I'd love to rock a unicorn of mine, the F2T powered 626 GT hatch. Though basic maintenance and brake bits are easy enough to come by, other things that wear out with age are available, but several days out eliminating the practicality of being a daily.
I dailied a 1960 Cadillac for a while about 10 years ago. Technically my Miata is older at 24 years old.
Edit - Time flies. It was 15 years on the Cadillac.
Mercedes 450SLC
captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:I'd love to rock a unicorn of mine, the F2T powered 626 GT hatch. Though basic maintenance and brake bits are easy enough to come by, other things that wear out with age are available, but several days out eliminating the practicality of being a daily.
If they are known failure points that you can recognize before they fail...........BMW plastic radiators for example, you still could still pre-order and do the work before the failure?
Saab C900. I did it for many years and would happily do it again with functioning A/C. Parts really aren't a big deal for them, but I don't want to watch one rot into the ground with winter use or haul a newborn around in one given the level of distraction I see every time I leave the house.
We still have a couple, but they are sunny day drivers at best.
racerdave600 said:Mercedes 450SLC
Is the problem parts availability or parts cost? Because IIRC Mercedes will bring Klaus out of requirement to hand-build you a new intake manifold if you're willing to pay for it.
I'd seriously have to consider a 323 GTX again.
4 door Lincoln Continental Convertible
Ultimate in family-hauling versatility and style
Probably something we never got here.
Early-ish Fiat Cinquecento, 3 cyl turbo Suzuki Jimny, v12 Toyota Century, turn of the millenium Alfa GTV/Spider.
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
MG's. Insanely simple to fix. Very predictable as to needs. Service level would be higher than today's drive and forget cars. But the simplicity of service needs offsets the more frequent requirements.
Morris Minor's (Traveler ) for exactly the same reason. Plus astonishingly great fuel mileage and practicality of daily use.
Ford Model A ( updated with newer hydraulic brakes and newer engine) Pure fun ride.
Chevy Volt low operating costs.
In a barn in Western Nebraska, there's a '52 Dodge Coronet waiting for me to bring it home. The 6v electrical and super-oddball transmission makes it unlikely to be a good daily without a bunch of swapping first. Would totally rock the flathead six, though...
captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:I'd love to rock a unicorn of mine, the F2T powered 626 GT hatch. Though basic maintenance and brake bits are easy enough to come by, other things that wear out with age are available, but several days out eliminating the practicality of being a daily.
I actually do daily one of those, but my answer for the thread was going to be my '85 MR2.
Parts availability is not a problem for my 914 and other old Porsches. They even have a factory radio navigation system upgrade.
I would love to DD an Dodge Omni GLH turbo, simple, brutal, and fun as hell. But rust has taken most out of service and I am sure all the trim and soft bits are NS1. 
Recently had a run of automotive bad luck. Saab 9-3 had a computer go bad. Toyota Solara took out a deer, and then had a dead battery, F350 had a flat. The only running cars that day were my wife's daily driver TR7 and my TR8. Pretty bad when the most reliable car in the fleet is a 43 year old Triumph, but that thing gets up and goes to work at 5am every day. Then it sits in a grocery store parking lot all day before driving her home.
Lots of cars. I drove 20-40 year old MGs and TRs as my only cars for decades.
I agree that it is a different game today when the obsolescence of a high tech part can make it completely uneconomic with certain cars. Would like to own a BMW 850 CSI (well, I would have when they bottomed, before they started up again) but the electronics that could fail - the ECMs (yes, two of them) were in the multi thousand dollar range and then became unavailable.
Chevy celebrity eurosport VR
wspohn said:Lots of cars. I drove 20-40 year old MGs and TRs as my only cars for decades.
I agree that it is a different game today when the obsolescence of a high tech part can make it completely uneconomic with certain cars. Would like to own a BMW 850 CSI (well, I would have when they bottomed, before they started up again) but the electronics that could fail - the ECMs (yes, two of them) were in the multi thousand dollar range and then became unavailable.
But parts availability for those MGs and TRs is also difficult these days. If I need parts for my classic Mini or my MG, I have to mail order it. And that's going to take the car down for a couple of days which isn't suitable for a daily driver. So the question isn't so much about cars that are at risk of a single part parking the car for good, but cars that aren't practical for DD use because they're not easily fixed with a quick turnaround. I have my choice of suppliers for a wheel cylinder for my '67 Land Rover, but if I lose a wheel cylinder I can't drive the thing until someone ships me one from the other side of the country.
CSX VNT with a BIG berkeleyIN TURBO
3G Civic Hatch with a BIG berkeleyIN TURBO
4-door 69 slant six Valiant with a BIG berkeleyIN TURBO
Since the Saab C900 has already been mentioned (which was my first thought when I read the thread), I'd say basically any old turbo 5 cylinder Audi. I had an UrS4 for a while, and did daily it, but I had multiple backup cars I could finagle if I was in a pinch (so not a real daily imo). The car was actually quite reliable for my time with it, but parts availability worried me. While I am no fan of corporations, if I had a favorite marque it would be Audi (and by extension VW), but their support for older models in the US is downright cruel, especially compared to the other German makes. They actually have a parts program for Europe, but make shipping parts to the US as difficult as possible.
Drove mine to work today and will for the rest of the week. I’d have no problem relying on it as my only vehicle. Although to be fair, finding parts is probably less of an issue than for a lot of stuff in this thread.
I feel like that's my whole fleet period...
But I would totally daily an Aussie Falcon with the inline 6 if parts weren't stupid.
My current daily (2012 Mazda 3) sometimes requires parts that are several days out, but typical consumables are readily available. That said, I'd do either a F2T MX-6 or Probe, a 1989-94 Nissan Maxima, or a 1987-88 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.
I'd go back to Corrados in a heartbeat if money wasn't a factor. I had a pair and just switched from one to the other when a car was down. DD until 2013. New job only pays about 60% of what my real one did, so I had to let them go.
I'm still in touch with the guy that bought them, one's his sunny day car and the other was moved along to someone else who loves them as much as we do.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
I saw your list and thought "I DD'd the 1988 Turbocoupe and it was fine" Before I remembered that was 24 years ago and it was just 8-9 years old at the time. Stupid linear time.
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