- [Man] Previously on D-List:
- Today, I'm gonna explore 10 of the best cars
we never got in America.
We didn't get them in the states.
Never sold in the US.
We didn't get in America?
Never available in the US.
(bomb thunders)
We complain all the time about cars
that were never sold in America,
but is the grass always greener?
Today we are gonna find out.
We're gonna take a look at cars
only sold in America.
And rank them to see if maybe things
aren't so bad here after all
in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I'm James, he's Jeremiah and this is The D-List.
(kids clap)
- [Kid] Hooray. Yay.
- I like cars.
(shutter clicks)
You like cars.
We like cars.
Celebrate your love of cars
with the new Joy of Cars T-shirt.
And get it in au natural.
Also vintage black.
Get it for the low, low price of 29.98
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Check it out.
It's my favorite shirt to date.
- The first car on the list
is one of the most American cars ever,
the original Shelby GT350.
(lips smack) - [Group] Ooh.
- Oh my God.
If I could have anything.
(Jeremiah laughs)
Now these bad little boys
started as regular Fastback Mustangs,
but a chili-loving Texan by the name of Carroll Shelby
got his greasy knucks all over 'em
and turned them into legit race cars
with stiffer chassis,
better suspension and more power, baby.
The first batch of these cars
were all painted Wimbledon White,
which is a tennis competition in England.
I don't know if you knew that.
- I did.
- Fun fact: 'Cause these were race cars,
they needed to be stiffer.
And the floor pans from the Shelbys
are from the convertible Mustang.
- Oh!
- It has more support.
- Oh, cool. They got double stiff.
- Double stiff.
- Heck yeah.
(Jeremiah laughs)
- I think we got a little bit
of double stiff going on right now.
- Mm.
- I'm gonna say this is an S-tier car.
- Heck yeah.
- There are few cars that I want more than this one.
- Yeah.
- And I'll never be able to afford one-
- I know.
- But I understand why. - Yeah.
- At least I understand why.
- This car being expensive makes sense.
Yeah, it's S, top tier, baby.
- All right.
Not every car on this list is as cool as a GT350.
Another car that was only sold in American markets
was the Pontiac Aztek.
(both laugh)
On paper the Aztec is not a bad car.
I think it got a lot of gruff.
It was designed by the same guy who designed the C7 'vette.
I know you're a fan of those.
- Yeah, I am. (classical music)
- And it was described as quite possibly
the most versatile vehicle on the planet.
And it won a fricking JD power, baby, award.
(Jeremiah laughs)
But off paper,
Pontiac couldn't sell enough of these ugly turds.
(Jeremiah laughs)
And eventually pulled the plug and sent the Aztek to hell.
But the ones that did sell
were only here in the US, and a few that sold in Mexico.
So where does it place on this list?
(Jeremiah chuckles)
I think these are astonishingly expensive now.
- Yeah, wouldn't doubt it.
- Of course. - Of course they are.
But man, when these things came out,
this was one of the first cars I remember seeing
and being like, "What the (beep)."
(both laugh)
- I'm not gonna do the expected and give it an F.
- Yeah.
- I think it's solid C.
- Solid C?
I'm a harder grader
so I'm gonna go D.
- Okay. We'll put it in the middle.
- Okay. So a C-.
- C-, D+.
- There we go. Yeah.
C-, D+.
- The next few cars on this list
were only sold in the USA,
but interestingly, they're not technically American cars.
- Mm. - Okay.
Sometimes foreign companies make special edition cars
only for the US.
- Oh, cool.
- All right?
One such example-
- Mm-hmm.
- Is the Toyota RAV4 EV.
- Whoa!
- This was not only a US only car,
it was a California only car,
known as a compliance car.
Basically, in 2012 California mandated
that if large car manufacturers
wanted to keep selling combustion engines,
they also had to offer zero emissions vehicles.
It came with a very detuned Tesla Model S motor.
It was super expensive, didn't have very good range,
so obviously it was killed.
- Right.
- Years later.
I think this thing looks like absolute dog (beep).
(both laugh)
- Yeah, my first reaction was, "Whoa, I've never seen that.
And I'm glad I haven't."
(James laughs) - Yeah.
The front looks like a beluga whale.
- That's what I thought.
I thought of Dora from Nemo.
- Yeah, looks like a chubby dolphin.
- Yeah.
If that car could talk, it's screaming, "Kill me!"
(both laugh)
- Listen to him!
- Kill me!
This is bad.
- I do not like it.
- What do you thinking?
- F. - Yeah. Okay.
- Yeah, I can't imagine a worse car than that.
(Jeremiah laughs)
Toyota wasn't the only car company
that had to sell compliance cars in California.
Enter the Fiat 500e.
Fiat was not happy that they had to do this.
They lost a ton of money every time they sold one of these.
Fiat's CEO literally said, "I hope you don't buy it
(Italian music)
because every time I sell one, it cost me a $14,000.
(Jeremiah laughs)
500e had a range of a whopping 100 miles.
- What?
- And cost twice as much as a regular 500.
- It costs-
- Twice as much.
- Twice as much for you.
And then they didn't even profit from it.
- Yeah.
(both laugh)
I think this is a way better looking car-
- Yeah.
- Than the RAV4.
- Yeah huh. - But 100?
(Jeremiah laughs)
Like, we're not going on looks alone.
- Okay. Looks out of it.
- I don't see how you can make a worse car.
(Jeremiah laughs)
From a practicality standpoint, from a usability angle.
- Right, 'cause it's not like it's a big car.
- It's a little one.
- You're having to deal with a small car
and not it going far.
- One of the smallest.
- Right. Right.
- I forget to plug my phone in enough.
(Jeremiah laughs)
Overnight.
That like I would be stranded constantly.
