I was at my local tire shop getting my free tire rotation/balance on my car. The manager took the keys, walked out to inspect the car and came back in excited.
'Wow, you have a stick shift in that? I didn't even know that was an option! And its the sport model too!'
"Yeah, its a rare bird. I'm going to be sad if/when it dies."
I proceed to sit down and eat my lunch while they do the work. I hear him and another employee talking animatedly about it at the register.
'Hey! John here used to work at another store down the road. Did you get your tires originally installed there?'
"Yeah."
'That's what he thought! He remembered another employee he worked with falling over himself about your car when you brought it in then. The tech was saying 'You just don't understand what this is!!'
It was kind of funny, but it was nice to have a few people 'geek out' over a car that is pretty cheap in the scheme of things. I, myself, appreciate the oddball cars that the public generally shunned but have good performance and don't cost a fortune.
So what is it?? A 2008 Saab 9-3 Aero Wagon 6spd.
320hp, 25mpg avg, a manual, and reasonable utility just speaks to me...
Disclaimer By mmm standards, it probably wouldn't be considered 'cheap': I paid $12.3k for it in 2011 w/ 72k miles. It now has 146k miles.