modern vehicles...i think im done. who else?

its hit or miss with new vehicles, I had just got rid of a 99 chev 1/2 ton and I rebuilt every major component of the powertrain before 160,000kms. I also have a 96 S10 that has never been down in its short 300,000km life. Then theres the 85 6.2 diesel 3/4ton with 600,000kms that gets up every morning and takes me to work without any hickups. I also have a 04 Duramax, that other than the injectors under warranty has been a good truck so far and has 200,000kms on it.
I swore off new vehicles after my 99, but with the winters here and the old lady wanting kids, and me wanting something good for her to drive, I gave in. If I lived in somewhere warm all year around, I wouldn't have a new daily by any means.
The thing about older vehicles, if your not paying for them you don't expect so much out of them so the problems always seem minor.

 

It all depends on what you buy. I've had several newer imports and haven't been let down. I've got 67k on my 02 Dakota 2WD P/U and maintain the heck out of it so that it'll last. It seems that it needs more attention than the imports but I love having a mid size truck that didn't cost a fortune.

 

Count me in!! I´m also done with late models... I´ve had everything from 1996 BMW M3 to my last 535i...this one was the worst I ever had.
You know, when I got my first old car in 1996 , my 62 Impala Coupe, I joined the ADAC ( German AAA) in case I break down somewhere... you guess it, I never had to use it to this day driving an old car.

I travel a lot in my old cars, to Italy in my 62 Impala and 56 Bel Air and to England ( 830 miles one way) in my 34 Plymouth. Never had a problem that required instant repair,I always made it home safely.

But this damn late model BMW just drove me nuts. It would simply die from time to time when coasting to a stop light, or pulling into a driveway . The engine would just stall, no powerbrakes, no powersteering. That´s damn dangerous if you´re not prepared to it. Then it wouldn´t start for about an hour for no apparent reason.
The BMW Service guys told me that this was a normal software problem on these type of cars, that it wasn´t uncommon and they were working on it...
It would also kill trunk lid opener actuators and coils on a monthly basis. And these are pricey!
The last time the BMW did that to me I had a snow shovel handy and beat the hell out of the hood and put it up on ebay as a slightly damaged car.
To my surprise I got more money out of it than I had paid and got me a old daily, for the nasty weather in the winter....
It´s got 1 carb , it´s got 1 coil and it´s got a points distributor(!!!) ,parts are cheap around here, and it certainly won´t have a loss in value by 50% within two years ...and what if, I only paid 2000 bucks
Chris

 

I work on Hondas for a living. Its mostly maintenance. Most of thrm are made roght here in the USA.

 

Why is it that this thread is on 2 pages and mine on the very same lines was deleted and I was admonished for posting "Off topic material"?

Either way, yea I'm OVER new cars. My new car had the ignition switch get stuck and the dealer wanted a grand for a new one. 1000 bucks for a new ignition switch?! Ummm no.

 

Nothing wrong with new cars. Just get one with a good warrentee. If it takes a **** somebody else has to fix it. Most car companies have a five year/100k warrentee. After 100K it's not a new car anymore and you can expect to fix things, just like any other old car regardless of when it was built, 1929, 1940, 1953...whatever....I finally had to work on my '02 Dodge truck, had to replace the thermostat housing gasket, I've done a LOT more repairs on my "old" cars in the last six years than a gasket.....

 

IM in the same boat. Newest vehichle I have is a 94 Ranger. I did have a 93 Merc Marquis.
The Merc had trans shifting probs.
IM probably going to get a early 90's ford truck.
My family has had nothing but probs out of newer GM cars.
My brother has nothing but Jap cars and hes got two over 200.000 with only a coil pack on one going out and just normal maintenance.
My dad has had front wheel drive olds. The one had two power steering pumps go out, a trans, alternator, coilpack and idler pulley.
The newer one had a power steering pump, alternator and the rear shocks are shot. It has 53,000 on it.

 

Well I've got a yuppie mobile for a commuter. Its a '93 BMW 318i. Little 4 banger with a 5 speed and I get 32-34 mpg in the city (450+ a tank). Working on it is a ***** though. The alternator went bad (luckily I had a receipt from the last owner, other wise it would have been 200+ something dollars). The biggest issue for me is the lack of space on some of the newer cars. Really cramped engine bays is what makes working on cars tough/frustrating. When you have to rig contraptions with multiple tools and spend an hour trying to get a single bolt out...thats when I start to go a little crazy.

 

I made a promise to myself a few years ago never to own a car built after I was born (1973) ever again.