- Right. It would be an issue.
You'd have a flatbed trailer service on speed dial.
- I don't think you can do any worse.
This is straight up F.
- Yeah. I'd say F.
It's not as ugly as the last one,
but from a functional standpoint.
(Jeremiah farts)
- This next one's a curve ball.
All right?
BMW E60 M5.
- Okay.
- Now the E60 M5 was sold in Europe,
but the American market version
had a special secret: a manual transmission.
If you wanna row your own gears in your M5 in Europe,
you were out of luck!
Sorry, dude.
Only two pedals per car.
That's the limit! Except in the US.
Why?
Well, originally BMW was gonna sell all of the cars
with a sequential 7-speed transmission.
But there's one thing Americans are good at,
it's complaining.
We do it all the time.
And American BMW owners begged for a stick.
(James laughs)
So BMW obliged.
And now you can hop on eBay motors
and find yourself a used V10 M5
with a manual in North America and nowhere else.
Gimme that stick, BMW!
- Mm!
- Gimme that stick!
- We need it!
- I think this is one of the worst looking BMWs ever.
And they've made a lot of really bad looking ones.
- Not my favorite gen for the M5.
- I'm a big fan of manual transmissions.
I think it's cool that, asked for one,
and BMW was like, "All right."
- That's nice.
- That's nice. So thank you for that.
- Thank you. Thank you, BMW.
- I do think it's a very ugly car.
- Unfortunate they did it in this model.
- Mm-hmm.
I don't love it, I don't hate it.
Like, a C?
- Yeah. I was thinking a C.
- Yeah. Middle of the road.
Next up is the Subaru Outback Wilderness edition.
Subaru made this special Outback
in response to American Outback owners
constantly modifying their Outbacks
to make their Outbacks a special Outback.
In America we love special.
It's got an extra inch of ground clearance.
It's got a skid plate so you don't bust anything up.
It's got a bunch of other rugged
and spride cosmetic changes.
And to top it all off, all right?
These bad boys are made in Lafayette, Indiana.
- Nice.
- Birthplace of Axle Rose.
♪ Welcome to the jungle ♪
♪ Shun-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n, knees, knees ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
I think this thing's cool.
- Yeah. I think it's cool.
- Again, I think it's fun when a manufacturer
will listen to the people who buy their cars-
- Mm-hmm.
- Notice the trends and be like,
"Hey, do you guys want one
with all this crap already on it?"
- As someone who's worked on off-road vehicles,
I'd rather just buy one already done-
- Cool.
- So we don't have to buy off-road and do it ourselves.
- I love it. I'd give it a solid A.
- You're an A?
- Uh huh.
- I think A is cool.
- It's not quite S tier because-
- Right.
- It's a Subaru.
(both laugh)
2017 Camaro ZL1 1LE.
This car, that's like a suggested password.
- Yeah.
(both laugh)
- This car was originally intended to be sold in Europe,
but
it got banned.
- Did they make it illegal because of the 650 horsepower
supercharged V8 exceeded European emission standards?
No.
It's 'cause the body kit was too dangerous
for soft European pedestrians.
(Jeremiah laughs)
Apparently those aggressive protrusions on the bumper
could slice your legs open in the event
of a pedestrian crash.
If you're so worried about it,
you guys already got shin guards from football.
Put 'em on!
Technically the ZL1 1LE
(both laugh)
can't be sold in California-
- Ugh.
- Or Washington either,
not because of the body kit,
because the brake pads have too much copper in 'em.
And copper dust is bad for salmon populations.
- Okay.
- Which is cool. I think we should think about the salmon.
So this thing's pretty cool.
- These are, yeah.
- But I don't like what it's doing to the salmon.
- I agree.
If Max didn't tell us about the salmon,
I was all on board from the beginning
'cause I love these cars.
- Mm-hmm. - They're super cool.
- They're great looking.
- Yeah, they're the bees knees.
But, unfortunately they hurt the sammys.
- Yeah, so I went from an A to a C.
- Yeah, I'm right there with you, a C.
- We have reached the final car on our list,
the last car we're gonna cover today.
And, if I'm being honest,
there aren't as many great cars on this list
as I would've hoped.
(Jeremiah laughs)
Hopefully our final car can change that,
and I think it might.
I'm talking first generation Dodge Viper.
(both laugh)
The Viper was never even intended to be sold
to anyone at all!
It was just made to say, "Hey Chrysler's still got it."
It didn't come with airbags.
Didn't come with door locks.
Didn't have exterior door handles.
(Jeremiah laughs)
It didn't have a roof.
- Yeah.
- All it had was an 8.0-liter V10
with 400 buff horses and a dream.
This gen Viper was also a death trap,
but it was an American death trap,
a small lightweight over-engined two seater
with thick wheels with only three spokes!
You don't need anymore!
Looks like a fricking-
- Ninja star.
- Ninja star! Yeah!
Yeah!
(Jeremiah laughs)
We're like, huh!
Huh, huh, huh, huh!
(tires squeal)
Carroll Shelby helped design this thing.
- Yeah.
- And it was only sold here in the US!
- That got me jacked.
- Me too, dude.
(Jeremiah laughs)
S tier.
(both laugh)
- Yeah, if this isn't an S tier, I don't know what was.
- Dude, it looks like Joe Camel's head.
- Yeah.
It does. Oh, hell yeah.
Yeah, it does.
(Jeremiah laughs)
- Thank you guys so much for watching this video.
I hope you liked it.
I know that rich dudes in Dubai
can technically import any of the cars on this list.
If they want a RAV4 EV, they could.
But the important thing
is that they were built and sold with Americans in mind.
Go and hit that subscribe button if you like this thing.
Hey, you know what else is S tier?
Hitting the like button.
I love you.