Is your daily driver over 20 years old?

[SaabOrient]

My DD is a 17 year old Saab (GM)900 base 2.0. For a 45 mile round trip, and has 150k on the clock.
Bought it as a 'stop-gap' 2 years ago, but been so reliable I've just kept it and it keeps running a1 with oil changes etc.

Though I do have a 9-5 as a 'weekend' car, I would have to say that if I really needed to rely on one of the two, the 900 takes it every time.

[Jimmy No Hands]

Yeah. A 1989 Sunny LS. 27k from new and the same age as me. Would easily entrust it with driving to the moon and back without a hitch.

[SidewaysSi]

Yep, Mercedes W124 E220. 1995, 94k and totally solid and reliable. A supremely comfortable car and I get over 35mpg on average out of it. Brilliant machine.

[rambo19]

Nearly, a 1998 diesel mondeo.

[DaveCWK]

I daily drive my 1994 Celica GT4. It survived fine when I was doing an 80mile/day M25 commute.

Nothing went wrong, it just worked.

[220te]

I have had 3 W124's as daily drivers. A 220TE now put into semi retirement, A 250TD which I have recently changed for a 300TD, all utterly reliable and almost 1,000,000 (1 Million) miles between them. 22yrs,27yrs and 23yrs old. :-)

[TREMAiNE]

1991 Eunos
32 miles round trip for the commute.
Absolutely fantastic on fuel, nothing gone wrong on it yet.
Use it out of choice. Got several other vehicles.

[drivingaddict]

I had a 26 year old BMW 518i E28 daily driver for around 2 years. I drove it through Norwegian winters, no problem - in fact, it was just superbly controllable on snow. Very airy interior, adequate room for passengers, big boot, great comfort, nice power steering, sunroof, electrical windows - just great.

The car was reliable, never stopped once, but it needed the occasional part now and then. I replaced, amongst other things, the clutch and the instrument panel because of wear. But the BMW community is usually big, so sourcing parts was never a problem. And I honestly didn't mind fixing it up either because it spread so much love; girls loved it, boys loved it and I never tired of looking at reflections of the car while driving it and thinking that I was driving something extremely cool.
Just find yourself a friendly BMW garage that works on old cars and they will enthusiastically help you with keeping running costs low.

Had a 20+ year old CRX too, but that was way worse because of the part sourcing (also, it didn't have power steering and I live in the city). Honda community is great too, but around here it's way, way smaller than the BMW community.

Buy something really cool so that you won't mind spending cash on it. Something your heart really wants. It's so worth the hassle.

Edited by drivingaddict on Friday 24th April 19:16

[Roman Moroni]

99t said:

I think my fleet qualify overall, bear with me!!

Newest to oldest

2004 Monaro 11 years old
2003 Octavia 12 years old
1996 Saab 9000 19 years old
1990 Saab 900 25 years old
1975 Saab 99 40 years old

All are taxed, insured, MOT'd and currently working so daily is whichever one I fancy on a given day, average age 21.4!!

Sir, that's a fine array of metal you're running.

Out of interest, how do you choose which one you use?

[Coatesy351]

1994 Ford LTD
Approx 10000 Miles a year.
Service myself = Cheap running costs, Except its a bit thirsty.
Very Reliable
Run by choice

[aka_kerrly]

Matt UK said:

If so, what car is it?
What sort of miles are you doing?
What are the running costs and reliability like?
Do you run this car out of choice or necessity?

Just curious for now... But I am car shopping soon...

1993 VW Corrado VR6
8,000 miles a year
Purchased the car in 2013 for £750, total spent on maintenance over 13k £700

I opt to run the car,when I purchased it I was on my way to view a 2005 Golf GTI at ten times the cost but spotted the Corrado at the side of the road with a sign that said "offers." My first bid of £750 was accepted.

Fair to say it was very much an impulse purchase.

[99t]

Roman Moroni said:

99t said:

I think my fleet qualify overall, bear with me!!

Newest to oldest

2004 Monaro 11 years old
2003 Octavia 12 years old
1996 Saab 9000 19 years old
1990 Saab 900 25 years old
1975 Saab 99 40 years old

All are taxed, insured, MOT'd and currently working so daily is whichever one I fancy on a given day, average age 21.4!!

Sir, that's a fine array of metal you're running.

Out of interest, how do you choose which one you use?

Thanks

The all have very different characteristics. Firstly which has got fuel in!!

Then, depending what I want from the drive:-

Practicality and fuel economy = Octavia (estate)
The noise and power = Monaro
Chuckability = 900
Lazy mode = 9000 (auto)
Sunny day cruise = 99

Regardless of the above, other than the 99 which doesn't get out much over winter, I try not to leave any unused for more than a week at a time...

[OldGermanHeaps]

In 2007 my daily was a 1986 bmw 735sei on lpg, 20 mpg on gas, never measured on petrol as the tank leaked if you filled it more than 2/3. It had more toys than a brand new ecobox and apart from the head gasket that i put on it as i bought it as a £200 non runner and loose coke can bushes that i never got around to doing it never gave bother. Oh, the rubber band that drove the cassete player spindle snapped, and fitting a modern stereo was a pain as the amp and all speaker wires were in the boot, but it was worth it as the speakers were class with a better head unit. Along with the purchase receipt for the car was the receipt for the original blaupunkt stereo , £652 in 1986 money!
I done 12k in it in a year then sold it for £640
I could afford something much newer but it had a lot of charm, and handled much better than the e38 that replaced it, and the £14k e60 we got after left us both feeling underwhealmed and we went back to running 2 old but interesting cars again.

Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Friday 24th April 20:45

[Matt97]

I use my mk2 fiesta daily, it's 27yrs old this year.
Was fairly cheap to buy and is cheap to run, i'm doing around 8000 miles a year as well.

[MikeyMike]

Until recently I was covering 10-12000 miles a year in a 1990 Cavalier GSI. Only had a couple of issues; snapped clutch cable and a dead alternator. Had to replace the heater motor too. I now run a 1998 e39 520i. You will almost certainly have issues running an older car, in my experience usually electrics. As long as the engine and chassis are in fine fettle and you can live with the odd minor fault running an older car can be pretty painless.

[thecremeegg]

Mx5 from 93 - maybe 8k a year....love it!

[George7]

john2443 said:

These posts make me feel better about my 10 yr old 115k MG ZT daily driver . It's quite modern by the standards of this thread!

My ZT is a little bit older than yours at 12, although I'm making the change to an older DD soon (it'll likely be close to 20 years old, X300 XJ), wish me luck!

[anonymous-user]

Matt97 said:

I use my mk2 fiesta daily, it's 27yrs old this year.
Was fairly cheap to buy and is cheap to run, i'm doing around 8000 miles a year as well.

I'm of the age where I like that. Especially the XR2 wheels

[shedweller]

Another 20yr old Citroen ZX TD driver here.

Bought for 400 quid two years ago 98k one owner with 12 months ticket... Paint work by brillo and a bit algi/mossy, full history.

Minor turbo and fuelling tweaks by myself after a month

12k a year, had set of pads, and oil change after a year, no mot advisory's except for "cracked front number plate" (analogue pdc)

Can't get less than 45mpg

[jogger1976]

Not quite 20 years old, but I'm currently driving a 140000miler, 16 year old Saab 9-5. Super comfy, all the toys, plus reasonably fast / economical.
A very nice place to be for the 400 miles a week I'm currently doing. And all for less than 500 quid. Shed motoring is the way forward

Edited by jogger1976 on Friday 24th April 21:26

Edited by jogger1976 on Friday 24th April 21:31