Projects Makes more sense to buy OLDER cars

Makes more sense for who?

I sympathize with the thought; after all, there's a streak of Luddite in all of us or we wouldn't be here. But for a daily driver, practicality wins out. A true HAMB-era vehicle will need a hell of a lot more maintenance that a current offering if you actually follow the factory-recommended service intervals and if you've checked lately, oil isn't 79 cents a quart anymore. It doesn't help that many correct replacement parts have both gone up in price and down in quality either. And it won't go 200+K miles with no major repairs either. I've seen far more than a few later-models go over 300K.

I did the old car thing for years. Nothing newer than the late '60s, and enjoyed them all. But they all needed tinkering on a regular basis, sometimes minor, sometimes major. Some parts got hard to get and expensive. But the last stroke was when my back went bad and I had to take a medical retirement. There's nothing worse than having to fix your car when you know you're not really up to it. And the expertise to fix these old cars has all but disappeared in the open market, so reliability became king... and I bought only my second new car ever.

When your car is sitting in the driveway dead and you have to fix it for basic transportation, that sucks all the fun out of it...

Now I'll agree that most of new cars are boring; but not all. I bought a '13 Mustang GT with the manual trans. Enough power to scare the hell out of you and will shame any restored US-built 'vintage' performance car in any metric you'd care to mention. With full creature comforts and 20 MPG to boot. Twice a year I take it to the dealer for service, hand over $75 and I'm good to go for another six months. The only major expense so far has been a set of tires. I bought new because I didn't want one that somebody had beat the holy hell out of; that's my job... LOL.

 

Depends on what you buy.
Had a new 2012 ford appliance for the family bought 3 years used drive it for 5 did nothing except maintenance, a battery and brakes.traded it in and got almost 1/2 it’s purchase price back ( albeit on paper towards a new car)

Just bought a new 2018 Toyota appliance for the family 3 year warranty 5 year power train. It’s a car I know for 4 years I won’t do a damn thing to besides maintenance. Then a battery, brakes and tires and probably drive another 2 yard before I may need a sensor or something stupid.

Don’t get me wrong I love old cars, and the simple fact that a belt a bit of wire and a cost hanger in the trunk with basic hand tools will more often then not get you out of a jam.
They need tinkering and futzing with almost constantly, not say work all the time but the hood is up and something needs grease or oil or diddleing.

If you can wrap your head around the electrical and in some cases have an extra elbow on your forearm to reach around some of the fwd nonsense they are not hard to diagnose and fix, albeit not on the side of the road.

The one thing I hate about new cars is every thing is now a system and with can and d2b fibre optics everything needs to “ talk” now a days. So bypassing stuff and jerry rigging your beater is basically gone. I haven’t seen a $500 dollar winter beater in years ! Lol

 

several Ford and toyota dealerships in this area are offering 20 YEAR and 200 THOUSAND MILE warranties on there new cars and trucks. old cars have the character but they never had that kinda dependability 1 year and 10 thousand miles is the warranty i got on the 2 new ones i bought

 

...besides the newer stuff costing so much,..there's hardly any new car or truck that I even like the looks of,...man, the trucks made up til about the early 90's have a pleasing look that will never go out of style....when I see some of these new truck/cars I can't believe people pay big $ for them...terrible styling to me anyway.

 

My last work truck had 250K when it was totaled, everything was original except the brakes or oil. Even had the original battery( 8 years old). My currant work truck has 220K I just replaced the battery and the transmission at 200K.[Poor rear axle ratio made the trans work harder] Otherwise just oil and brakes. The old vehicles did not last as long but had style and were fun to drive. A later motor with fuel injection and a high nickel block put into any body you like would give you the best of both worlds. I plan to put together a small block/overdrive auto 50 chevy pu to use in my retirement.

 

I have a 2012 Malibu as my DD, all the comforts I care to have, reliable and paid for. With the 1959 Ford, although it was assembled with a lot of thought, I still wind up screwing around with it. But less and less as I sort it out. I get a lot more enjoyment running around in it in nice weather than on cold days in winter. If it were a stock 1959 Ford with an automatic and non-cammed engine, it may be a lot of fun all year.

 

I love the conspiracy theories that new vehicles are designed to fail, can’t be worked on blah blah blah. They far outlast anything old with minimal problems, how many 57 chevys ran for 2 or 3 hundred thousand miles with no major service work? They are no harder to work on, just have to understand how they work. Many here are not willing to learn which is understandable. I drive old stuff, my wife always has something newer, I don’t need to worry about her and the kids


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Older cars are nice but the safety factors and creature comforts are what most folks now want.
Most people don't know how to do any "car related" maintenance and many just don't want to.

