The End of a Personal Era

After almost 24 years and 193,000 miles of ownership, I sold my Honda Civic Si last weekend. It is the 2nd car I ever bought. It was my daily driver most of that time. My autocross car for 7 years. It was my first big purchase after finishing grad school.

I am not sure I'll find anything quite that fun, light, and versatile again.

What cars have sold after they served you for years and years?

We had my wife's Civic Si for 15 years--bought it new in 1999. I just passed 22 years on the Miata, but no plans to sell it. 

I still own the first car I ever bought so......

I'm keeping my Miata. It has so many miles on it now that I'm afraid if I sold the car some kid would get it and part it out on Facebook and that would be the end of him. 

Most around these here parts are what we call "hoarders". 

Almost 23 years and over 250,000 miles.  

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

The guy I sold it to is only a few years younger than me. he has been working on getting me to sell it  to him for 18 months. He is thrilled because it is the same year, model and color of his first car. His was stolen and stripped while he was in college.  

I don't buy or sell a lot of vehicles. I sell things when I feel ready for something new. I am ready for something new.

I've had my MINI for 13 years now, the previous Miata was here for 12, and I sold my GTI a couple of weeks ago after it sat in the garage for 17 years. The wife's Scion is 14 years old this month. I tend to keep cars awhile.

Car bodies hold up better in California.  Ours rust away too fast.  

A 77 K5 Blazer purchased new w/350 4 bbl, granny low 4 spd and dual exhaust without converters from the factory. Daily driver duty for 10 years on and off road. Towed camper, U-haul trailers and cars for many miles. A real utility truck. Sold to a student who installed a big block and TH 400, suspension and of course wheels and tires.

A 99 Mercury Tracer S station wagon (don't laugh) purchased used. Used as a daily driver for 10 years, it carried my bikes, canoe, kayaks, skis and outdoor equipment. Again, utility vehicle. Also used for vacations to Colorado (2), Wyoming and Boundary Waters. I would buy another, if I could find a clean example. Give it to my step daughter who wrecked it on icy road.

i bought a black '91 Honda Civic Si  off the showroom floor brand new.  Daily drove it until a few years ago.  It was starting to smoke, etc.  I saw a lot of paint, upholstery, and engine refresh bills ahead.

A fellow in Atlanta really wanted it.  I sold it.

Big mistake.   Picture taken just before sale...

I tend to keep my cars for a long time. Longest has been 14 years for my 79 panther LTD. I bought it in 86 on my last year in harness racing, drove it through 10 years of college and vet school, and had it totalled by someone running a stop sign in 2000.

My 04 ralliart wagon has been in the fleet since November 2007. In April, I bought a WRX wagon to replace it, but I'm going to sell the Subaru. Plan was to keep both, but we've been down to one income since June. One of them has to go, and the Subaru is worth more. It'll be listed here soon.

I've had my 88 C20 Silverado since 2008. It may eventually get replaced by something newer if I can afford it. Totally rust free, so when the time comes I'll list it here also. This is it two weeks ago, bringing home our new challenge car.

My 99 miata sport autocross car will be mine until they take my keys away. Bought it in February 2019.

The 04 ralliart, filling in for the Miata.

We got our Datsun 1200 in 1984, I sold it in 1998 because I had two other race cars. I bought it back in 2003 and have had it ever since.

We kept our mini van for 14 years, it served it purpose and after 189K the wife just wanted something new.

We kept our Protege for 12 years same deal there, we loved the car but it served it's purpose so off they went.

While the Datsun has great sentimental value if it ever doesn't fit we'll move it on to someone who it works for.

I tend to use mine up or rust makes them un safe to drive. 
 

Other than the obvious improvements in safety what is stopping you from finding a low millage example of the same car you had?  
 

At the shop I help out at now and then a member of a famous rock band that lives in town drives early 90s Camry's. Yes plural. He has several. To him they are the perfect car. He keeps replacing them as he wares them out (or they rust apart) with low millage clean examples. 
 

if you like something just go get another one. 

I bought a 1989 Civic Si new and drove it for 12 years and 300,000 miles. I only sold it because the rocker panels were gone and the sunroof was leaking. I still miss it every day.

If they were still making them, I still be buying them.

1989 Civic Si bought with 198,00 miles in 1999 when my CRX was totaled.  Been a daily then auto-x, and finally track, car. It has 330,000? miles on it now. No real reason for it to ever leave.

I bought my Jeep in high school.  98 model, bought in January of 2010 with just shy of 100k miles on it.  Now it's sitting in the back of my garage with 249k on it, being very rarely driven while it waits for me to fix some rust and a whole bunch of other stuff on it.  Can't convince myself to get rid of it though (and it's basically worthless to most people as-is). 

I don't like this question, not one bit.

Answer E30 M3, should have kept it.  Not just for the current value, it was truly a sweet all around car,  it just wanted more power.

I tend to keep vehicles I like either forever or until they're so used up that they have no value. 

