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April 7, 2010

What’s The Oldest Car You’d Run As Your Daily Driver?

Editor

When I was little, beating around every day in a 50′s car was considered a bit on the eccentric side, but not out of the question–hey, they were only 30-year-old cars back then, same as the 80′s rides I drive to work today. It’s true that you can make any car your daily driver as long as it’s inherently durable and you keep up on the maintenance, but it seems to me that to run something like this gorgeous ’57 Dodge Coronet, as its previous owner did, you’d have to be okay with some pretty burly risks. I admire people who are down with running their classic rides in all kinds of weather and traffic and parking them out between the beige road appliances in the employee lot–but would you do it? For me, 1975 would be the approximate cutoff vintage for my daily driver. Anything older than that, I’d mostly just want to pamper. How about you–what’s the oldest car you’d drive to work every day? Oh, and check out the auction for the ultra-clean Coronet on eBay.

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Posted at 10:32 am in Coronet, Daily Driver, Dodge, eBay, Jen Dunnaway

Comments

glhs0075
Apr 11, 2010 at 8:13 pm

I daily drive my 1986 Daytona. I wouldn’t go any older than that. The front wheel drive is good for the winter roads around here, and the 2.2 four gets reasonable gas mileage.

tmonster
Apr 9, 2010 at 9:51 am

i love the fact of driving an old car for daily driver as long as it meets your needs as a daily driver practial to run daily i would run a model t if it was practial and cheap enough to maintain but for me i know a late model 60s would work for me with minor upgrades

my thing is peope piss away 20-30 k on daily driver all the time might as well piss it away on some classic cool and LIVE

my 67 is driven more than my bike or gt in the summer to work

troutster52
Apr 9, 2010 at 4:14 am

I think it totally depends on the vehicle. My friend and I used to run a 77 truck as a daily but that wasn’t such an excellent idea because the brakes were sketchy. Not inadequate while functioning, just not often functioning. In the same right, I have known people to run 70s cars that are proven more reliable than 90s or 2000s cars. I know when I am building my restomod muscle car, I want to drive that thing often, in primer if necessary. Cars are made to be driven.

Jen Dunnaway
Apr 8, 2010 at 10:00 pm

Lol for pete’s sake, buickpimpin101, at least get a 2-chamber master for those 4-way drums! Awesome daily tho

buickpimpin101
Apr 8, 2010 at 9:01 pm

Well, i drive my 64 buick skylark, EVERY Day! Gotta love it, somtimes 4 drums are almost not enuff! haha scary, but awesome.

Holla602streets
Apr 8, 2010 at 8:23 pm

my 94 integra. cant wait every morning to wake up and hop in that drivers seat!

GeneralLC
Apr 8, 2010 at 3:16 pm

Easy. A 32 Ford.

Oldest Car I’d buy and use as a Daily Driver?

66 Chevelle.

Oldest Car I’d like to buy and use as a Daily Driver?

1970 Chevelle.

80-zcamaro
Apr 8, 2010 at 2:51 pm

It depends on the car, I have a 1980 Camaro that I plan to rebuild and I will drive it on weekends and only in the spring-summer months. I have a 15 year old daily driver that I drive now and it is a great car for me, not a classic and 15 years isn’t even that old anymore for a vehicle. So anything from the 1990′s to present day and something that isn’t rare or expensive to run.

13sDatsun510
Apr 8, 2010 at 2:24 pm

1978/79 Datsun HL-A10(510). Its my only car, was drivin daily til i took it off the road to modify.

5150RIPP
Apr 8, 2010 at 1:20 pm

My 1968 Cadillac Coup de Ville convertible… there is nothing like driving a car that DOESN’T look like a jelly bean and insulate you from everything that makes driving so much fun. I look forward to start and end of every day just so I can get back behind the wheel – one of the greatest cars I have ever owned.

XTZTwinTurbo
Apr 8, 2010 at 9:44 am

seems like a strange post, but I’d say that I’d probably not drive a really old car daily. especially with the season changes around here. A front wheel or all wheel drive newer car is a good economical pick for this part of the country as a all year round, daily driver.

Beasty258
Apr 8, 2010 at 5:13 am

I drove my 78 El Camino around for a daily driver for quite awhile. Yeah, the gas sucked, especially when gas spiked over $3 for 89 octane.
I think going back to a daily driver, the max age I would go would be 1978 and later. But run of the mill kind of cars, not anything special. A giant iron thing so I don’t have to worry about Florida drivers….

krush454
Apr 8, 2010 at 3:34 am

Give me an 1894 Karl Benz Velo in running condition and I’ll use it daily

Chief5B
Apr 8, 2010 at 12:21 am

I really would like to drive a classic us car all day long..

But over here in germany not the weather is the big problem but the gasoline and taxes !!
It’s impossible to drive such a car using as 4 times as much gasoline as all other “modern” cars. Unfortunately the gasoline here is 3 times more expensive than in the USA !!

To compare it directly you will have to pay 87 $ for 21 gallons over here to travel about 400 miles in a classic, in contrast to approx 40 $ in the USA.
Unfortunately there is another unpleasant fact: the insurance and taxes for such a car ist about 2500 $ each year !

