"Honey look! This Aston Martin Cygnet Colette Edition comes with a pillow and a cool CD."
"That's why we should buy it." *spends an obscene amount on what actually is a Toyota iQ*
Anyways, I know the manufacturers tricks. I still love them, here's my rationale: In the future, where nobody has a sense of humor and cars are all gray we will be thinking about odd vehicles of old. We will be wishing our cars came with a special bicycle or our interiors were clad with denim. Cars can be so serious sometimes, its nice to see a little bit of cheese in the design. Below are some of my favorite "edition" cars.
Saab 9 5 Gary Fisher Edition: This is literally a wagon you bought from the dealer with a bicycle strapped to the roof. According to a recent Jalopnik, Gary Fisher was the creator of the modern mountain bike. You could get this car with the 2.3 liter turbo 4 and a 5 speed. So really how could you go wrong? The wagon had a special wheels, bumpers, side skirts, bike rack, and of course the bike.
1978 Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car Edition: Picture yourself in late 70s America: Disco was winding down, cars were slow, everything was brown. Coming down the street was this pointy Corvette with an anemic 350. The car made up for its dismal performance in looks. It had this great two tone black and silver paint scheme with red pace car lettering up the side. The wackiest part about this car was the interior. It was all silver! I don't think I have seen an interior quite like it.
1982 Chrysler Imperial Frank Sinatra Edition: "Fly me to the moon, let me play among the cars" was probably along the lines of what Chrysler was thinking with this one. I believe you could only get this plush pimp-mobile in blue with a blue interior. This Imperial had a digital dashboard and fuel injection, which is pretty frightening because I'm going to bet they didn't work well. This boat came with a cassette player complete with Sinatra's music.
Fiat 695 Abarth Tributo Ferrari/Maserati: I love a quality Fiat. These two are no exception. These Abarth's have been given a louder exhaust system, more power, and a paddle shift transmission. The Ferrari edition was given Scuderia stripes and wheels similar to the 360 Challenge Stradale. Yes of course it was a very Italian rosso red. The Maserati edition was a much more tame design, a deep shade of purple and wheels that mirrored those of a GranTurismo.
Dodge Dart Hang 10 Edition: "Hey dude we totally need a coupe that can fit our surfboard", and the Hang 10 was born. It sported a red and blue side tripe with a surfer. These Darts were white with a white and red interior. The seats and door panels had these crazy striped inserts. The sales pitch was that the rear seats could fold flat so a surfboard could fit in the trunk, not a bad plan.
VW Golf Harlequin Edition: MKIII VW Golfs got crazy, they had all kinds of special editions including a Bon Jovi and Rolling Stones edition. The most striking are these insanely rare Harlequin editions. The paint scheme is based on a harlequin (jester). This is so unlike the sensible Germans it has to be on the list.
AMC Gremlin Levi Edition: How could I not acknowledge this very 1970's ride? Denim blue color with some white stripes, with an out of this world faux-denim interior. The seats even have buttons and tags like the real Levi jeans. I think the story goes that AMC couldn't make the interior out of actual denim because it catches on fire too easily. Super rare, super wacky, super awesome.
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