 

I'm going to agree and disagree with the O/P and a few replies. If you're wise (cagey maybe), have a supply of things to back it up before purchase, and you know well the car you seek, an old car is not only cheaper but it may pay you to own it. With some you might get paid to do that which you could probably sell to someone else, as in the labor or parts you had stashed for swaps and addiction therapy (had to throw that in, right?). Let's begin; a bad case of the "gotta-have-its" is pushing you toward a, let's say 65 to 67 impala. A solid rust free version becomes available for a reasonable sum (luck, surely) and it's home. From your stash you tune it, adjust it, it now hums along like new or better. You drive it, show it, cruise it, use to get you back and forth to work, your enthusiasm for the car is truly contagious. 2 years later the same affliction hits you, the gotta-have-its, and it's time to move the well sorted Impala and get the next itch scratched. If you didn't use it up and run it through Michigan winters it's probably better for little more than pocket change and you make a profit. Big or small, it may be only $150, it may be $10,000 if you were REALLY lucky when you got it.

Can't do that with a project though. All your hours are going to be free (or lost depending on your perspective), all the replacement sheet metal, interior shit, weather seals, worse than a wife with a jewelry habit. New cars? Leases? I'm so on the fence about leasing I won't touch it with an extra long 1/2" drive extension. I own all of mine and bought them right. Put over 200K miles on one of em and spent about $2500 in parts and service since 2007 when we got it (cough-cough, H-cough-3, ahh-hemm). The truck was luck times 10. It came with a trailer that's worth 75% of the original purchase price of the whole rig, so today the truck is free and has literally made me some ching now and then. Don't ask, I won't haul your car for you . I've spent tires, all new brake lines, a master cyl and an alternator so far, as well as a full set of pads and 2 mid bearings...in 100K miles. No complaints really, but GM ought to shot and pissed on for the garbage brake lines. I've worked on cars of the 40s with original brake lines and they're still under some of them. But the truck? Fuckers...

Anyways, pick your poison. The best move you can make on any new one is buy a service manual and make it part of your commode library. The cost is less than 1 hr shop rate in most cases. That's saving, or indeed making $$$$$$. You decide. Thanks for playing. Next...?

 

I can get about 12 years out of a new car with minor maintenance and no real expenses, other than the up front cost.

In the 12-14 year timeframe, body corrosion reaches the point where you are chasing rust annually.

The cars from the fifties and sixties were shot by four years, both mechanically and from rust, and the roads had very little salt compared to today.

All the cars my family and friends and neighbors had back then had gaping holes in the fenders, rockers, and floor pand in just a few years. You can’t go to the junkyard and get rust free fenders for a 57 DelRio., and semi annual tune ups are a thing of the past.

Engined don’t have 80 psi of compression and emit a blue haze at idle, and mark your driveway with oil drips at 80 k anymore, either, nor do the bodies fold up like an accordion in a crash like a 57 Chevy does, impaling your chest with the steering column.

I love those old cars, but, thankfully, they don’t build them like they used to.

 

I gotta agree with the anti OP crew....I love my old toys but when I actually want to go somewhere I jump in the 2007 FORD ranger and go. No cold natured pump the gas work the choke , air conditioner, automatic transmission ( easier on creaky knee) decent mileage...very little maintenance at about 135000 miles...I used 15000 mile synthetic oil and changed it at about 11 or 12 thousand miles...

 

Here’s the deal, I work 10 hours a day fixing big trucks, and my commute is 40 miles one way. My 2018 Dodge Cummins (don’t say Ram within my earshot) gets 18 MPG back and forth to work, goes thru snow unlike anything I’ve ever owned and tows 25,000 pounds. I love old cars and trucks, but my operating conditions would require at least 2 old vehicles. All of this “they only do it this way so you can’t work on it is a load of Sh&t. My Dodge will easily go 400,000 miles on the engine. Truthfully, vehicles today are designed this way to increase fuel mileage and decrease emissions.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

...and they're also designed this way because most folks, even us, really don't want to have to "tinker" with the cars we use to get places.

Automotive technology has come a LONG way in the past 50 years. Both good and bad. Fortunately, 50+ year old cars still work pretty much the way they used to, so when we want to take a trip back in time, we just hop in the old jalopy and be on our way.