 

my 97 T-Bird just died (RIP old girl) with 216,000 on the clock. Other than a frontend rebuild and routine stuff it didnt skip a beat. Original alternator... coils... changed plugs and wires once... never serviced the trans...


Junk? I hardly think so. If I didnt run it through high water on the highway and sieze the lower tensioner (a week later) causing it to kick off a belt... and overheat... I'm confident it would have gone another 100,000 miles.


Of course if I had the $$$ I'd buy a honda or toyota

 

New cars aren't horrible to work on after you remove every squre inch of stupid plastic covering the engine. I just can't STAND working on my wife's '03 Honda Accord though. I can't get my monkey arms in or behind anything to work on it. It's too damned tight!

As my grandfather says about Japanese cars... "we kicked there *** in WWII, and we've been paying for it ever since."

On the other hand, I wouldn't trade my "newer" daily driver for anything. Eventhough I did trade it once for a '65 Mustang... and bought it back a year later lol. Won't make that mistake again. 1995 Ford F150, 222,000 original miles. 300 inline six with 5 speed, 3.73's and trac-lok rear end. Last of the real half tons you could work like a one ton, and they still hold together. I just like the fact that it's the 2nd to last year a straight six was ever put in a truck. Kinda new skool and old skool mixed together. The truck has manual everything but I don't care. It's a hoss and I tow WAY too much with it all the time for the sandblasting thing... and it just keeps asking for more.

 

My daily is a 2000 Civic DX with 165k so far. I do all the regular maintance on it, brakes, oil and wahtever. I've replaced the clutch, replaced the clutch on the a/c compressor, swapped oout suspension components, replaced motor mounts and various other components. I did however take it to the deal for the timing belt na d water pump. I have a Honda Service Manual on a CD for it so if something breaks I look it up and it's usually pretty straight forward and easy to fix/replace. I have a few places online that I get my OEM parts from pretty cheap, so it's all good.

Oh and I get on average 35-45 mpg

 

And i guess the only new or even within 8 years of being new car my dad bought was a 69 Z-28 in 1969

 

My friend's son was having trouble with his BMW roadster, but then he found there was a kit available for the needed repairs.

 

The newest car I have ever owned/driven was a 82 El camino with a 305 that I had for about 2 months then sold cause I hated it. This has been my daily driver for the past year. I got it from the son of the original owner, it runs great, gets killer gas mileage and only has 84,000 miles.

I don't have any car payment, it's easy to work on, insurance is pretty cheap, I can take it to damn near any carshow and it always gets looks and thumbs up on the road.






This Scamp was my daily driver before the Dart since 2001. Built 360 small block rain,snow,ice whatever I drove it.






I always hear "Why do you drive that all the time, aren't you afraid you will get a scratch?" The way I see it is that they were daily drivers when they were new so why not now? I don't have to deal with emissions tests and there isn't 50 miles of wire or any stupid sensors to f with.
Any "old car" will run damn near forever with a good tune up and oil changes every 3k.

My dad drives his 50 dodge every day and when it's done my 53 Merc pick up will be my daily driver. The 48 chevy Im doing now is going to be my girlfriends daily driver as well.

 

nice... love them slanty sixes! had one in a sixty savoy. that thing was bulletproof...

 

i make my money fixing cars and trucks of all years. i'm not partial! lol!

 

Yes! w115 uber alles! Here's a pic of mine.

I have never nor will I ever buy a brand new car, but with road salt in the winter it's a death sentence to drive an old car all year round. So I buy cheap used cars to run. My '90 Benz wagon has 259K on it and still drives just fine, has a few issues but nothing unliveable. Car payments and full coverage insurance are both payments I don't need to make

If I lived somewhere that had no snow or road salt, it'd be a much simpler choice.

 

I think it just depends on the car. We've had some good 80s and 90s cars. The '87 T-bird ran until the suspension fell off because it had rotted out around the mount. My '89 Suburban needs little things now and then but always starts. I changed the plugs last week and they were perfectly fine, probably the original plugs with almost 100K on them. Right now, it needs an EGR valve, it's sticking at low RPM and causing it to run rough. But I pulled the line off it and it otherwise runs fine.

My mom has a '95 Chevy pickup, which isn't much different mechanically and that has almost 300K on it. It has some minor electrical gremlins, but that's about it. We still have the '88 Caprice my grandfather bought when it was about 2 years old. It has the computer carb no one knows how to work on, so it has some issues, but still runs and goes pretty reliably.

