RANT: Why do I bother with old cars ??

[Derek A.]

The fleet is :
1990 BMW 535i
1987 Volvo 240 Wagon
1977 Corvette
1989 Kawasaki KZ1000P

Everything needs work. BMW Is apart as the headliner is being redone. Had to do exhaust manifold gaskets and a trans kickdown cable on the Volvo in the last 48 hours. When will it end ? Why am I not leasing a new car and quit screwing around with this old crap !!!

[Kalevera]

Shucks, I almost bought another "project" about 20 miles away from you on Saturday.

No way I'm driving Fritz in the snow.


best, whit

[Gayle]

I am sure you know the answer to your question. Why don't you give us the answer?

I personally like having older cars because I can have more of them. With a fleet of cars, I can have the perfect automotive accessory to my outfit (probably a girl thing) but isn't it nice to have the perfect vehicle for the occassion. Why just this weekend I was driving across a construction site to a beer festival in my lowered 535 and asked myself "now why did I sell the wrangler?" Which one of your fleet would you want to live without?

I like them because they have souls and the new ones are soul-less and personality-less If you doubt that just go to the dealership and sit in a new bmw.

I even sort of like the challenge of figuring out what is wrong. Cars that don't break are sort of boring. "What's broken" becomes the problem you love to hate.

And if you didn't have your old bmw you wouldn't get to hang out here with us.

So why do you have old cars?

[callen]

Freedom is the answer.....do complicated computers or high expenses....

other thing is buying a new vehicle then getting in an accidednt and having a judge read black box out and use it against you.....that's the biggest problem with new cars.

[uberhahn]

'72 Datsun Z 240

'68 Alfa GTV

I look at it this way. The work on them is 60% of the experience. The rest is pure driving enjoyment. If I look at it any other way, I would simply buy just-another-cookie-cutter-car that every OEM is selling now.

Character.

uberhahn

[callen]

you have the z and alpha currently?

[uberhahn]

yup. Both the Z and GTV are driven hard. Both see track time, but are used mainly on cooler days when I want no radio, no AC, and no passangers. Just me, car, road,... and a few tools in the back, just in case.

Nothing sweeter than the sound of 3 2barrel Webber 45 DCOE carbs on the 6-cyl Z sucking air at 5500 RPM, or a 4 wheel drift in the Alfa.

I think I was born in the wrong decade.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

You had new cars that spent more time at the dealer's garage, then in yours.

Plus the newer stuff sucks....

The newer cars all look like rolling hemorrhoids and can't be fixed without a replacing $$$ of non repairable parts.

Plus transverse mounted engines are a bitch and half the work on.

[uscharalph]

"Just think how pissed you'd be if you had new cars that spent more time at the dealer's garage, then in yours."

I can sink my teeth into that!

[Paul in NZ]

Z1000P??? I had a Z1000J.......