†Adonael wrote on 10/26/20 at 19:55:31:
I had to go with Marcus because RK is my favorite car in multiple TMs. (Including TM:HO and TMX) It's more about the car styling and special than it is about the Character himself. I always liked how RK has a simple special but if you want to use it effectively you have tp ;earn the deeper ,mechanics behind it. (Return boomerang, full charge missiles, Holding missiles etc)
A close second is grimm. Grim has always been a fun and challenging cars. I know most will not agree with me but I actually liked TMX Grim alot., but I think it has more to do with how I had a close relationship with my father and it kinda reflects that. So I can somewhat relate to him.
I was on the fence whether to include TMX Marcus Kane as a legit version Marcus Kane. I did like how during the Hammerhead-Slayer boss fight you can only drive as Roadkill, which is a cool reference to Marcus as Roadkill, but within the story itself it just seems like there was no real reason to name the character Marcus Kane although the original TM2 Marcus was a family man (shown in his ending), but once Marcus and later Charlie put on the clown mask they transformed into a demon/Sweet Tooth so it's more spirit possession than it is dissociative identity disorder. And while Roadkill is in the vehicle roster of the game Marcus Kane wasn't the original driver of Roadkill in the series as you of course already know, even though 99 percent of fans think of Marcus first when it comes to that vehicle, especially because Captain Spears is a one-shot character.
But you are absolutely right that it is the vehicle & special that make a character a true favorite, not so much the other way around, although the relationship between driver and vehicle is important too and probably why Sweet Tooth is the most popular, because the combination of evil clown & ice cream truck work all too well. It's a perfect marriage, and likewise Mr. Grimm was too although clearly the concept was Ghost Rider-ish.
The poll question is complicated though, because the most favorite recurring vehicles may have appeared 6x like Shadow, yet Shadow has not had a driver that appeared at least 4x. Hammerhead, Specter, and Warthog are also staple vehicles in the series who have had a share of different drivers. Mr. Slam almost qualified for the poll but 989 Studios did not use Simon Whittlebone in TM3 so I can't be certain Super Slamm in TM4 is driven by him, and then TM Small Brawl Slam being a construction worker kid rather than an architect kid made him unintentionally seem more like Auger/Buster Cobb.
Then you also have cases where a recurring driver, or driver with a recurring driver name is driving a different vehicle... ex. Charlie Kane as Dark Tooth, Marcus Kane as Minion, Krista Sparks as Juggernaut, Needles/Marcus as Dark Tooth, Grimm as a pirate ship car, Agent Stone as Outlaw...
It's kind of funny to realize Charlie Kane is in more games than Yellow Jacket, and Preacher is in more games than Brimstone, but that's the twisted nature of TM lore.
So a simple question like "favorite recurring TM driver that appeared about 4 times?" suddenly becomes very complicated because of all that.
And TMX 2012 Grimm... is not a bad TM character like say, Trash Man. Not at all.
Underdeveloped yes, because he lacked a middle cutscene that showed his transformation from traumatized child to violent criminal.
What people are divided on is - Is he a good Mr. Grimm?
TM Black's Mr. Grimm was controversial at first too if I recall, at least to a vocal minority. He's not the grim reaper but TM Black Grimm is analogous to the original since he eats people like the original character ate souls & he wears a skull helmet like how the original has a skull under his helmet.
I'm not sure I see a comparison with Daniel Grimm and the original. With TMX they had an opportunity to make a brand new character, and they forced in the name Grimm and assigned him a motorcycle for nostalgia purposes. It's not just that he doesn't have the Grimm look and looks more like Papa Shango (nothing wrong with that), but he also doesn't have much of a Grimm -ish personality or motivation. It's a totally different character to me, but I appreciate the father-son aspect of the story too, and the emotion-over-logic type of wish was heartfelt and not as dumb as what Marcus-Tooth and Dollface-Sparks wished for.