Would you buy a garage queen?

A Bullitt? Drive it like you stole it!

Salanis wrote: WWJLD? (What Would Jay Leno Do?)

No true wine (or beer, or whiskey) aficionado got to be one without enjoying some booze. In the same way, no true car lover could let a car sit and rot.

Jay Leno would drive the piss out of it. When he's done, hand it off to a garage henchman for cleaning and preservation. If something really bad were to happen, he's probably got a squad of restorers to sic on it whenever the need arises.

Honestly, I would drive it. It's too new not to drive. Don't thrash the hell out of it, but drive it.

I'm in a similar situation with a car I just bought 99 M3 with 88,000 miles, so not a garage queen but still low mile for what it is and in garage queen condition.

I bought it to use as a DD for my 140 mile a day commute. I will double the miles on the car in 2 years or less.

I wince a little at the thought and didn't set out to find a low mile car but dangit the thing was made to be driven and I'm going to drive it...ALOT.

As far as I am concerned. Cars are meant to be driven and enjoyed. Yea it's great to have a garage to put them in, but in my books drive them, enjoy them, let others see them.

So that if you see special car on they road you can say to family and friends I saw a .... and I remember when ..... and it was great.

No. Cars are meant to be driven. Period. There is nothing to see here, move along.

I will never own a garage queen. For one I am pretty OCD about some things, if I had to worry about keeping my car clean and an art piece I would go insane. I always joke saying if I ever bought a new Porsche or something I'd have to put a few scratches on it so that can be over with and I wouldn't have to be so anal.

I see the reasoning behind collecting cars for investment reasons but it's a car. It's made to drive, it's made to enjoy. I couldn't ever just park it and admire it off of looks alone.

well as someone who up untill the last year kept her 03 car pristine to the point that every spring i resprayed the bumper for rock chips and went and got pdr on it for the door dings also every year. it was a car that looked like a garage queen with over 100k on it. i say drive the hell out of it and just do the work to keep her perfect. its a long running joke in my family that you could eat off my engine without even a piece of dust getting on the food (used to wash the entire engine weekly including under and sides of the block.) even keep my exhaust head back painted up nice.

I'm not saying for investment purposes, just so my kids and there kids get to see these things.

Joey

Osterkraut wrote:

Javelin wrote: My dream one day is to own the world's highest-mileage Ferrari...

High mile Fiero+bodykit= dream achieved!

Is it still a dream achieved if it's a Fiero-body on an actual Ferrari like we talked on a thread a few weeks ago?

Racer1ab wrote: I look at it, I'm in love...and then it hits me. I am going to want to drive the ever-loving crap out of that car...and I feel a bit guilty. Anyone else feel the same way? This car has been neatly preserved for 11 years, and now I kinda feel like it should go to someone else who will care for it in the same fashion.

You can't assume it will be bought by someone who is going to garage it and only drive it to church on Sundays when its dry out.

How do you know the next guy that goes to look at it isn't going to be some high school kid spending daddy's money and will wrap it around a tree showing off for his friends?

If you want it, get it and drive it. You know how it will be driven and maintained if you buy it.

You can always garage it in a few years to preserve it, and still not have excessive miles on it.

cars were meant to be driven, if you're just gonna let the tires flatspot themselves in the garage, buy a damn picture or model and save the floorspace for something you're actually going to drive. I mean yeah, if it's a 1-of-1 car from the '30s, or an old concept car or something that changes the game a bit, but I doubt anyone buying one of those really cares what the rest of us think, they're more than willing to use a perfectly good car as a conversation piece to place among couches, unless you're Jay Leno, then you use the rubber dust on the fender liners and occasional bug splat on the windshield as a conversation piece with the concourse-condition collectors just to watch their jaws hit the floor and their brain do a backflip when you tell them that yes, the car actually CAN move under its own power without going to a million pieces.

long story short, buy it, drive and hoon the living E36 M3 out of it, keep on top of maintenance and don't let the irreplaceable bits get messed up, it's what the car was built for.

I agree with the group here. Just keep in mind that a vast majority of the "car enthusiast" public doesn't see it that way. If you take a car that's been a low mileage garage queen for years and drive the snot out of it, it'll lose a lot of value quickly. This is especially true for sports cars and exotics.

I bought my '99 Viper GTS in 2006(?). When I got it, it had something like 38,000 miles on it. That was considered extremely high mileage by almost all Viper fans. I used that as leverage when I bought it. When I sold it in 2007, the same was used against me in the sale price. Most people want low mileage queens.

tell you what, if you buy it and don't want to drive it, give it to me and i'll drive it.

The way I look at it, when you buy a low mileage used car, yes, the value does take a hit when you double the mileage in 2 years or whatever, but that isn't likely any greater in magnitude than what a typical new car takes with similar usage. Would anyone here advocate buying the car of your dreams brand new just to keep it parked in a garage with 3 miles on it?

Okay, so we've all established that this is the drive-it-don't-hoard-it crowd, but would you BUY one? I only saw a couple posts addressing the concerns of cars that had set giving you mechanical gremlins.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about an 01 with that many miles - it's been driven enough to keep it run in. I think the storage gremlins were more common with older cars. I certainly have seen those, but I think you'd be safe on this one.

I'd say the same rules apply as for buying any used car. Have them change the oil, take it for a long test drive, and get a qualified mechanic to do a PPI.

This is an immature jerk thing to want to do, but if I won the big lottery I would like to go to one of those TV car auctions and buy a cool old dragster. I would proceed to do burn out after burn out in the parking lot with MY NEW CAR.

I bought one on Friday - 90 VW Golf Cabriolet with the equivalent of 55K miles on it. My wife will drive it as a summer car, it will go up on blocks for the winter. No exposing it to salt. It should last her a long time like that.

The nice thing is with this car is everything is tight (as tight as a mk1 Golf with no roof can be), shifter bushings are solid, all the suspension is in good shape, including bushings, etc.

If I could afford the garage queen I want, yes.

Ideally, I'd have a super low, mileage, mint perfect E30 M3.

I received all sorts of reactions when I bought the GTO which I use as my DD. Most of the cars that I found in my search for the car were garage queens. However the prices had dropped so much on those cars there was no basis for keeping the car in perfect condition.
We joke that my wife's '92 Yellow miata is our garage queen but we have put 100k miles on it since '98 when we bought it so it doesnt sit much. It just got back from spending the weekend on the Dragon for the annual MATG event. We have tried to keep it somewhat stock but with BBS wheels from a salvage '95M, Jackson CAI, Jackson ceramic header and custom 2.25 exhaust, we have improved it whenever possible.

Thanks for all the responses guys!

I'm kinda thinking I'll pass on this one, simply because it's not the right time for me to own a car like this.

Although I find it funny how much my loved ones are enabling me. I have SWMBO's blessing and my folks told me I could stash the Bullitt in their garage if need be.

I'll buy another cheap appliance I don't mind parking on the street, and maybe revisit the idea once I have my own garage (house...I meant house...) in a couple of years.

I've been shopping older wagons and SUV's again...but saw this the other day...and it moved a little.

SRT-4 Woody wagon