 

I buy older (10-15 yrs old) vehicles for transportation. Because that's what they are. Transportation appliances. Nothing more. The old ones are for fun, and I invest myself in them. The cultural/generational/economic shift away from the love affair with the car is inexorable. We have changed, and so have the cars. But I let the first 2 or 3 owners take the economic butt-kicking, and buy a well researched, well-reviewed car for pennies on the dollar, drive it till it drops, throw it away or sell it, and get another one.

 

Lots of ways to go here. As mentioned prior in this thread, our main car was her 55 for many years and served us well. Now at this age for trips etc want something more comfortable and safer. Wife drives quite often to help with her mom in a rest home 200 miles away-sometimes in the late night. Her current ride is a 19 Denali-safe and big in case of a crash. Her prior ride was a 95 Impala SS that served us well-she bought it new for about $24K and drove it 20 yrs-she loved that car. It was well kept and we only sold it because a different sort of people are fond of these out here and were always approaching her to buy it-scary-sold it for $10.5K-not bad for 20 yrs My DD is a 07 GMC Z71 bought new that is a very reliable ride as well. For long hauls the new ones are the way to go.

 

Back in 1973 a 1964 car in good condition could be had for $200 and it ran for a great while. Step up and buy a 1967 Chevy for $400 and it was good for 120k miles. Once you got past the 60-80k thing where parts wore out, it was like a new car once all that crap was fixed. Then you had to worry about the floors rotting out.

 

fer sure!

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/a-really-stupid-trip.990380/


.

 

Interesting range of responses. I used to muck around with '70's and '80's cars for beaters but, guess what kills them? Plastic. Not just the "new-fangled" plastic interior panels that are now crumbling into dust from UV exposure, but the molded instrument panels behind or holding the gauges. That stuff virtually crumbles in your hands. Try keeping stock gauges and panel lights working when there's literally nothing there to hold anything. You can take almost any '60's car and drive it to the ends of the earth without worrying about it ending up sidelined for some sensor failing. "Two Weeks? This place is a geographic oddity: two weeks from everywhere!"

 

Plastics got a lot better in the later 90s and 00s, fortunately. Living in AZ, yeah, plastic is the bane of 1970s-80s cars.

 

I dont know, but been driving my 2003 Tahoe since new, one H20 pump and one fuel pump, over 180K before replacing brake pucks (and they coulda gone 40k more) best vehicle I've ever owned and will drive it into the ground before replacing it. Just got 02 sensor warning and will replace it for about 80bucks...........can't ask for much more than that.....course keep it garaged when not in use sure helps............

 

My Wife just bought a 2 yr old GM car ,have had it one week now and I'm still reading the owners manuel on how to operate it.It's unbelieveable.It has every bell and whistle on it,much of which I don't want or need. My kids say"Dad get with it, you will have no choice but own a computer car with all the sensors, times are a changing "
signed ; a 75 yr old guy that is beginning to feel I no longer fit in with todays society..

 

I don't like new cars, and I hate paying interest. So, a year ago I bot a 1989 F150 with 56k real miles (looked at 2-yr smog test mileages) and a great body and no rust (SoCal). I had to replace a bunch of minor stuff like water pump, belts, tires etc. Prolly have $4k in it, but so far its 20k+ miles with no issues whatsoever, and the truck is good for 250k miles if I keep it that long. Parts are repro'd for F150s so plastic stuff is no problem. I had previously bot a 1981 motorcycle with less than 3k miles on it, like brand new except for the original tires that I replaced. Notice a trend here?

I do have nightmares about having to fix any wires in those thick bundles that run the EFI and computer...

 

Nope, you just don't fit in with the "programming" or brainwashing of modern times.

I'm 67...I don't "need" to be anywhere like a job, and mostly I only drive local. I need a newer daily driver than my 32...so if I can pull off one more very difficult resto, the "newer" one is in my avatar...it's a 34. ...I won't waste any of my "golden years" driving anything but prewars.

It's certainly not for everyone, but I meet literally 1000s of people yearly when driving the 32, and it seems that people drop any bad mood they might be in when a vintage car usually sparks conversation. If I crash or get hit by a texter, I will deal with it then "if" I survive....and if I don't? , I'd still have no regrets. I simply love driving them as dailys.

In 1995 I started with mid 60s Chev truck & Suburban just to get away from the meaningless "idle-only" emission tests that were a joke in my rural area where cars don't idle forever in traffic jambs like big shithole city life. I did wish I could have chosen prewars back then, but I never thought it could work for me (back then.)... "duh" on me.

