My dad had a lot of friends who liked unusual cars. He, himself, was fairly conservative and cautious, the only time he went out on a limb with a car as a family man was a ‘66 Galaxie 500 7 Litre, beautiful car. He loved it, my mom was a little afraid of it after she spun it out leaving a carwash. Very high powered engine.
The swing axle was less of an issue with VW because people went into buying and driving a VW knowing it was different and appreciating that it wasn’t just “car” that you drove as you’d always driven. The air-cooled four was a much lighter engine, too, so the weight bias wasn’t as great. It was not a very high powered engine at all, either, they started out with like 36 hp if I recall correctly, so getting into trouble was much less likely. The Corvair went up to 180 hp.
Pacers? Sort of love-hate here. The later wagons didn’t look so bad. I have a soft spot for AMC, god how they tried with so little to work with. Despite it all, they came out with some interesting vehicles and a few great ones. Studebaker, I love them for the same reason. They had a few awesome ones.
My first car was a Vega. I wanted a small car. I married into a Auto and Body Shop family and they kept the Vega in great shape. It was perhaps the only Vega on the road right before I sold it. LOL I got a very good price for it from a young man who was very excited to buy it. LOL He couldn’t get over how good it ran. My husband had bought a car while in Vietnam and when he returned it was delivered. It was a blue Dodge Charger perhaps 67 or 68yr. It was really a pretty car.