My '78 Chevy had 200k miles on it when some kid tried to drive his Ford Tempo under it in some time around 1998 or so. 

My '93 Dodge RAM was the newest vehicle I ever sold but it had about 250k miles on it and was rapidly rusting to nothing when I sold it in '01.

My '01 Super Duty had a little over 280k miles when I sold it in 2018.  I really loved that truck but the woman I sold it too loves it just as much as I did.  She's done a bunch of work to it and it now has over 300k miles on it.

I still have and ride the '83 Yamaha Seca 650 turbo that I bought new in '88.  I have no idea what the mileage is because the odometer quit working several decades ago.  Apparently speedometers are a week spot on them.  I've attempted several replacements and repairs but they've all been short lived.

Its tiny, cramped and slow,  but this is the reason I can never get ride of my first motorcycle, the Twinstar. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to get it back. 

I think 2 1/2 years is the longest I've kept a car.  But I do regret selling a crap load of them

My dad kept this Oldsmobile for 17 years - one reason is we moved from Chicago to St. Louis and the lessor snow and salt kept it from rusting too early.  I only have this picture of the car.  

1968 Oldsmobile "98" 455, 4 barrel, most days was 10mpg when I drove it in high school.  Four kids in back and one kid up front with my parents.  

It had separate lap and shoulder belts and Pops yelled not to ever touch the shoulder belts as the insert part would rattle on the chrome trim if you did.  LEAVE the belts ALONE!
 

I bought this on Dec 26th, 1996 and I still have it (thanks to some challenge magic)

I bought this new on May 11th 1996 and just sold it last year with 146k

My very first new vehicle ever.  A 1990 Nissan Pickup that I bought when I returned to the States after being stationed in Italy (Navy).  It was about as plain and basic as you could buy, which in 1990 was VERY basic indeed.  Silver/Gray 2WD, 4-cyl 5-speed.  The only optional equipment on the truck was, AC, a rear bumper and the passenger-side mirror...yes, that was optional back in 1990.   I paid $8,500 cash for it.  The Nissan Dealer in Bowling Green KY kept trying to get me into an extended-cab 4x4, and I was very tempted, but I think they wanted around $10,500 for one of those, and the appeal of having a new car with no monthly payment won out in the end.  

It was, quite possibly the toughest, most reliable and most tolerant of (severe) abuse vehicle I have ever owned.  In just over 6 years I put over 200K miles on that little truck, and for every single one of those miles, I drove it like I stole it.  Hauled loads way over twice the rated weight, towed things much bigger and heavier than it was ever intended to tow, bouncing off the rev-limiter, getting second-gear rubber whenever the mood struck me (which was almost all the time) and it never let me down, never left me stranded.  THe harder I beat on it, the more it wanted.  Only mechanical repairs ever needed, apart from normal wear items, were a clutch replacement (under warranty) after towing a huge, heavily loaded 6x12 cargo trailer through the West Virginia mountains at 80+ MPH, and a clutch slave cylinder that went out on me the very day I left the Navy and set out to drive from CT to KY with all my worldly possessions in the bed.  Even with the slave cylinder blown out, it still got me to where I needed to go, and only cost about $30 to replace.  

God I loved that little truck!!!  It was uncomfortable, not very quiet inside, apart from the AC and a self-installed J.C. Whitney cruise control, and a huge aftermarket stereo (that had almost as much hordepower as the truck itself) it had zero creature-comforts, but despite that, or perhaps because of it, it was a joy to own and drive.  Drove it through FEET of snow dumped by the Nor'easters that would come through when I lived in CT (real men don't need 4-wheel drive to get where they are going in snow ) Never worried about how much weight I was putting in it, that's what bump-stops are for.  A long road trip in that truck would probably cripple me now, that bench seat could be used as an "enhanced interrogation" device, but back then, I didn't care, that little truck always made me smile.

I sold it right after I left the Navy in 1996.  I was moving to Sunnyvale CA for a job that came with a company car, and I just couldn't see driving it all the way cross-country just to sit there undriven most of the time.  I still miss it, and I would buy another one in a heartbeat if I could find one in decent condition at a fair price.  Not fancy, not particularly fast, comfortable, pretty, cool or interesting, just a great, reliable, tough-as-nails small truck.  Something notably missing from the American automotive landscape of today with it's massive "man jewlrey" trucks that cost more than my first house.  If any manufacturer would come to market with a basic, low-cost, workhorse truck that size today, I'd be in line on day-1.  Sadly, even the "small" pickup trucks today are enormous by comparison, not to mention overpriced even if you can find a basic stripped-down model, to say nothing of one with a manual transmission......  

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I bought this on Dec 26th, 1996 and I still have it (thanks to some challenge magic)

I bought this new on May 11th 1996 and just sold it last year with 146k

Cool Impala!! I have always secretly wanted a Mercury Marauder, but they are few and far-between, and I think they were all black, and, to me, buying a black car is the very definition of insanity....    I have owned 2 in my life and both times I have sworn "never again".  I just dont enjoy washing my car THAT much.