All that I have to do is look in my garage. My two newest cars are a 94 Caprice wagon and a 94 Bonneville.
Around Philly I see an absolutely beat 86-87 GN on the highway all the time. It's got rust, dents, doesn't look like it's been washed for a decade, the headliner is held up by pins, and it smokes, but it's still going. There are also a couple of 66-70 Impalas still around, and a couple of beat Chevelles, but that's about it. Duane
I was in Youngstown, OH a few years back and it was snowing terribly. I pulled in for gas and saw a 1970 Chevelle SS driving on Rt 422....it was pretty rotted. I bet it was a daily driver since 1070!
I think I owned the last really old beater around here when I got rid of my 67 LeSabre and traded it for a 93 LeSabre in 2004. Now I've again got one of the oldest cars around, my 2001 LeSabre. This next year I'm going to be putting together another summer car, a 53 Oldsmobile Super 88, and that will be my summer driver as I work to preserve the LeSabre for winter driving. The other day before the snow fell I did see a very tired 73 Polara.
I see older vehicles all the time. The more surprising thing to me is how many old square body trucks are still being used for businesses. I’ll see an old 70 c10 short bed used to haul some sort of equipment and think “that’s worth money what are you doing!” But people don’t seem to care. No salt on the roads means things stick around.
My beater. 1991 Peugeot 205. 1.1 litre. Had 8 years now. Has 145,000 miles on. Often drive around Europe in it at 80mph all day for hundreds of miles. 5th gear makes it a bit easier for both the car and my hearing.. Just had to do some welding.. Not bad time wise considering it's used all year round. The bike is what I use most though. 1990 MZ ETZ 251 two stroke. I use this little beast religiously. Last year I rode from my home of the UK to Istanbul, Turkey and back on it. Only 41k miles on it too.
I see a few a week in nice weather but are probably a lot more I miss because our area of North Carolina has become so insanely over populated and traffic is so crappy that I can’t rubber neck around like I use to. Still a bunch around though when I think of everything from Model T’s to 442’s i have seen
Thank you man... Nice ones are cheap relatively speaking. Missed a Black/Black 92 LSC Special Edition with 52K miles for $5800 and ended up with the red one. Three years now and only had to put front calipers on it. Mikey
I have lived in virtually every region in the US except for the Northwest. I have to say that when I lived in California (both SoCal and NoCal), I was stunned all the time at the number of '60's and '70's cars still on the road and parked/visable from the streets. These old cars just don't seem to rust or deteriorate much at all there if properly taken care of. As I live in Texas now, I do see quite a few restored/restomodded and original cars, but in increasingly fewer numbers. The sun is very hard on cars here over time, but very little rust unless the car is literally in proximity to the coast. I feel for you guys in the NE and rustbelt/midwest ... quite a bit of rust.
I believe, that part of the issue in South Florida is simply that NO ONE LIVED HERE in the 50's or 60's. The whole place is newly developed. I see far more classics in St. Pete / Clearwater / Tampa.
Unless you live in France you should never drive a French car. If you do live in France, you should only drive a French car.
I was in London (instead of GS Nats) and saw this DD 70 Charger - this is Tuesday Morning rush hour... Elevation on my idea of cool===driving a 70 Charger to work on Tuesday in London Cool.
Sometimes I get a wild hair and mine comes out in the snow......My daily driver F100 is used to it, I just swap to studded snows and put a few hundred pounds of weight in the back.
