The Volkswagen Beetle is perhaps the best personification of retro cars. It was first produced in 1938 and some of them are still seen on the road today. Others that may be mentioned in the same vein are the Chevrolet Corvette and Camaro, the Ford Mustang, Jaguar XJ, Mercedes Benz SL, and the Porsche 911. Some owners install upgrades to keep up with the times at the expense of losing some of its originality. Owning, driving and maintaining retro cars is demanding and costly, so only the real car enthusiasts have the qualities to own one. Still, old cars don’t have the reliability, comfort and the refinements of the newer cars, so the appearance of new models with retro styling was a welcome development.
Some of the newer cars have retro-styling designs that suggest a resemblance to earlier cars. These cars look like the old models that are popular in earlier times, introducing improvements in style and technology. An example would be the Chevrolet Camaro which features a ram air hood that has similarities with the Camaros of 30 and 40 years ago. The short-lived Chrysler HHR was based on the1949 Chevrolet Suburban. The old Chrysler 300 “letter series” muscle car of the 50’s and the 60s was re-launched as the new Chrysler 300 in 2004.