What Cars Could Have Been Great If They Changed Just One Thing?

Menu Home » What Cars Could Have Been Great If They Changed Just One Thing? What Cars Could Have Been Great If They Changed Just One Thing? By The Bishop October 13, 2026 12:36 pm 56 Comments As the sum of many, many parts, the difference between a car being merely OK or good, or not just good but excellent, rarely comes down to just a few small tweaks or, even more rarely, one singular change. But it’s not unheard of. Today, I want to talk about the cars that came that close, how they missed, and what a bullseye would have looked like.

One Achillies heel of many nearly-awesome cars is the lack of available manual transmission. No, I’m not one of those people that believe any and every car could be improved with a stick, but there are a few that might have been seen as masterpieces with such a change.

The Subaru SVX is one grand touring car that was never available with three pedals. What made things worse on this automatic-only coupe was that the transmission you got was notorious for shooting craps prematurely. It seemed to be dying for a row-your-own ‘box that it never got.

The same thing happened with what might be the coolest Lexus-branded Toyota ever sold here: the IS300 SportCross wagon seen in the topshot. The sedans could be had with a manual but not the long-roof. If the factory had offered a stick option, they likely would have sold about ten, but in retrospect it could have been a solid 3 Series Touring rival. No wonder so many people do conversions on them.

Even some disastrous cars might have been drastically improved with a single change. In 1978, General Motors released mid-sized Buick and Oldsmobile sedans with a controversial fastback shape.

If these had been like American Saab hatchbacks with cavernous space in back, they might have attracted a following of those that didn’t want a station wagon. Sadly, they featured a trunk lid without even the benefit of a folding rear seatback. A hatch might not have saved them, but it certainly would have improved them exponentially and even gotten a cult following.

There are a lot more cars that were one change away from greatness, or at least more goodness. What are some more you can think of?

New bronco heritage without the heritage colors. No Boxwood green or Wintergreen or Chrome Yellow??? And, the Robins egg blue is not the correct equivalent to Wind blue.

0 Member The Stig’s Misanthropic Cousin 3 minutes ago *** UNPOPULAR OPINION INCOMING ***

The interior is far to small. In its current form, it cannot reasonably accommodate 20% of drivers. A vehicle does not need to accommodate everyone to be great, but a mass-market vehicle can NEVER be truly great if a large subset of said mass market can’t even drive one.

As far as I am concerned, the Miata is evil. It is the Lord of the Flies. The Prince of Darkness. The Father of Lies. Satan made metal.

I cannot understand how so many car enthusiasts rave about this vile, exclusionary temptress.

This is an injustice that must be corrected.

The Miata could be great, but only if the interior were 10% larger.

0 Member Taargus Taargus 23 seconds ago Reply to  The Stig’s Misanthropic Cousin Eh, tall people have enough advantages. There has to be something good about being short. And the Miata is basically it.

0 Member Taargus Taargus 5 minutes ago Honestly the last Camaro would have been pretty neat if they just dropped the beltline enough to make for reasonable windows.

0 Member FleetwoodBro 7 minutes ago Cadillac Allante needed rear wheel drive to compete with SL and XJS. FWD was one of the all time own goals.

0 M SV 9 minutes ago I have some thoughts about the bronco sport I’m not sure any would have made it perfect but maybe something that’s not one of the worst modern cars out there. For one hybrid maybe ev along with maverick. If they couldn’t figure that out just have kia make something for them. Anything with a cvt should have had an ecvt. It would make it’s an actual car not something that sits there and makes noises then blows up.

0 Member My Other Car is a Tetanus Shot 12 minutes ago Mazda Protegé: Corrosion protection.

0 Paradsecar 14 minutes ago I loved my MR2 Spyder, but I can’t help but think what a hoot it would have been with 2ZZ-GE engine from the Celica GT-S instead of the 1ZZ-FE from the base Celica GT.

Oh, and cruise control. Really, Toyota? Those stalks you jammed into every steering column for, what, like three decades couldn’t have driven the cost up THAT much

0 Member Carbon Fiber Sasquatch 14 minutes ago The Chevy Cruze would have been great if they had put the 2.0t in it and made a Cruze SS during the hot hatch boom in the late 2010’s

0 Lockleaf 23 minutes ago I’m number 55 on the SVX manual swap list from the old SVX forum. You are 100% right that it was a solid miss. I get why, as the manuals of that day couldn’t hack the power of the engine, but still a miss. That was a cool car. I had a 2001 WRX transmission and rear end in mine. Did the swap myself. It was awesome. Sometimes I consider getting another one.

0 04 Poor 24 minutes ago IS/Altezza with 3S-GE should have been sold outside of Japan. I get that they had to put an I6 in the export models to better compete with the Germans but the 1G is pathetic and the 2JZ is a boat anchor. I’ve heard that these cars with the 3S have 50/50 weight distribution and make for some of the best driver’s cars.

0 Butterfingerz 31 minutes ago Any Nissan without a CVT.

0 Sid Bridge 33 minutes ago 5th Generation Ford Bronco, but with a more juice-resistant interior.

1 Member Dalton 35 minutes ago The Toyobaru Twins (both generations) would go from Great to Perfect with large change of a Toyota-built engine.

Every AMG/Black Series Mercedes-Benz would be near perfect with a manual.

2 JokesOnYou 13 minutes ago Reply to  Dalton 100% on the toyobaru

0 Member Data 35 minutes ago Plymouth Prowler – V8*

*I understand the V8 was heavy and not much more powerful than the V6. Since we’re taking the Trolley to the Land of Make Believe, Chrysler sources an alternative V8 from another manufacturer.

1 04 Poor 24 minutes ago Reply to  Data Mercedes V8. Problem solved