I think Scott have always ploughed there own furrow, just look at the new Spark. Not afraid to try things with their full suss bikes and committed to XC bike development in a world of enduro bikes.
Tough one as i have not ridden any new bikes, but there are a couple of modern Marins i would like to try, and a coupe of modern Kona's being a big Kona fan, though they do not really have the same appeal to me. Also agree with above, Scott bikes have some nice modern xc and dh bikes
Thinking about this a bit more, what "teenage me" thinks is cool differs from what "40-something" me thinks is cool. No doubt da Kidz today would look at some of the names we've mentioned and go "Not.... Cool.".