just how ridiculously rare these are. Anyone else in their family? I dunno.

I don't know if you'd consider this interesting, but I often see S/RS Audis, AMG Mercedes, and M cars driven around by wealthy older people. A ton of these people are really not car people at all, and might not even know (or care) that their cars are high performance machines, but just bought them because they serve as reminders of their wealth and are luxurious with nice interiors. I've been stuck in traffic so many times behind some ancient dinosaur driving a fully loaded Audi/Mercedes/BMW going 5 below the speed limit.

Used to see an older lady gingerly pull into the corner grocer in a super minty, silver 1st gen MR2 to get her weekly groceries.

Never had a chance to talk with her, but that machine always looked showroom fresh.

My aunt had a stick-shift Jeep TJ that was purple. 4.0, tan soft top that she took off occasionally even. Considering most cars she owned were cheap NPC cars (she replaced it with a Ford Windstar, for example) it was an interesting choice.

A long time ago, my mom and dad took my new 1990 Eclipse turbo to some party. It had blacked out windows and a big Dead sticker on the back. My dad hadn't driven a manual in decades, so it was kinda funny watching him drive away.

This fall/winter, I'm making my non-enthusiast wife take the V Driving Academy course that came with our Blackwing purchase.

My grandmother had a Oldsmobile 442, she liked it because it was two door and easier to park in the garage.

Some really old ladies that went to the same church growing up drove assorted sports cars. The ones I remember: Trans am Mustang Miata They would all park next to each other.

My mom had a 2004 WRX. Doesn't care much about cars.

I worked with a gay guy who imported and daily drove a right hand drive Nissan Figaro. No interest in talking to people about the car beyond "it's so cute".

My mom had a Celica Supra and mk3 Supra when she was in her late 20’s. She told me when she got the Supra she was trying to decide between that and a 3000gt, but went with the Supra only because she “liked the color”

Older lady in my area still drives her mystichrome '03-04 Cobra as a DD during the summer

My aunt bought an SRT8 Cherokee when she was like 60. Not really a car enthusiast, but she's always bought high trims and higher power options, and she always bragged them up. She would make pulls with it and just absolutely cackle with joy. I love riding with her. Lol

I saw an old lady get out of a Mk 7 Golf R at the Marin Country Mart Mall in Larkspur, and she sat next to us in the outdoor seating area of the Sushi place where we were having lunch. I complimented her choice of car, and she said she bought it because she'd gone to her Audi dealership when her lease was up and they were selling the R for a good price with very low miles used, and for considerably less than a comparable Audi. What sold her was that the Audi salesman owned one and loved it. She'd owned it for two years, and said that she liked the car so much she hoped it lasted the rest of her life. She loved the power delivery, the steering feel, and the ability to switch the suspension from soft to firm if needed. She said it was a total pleasure to drive in the twisties on Hwy 1, and she would sometimes find excuses just to drive. She loved that it had enough room that she could take four of her friends out to brunch after temple, could take her grandkids and their stuff to the beach or soccer practice, and she could fit a ton a gardening supplies in the hatch. She had no idea it was a "special" car when she bought it, but loved getting compliments and thumbs up from random people.

My wife’s aunt drives a Pontiac Solstice GXP. She knows what it is but has no interest in cars

My friend who has zero interest in cars drove this super clean extremely low mileage rx8 last year. Previous owner put a ton of super high quality mods in it too. He got it because his dad saw 1.8 liter Mazda and assumed econobox

When I was stationed in Oahu there’d be old folks driving assorted BMW M line cars everywhere very slowly.

Any gen 911 driven by someone who finally becomes successful and treats themselves to a relatively expensive car that’s seen as a reliable sports car.

My grandmother bought a 1968 Ford Torino GT in 1969. Drive it for years driving all the local hot rodders crazy. Little old lady driving a hot Ford!!!

My mom had a Fiat X1/9, which I have to imagine was pretty weird even when it was new. She's never been a car person.

A very old woman who lived down the street from me as a kid drove a Mitsubishi 3000GT.

We didn't personally know her but I would see her drive it up and down the road all the time, her husband had a Chevy S10. Always felt like a very uncommon choice for an old lady.

My mom's first car was an old Roadrunner with a 383 in it. She didn't know much about it at the time, except it was red, fast, and a convertible. She sold it when she was pregnant with my older brother. She wasn't much about cars at the time, but my dad found out about it when they started dating (this was post brother), and he's been jealous ever since.

The guy who taught me how to play guitar was so mechanically inept that he once had his car towed to a mechanic due to it leaving him stranded. It “just quit” on his way home from work one night. The reason? It was out of gas.

He pulled up one day and he’s in a turbo Merkur XR4Ti. I was fucking dumbfounded. Said that it “got him from A to B”, so he liked it well enough. I was a kid and unable to afford it when he sold it, but I always wonder what happened to that car.

For the uninitiated

There is an older lady in my area with a clean 4th gen Supra. She bought it new, and said it was because she like how it looked and knew Toyota was a reliable brand.

A friend's dad retired and decided after a lifetime of minivans that he was going to get his childhood dream car, a Lotus. He test drove one and was incredibly disappointed by how uncomfortable it was. On his way out of the dealer he spotted an Aston Martin and I shit you not, he asked the salesman "what kind of Lotus is that?" Dude bought a brand new Vantage and had never even heard of Aston Martin before that day.

Used to live outside of a very affluent neighborhood of old money. A very old lady drove outlandish cars because the grandkids loved them. She picked the colors.

Jeep SRT-8, orange with black accents, with a black and orange interior. Barbie Pink Bentayga. Pixel-Camo wrapped G65, with the V12. Red, white, blue, and yellow pixels. Ferrari FF wrapped with my little pony, saddle brown interior. Lightning McQueen Bentley Mulsanne Speed.

Spoke to her once at the train station. She doesn't really understand cars. Just likes nice cars and couldn't tell you a single thing about them.

Parked next to another GR Yaris last year and I saw a woman in her 70s sitting in it, didn't really talk to her as small talk is a sin around here but I presume it's surprisingly popular among older people here in Scandis because of manual + 4wd + yaris