I'd be delighted if I had taken the full frame version, but IMHO your initial crop gave the image its appeal. For me, it is the crop that separated it from every other 'car in the rain' image.
I think it's because on the crop your eyes see the foreground and are then carried back into the distance, on the uncropped one you just look at the in focus centre and nothing else as the out of focus areas just provide a frame.
