Pros and cons of a 34 year old daily driver

One con I don't like about old cars- how I smell after getting out of one.  Emissions have made massive leaps in the last 30 years.  That being said, it can be mitigated if you want to.

As for safety, I also like to think I will avoid an accident.  But I can't stop someone else driving into me.  Just keep that in mind.

And controls- it's funny to complain about controls in new cars that didn't exist 30 years ago.  

Opti said:

Pro: Old cars have buttons and knobs. If I cant adjust a crucial setting with a quick glance while driving, just throw the whole car away.

I had to google how to adjust a headrest independent of the rest of the seat adjustments (it sets height automatically as you adjust  the rest of the seat) on an 07 Lexus GS the other day.

PS: if google leads any poor souls here with the same problem, to save them the same rage i felt, there is a hidden button under the upholstery on the drivers seat just towards the center of the car from the headrest, push it and you can manually move the headrest.

My '23 BRZ has everything to control the stereo from the steering wheel and scroll through the dash menus to see everything from oil temp to individual tire pressures. HVAC is all knobs and buttons. Seat heaters are tactile switches in the center console. 

Not all new cars are touchscreen only. Of course it has one where you can do stuff like turn off the steering responsive headlights (the headlights turn with the steering wheel). 

In reply to maschinebau:

The other drivers are what I'm worried about as well. It's shocking in just the last two months how many people have tried to merge over into me, cut me off, or pull out in front of me. It's not like a bright red car should be hard to see. 

I have always driven old cars - it was a habit picked up in the 1970s when the impact of the new Smog regs rendered new cars much less interesting than the older cars.

I drove old MGs and Triumphs and then in 1990 switched to a Fiero GT that I turboed and happily drove for the next 20 years until I bought a replacement (Solstice GXP coupe) in 2009.  Nothing wrong with old cars - they break, you fix them.

From a pure driving standpoint I do love 80s & 90s cars BUT...................because people are driving more homicidal than ever I want a car with side airbags et al.

When driving my 33 yr old camper van I'm extremely aware of how less safe it is.......not that it stops me from driving it.

Opti said:

Pro: Old cars have buttons and knobs. If I cant adjust a crucial setting with a quick glance while driving, just throw the whole car away.

I had to google how to adjust a headrest independent of the rest of the seat adjustments (it sets height automatically as you adjust  the rest of the seat) on an 07 Lexus GS the other day.

PS: if google leads any poor souls here with the same problem, to save them the same rage i felt, there is a hidden button under the upholstery on the drivers seat just towards the center of the car from the headrest, push it and you can manually move the headrest.

Interesting to extrapolate the handful of issues of a 13 year old car to all of the new cars being made today.  

Cons:  Leaks, my 32 year old Infiniti G20 has taken to leaking from the sunroof and windshield during heavy rains.  Puddles in the drivers footwell are a common occurrence during the rainy season.  

The automatic transmission acts like a CVT sometimes, it wasn't the best even back in the day (Aisin 4 speed VF103 i think) but it keeps pulling, so I keep driving.   I keep an eye on the fluid level so I don't kill it prematurely (if that can be said for a 32 year old autobox)

Finding parts has become more of a challenge with each passing day, even the junkyard supply of these has all but dried up. 

It's small and sits low (Tein springs) so it's hard to see in this world of Brodozers and SUV, rear bumper has been tapped a time or two at a stoplight..  (I'm right in front of you with brake lights on!) Never hard enough for any damage, but i get nervous when I see a vehicle come up from behind when i'm sitting at a light. 

Pros:  I'm driving for nearly free, consumables are cheap (Hankook 205/15 FTW) and insurance is next to nothing. 

My driver's window has auto down if you push the button all the way.

I can see out of it, and it's really nimble and easy to park.  

But.. I'm getting old, and a more comfortable ride is singing a siren song.  I just don't want to buy a car right now if I don't HAVE to.. 

In reply to alfadriver :

I wasnt trying to extrapolate only give an example. Not all new cars are touch screen or riddled with buttons, but many are. Ive seen plenty of hvac controls only available through the touch screen. Teslas for example are an ergonomic nightmare.

PS. HVAC was around 30 years ago.

Ask me in a few years when I hope to use my 1992 E350 as my main DD.  Granted, during winter months here in the salt belt, I prefer my DD to be something I can consider "expendable" and not care too much if it gets dinged.  Like when a coyote runs into the driver's door while you're on the hwy doing 70+ MPH.  If that had happened to my in one of the Triumphs or the 2006 MINI, I'd be pissed... in the 2017 minivan, eh... whatever. 

