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An example might be a car that is fast, luxurious, reliable, gets great gas mileage, and is very cheap. Clearly we'd all love to own such a car, but it doesn't exist, and probably never will. There's also some naiveté in assuming it would.

Is there a metaphor, idiom, or other phrase that connotes this?

"Gee, that sounds like a wonderful car, but unfortunately, it's a _____."

UPDATE:

With regard to the proposed dupe - that question has the same accepted answer, but it's not the same question. Two different questions can have the same answer. Please let me know if you disagree.

Bungle
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    Dupe? http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/262415/word-for-a-desire-that-you-can-not-do-anything-about/262425#262425 – ermanen Feb 02 '16 at 22:19
  • it's a mirage or it's too good to be true. – Graffito Feb 02 '16 at 23:45
  • Santa Claus... – Drew Feb 03 '16 at 02:30
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    Another possible dupe: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/62299/word-for-something-difficult-or-nearly-impossible-to-achieve/62336#62336 – ermanen Feb 03 '16 at 03:07
  • @Drew -- HEY NOW!!! There IS a Santa Claus. I've seen proof! – Hot Licks Feb 03 '16 at 15:55
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    "Two different questions can have the same answer. Please let me know if you disagree." The standard on most Stack Exchange sites isn't whether the questions are the same, but rather whether an answer to the other question precisely answers this question. If so, the question is closed as a duplicate. I don't know the standards here at ELU, but that's the usual one on SE sites. – T.J. Crowder Feb 04 '16 at 12:34
  • @T.J.Crowder we had this discussion on Drupal Answers Meta and consensus seemed to be that no, two questions can't have the same answers but be two questions. The same module (here it would be word / phrase, I guess) can be a root of an answer, but at least explanation should differ. If not, then it's the same question, just phrased in two ways. – Mołot Feb 04 '16 at 23:19
  • There's also a related term sometimes used in software: "failed dream". Failed dreams are ideas that sound brilliant and thus are re-discovered from time to time, but they never quite work in practice. – biziclop Feb 05 '16 at 10:46

10 Answers10

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It's just a...

pipe dream - an unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme
Example usage from oxforddictionaries:
free trade in international aviation will remain a pipe dream

Origin: Late 19th century: referring to a dream experienced when smoking an opium pipe.

Community
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FumbleFingers
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You may say it is just wishful thinking:

  • Thinking in which what one wishes were the case is believed to be real or likely to become real.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language)

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My favourite:

Pie in the sky

"...an idea, thought or dream that is extremely unrealistic, even to the point where it begins to seem ludicrous."

Bamboo
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Fantasy

  1. The faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.

    • the product of imagining impossible or improbable things.

    • a fanciful mental image, typically one on which a person dwells at length or repeatedly and which reflects their conscious or unconscious wishes.

While "fantasy" doesn't always describe something a person wants to be true, it often does. Context can make it clear.

Jessa
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Consider chimera

A thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve: the economic sovereignty you claim to defend is a chimera

It is derived from the Chimera of Greek mythology, a fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.

Oxford Dictionaries Online

bib
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  • Unfortunately that dictionary has mangled the description of the beast, and the connotation I derive has more to two with having three heads and being dangerous than being impossible, s – Ben Voigt Feb 02 '16 at 23:24
  • @BenVoigt Wikipedia claims that Homer's is the earliest description: a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire. It goes on to say The term chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals, or to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling. – bib Feb 03 '16 at 00:41
  • @BenVoigt If I heard someone say that a economic idea was a "chimera", I would assume it was a mashup of two or more widely disparate concepts - I wouldn't necessarily assume it was "dangerous", but neither would I assume it was "fantastical", just that it took things that totally didn't belong together, and mashed them together anyway. – neminem Feb 04 '16 at 21:41
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    @neminem: That's my main point -- it means significantly different things to different readers, and thus writers should avoid using it where they wish to impute meaning. – Ben Voigt Feb 04 '16 at 21:57
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Unobtanium. But that's mostly about materials or components that you wish existed or that you could afford.

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    No. Unobtanium is a movie-literature-television trope- a generic term for whatever it is that motivates the protagonist and/or antogonist into conflict. Similar but not always identical to macguffin. – cobaltduck Feb 03 '16 at 15:00
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    @cobaltduck - The idea of unobtanium significantly pre-dates its use in films. The terms was originally used in engineering to describe a substance that the designer wishes existed, but that doesn't currently exist, such as high-tensile carbon nanotubes – Richard Feb 03 '16 at 18:39
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    Yes, unobtanium is from engineering, not film. – Simon White Feb 04 '16 at 15:27
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    @cobaltduck you're actually thinking of phlebotinum, unobtanium is something else. – Cat'r'pillar Feb 04 '16 at 22:45
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Gee, that sounds like a wonderful car, but unfortunately, it's just a castle in the air.

A fanciful or impractical notion or hope; daydream. [1570–80] Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary

Elian
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I like the term "will-o'-the-wisp". It is perhaps a little archaic.

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A little more risqué definition: Wet Dream

  1. Errotic Dream
  2. nocturnal emission
  3. (idiomatic, by extension) An exciting fantasy; a very appealing, ideal thing, person, or state-of-affairs.
WernerCD
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Holy Grail

Being a treasure that is highly sought-after, is difficult to find, and has even been the subject of 'quests'.

Example: Unfortunately, a car that is fast, luxurious, reliable, gets great gas mileage, and is incredibly cheap, remains the 'holy grail' of the automotive industry.

Meaning:

The Holy Grail (COD) is the cup or platter used by Christ at the Last Supper, and in which St Joseph of Arimathea received Christ’s blood. As such, it is a metaphor for anything that is eagerly sought after.

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2015/11/03/neville-goodmans-metaphor-watch-holy-grail/

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