But let me say that i’ll never regretted driving any mile over despite of the inhospitable conditions here..
So my advise to all of you is to enjoy driving this beautiful cars as long as you could do so!

ILLY-Sase
Apr 7, 2010 at 11:13 pm

The oldest i’d go would have to be 85. I did it in my 85 Buick lesabre limited from junior yr in H.S. 97′ to ’05.

D_Boy313
Apr 7, 2010 at 9:28 pm

I would drive a 56 vette any day of the week. Red and white would be an ideal color combo on the vette.

mpick67
Apr 7, 2010 at 7:01 pm

My 1967 Chevy Impala 4 door hardtop!

426HemiCharger
Apr 7, 2010 at 6:36 pm

you can drive anything aslong as it is dependable.

thomasehlers
Apr 7, 2010 at 6:31 pm

I drive my ’66 Plymouth Valiant at a minimum 50 miles daily with very few upgrades. I love it!

4Wheelin_Forever
Apr 7, 2010 at 4:48 pm

If it doesnt run Highway speeds, then its too old for ME to want to drive it daily

DDartSwinger
Apr 7, 2010 at 2:28 pm

i have my ’73 dart swinger as my daily diver, but im working on my 38 plymouth truck (pt-57) i and ima drive it all the time lol, btw only 4,600 were ever made i wonder how many r still here 72 yrs later lol

DaveyBoyo
Apr 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm

I love the idea of having an old car as a daily driver. My ’89 Camaro is my daily, but I’d feel comfortable going back as far as something in the 50′s as long as it was running and driving. I’m kind of fly-by-night like that ..

GTwildfire
Apr 7, 2010 at 1:11 pm

‘70 Custom Suburban (Fury wagon)… FuryPaul, My childhood from age 5 to age 12 included my Dad’s 1970 Custom Suburban, white with a blue vinyl interior. I loved that car, all 22+/- feet of it. Riding in the rearward-facing back seat… the turn signal indicators atop the fenders… Room for a small village’s population… it was awesome and a very depressing day was when it threw a rod in ’77. I will never forget that car. I don’t remember someone else in CarDomain mentioning that specific model in the blog, brought back memories. Thanks.

FuryPaul
Apr 7, 2010 at 12:59 pm

Well, let’s see…I continue to drive my ’91 Daytona every other day, and on 4/27/10 I’ll have had it nineteen years (the other 50% of my commuting is done in my ten-year-old Stratus). Still runs fine, still gets 32-34 mpg. Getting pretty ratty-looking, though.
Last Saturday night at the local cruise, I ran across a ’67 427 Corvette with regular plates on it whose owner said he’d kept it on regular plates (as opposed to Historic) so he could hop in and drive it whenever he felt like it.
There are a couple of Maryland Mopars members who maintain regular plates on their toys for the same reason: One couple have a ’63 Plymouth Belvedere 4-door (slant six-powered) they chose specifically because it was in good enough shape to pass inspection, and another member gets to choose from a ’78 Charger SE (looks like a Cordoba), a ’76 W100 4×4 pickup, a ’70 Custom Suburban (Fury wagon) and a ’54 Dodge Royal, all of which have regular tags on them. The ’78 Charger is the newest vehicle he owns!
For my own commute (27 miles each way), I reckon a strong-running 4-cylinder with fuel injection would be the way to go, so let’s say mid-’80s as an upper limit for me.

amadoj
Apr 7, 2010 at 12:58 pm

thunderbird 64
chevy c-10 67
nice to ride them

retroman
Apr 7, 2010 at 12:41 pm

I know of a few guys that still run ’65-’66 straight-six Mustang coupes as daily drivers. No doubt that an I6 is still one of the most durable engines ever made, and the aftermarket makes maintenance a cinch for first gen Mustangs. Ford sold 1 million Stangs between April 1964 and April 1966 so parts are a plenty too. However, I think I’d retire a car that old and keep it in mint condition. My uncle on the other hand still runs around in a ’72 Nova he bought brand new. It’s rusted beyond repair unfortunately. As for me though, I think I would go for 1979 for a daily driver car, and 1970 for a daily driver truck. The reason for the double standard is that pickups used to get redesigned alot less often back in the day it seems.

GTwildfire
Apr 7, 2010 at 12:35 pm

Working on it right now… my ’85/’86 Pontiac Fiero. I usually set a limit of 15 years max. age, but I made an exception for this project and Fieros in general. I will probably have to make the same exception for the 4th gen Firebird eventually because the stupid bastards eliminated Pontiac.

Bick66
Apr 7, 2010 at 10:45 am

Just a few years ago I used a 1967 Ford F250 as a daily work truck. Other than that you hit it right on with 1975, my ’75 Firebird was my daily for a few years. In the summer I use the Impala several days a week but you can’t really call that a daily driver. I think I’d go back to the early 70′s myself. I could see having a stock 1970 Camaro as a daily driver. Beautiful Dodge, love the afterburner tail lights!