Our most beloved and adored contributor Jonathon Ramsey returns to Window Shop. He's just in time, as the wildest wild card, John Pearley Huffman, was unavailable because he was doing his actual job as senior features editor at Road & Track. There was some panic over who would do the introduction, and finally our senior features editor Elana Scherr made a pale attempt at Pearley intro energy.
The challenge this week was to showcase a car that was a personal pass at its introduction but came into favor later on. This was a difficult task, as the assignment wasn't to pick a car that everyone hated and changed their minds on, only one that each editor had to grow into.
Scherr kicked it off with a special edition Sox-&-Martin-themed Dodge Charger, representing her initial distaste for the four-door muscle car, which changed into affection after a long racing road trip. As usual, Scherr didn't actually read the description on her choice, which amused deputy editor Joey Capparella who pointed out that she had found something fairly rare at quite a reasonable price. The rest of the team was less impressed, as they couldn't imagine ever not liking the Charger.
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Capparella followed with a Chris Bangle design–era 5-series BMW, and even shared a John Phillips review of the car as evidence of its challenging looks. The fact that the review started with a reference to the 5-series headlights as being "serial-killer eyes" may have doomed Capparella's argument, or maybe it was the fact that he has yet to drive one.
Executive editor K.C. Colwell barreled into competition with a W463 Mercedes G-wagen. There was some surprise that the truck-friendly Colwell would have ever disliked the luxury square SUV, but he convinced the doubters of his sincerity by naming the vehicle's flaws in interior space, lateral stability, and steering before extolling its towing prowess.
Ramsey came in with a shocker. It was a Jeep, but not just any Jeep. Ramsey chose THE JEEP, a military-spec Willys. Scherr told him not liking it initially was akin to treason. Much discussion followed about the early Willys and Ford military vehicles, including where to seat a general, should you get the opportunity to drive one of these vehicles.
Editor-in-chief Tony Quiroga finished up with a glossy Polo Green on tan C4 Corvette. Ramsey expressed skepticism, but the rest of the team understood the choice. Some criticism was made of the car's weirdly maggot- or tardigrade-like seat shape, but Quiroga presented a strong argument in favor of his tennis-shoe sports car.
Who won? You did, because you get to watch this fine bit of entertainment by professional automotive experts.
Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews. In 2020, she received a Best Feature award from the Motor Press Guild for the C/D story "A Drive through Classic Americana in a Polestar 2." In 2023, her Car and Driver feature story "In Washington, D.C.'s Secret Carpool Cabal, It's a Daily Slug Fest" was awarded 1st place in the 16th Annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club.
