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Whose got the oldest ‘non vintage’ vehicle?

MissNomer

MissNomer

Between Dimensions
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We live in a world where so many folks always seem to want to have the newest cars, trucks and SUV’s. And I get it - with many vehicles reliability can be an issue as a vehicle ages, or the gas milage is too much, or perhaps the need to change arises.

Some of us though treasure our older vehicles and keep them long past when others might have said “さよなら” (sayonara) to them.

Case in point - my purchased from new 2001 Chevy Silverado 1500 LT. I still remember a few months before I emigrated out here going to a dealership wanting to look at trucks and the salesman showing me an S10. “That’s a car,” was my reply. “I don’t want a car, I want a TRUCK!” I continued, at which point we swung over to the other side of the lot where I got to stare of Trucks!

And I was sold from the test drive onwards. We went back to England to finalize my affairs and specked out the truck online knowing that my brother-in-law (who worked at the dealership) was going to be the one adding all the extras onto it - the bull-bars, running board and so much more.

I still love the truck today. 22 years later it sits protected from sun and snow damage in the garage but still gets a few jaunts out when needed. Currently only about 115K miles on it and after I recently had the shocks replaced, it runs wonderfully.

I’ve no intention of selling the truck for as long as I live here.
 
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What a great – and well told – story! The answer to the question in the thread title is definitely not me. My Mini Cooper is a 2017 and my wife's Hyundai Tucson is a '21.
 
tobefirst said:
The Mini takes premium. 😉
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So does the wife’s 2010 Infiniti G37x (she used to have a 2008 Camry LTE, but some idiot totaled it, so she brought a 2009 G35x, until our local repair shop left it in gear while parked allowing it to roll down onto the 4 lane highway only for it to meet its end at the front end of a UPS truck).

Her car is for fun, the truck is for work. I’d not swap either vehicle out right now…
 
Sigh.

I am more than partial to some of the older cars.....the Rover P6, for example.

The Citroen DS....

A chidhood where I fell in love with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (not only did our adored parents take us to the cinema, - on several occasions, for, we loved this movie - and buy us the LP of the musical, (yes, we learned the songs), and then proceed, to purchase Ian Fleming's book for us - on which the movie (very loosely) was based - and even look the other way when my adored, and long-suffering and wonderful godmother (my mother's best friend from school) bought my brother and I - at our request - not just one, but - to our astonished and disbelieving delight - two outrageously expensive toy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang metal model motor-cars, the ones with the working wings) may be partly to blame for this....
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
Sigh.

I lam more than partial to some of the older cars.....the Rover P6, for example.

The Citroen DS....

A chidhood where I fell in love with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (not only did my parents take us to the cinema, - on severa occasions, we loved this movie - and buy us the LP of the musical, purchase Ian Fleming's book for us - on which the movie (very loosely) was based - even look the other way when my adored, and long-suffering and wonderful godmother (my mother's best friend from school) bought my brother and I - at our request - two outrageously expensive toy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang metal model motor-cars) may be partly to blame for this....
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Pretty sure the first time I saw Chitty-Chitty-Bang Bang was when it was on BBC1 one Christmas Day. Fell in love at the time with the delightful Truly Scrumptious, played by the late Sally Ann Howes.
1648084678664.png
 
I always picked up "new to me" vehicles, always had my mechanic check them out before plunking my money down on the barrelhead, and usually put about 200k miles on them. The last one hanging out in my driveway was a 5-speed 2001 Chevy Prizm (one of those hybrid Chevy-Toyota jobs made out in the Fremont plant in California. One of my brothers joked that the car was basically a Toyota with a Chevy glovebox.... anyway it certainly had a Toyota engine, which was why it lasted so long and never needed more than an oil change the whole time I had it.

But... that thing abruptly gave up the ghost in my driveway one morning, just about the time I was starting to do homework for a possible next vehicle or else decide to quit driving.

The car's blown head gasket reminded me of two things: 1) great good luck regarding where the car played its prank, and 2) I'm no spring chicken, and the idea of hitchhiking home from a car breakdown in the boondocks isn't as appealing any more as when I was in my 40s. Back then I thought all such car adventures were just fun tales you haul out at parties around the time folks start bragging about the fish that got away, or the insane trick played by one's truck or car on some mountain road.

And so... more great good luck: when that last car died, Instacart had only recently then started serving my area of the sticks. So I decided that life was trying to tell me something, reminding me gently that I never did like the idea of becoming one of those old geezers who drive 20mph in a 55 zone. Been without a car for a couple years now, and covid blunted the edge of any disappointment, since no one was going anywhere anywayf for most of that time. I still have kin in the area and friends have offered me rides to appointments, so it's all seeming to work out fine to be car-free.

