Here is to all the HAMBers who have ditched late models, I'm done with new vehicles

Hey drive a Ford taurus,Mine has 286,000 still has the same plugs in it.28 mpg.No major repairs.Its my 2nd one!

 

The newest vehicle I own is 1966. New cars suck.

 

I have a 2000 tahoe and it seems to be just thaving more things wrong all the time... I am working on my '53 desoto limousine , and once that is done... it will be my main means of transportation..

 

Dude! And you call yourself a car guy?

 

Guess you don't "get" sarcasm.

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You drug up an ELEVEN YEAR OLD THREAD for that ???

 

Finding just the right words takes time.

 

Building my 50 AD pickup to be my next daily driver, but have mixed feelings on newer stuff. My better halfs 2008 f150 with 150K had the intake to block interface rot out, Ford no longer sells that intake, and the block was corroded enough to rule out using a junkyard one. Swap motor. Her previous Ranger had
the block rot out at 70K, at least Ford gave her a new long block though she had to pay the labor, If her father had not been working at the dealership as their top salesperson I wonder if the
service manager would have pushed Ford so hard to give her that. That said, when she developed a skip on the f150 I plugged in a 40 tester, read the code, looked it up, replaced her coil pack, she thought I was a hero.
My 2003 chevy work truck had 250K on it when it was totaled, still had original battery and all major components except brakes, tires, and oil. My 2011 not so much. But it is nice to be able to use the tester
to see what the problem is, of course on most older stuff you can figure it out pretty quickly as there is only a couple of options that can cause a given problem, not a lot of electronics to go wrong.
I do want my better half driving something late more for the safety (air bags etc) and dependable commute ability as she is still working and word is her office is going to consolidate with another about 20 miles further away.

 

Old thread, yes but still valid point of view. Returning to the comments on the earlier pages, I will have to say this: Yes, older cars are simpler with fewer things to physically go wrong. When something fails, there's a good chance you can figure out what exactly s wrong and either repair the fault if it's not something terminal or chuck in a new piece to replace the broken one, scavenged from a junker or bought new/old-stock/refurbished.
However, I do have to look at it from my wife's point of view (returning to the you-drive-what-you-want-but-the-wife-gets-something-new-if-that's-what-she-desires statement) where by she would never really consider getting under the hood for anything more complex than topping up fluids or making sure nothing has caught fire. To her, the roadside repair-ability of an older car is outweighed by the liability of reliability and having to rely on someone else, who she would have to pay if she was in the middle of nowhere, to fix.
I, on the other hand will (and have) walk when what I'm driving breaks down and will have a damn good go at fixing it before writing it off and calling for a tow. That also extends to garage time.
If I tot up the receipts from working on the cars over time counting both tools purchased and parts bought the overall price falls into "well, that ain't bad", considering the tools go on to be used over and over again and the parts often go a long time before having to be replaced again, with the original broken one having lasted 30+ years in service.
If I then sit down and work out how much time I have spent working on that versus the OT newer vehicles I own, and compare the ratio of miles driven to hours spent repairing- that's where the difference shows up. The OT vehicles have oft required specialist tools to repair the odd things that decided to break, or electronicae that refuse to work correctly*, therefore have been farmed out to Man In Workshop who needs to feed himself and his family and charges accordingly. The skew in price of paying someone for a few hours at $80+ p/h versus spending a number of evenings of my own time working on the car ends up balancing out in the end.

The older cars are still much more rewarding to drive though, and that's why I do what I do. That makes me happy.

--Phil


*however, working out exactly how the electronics work is also a fun challenge for me, so although OT I'm quite happy to expand my knowledge and experience to better my understanding of what I'm working with. Hours with an oscilloscope, multimeter and tiny self-programable computer is to me as fun as taking apart the carburetor and repairing the leaking spindles and blocked jet. It's fun to work out how someone in 1984 decided the car would determine how much fuel it needs, what ignition position it needs and it's fantastic to me that it does that 1024 times a second and why.

 

Sadly last month I went the other way and bought a 2013 vehicle for my daily driver. My wife almost fell over that I would even consider driving something built after 1962! Lol
The reality came down to my 57 was getting tired and needed lots of work. I was tired of waking up in the early hours of the morning when it was 30 degrees out side and having drive to work in it. Or getting off work in the summer when it was 114 degrees and driving home.
So I bought a newer used car that weighs 2800lbs, has a 6spd and is a lot of fun to drive!
With that being said I’m hoping that with not having to always put things off with the 57 because if I work on anything major the car will be down too long and I would not have a way to get to work that I can focus on the attention that it needs.
Scott


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As much as I love the older cars and trucks I prefer to keep them for hobby use.

It’s probably because for many years I drove old beaters and wrenched and repaired them numerous times to keep them on the road.

It was mostly out of necessity while raising my kids.

Now I really like my 2018 F150 Lariat with all the options.
5.0 and Borla exhaust.
At 65 I’m loving the comfort and reliability.