A local guy older than me drives a stock 31 A pickup to work in good weather, it's about 45 minutes one way. He has that job just to stay active, and what better way to go to a job that keeps him active and content? If he bought a brand new car to get there, then he be "forced" to KEEP that job to do the payments & higher propery taxes & insurance. Most people today are truly walking zombies IMO....except the friends I have in their 20s...they know that my "postwar"generation was totally brainwashed, and they aren't wanting that life...which is a lack of "life" as it should be.

 

My wife has a 2000 jeep Grand Cherokee 2 wheel drive. Had about 80,000 miles on it when she bought it. now has 205 thousand. nothing major. just oil & filter changes brakes and wheel bearings. a alternator serpentine belt and water pump & new tires. and that 6 cyl injected engine runs great on crappy gas. has plenty of power. Debbie is still happy with her car. She named it Jenny Jeep!

 

One thing about the Jeep. We sometimes take it when we buy feed. put 400 pounds of grain in the back. and a rear wheel bearing went out. Its a tapered bearing with the race in the axle housing. and nothing to hold the axle bearing in the race except the outer seal. and of course the new bearing didn't stay in the race and promptly failed. seems they assemble the rear end and Loctite the axle splines to the spider gears. So I went to napa and they sold me a type of caged bearing and its better & heavier than the original. so I went and got another and changed both rear bearings. I wondered why the axle was so hard to remove when I pulled the first one out!

 

A lot of you have made some very good points. I think it really depends a lot, on were you live. We live in the country. So I can drive the Hot Rods almost anywhere without any city traffic. My insurance is also a lot cheaper, there's no state inspections, and I only buy tags for them, one time only. That being said, we also do like squirrel has said. I'll look for a one owner SUV with about 100-k on it, and then pay cash. That way the wife, has a great daily driver. The insurance is cheap. There are no car payments, it's dependable. It's safe for her, and the grandkids. { air bags etc. } We can travel on the interstates with heavy traffic, and in bad weather. Then when it gets to about 200-k. I'll just sell it, and start over again. Also you can find a Caddy, for the same $ as a rice burner.{ just say'en} Works fur me! Ron.....

 

The only way I will ever be able to afford the $8K needed to finish my hotrod '29AA is if I keep my '96 Explorer with 400K miles on the road with minimal investment. I'm retired, work part time and only have to drive 12-15 miles one way to either work or shopping/banking. But the Explorer needed $500 in new tires right after Christmas, and I need to get to a boneyard to grab a two-piece driveshaft that doesn't vibrate. If I can get the hotrod going, I can split using both vehicles, and not have to rely on the Explorer. Even though the 23-year old Ford has lots of modern tech, its still easy to diagnose and work on. And it has A/C, a comfortable interior and air bags. Licensing is peanuts, and insurance is a half of that.

 

I use Ford Rangers as daily drivers. 2wd, 4 cylinder, 5 speed extended cab (6'4" tall, and the seat leans back further with the extended cab). I just bought a nice one with 180k on it to replace the previous one. I bought that with 182k on it, and retired it at 300k+ due to an accident, or I would still be in it.
Cheap to buy, cheap (and few) parts, good fuel economy, and can still haul a few parts.
Probably won't haul 2 8BA's in one trip again though- that was a bit much...

 

Somebody mentioned the word "appliance" and back a few years ago I
finally realized that was what I needed, home was a 5 hour drive from
work [didn't go home every day, but often] with the last hour down a gravel road at the time of day when every black stump looks like a black bear and every bear looks like a stump, and no cell service. And no traffic. Often see 20 deer and 4-5 bears on every trip, so having a beater croak out there is not a great plan. Ask me how I know.

There are lots of good deals out there on rides, and we see lots of good examples here. I've had tons of $1K cars that were still in good shape and had had regular use and maintenance. Finally figured out the trick was to look at the sellers life, home, family etc as much as the car. People with orderly lives have orderly rides.

Back to the appliance thing, I looked for a new car that had just gone out of production, the boss said it has to have A/C and an A/T otherwise she doesn't care. So I bought a Cobalt strippo. Cheap. About the best car deal ever, and I've had around a hundred. 3-4 trips south and many home commutes, finally got nailed by a deer. Never had any problems, comfortable enough, good mileage and enough power even when loaded.
Damned sad when insurance wrote it off. Replaced it with a similar deal type car, this time a mopar. Another cheap, comfortable appliance. Now to finish the garage, replace the tools and find some old stuff again to play with.

 

I just looked and the 60 Pontiac I just bought has 94,000 miles. and it was last licenced in 1970. And it was likely burning oil or the trans shot when it was parked. Many newer vehicles with a 100,000 miles are just getting broke in.