What 20 year old car would you choose as your daily drive?

[sunbeam alpine]

danllama said:

Hey that's my photo! Glad you're still enjoying it!

I chose my 20 year old car, been in mr2's for 4 years now.

MR2 Turbo spring drive by Dan J, on Flickr

It's far the bast photo I have! Have a few other cars needing your skills.

[Stickyfinger]

PowerslideSWE said:

Activa. Suspect that it may suprise alot of faster metal on a twisty road that thing.

a v.6 3ltr one......so yes

[HugoFastmann]

My daily is nearing 20 years old now (well, almost, it's 15...) but I'd go for an early E46 or an Alfa 156 2.5...

[Gary C]

Evolved said:

Mitsubishi Evo 5 in red. In fact, that's just what I've done

Lol

I had one of those as a daily but it was only 3 years old and 15k miles and cost me a fortune to keep on the road

Good luck.

[V8Taxi]

[DeltaTango]

I had this exact same dilemma 7 months ago, this was the result. Only 19 years old though I'm afraid but it replaced a '94 E320 coupe so it all averages out. Both are superb things which I would not hesitate to recommend;

[culpz]

Something with a Lexus badge if it's going to be a daily for me. LS400 is a bit too big and wafty for my tastes so i'll say GS430. Not exactly a small car by any means but auto, V8, reliability and fairly rare.

[Agent XXX]

Oh god. YET another thread that decends into "I've got a BMW"

[99dndd]

caelite said:

I mean I currently daily drive a 13 year old Mx5. Wouldn't exactly be a big jump to daily a 20 year old Mx5, there basically the same car underneath, the only thing the mk1 misses out on is VVT and a wee bit of chassis bracing.

But that is made up for in the form of popup headlights. It would probably be my choice if I could get away with having 2 seats.

[MorganP104]

Plate spinner said:

A BMW e38 740i would be fine for 20k miles a year.

This would be my choice, too.

I owned a 740i of a 1996 vintage a few years ago, and it was a magnificent car. Sadly, an epic (i.e. expensive) MoT fail stopped the fun.

[mmm-five]

These were my daily drivers (and only car at the time) - doing about 25,000 miles a year of commuting, track days and Ring trips.

Wouldn't call them cheap to run though.

3.6 1990 e34 M5


3.8 1994 e34 M5

[NiceCupOfTea]

Agent XXX said:

Oh god. YET another thread that decends into "I've got a BMW"

I've got 2!

[Zetec-S]

Keeping with the Midsomer Murders theme, I'd give some consideration to one of these. Don't know why but I've always liked the shape:

[s m]

HugoFastmann said:

My daily is nearing 20 years old now (well, almost, it's 15...) but I'd go for an early E46 or an Alfa 156 2.5...

Same here - one of my daily cars till 4 years back was an R reg 328i - just fancied a change as it had got to 200k. Assuming it had to meet the things I need ( affordable, suit 4 for hols/5 at a pinch, easy for me to fix ) I'd go for something like a 156 V6, Vectra ST200, IS200 ( although some of these are a year or so out ) just to have a change from a BM

[JS1500]

lee_erm said:

PGNSagaris said:

I chose this.....19 years old only though but close enough

That looks awesome.

Yes it does.
Do you have a thread on it?
I have a 996 so very interested in the details... Such as which side skirts are those? They go nicely with the ducktail.

[JS1500]

Byff said:

For the last three years, I have been using this recently turned 20yr old as my daily driver.



I like to try and keep it clean, but it's usually filthy....

It gets used year round too, even in slippery stuff which is a bit

1997 TVR Cerbera - a genuine daily driver

Props to that man!

[MorganP104]

Agent XXX said:

Oh god. YET another thread that decends into "I've got a BMW"

It may well look that way, but there's a reason for that. The only stuff reliable enough to use as a daily driver at 20 years old is going to be German.

But we can discount Mercedes from that, as late '90s cars suffered very badly with rust. Which leaves us with 20 year old Audis (they really weren't very exciting back then), or 20 year old BMWs.

Before anyone starts getting all adenoidal about their 20 year old French/Japanese/Italian car they use as a daily, I know that not ALL 20 year old cars on the road are made by BMW.

[Gunk]

MorganP104 said:

Agent XXX said:

Oh god. YET another thread that decends into "I've got a BMW"

It may well look that way, but there's a reason for that. The only stuff reliable enough to use as a daily driver at 20 years old is going to be German.

But we can discount Mercedes from that, as late '90s cars suffered very badly with rust. Which leaves us with 20 year old Audis (they really weren't very exciting back then), or 20 year old BMWs.

Is it not just that the 20 year German stuff is the coolest, the most reliable would probably be a mid 1990's Nissan Primera, I can't see many powerfully built PHers rocking around in one of them.

Edited by Gunk on Tuesday 30th May 11:39

[mackie1]

I'll buck the BMW trend and say Skyline GTS-T:

[PomBstard]

I reckon a 20 year old 306 GTi6 would be OK if it had a reasonable life to date. Pugs from that era are pretty tough.

Otherwise I'd happily pootle around in an E36 M3.

Though recently I've been making use of this on a frequent basis, including peak hour commuting...



Whilst its 30, rather than 20, years old, I'd happily use the last of the line, a 95 GTS, as a daily. Fuel use is the only thing I can think of that counts against.

The MX5 I sold about 3 years ago was 16 years old then, and was fine for everyday use in any weather.