Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Classic Cars Classic Cars as daily drivers
552 messages, Last post on May 11, 2009 at 8:03 AM
You are in the Classic Cars Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
| This was my daily driver for almost 8 years | |
in this. This old beast was my daily driver for roughly 85,000 miles.
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: andre1969 (Mar 09, 2006 6:21 am) I switch cars a lot. Since I've been on the road more and more in my work, I bought a new car instead of pushing an old one as a daily driver. The day to day grind in a large metro area is tough on an old car, and even a couple of breakdowns costs too much in time and money for me. So my old cars will just be toys now for occasional use.
|
|
|
Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Mar 09, 2006 8:48 am) |
|
What kind of new car did your purchase? Do you like it?
|
|
kind of retired itself. Looking back now, I can't remember exactly why I quit driving it primarily. I did find this 1979 Newport in the junkyard, just crying out to me, so I bought it for $250. Let's not talk about how much it cost to get it through inspection though!  And then the tranny finally called it quits. About a mile from the tranny shop that told the previous owner the tranny wasn't long for this world. I thought that was kinda ironic when I found that out! Nowadays though, I mainly drive my Intrepid or '85 Silverado for the daily grind, and in bad weather. The LeMans, and my NYer and Catalina convertible are strictly nice weather cars. I'll drive them to work, but I'm only 3 1/2 miles away, and work at a gated center with generous-sized parking spaces, so it's not like these cars have to experience the parts of America we wouldn't want to send our worst enemies!! Anyway, I delivered pizzas in the evenings after work back then, which over time gave the Dart around 30,000 of its miles. Now that I think back on it, the heater in the Dart didn't work, and the power steering pump was non-functioning. So that may have been why I started driving the Newport more. The Dart's heater itself worked, but the fan had burnt out. So basically, hot air would filter into the cabin, and the faster you went, the faster it would trickle in. In the fall of '97, I finally broke down and got the Dart's power steering fixed. Had to replace the steering box by then, too. But I still just didn't drive it that much. It was considerably faster than the Newport, although not really that much more maneuverable. I found out later that the Newport had something called an "Open Road Handling Package" that firmed up its handling, so that may be one reason. The Dart also got a bit better fuel economy, and had a much better sound system. But if nothing else, the Newport was lower mileage, even if it "only" had 230,000 miles on it, versus the 338,000 the Dart now shows on its odometer. Eventually my Mom gave me her '86 Monte, which accelerated almost as well as the Dart, but was much more maneuverable than the Dart or Newport, and got much better economy. Although it was high mileage too, 179,000, and was getting to the point that it really needed premium. Well, that car lasted 3 months, getting T-boned in the summer of '98, with about 192,000 miles on it. So I went back to driving the Newport, until its water pump went out on me. By that time I was getting fed up with it, and wanted something newer, so I found this 1989 Gran Fury police car with only 73,000 miles on it. And ultimately proved to be more troubleprone and expensive to fix than the Newport before it! Also guzzled like there was no tomorrow, but I LOVED its handling, and it accelerated pretty quickly too. Anyway, that got replaced by my Intrepid in November 1999, and I held onto it for a few years as a spare car. The Dart just sat around, got run occasionally, and then one day I parked it at my Grandma's house near a mulberry tree. A few weeks later my uncle decided he wanted to take that tree down, so I had to move the Dart. Only thing is, the Dart refused to start! And I've just been too lazy to mess with it. When it would get in the way I'd just push it somewhere else in the yard, or chain it to something else and pull it. I really should either sell it for parts or just have it hauled away, but I've just gotten too sentimental over the danged thing! 
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: jrosasmc (Mar 09, 2006 10:02 am) |
|
| Do you drive that Scion like you did with your Alfas and Porsches? | |
| today when I went out to lunch. It was in that "black cherry" color or whatever they call it. I never realized how close that color actually is to my LeMans! At one point we were roughly bumper to bumper up front, but I swear where I was sitting was about level with the back of his car! | |
|
I'm in the market for insurance for a restored '66 Mustang which will NOT be a trailer queen. While it won't be driven on a daily basis, it'll definitely be driven. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about insurance for older cars. How does Classic car insurance differ from 'regular' car insurance (limitations, etc.) and can I use my regular agent to get coverage or should I get coverage through one of the outfits which specialize in Classic car insurance? Opinions?
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Classic Cars Classic Cars as daily drivers
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
