Is there any such thing as 'overly modern' or 'overly old' when it comes to daily use?

[Spurious]

What I do know is that I couldn't run two 25+ year old cars without having two. At least when the Nissan is inop and needs parts and a day to fix it, I can always use the Audi to get to work. 

If you can't manage with that uncertainty and I can easily see why, I can see a PCP deal that you fire at the dealer if anything goes wrong

[Roverageous]

I concur with "Late Nineties / Early Noughties" - this age seems to be exactly perfect, in terms of dailies. I've almost exclusively run Rover 75s for the past 10 years of commuting - some years have been more, some less, but probably averaging 14000-15000 miles per year. I've never had one leave me stranded, and for 9 of those years I never bothered with breakdown cover. There were niggles, but you can always sort those as and when.

There are certain niceties that I think I would notice if they weren't there, which do make life easier, such as:

• Cruise Control
• Air Conditioning (cooling in summer, and keeping the windows clear in winter!)
• Memory Seats (mechanics tend to move the seat, grrrr.....)
• Heated Seats
• My current 75 also has Xenon headlamps which are just superb for night driving

[Adrian_pt]

I daily a B reg, but by daily I mean weekend / skip / shop runs as I'm based in central London. About 5k a year, much more this year as I ended up doing a lot of travelling across the UK. For me it's doable if 1) it's a decently made car in the first place 2) you don't skimp on the maintenance and 3) it has enough poke to keep up with motorway traffic. Smiles per gallon easily offsets  the lack of creature comforts (cold wet mornings are a pain) and the fact that things will at some point go wrong. Had it for 16 years,  no real plans to change - I'll even take the Ulez hit. But I'll be the first to say it's not for everyone. 

I did, about three years ago, have to daily (as in 2000+km a month) a 1984 Dacia for a couple of months...

[catsinthewelder]

Please say there are photos somewhere of the Dacia 😁

I'm just off to confuse the staff at the local covid testing place with my 1310 😜

[N19]

On 9/12/2021 at 1:47 PM, Spurious said:

What I do know is that I couldn't run two 25+ year old cars without having two. At least when the Nissan is inop and needs parts and a day to fix it, I can always use the Audi to get to work. 

If you can't manage with that uncertainty and I can easily see why, I can see a PCP deal that you fire at the dealer if anything goes wrong

Definitely. This morning I got into the Mondeo and could hear and odd, and worsening, rattle from the N/S/R wheel. The ability to jump off and into the Bluebird when you need to get to work was crucial.

I usually use the Mondeo for the majority of commuting and general daily running around. It's comfortable, has all the useful toys (heated seats, heated windscreens, cruise control, air con when I get it fixed, a proper built in cassette player with working stalk controls) and is versatile enough to accommodate me commuting, giving a friend a lift, doing a tip run or just moving crap around - all without complaining. Equally, I could jump in it tomorrow and drive up to Scotland in comfort.

The Bluebird I'll use sporadically, at least once or twice a week it'll get out and about to work or to the shops. And obviously it provides cover when there's a breakdown or similar.

 have certain rules, so I won't start a job on one of the daily pair if I'm at all suspicious of the other (if that makes sense). Worst case the Capri can be pressed into service, although I can't* use it to drive to work.