What 20 year old car would you choose as your daily drive?
Discussion
Al Murphy said:
This is my nearly 20 year old daily. Love it, very comfortable and ruinous on fuel 
Al
Nice to see so many old XJR's been used as dailies on this thread.Al
If I didn't take the train everyday to work, the XJR in the fleet would definitely be the 'go to' car.
Ruinous on fuel or not.
S
Edited by ess on Monday 5th June 21:00
My contributions to this thread aren't so much which ones I would choose, they're more the ones I have chosen.
In 2006 I bought my 1988 911 and ran it as my daily driver until 2011, when I had it resprayed and a new hood fitted. Not the best daily driver as when one isn't in the mood they're positively agricultural and bloody heavy. Not nearly as dangerous as people say as I have owned the car for nearly 11 years and it hasn't killed me yet:
(The car has been on UK plates since 2014 when I moved from Jersey back to the UK)
For proof of all-weather use:
I think it's also fair to say that the old 911 isn't the largest car on the modern road:
Whilst the 911 was away being painted, I needed a daily driver. I was very tempted by a 1998 E39 manual (c55,000 miles on it) that I saw for a whole £2k which was quite the Q car, being dark green, on 16" turbines and debadged. Sadly it was a manual and whilst I know some like the E39 V8 manuals this one (perhaps as a relatively early one) wasn't great (and I'm used to tractors - see the 911 above) and wasn't the most "electronically happy," of cars I have ever viewed.
I consoled myself by spending the princely sum of £1,400 and bought a 1996 328i with 41,000 miles:
(I'm not sure the car really looked this good; this was taken for sale and colour-magic wax *might* have been used to hide the swirls)
I'm ashamed to say that I washed this car twice in the ~7 months between 2011 and 2012 that I owned it, these being the day I bought it and the day I sold it. I would run another of these as a daily in a heartbeat. Quick, cost little to run, nice steering, nice 5 speed ZF slusher...but the only reason I sold mine was that it didn't have AC...
...and I got a call about a 1996 E36 M3 Evo Saloon that I had seen (but was on for too much money). The vendor was "motivated," I had always wanted an Evo Saloon and soon I had 2 dailies:
After a little fettling through 2012/13, including:
New AC evaporator
OE CD player sourced and fitted
Repainted bumpers
New wheels
New exterior trim
Monster service
Suspension rebuild (all proper bits aside from E46 Cab rear top mounts and poly ARBs)
Rust-proofing the arches and behind liners
It looked like this:
Probably the best car I ever owned and very relevant for use on modern roads in its second decade. I ran for 2 1/2 years and c14,000 miles, the only concessions to being ~20 years old being the slightly highly strung S50B32 engine which:
- Has to be run on super to get the power (and has 15% better economy run thus)
- Really needs the oil doing every 3,000 miles (based on the colour when I did it thus) and
- The engine being lumpy and cantankerous when cold for the first mile or two.
(This car is now P813HRM; if the new owner is out there - sold through a dealer - message me!).
I would love a Jag x300 or BMW E34 / E39 as a smoker but suspect that with an annual mileage of under 3,000 and 2 cars, I probably don't need a third.
In 2006 I bought my 1988 911 and ran it as my daily driver until 2011, when I had it resprayed and a new hood fitted. Not the best daily driver as when one isn't in the mood they're positively agricultural and bloody heavy. Not nearly as dangerous as people say as I have owned the car for nearly 11 years and it hasn't killed me yet:
(The car has been on UK plates since 2014 when I moved from Jersey back to the UK)
For proof of all-weather use:
I think it's also fair to say that the old 911 isn't the largest car on the modern road:
Whilst the 911 was away being painted, I needed a daily driver. I was very tempted by a 1998 E39 manual (c55,000 miles on it) that I saw for a whole £2k which was quite the Q car, being dark green, on 16" turbines and debadged. Sadly it was a manual and whilst I know some like the E39 V8 manuals this one (perhaps as a relatively early one) wasn't great (and I'm used to tractors - see the 911 above) and wasn't the most "electronically happy," of cars I have ever viewed.
I consoled myself by spending the princely sum of £1,400 and bought a 1996 328i with 41,000 miles:
(I'm not sure the car really looked this good; this was taken for sale and colour-magic wax *might* have been used to hide the swirls)
I'm ashamed to say that I washed this car twice in the ~7 months between 2011 and 2012 that I owned it, these being the day I bought it and the day I sold it. I would run another of these as a daily in a heartbeat. Quick, cost little to run, nice steering, nice 5 speed ZF slusher...but the only reason I sold mine was that it didn't have AC...
...and I got a call about a 1996 E36 M3 Evo Saloon that I had seen (but was on for too much money). The vendor was "motivated," I had always wanted an Evo Saloon and soon I had 2 dailies:
After a little fettling through 2012/13, including:
New AC evaporator
OE CD player sourced and fitted
Repainted bumpers
New wheels
New exterior trim
Monster service
Suspension rebuild (all proper bits aside from E46 Cab rear top mounts and poly ARBs)
Rust-proofing the arches and behind liners
It looked like this:
Probably the best car I ever owned and very relevant for use on modern roads in its second decade. I ran for 2 1/2 years and c14,000 miles, the only concessions to being ~20 years old being the slightly highly strung S50B32 engine which:
- Has to be run on super to get the power (and has 15% better economy run thus)
- Really needs the oil doing every 3,000 miles (based on the colour when I did it thus) and
- The engine being lumpy and cantankerous when cold for the first mile or two.
(This car is now P813HRM; if the new owner is out there - sold through a dealer - message me!).
I would love a Jag x300 or BMW E34 / E39 as a smoker but suspect that with an annual mileage of under 3,000 and 2 cars, I probably don't need a third.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff