My criteria for cars:
1) I buy the highest safety rated ones I can
2) I buy the highest reliability cars out there.
Doesn't really matter what they look like or the "status" level. Unless, as others have already noted, you buy a car as a collectors item, they all lose value as soon as you write the check. But what's the point of buying a car that folds like an accordion in an accident?
On a body building note, Steve Michalik, former Mr America, was just about crushed in a car wreck years ago, while still an active competitor. Maybe Pollux or ND has a pic of the car after the accident? It was in all the bodybuilding magazines at the time. I read it pretty much ended his career.