Anyway the vehicles I owned for my 60-odd years of driving were three VW bugs, a 1980 Datsun hatchback, a Ford Escort hatchback, and the Prizm. Somewhere in there was also a backup car for awhile -- a castoff red Dodge piece of work that one of my SIL living next door at the time donated to the cause of "in case we need it"... That thing sulked at the back of my driveway, just in case she or I needed to put one of our regular cars into the shop. We used to call that spare ride "the red job" and it wasn't really used except on Saturdays when we flipped a coin to see who would take it into town on errands just to top off the battery. Stupid thing was not built for the hills around here and spent most of its time in third, had no power at all in 4th.
 
I've always wanted to take a car to 300K miles; I'm still trying. My 1986 Chevy S-10 was 242K when I just couldn't bear driving it anymore and sold it, and my wife's present 2003 Kia Rio Cinco is at 211K and still going strong, with only timing belt replacements. Kia's are as tough as Toyotas are, in my book.

Re: CCBB - Who would name their daughter "Truly Scrumptious", anyway? Have they no sense or decency? The book by Ian Fleming was darker and more realistic in some senses and the antagonists were gangsters, I think.
 
I drive 20-22k miles a year and you only have 115k miles on an ‘01? 😳

My truck is a 2019. Nowhere near the oldest here.
 
We had a pristine 1992 Toyota Supra 3.0 litre hiding in one of the buildings on our commercial property in the shady part of town. It looked exactly like this in terms of colour etc.

1648455734936.png

We often had minor problems up there with local young hoodie rats breaking windows and underage drinking. Occasionally we would find some needles and syringes, or some stuff dumped, like old furniture and once even a whole Smart car (seriously), but apart from needing to board up a broken window every 6 months, we never had anything serious happen for many years ago.

The wife had moved her business elsewhere ages ago, so we decided to sell up. The time was also right with this properly boom that started last year and it was a good location for some residential redevelopment. One day we went up there to discover that somebody had broken into the building where the car was by climbing on the roof and removing some of the roof tiles. They must have then jumped down onto the car roof. There were some tools lying around, like a sledge hammer, and every panel was dented and every window was broken. Bits of the dashboard were ripped out. The car was a complete wreck and uneconomical to repair. This was especially tough for my wife, since the car had belonged to her late father and it was one of his favourite cars.

This is the Smart car that got dumped up there one day. It was actually in pretty good condition before the local young rats did some work on it. Trying to get rid of a car that has been dumped on your property is a story in itself, but that's for another day.

1648458805005.png
 
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Living where I do, there is a lot of interstate driving just to get anywhere. So I average 40K miles a year on my work truck. I would like to keep them longer, but when I start getting near the 100K power train warranty expiration, I start looking. I really don't want to have to replace/fix a diesel engine. I bough the extended warranty (from the dealer, not a telemarketer 🙂) on my new one which will get me out to 150K.

The one nice thing about trucks is they hold their value, so after a couple of years you can usually get a new one with little to no change in the payment.

The wife on the other hand will drive one until it falls apart. I have got her onto a 5-year replacement plan. We have started getting her CPO's that are 2-years old. So after she has it for 5, the 7-year warranty is about up.

I don't really like vehicles out of warranty.
 
I have to admit, I still rather miss my sweet little blue Acura RSX, who became mine in the autumn of 2005 and to whom I sadly said goodbye in the autumn of 2020. That Acura felt like an extension of me....and much as I love my current Honda Civic Sport Hatchback who took the Acura's place, it's just not quite the same experience. Maybe by the time the Honda is fifteen years old I'll have the same pang in my heart when it's time to say goodbye to her.....
 
I drive a 2013 Passat and a 2010 Hyundai whatever hatchback. Our neighbour is a mechanic and has a really nice 2004 Subi Forester that we really liked, but ffs, there’s no space in the front row once the child seats are mounted on that second row. If anyone has a good recommendation for something that has all wheel drive, space for 4 without suffering claustrophobia that would work in our Canadian winter, do let me know.
 
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The latest New Yorker cartoon caption contest just begs to be in this thread.... anyone who has ever had a winter rat car break down in the boondocks has seen this monster.

oh yeah been there all right.jpg​
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For those unfamiliar, the mag runs a contest ahead of publishing particular cartoons in an issue, and so lets the winner's name and caption appear as "the prize" when the issue goes to press.​
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