Up until a few weeks ago i was daily driving a 1980 Chrysler T&C wagon.
I parked it because it has ac and it's now nice enough in South Texas to drive cars that don't have ac, so I started driving my 1987 Montero.
The oldest car I ever actually DD'd was my 1977 242dl. I'd like to improve on that number.
buzzboy said:Cotton said:I have several I drive to work and just rotate through. The oldest is a 1980 450sel. It still has cold ac and runs real good, but slow. It will get a 6.9 swap once my new shop is finished. My commute is currently 72 miles round trip.
My race team has passed around our 1979 W116 as the backup daily. I drove it for a month, mid winter, while my e36 was down for paint. They're really nice driving cars. What wheels are those? I kinda have a thing for dark blue cars with gold mesh wheels.
The wheels are 14" BBS. I'm currently on the hunt for a nice used set of center caps for them, but damn they're expensive.
wspohn said:Until 2009, I drove a 1988 Fiero GT as my only car. I'd owned it since 1990. The picture also has that car's successor, a 2009 Solstice coupe (as well as some other cars that I used for sunny days only - if you can identify them you have good eyes!).
Jensen Interceptor and Lamborghini Islero? Nice!
My 1970 TR6 was my daily for about a year before I dismantled it, that has been my oldest daily. I do hope to have my 1953 Willys Panel be my daily if I can ever get to it, but then it will have full modern drivetrain, so that is cheating right?
I could say my 65 Corvair, but I honestly don't drive it if it's raining or too hot. Otherwise it's an 87 B2000.
You guys are a bunch of enablers. Now I keep looking at model A's coupes again to use as a summer daily.
Even though I got knocked off the top of the list, this is the best thread in a while. The pictures are great. Ya'll have some pretty sweet wheels.
I'm a HS teacher, and I daily my 63 Volvo 1800 to work.. She's modified with a newish GM 2.0 turbo/5 speed, so it's not like I'm relying on the 50+ year old OEM drivetrain, but the rest of her gets credit for slogging 300 miles a week up and down the CA coast.. fun car :-)
--ccrunner
I daily drove a couple of older cars for a year each during college.
1983 Civic Wagon - I have almost no pictures. Bought it and drove it, replaced nothing on the engine other than the fan belt when it broke. 45+mpg but scary on the highway. I desperately wish I wouldn't have tried to engine swap this, I think it would have gone forever.
Also drove my 1975 Courier daily for a year, until the lack of heat/wipers nearly stranded me on the way home from work in an ice storm one day. Then I decided I should probably have a real, functional car.
Cotton said:wspohn said:Until 2009, I drove a 1988 Fiero GT as my only car. I'd owned it since 1990. The picture also has that car's successor, a 2009 Solstice coupe (as well as some other cars that I used for sunny days only - if you can identify them you have good eyes!).
Jensen Interceptor and Lamborghini Islero? Nice!
Yeah - too many cars, not enough spots to put them. Sold the Islero and am currently putting the Interceptor back on the road for next summer. Loved that Fiero - built a 300 bhp turbo engine for it. Oh yeah - sold an MGC after we moved and bought a BMW Z4MC, so that was a break even.
ccrunner said:I'm a HS teacher, and I daily my 63 Volvo 1800 to work.. She's modified with a newish GM 2.0 turbo/5 speed, so it's not like I'm relying on the 50+ year old OEM drivetrain, but the rest of her gets credit for slogging 300 miles a week up and down the CA coast.. fun car :-)
Always liked the P1800s although they are a tad heavy (but solid). Have you ever posted details on your Ecotec swap? Would love details.
ccrunner said:I'm a HS teacher, and I daily my 63 Volvo 1800 to work.. She's modified with a newish GM 2.0 turbo/5 speed, so it's not like I'm relying on the 50+ year old OEM drivetrain, but the rest of her gets credit for slogging 300 miles a week up and down the CA coast.. fun car :-)
--ccrunner
More! We need more on this car! You just can't drop in here with "I drive this old Volvo with an engine swap" and not follow that up.
bearmtnmartin said:So thus far, does the crown go to a pair of old beetles? I will assume that Carl's other fleet vehicles do not meet the test as they appear to be occasional use.
You're right about the other fleet vehicles. Every year, I pick several fleet vehicles and daily them for a week or two so they get exercised and remain sorted out. While I get tempted to use one for the whole summer, I keep going back to the 1966 Beetle because its just so good.
I agree with you for crowning the Beetles. They are wonderful daily drivers. They are incredibly reliable, hold up in traffic, easy to park, have great ventilation so work well without AC (mine is light blue with a light grey interior and is oky even in 90+ degree days), and strike up a lot of friendly conversations.
