Just for shits and giggles...if you had to use a 40 year old car as a daily driver, something unrestored...an original with all factory parts, with say 80,000 miles on it, not rusted at all, just normal wear on a 40 year old design, what would you choose?

honda

my 1969 Ford Galaxie 429 never once let me down in 2 years of daily use.

So, that would have to be a Honda 600, right?

1970 Datsun 1600 Roadster. All the fun of a British sports car, but with an electrical system that works. Rebuild the Hitachi carburators and change the oil on a regular basis and they will run forever.

Dodge dart with slant 6

+1

My father used my 68 mustang with the 200ci engine four wheel drum brakes for 8 years and put 120,000 on it on top of the 110,000 that was on it when i bought the thing. The new gas mixture got the best of it and burnt up its valves. since then it has been restored and upgraded to a 302.

2.0 and 2.2 911s with carbs. There are early 911s out there running unmolested engines and trannies, and they're both reliable and easy to service and maintain.

The Cap'n

If it had to be a German car then I would go with this:

Actually, my 38 year old Corvette is pretty reliable. The ignition switch died in August, but hey, it is 38 years old.

This one of course!

Honda Civic was introduced in 1973. 37 years is close enough.
The Toyota Corolla would be another option - it started selling even before the Honda.

But I suppose you would want an american vehicle due to the supply of replacement parts cheap.

Volkswagon Super Beetle. Makes me miss mine thinking about it.

122

P1800

No, it's not...my thread, my rules!

65 Chevy C-10, 292-6 (mucho torque), std 3 speed, AM radio, Htr, Wipers and Running lights. I put 225K on one before dropping a 327-300 in it. I gave the 6 to my yardman for his truck and he drove it another 4 yr's till he died. His son got his truck and I don't know if it is still ticking or not.

'70 Morgan Plus-8...

Click to view attachment

-- Rob

No Question - A Volvo, either an 1800 or a 144GL. I couldn't kill my 144, sold it in 1983 with 175,000 miles and betcha that thing is still running

PV 544 ... couldn't blow the damn thing up. Wore out the lifters though, but was an easy fix.

Hey Ferg.... are those factory gas burners???

thoughts on the beetle??

I sold my Volvo 242 with 243,000 miles to a friend who put another 65,000 miles on it before selling it to someone else!! As far as I know it is still on the road!!

I am currently the original owner of a 1996 (I know its not 40 years old) with 241,125 miles on it and everything is original!! No rebuilt trans or engine!

My Grandfather left me a 1967 VW Bug with 300,253 miles and I restored it and drove it for about 3 years then sold it for $8,000! He brought it from Germany in 1967! It had black paint and red interior original from Germany. They didn't sell that combo in the USA!

My dad has a 69 dodge dart slant 6(original owner) w/over 300,000 miles, all original except for the spider gears in the rearend (the slant 6 mopar can also do pretty good power brake burnouts)

cheers

240Z. Leave it sit for a year, even years, jump start it and drive it away...

BMW R75/5 toaster tank

twice! Drove the sh!# out of my 1970 2002. Totally abused the car for 3 years without incident.

For a "daily driver"? You're into pain?

Plus the Termites would kill it in Florida

My Mother had a 73 Dodge Dart with over 200,000 miles and the only thing she did was changed the oil every year or so. The only thing that killed the car was a cousin that wrapped it around a pole in the late Nineties...

My Dad had a Plymouth Valient with that slant six, a '68 I think, and although it would run forever, I have to ask... Why would you want to run forever in that car... LOL.

Ken, is this an exercise or for a reason?

If for a reason, I think you are much better off jumping up 10 yrs and getting into Lambda loop FI and Catalytic converters.

Hell, a 1983 VW GTi would run forever, get great gas mileage and allow for a serious grin quotient...

The last 83 I had only died due to NE rust, but was running very strong at 200k with no engine or trans work yet (besides simple maintenance).

Ditto ......................

70 checker marathon

I had over 500,000 on my turbo Diesel Mercedes when I sold it. Let it set for over a year, charged the battery and it fired right up and drove off.

Agree... I've driven mine coast to coast without even thinking about it.

Don has a point with the Mercedes though... 250C is a damn nice car.

Any Nissan or any Toyota, either are pretty much unbreakable when serviced. My father's Datsun 180B had it's first clutch at 400,000 miles and then my sister drove it for another 100,000 before selling it. My brother's MQ Patrol (4x4) had 600,000 on it before the body rusted away. A lot of beach driving and off road work was done with that one though.

Bulletproof vehicles.

Phil

I gave the reason..."Shits and giggles". Every once in awhile I pose something like this and seem to get a good response...something we socialize around and get our heads off of frustrating electrical glitches and such. Also, I have had a number of circa 1970 cars. The most recent was a GT6. Bullet proof motors but crazy British electrics (god bless bosch). I ws wondering how many people would choose thier own 914s for one thing.

Probably a BMW 2002, buddy of mine had one for a while years back. Very nice car and bullet proof.

I'd prefer a Bug though and it'd probably do the job just fine if it was all stock.

If I had to choose...
it would be my first car
68 GTO Convertible, 400CI with tri-power.
A perfect DD for the average commute.

Rich

With a Morgan, you can drive over a quarter at 60 mph and tell whether it's heads or tails...

No pain, no fun....

-- Rob

Well, I think it is an interesting exercise. I didn't state my 914 as I really don't want to put "daily driver" miles on it, as well as it wouldn't fit the family.
My 75 914 has been amazing reliable whenever I drive it, and has only left me stranded once (ran out of gas, dumb color blindness made me miss the gas light and the gauge is not spot on).
Plus mid thirties MPG highway and lots of fun, it would be great.

BUT, 914s are no longer disposable like they were.

for a daily driver, my 914 is highly reliable and fun then again a fifty year old VW bug fits that discription too. both are daily drives for me, fun classy and reliable.

I drive my 914 as a DD most of the time, at least above 55 deg and below 90 deg. So that's most of the year minus a couple weeks here and there. Drove this morning, 6 am again with the top off. Haven't had the roof on since Saturday!

I'd probably want my 66 Mustang 'vert back. Loved that car. Or maybe the 65 T-bird I got from my Grandfather.

BEETLE

....Mercedes diesel(any of them)
But...............set up to run on cooking oil!
why is everybody with the munchies following me?

I want another Karmann Ghia convertible.....

And just so you know,

there AIN"T no such thing as a 40 year old Honduh,

In fact there ain't no such thing as a 30 year old Honduh,

And probably almost no 25 year old Honduhs

Those cheap assed POS all rusted away from the inside out.

Makes a teener look rust free

And a teener is WAAYY more reliable.

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1970 Datsun 1600 Roadster. All the fun of a British sports car, but with an electrical system that works. Rebuild the Hitachi carburators and change the oil on a regular basis and they will run forever.
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Second that. In '77 I bought a '67 1600 as my first car. Bondo'd up the body and had a neighbor who was in an autobody program at school paint it for $100 plus one gallon of Centauri. Looked beautiful and ran great for years. I owned it during high school, college and beyond. I ended up painting the car three times before the frame finally surrendered to rust, it was still running well in '87 when it was parted. I really miss that car. Second choice would be '73 Super Beetle.

I was thinking Mercedes for a while, but then I thought hell, why not a 70' 914-6? If it wasn't all rusty and only had 80k on it why not?

If I'm gonna dream, I might as well dream.

Either that or a 70' 911S.

Either of those would be reliable enough and easy enough to work on that I could keep them running.