So in reality, what I want as a DD will depend on my situation.  Right now, I'm commuting around 2000 miles/month going back and forth between PA and NH.  I don't care about piling those miles onto the minivan.  Plus, it's a car that is cheap and easy to get fixed, whether DIY or pay my shop to fix it.  The minivan is also very well suited to the long drives I'm doing right now, keeping my expensive bikes secure and out of the weather when I'm traveling and living out of hotel rooms. 

Opti said:

In reply to alfadriver :

I wasnt trying to extrapolate only give an example. Not all new cars are touch screen or riddled with buttons, but many are. Ive seen plenty of hvac controls only available through the touch screen. Teslas for example are an ergonomic nightmare.

PS. HVAC was around 30 years ago.

You used the example of why new cars are bad as a whole.  

BTW, your ergonomic nightmare is not true for us.  I think I've set it once, and have left it.  If the temp is well maintained, there's no need to touch it.  And all of the ones we've leased in the last decade were smart enough to defrost the windows first on a cold day.  So I don't even have to distract myself with changing the HVAC when I'm driving.

I agree that I'd rather have buttons and knobs, but sometimes I don't even need to interact.

This all depends on how nice you want the car to be long term. If you don't give a E36 M3 you can drive a car until it's rusted into nothing. My dad had a friend who drive a 510 to probably a million miles, long after the odo stopped working, and had no more fenders on it as they rusted away. 

I bought a R32 Skyline as daily but wanted to keep it nice looking and for a bit it was hard to find the trim parts, now Nissan makes them all new and in the years I had it all parts are now fairly common. I also live where there is no snow. If you have a car that has support to that level and you want to keep it presentable you can easily do it. I think you could easily daily any year Mustang for example of this age or older since it's so easy to get the parts and literally everything is made. A less appreciated car would not be as doable. 

Both the wife and I daily cars from the early 90's (93 Accord for her @ 200,000 miles, 93 Benz 400E @ 300,000 miles for me).

Pro's are that both are paid for, cheap to insure and are easy to work on. Both are pretty reliable, though I do have to keep an eye on them to slow down the rust monster (Central Ohio gets it's fair share of salt and mag chloride) Parts are easier to find for the Accord, not too terrible for the Benz. 

Cons for me are if someone were to wreck into either of them in a significant way, good luck repairing them before they would be considered totalled. 

I am genuinely concerned about what we will be driving 20 years from now, since anything made in the last 10 years has no appeal to me, and fixing newer vehicles becomes more of a challenge as more unnecessary electronic stuff is added.

In reply to TheRyGuy :

In reality, a lot of new cars get totaled seemingly easily. If the car is hit hard enough for the airbags to go off, it's going to be real close to being totaled. 

Millions of us old geezers drove cars  without accidents for our whole lives. So odds are in your favor.
      If you are prone to accidents , I can understand not wanting to drive older cars, without every possible safety device to ensure odds are in your favor.  Even if not prone to accidents, and simply want to improve your chances  new cars are going to be safer . 
        However some of us simply like older more unique cars.  Maybe you can compromise a bit and drive those older cars on less dense traffic days?   I've noticed that both Mondays and Fridays traffic tends to be lighter  by a significant amount.   
That may be different   Elsewhere.  Or in Rural areas  traffic is always light enough not to be of concern.  

In reply to TheRyGuy :

Are you limited to the knowledge  of "modern " with EFI and OBD2 ?   Or can you set points, rebuild and tune carbs, and even do drum brakes?  
           

wspohn said:

I have always driven old cars - it was a habit picked up in the 1970s when the impact of the new Smog regs rendered new cars much less interesting than the older cars.

I drove old MGs and Triumphs and then in 1990 switched to a Fiero GT that I turboed and happily drove for the next 20 years until I bought a replacement (Solstice GXP coupe) in 2009.  Nothing wrong with old cars - they break, you fix them.

It really depends on your personal situation.  When driving 65-85,000 miles per year. Older daily drivers are not viable.   Reliability and the importance of schedules  is.  In that era  The reliable life of a car was seldom over 100,000 miles so replacements came frequently.  With high mileage on the odometer trade ins were of tiny value.  So they became the wife's car and eventually handed down to children.  Driving a 3-4 year old car to school gave sensitive teenagers a minor level of status. 

frenchyd said:

My "daily"  will be a 51 year old Jaguar XJ12 sedan.   Needs a fresh coat of paint I'll do myself.  Plus an engine swap from a 6-12.  Oh the rubber gaskets around the windshield and back glass needs replacement.   
  But it's 21 years newer than my other driver an MGTD 

You have told us many times that you drive a late model Ford pickup, not an MGTD ? 

My daily driver is 27 years old but it's my legit daily. It's not really a challenge. RockAuto keeps me supplied for any maintenance needs it has. I don't need a newer car as a backup. 

DirtyBird222 said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Opti said:

In reply to maschinenbau :

Yah but you can actually see out of an old car, so im less likely to run into something obstructed by a 9 foot wide a pillar.

That is one of the things that scares me about SUVs.  I get in them and they have sun shades over the driver window, cell phone holder on the dash, acres of kitschy crap hanging from the mirror, etc. with the end result is that your view outward is a narrow slit.

My takeaway is that the people driving them do not give a E36 M3 if they hit anything.

What about Jeeple and their 9000 rubber ducks on the dash, $40k and 1200lbs extra of never used overlanding/offroad equipment, along with cellphone/tablet holders, and so on? 

Seriously, a Meijer near me has started keeping rubber duckies near the checkout with the candy bars because of this.

My wife's daily is a 1989 Nissan Pao, a JDM car with very few parts available here in the US.  Don't want to jinx her, but it's been totally drama free.  I have replaced the exhaust and charged the AC once.  It helps of course that we bought a very pristine, low mileage example of the Pao.  She also works from home and puts very few miles on it; she just doesn't drive a lot period.

I have a 43 year old driver, and I could daily it, but since it's a 1980 C10 that gets ~10 mpg, I don't want the gas bill.

My daughter is in a '94 Saturn that we bought 3 years ago with 23K miles.  Been mostly drama free save for a trans fluid filter leak.  Not sure how it still runs after she ran the fluid down to the point it wouldn't drive, twice, but it still does.  I added a newer stereo with USB/bluetooth/hands free cell phone capability because I don't want any more phone-induced incidents.  Being pre-OBDII, there's no emissions test in Wisconsin.  On the other hand I really like OBDII for the diagnostic assistance it provides.

The only thing that sucks about the car is GM's early attempt at passive restraints - the door mounted motorized seat belts.

Now that I work from home, I put very few miles on my '06 Mustang. I intend to drive it as my daily for eternity (I'm 58). Unless someone crashes into it; then I'll just search for another one.

Mrs David gets the newer car, because she drives a lot more and I basically never want to hear about it. While she has had somewhat interesting cars (Jettas, Subarus with mods) she's now of the age where ingress/egress is starting to matter. So, a nondescript crossover it will be. I'm pretty apalled at all the junk on even the lower end models. I don't want a CVT, lane departure warning, touch screen, etc.  To me, it's all just crap that will break. 

So, one modern vehicle to deal with. Meanwhile, I revel in the relative simplicity of my Mustang, the '93 F150 Lightning and '66 Falcon that I can still fix darn near everything myself, usually for less than a single car payment.

frenchyd said:

Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:

frenchyd said:

My "daily"  will be a 51 year old Jaguar XJ12 sedan.   Needs a fresh coat of paint I'll do myself.  Plus an engine swap from a 6-12.  Oh the rubber gaskets around the windshield and back glass needs replacement.   
  But it's 21 years newer than my other driver an MGTD 

You have told us many times that you drive a late model Ford pickup, not an MGTD ? 

Cousin Eddie.  Please go back and reread that.  
You either misread that or are confused 

This is one of the cons of daily driving an older car. People will feel the need to tell about their project car, and all the things they are "gonna do."

In reply to Racebrick :

You said that well. I had composed and deleted two different responses this morning.

I take pride in the fact that I truly daily drive older vehicles. Every single vehicle I own is able to wear Texas Antique license plates if I chose to. Rain or shine, 365 per year, if I go somewhere, it's in one of my old vehicles. I have no late model backup plan. It does require me to not be lazy and address any maintenance issues that pop up. 

GCrites said:

DirtyBird222 said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Opti said:

In reply to maschinenbau :

Yah but you can actually see out of an old car, so im less likely to run into something obstructed by a 9 foot wide a pillar.

That is one of the things that scares me about SUVs.  I get in them and they have sun shades over the driver window, cell phone holder on the dash, acres of kitschy crap hanging from the mirror, etc. with the end result is that your view outward is a narrow slit.

My takeaway is that the people driving them do not give a E36 M3 if they hit anything.

What about Jeeple and their 9000 rubber ducks on the dash, $40k and 1200lbs extra of never used overlanding/offroad equipment, along with cellphone/tablet holders, and so on? 

Seriously, a Meijer near me has started keeping rubber duckies near the checkout with the candy bars because of this.

My ex-father-in-law bought a Jeep and within a week he already had like 40 rubber duckies on his dash. I always knew there was something wrong with him.