If I didn't like the Beetle so much, I'd probably pick the Model T next as it clicks most of the boxes above just like the Beetle (except hold up in traffic--35MPH and a single transmission brake). There is a reason they sold 15 million Model Ts and 20 million Beetles.
In reply to nimblemotorsports :
My 1970 Mach 1 was my daily in the bay area for a number of years until around 2002, so not older than my TR6, but newer timeframe, can't believe I forgot about it. lol. It was put in storage along with my 1963 Falcon and replaced with a ford explorer when my car hobby took a break.
I dailied a 1969 Mercedes 200 for a year and a half in Kuwait (no salt) and from 2010 to about 2015 I was dailying a 1966 Chevrolet Impala in Washington state (no salt). Right now I'm dailying a 1989 Toyota 4-runner but occasionally drive my 2004 RX-8 in Hungary (half-salt) and pre 2009 I was either in a 1986 Maxda RX7, or a 1987 Toyota 4x4.
I'll say this. I do love dailying a classic. Especially one in good shape. But dang it, people cant pay attention long enough to drive safely and you're only one inattentive driver away from knocking another classic car from the mortal coil.
That and needing to adjust all the moving parts every so often kind of loses its charm as you get older. Points, valves, cap, rotor, and then all the things that are just worn out after half a century of use... It really makes me appreciate the reliability and comfort of a newer vehicle (yes, an RX8 owner said "reliability and comfort". That's how exhausted I was with it).
If dailying old cars nearly all my life has taught me anything, it's that I will really REALLY love an electric car (with it's ONE moving part). At the end of the day I want to play with my toys, not work on the car that's going to take me to work.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/grassroots-life-in-kuwait-mer/129933/page1/
I don’t drive daily, so I can’t play, but if I did drive every day, it would be in a 2005 model year car, so not old.
4 months a year 1967 Mini Cooper - no A/C.
8 months a year 1994 Mr2 Turbo
28,000 miles a year.
My DD was my 1977 Jeep CJ-7 since 1992 up until last year when the "race" engine quit combusting. Top off from April til November. Used to have a 105 mile commute years ago, but not recently. I have two other "modern" SUVs for when I haul the kids around in the evenings. I drive them all weekly, if not daily. I'm rebuilding the CJ-7, I miss it!
In reply to Hungary Bill :
If you think an electric car will have less fiddly bits when its an antique, I have some bad news for you...
And about that 'one' moving part...
As long as there's no salt on the road I drive my '64 VW with original 40hp and 6v electrics. Top speed is 72. So I don't even need cruise control on the highway, just floor it.
In the winter I drive an AWD 2004 Passat. It's also the only car I own with working a/c, but didn't even drive it once during the summer.
Am currently trying to persuade my wife that me getting another Mk 9 Jag is a good idea. Owned one for years and loved it. So far I'm not winning.
April-November (usually): 80 Fairmont w/347 and 5-speed dog box, when I’m not running the wagon.
All year, as long as the roads aren’t salty: ‘71 Country Sedan (Ford full-size station wagon).
Salty roads/nasty weather: ‘96 F-150.
I don't anywhere near have an old DD by this threads standards (2003), but this thread did prompt me to pay more attention to the age of cars on the road. I did about 200mi oh driving yesterday doing errands and honeydos, etc., and I only saw one car that I could confirm was born before 2000. I must have counted thousands. Busy malls, parking lots, highways... you name it. All late model cars and mostly SUV's.
Retail consumerism at its finest, I suppose, but new cars are friggen RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE NOW! My assistant in the brewery just price checked a new forester sport- $27k! For a forester. And that's the sort of affordable Subaru wagon! Yikes.
1980 for 20,000 miles a year.
replaced with an e39 then a 78
then got a 12 then the 88
now an 18.
Oldest I have driven daily was an 83 Mercedes 300SD which was mostly not too bad. I have also had an 85 Shelby Charger (which was awful, many, many tow truck rides), an 87 Alfa Romeo Milano (actually pretty reliable, but no HVAC or any possibility of finding the parts to fix it, and the headlights were too dim to drive at night), and I drove an 87 300SD for about 10k miles and still have it, but it has a headgasket issue or cracked head, and even though I have an extra head I have gotten so frustrated trying to figure out exactly what was wrong I think I have to get rid of it. Current daily driver is a 96 Subaru Outback with 477k miles on it. I know someone who has a 78 Firebird with a small block chevy swap that is the only car they have ever had though, so that would probably win lol.
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