A bud that I swim with up at La Jolla cove asked a couple of us something pretty similar recently. Listed a bunch of higher end cars and wanted to know which one we liked best. I told him flat out that my “dream car” would be a late 90s ford escort station wagon in green. Everybody laughed but I’m sticking by it. They look cool …you can carry a surfboard inside and a ton of other gear …cheap to run …. good side visibility, and if you trash it somehow who cares? Somebody told me too that it would be a good choice for doing an all electric conversion.