The only one that I think is going to be trouble is my sister's car - the newest of the bunch, a '99 Sable. The trans slips, a lot, pulling from a light it won't go, then it catches so hard it squawks the tires a bit. I guess those are prone to head gasket issues, this one is leaking coolant in strange places too. Doesn't even have 100K on it.

When it comes to new cars, there are some I would buy and some I wouldn't - but I see no point to drop big bucks on one when I can go to the right auction and get one that's 6 or 8 years old for less than $1000, and if it blows up in a year, just go buy another one. I've seen some pretty darned nice vehicles sell for super cheap - a couple 2000 GMC vans with high tops that had been used as busses, with between 47K and 65K, sold for $1200 each. Running, driving. At that price you could buy two, and store one for when you wear out the other.

 

We have 4 cars not including the oldies, one Mercury, one GM, 1 Jap and 1 korean. The Jap car, a Subaru, is the primary daily driver. Currently has 125K miles and will be a keeper until it hits 300k or I retire, which ever comes first. Parts for it are outrageous, but so are parts for just about anything today less than 30 years old.

When I retire in a few years, I plan on only driving the oldies. We will probably keep the Mercury Mountaineer as a family car, but the 34 will become my daily driver. Looking forward to it.

 

Do as I do and dont drive! I hate driving call me weird but I wont drive any new car unless I have too!! I would drive my galaxie but no brakes and no money but I'm young and I have a work van and a skate board!

 

Had to drive the "company" T*yota Sienna(?) van across a few states to a convention and back.Snazzy GPS/DVD/CD player in dash,other than that it tools along at 3 grand at 65MPH and ****s gas like a banshee.I'm not impressed.
Go USA! old iron!

 

Never owned anything else but my old chevs.

Whenever I got to sit in a newer car of a visiting friend, I can't wait to get out again, but keep my thoughts to myself.

I can't stand plastic inside cars and soul-less modern factory **** that turns people into robots and sheople.

If I ever would win a modern car, I sell it the next day and buy lot's of old iron the following.

 

i believe subarus anre australian, whatever they are though one things for sure. NOTHING is more fun in themountains than a subaru

 

you're kidding right? Subaru is definitely Japanese...

 

My '96 Dodge ***mins has 170K on it, and I'll own and drive that every day for another 20 years. Everything on it is accessible and it's reliable as all get out! I've replaced a clutch, alternator, and fuel shut-off on it, plus normal **** like tires, brakes, and batteries. No regrets at all. Plus, what old truck am I going to find that'll pull 16K pounds, get 13 loaded and 21 on the highway??? My wife's PT ragtop has been absolutely reliable, and it has a warranty for as long as we own it. My old stuff is for playing with. My newer stuff is what I depend on daily, and I haven't had a problem with that at all.

 

No one is talking about diesel trucks...I have had three Powerstrokes with very little problems....other than 5 dollar plus fuel...but the towing is out of this world.

I really have taken a bath buying brand spanking new...but a one or two years old, one you can really get great deals right now. I just bought a 97 with really low miles for 7k back of book

 

I work in a Chrysler, Dodge dealership and a guy came in yesterday with a brand new charger that he put the 426 hemi and a ll the new fangled doo dads on to m ake it quicker in 1/4 mile. Everyone in the shop drooling over it. The guy walked on me and asked me "What da ya think about her?" Mind you it's lunch time and I'm on th hamb and I said "it's ****." Nothing can replace old iron and what it does to ya when your smoking someone at the light. Then I flipped open a page in the site and said this a real car these guy put their blood sweat and tears into these cars and you showed me is that you have more money than brains.

 

I sold my `92 Chevy K1500 x-cab in April `07 and bought a `63 C-10. Where I live the 4WD and AC I only miss about 6 days each out of the year anyway. The 283 hums along sweet especially now with the T-5 behind it. It will get a power steering box next but I figure that's all the creature comfort I really need.
I'm a believer in the driving experience taking some personal involvement. When it's too cushy you kinda zone out and start lookin around for the ****in coffee table. Maybe you've run into this mind set?

 

My "daily" is a '96 Tbird with the 4.6 V8 and 153k on it. It still lights up the tires!We've owned it since '98 and have had pretty good luck with it. The intake manifold gasket blew in '01 and that was covered by warranty. The only "major" issue was the airbag "clock spring" that needed replaced at a cost of $1k (ouch) in '05.
My wife drives our newest vehicle,an '01 F150 that has had 0 problems.