Long lasting cars

[chaseracer]

12 hours ago, Richard_FM said:

One of my Mum's friends used to have a 2CV, which she said was fun to drive until the roof started leaking!

You get used to it... 😎

[Joey spud]

There is an old boy in my village that runs around on a 1975 Honda C70 that he has owned from nearly new.

It's never been restored just repaired as and when needed,he went past the end of my drive the other day without the leg shields fitted and it looked epic.

[sutty2006]

Old landrovers. 
 

ok they’re shit. Rust. Break. But parts are readily available and it only takes a few spanner’s, a hammer and some rust infused cups of tea to keep them on the road. 
 

m there’s a scabby 109 series 2a knocking around my way with a galvanised chassis. Keeps going and going and going….

[MiniMinorMk3]

I guess everyone has heard of this guy and his 3,000,000 mile P1800

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

About 12 years ago I was asked to pick-up a Rover P4 from a very large posh house in Surrey, I was welcomed by a lovely couple well into their 80’s but dressed in denim and leather with long grey hair. Turns out both had spent a lifetime in the music business, she as a backing singer, he an engineer/producer.

They we’re selling the Rover as they didn’t need two modern cars anymore !  The lady bought it in the late 50’s to commute into London, the bloke had a Riley RM that he’d owned even longer and in the garages were four pre war Riley’s including a genuine Brooklands racer. All the cars were in unrestored everyday condition and they both shed a tear as I loaded the P4. Probably gone now, but otherwise still driving around in that RM.

 

[sierraman]

32 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

About 12 years ago I was asked to pick-up a Rover P4 from a very large posh house in Surrey, I was welcomed by a lovely couple well into their 80’s but dressed in denim and leather with long grey hair. Turns out both had spent a lifetime in the music business, she as a backing singer, he an engineer/producer.

They we’re selling the Rover as they didn’t need two modern cars anymore !  The lady bought it in the late 50’s to commute into London, the bloke had a Riley RM that he’d owned even longer and in the garages were four pre war Riley’s including a genuine Brooklands racer. All the cars were in unrestored everyday condition and they both shed a tear as I loaded the P4. Probably gone now, but otherwise still driving around in that RM.

 

Makes you think after owning it all those years what’s point in selling it and getting two poxy grand for it? 

[Rightnider]

In the Swedish town of Uppsala, there was an old man still driving his first and probably only car, a pre-1950 Volvo PV 444, well into the 00s. I saw it myself from time to time. 

[PhilA]

My neighbor was driving her 1981 Ford until she hung up her driving gloves at 94- all the corners were gone but it was still going on quite well.

I confuse people by dailying my Chieftain.

[juular]

Nowhere near your example, but I use my '88 Volvo 240 as a daily, and I intend on doing the same with the '64 Amazon once it's back on the road. I'd feel a bit cheated if I couldn't do so, as I wouldn't put all the work into getting them solid just for them to hide under a cover until the weekend or good weather.  I don't particularly enjoy my commute but it's improved no end by driving something that isn't modern, numb and soulless.

In fact, if I were a pick a car that would be guaranteed to get me to the Arctic circle and back without breaking down, leaving right now, it would be the 240. I don't know if I could trust anything else.

[barefoot]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Makes you think after owning it all those years what’s point in selling it and getting two poxy grand for it? 

This - times about a millionty.

I have only ever lost money on cars when I've sold them.

The Scirocco is about to cost me far more than it's worth being welded up properly, but it's currently running & driving superbly. I could take a loss on it & buy something else, but at the moment the only thing I find myself fancying is a Kei car - and I suspect that could be a really, really shit idea.

[5speedracer]

18 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

The road salting here and the older generations disappearing mean that there are fewer and fewer older cars on the road here. Was an Opel Kadett from the 1970s that was in use here all year until recently then disappeared then appeared for sale and it was terminaly rotten the salt had killed it. And that's why I don't want to drive older cars all year which is sad.

I remember that around 15 years ago, a Swedish classic car magazine had a running post across several magazines where readers could submit photos of Volvo Amazons that were still in daily use and there were many. But there are probably not many left now in such use, if any.

We had the first frost of the autumn last night so presumably salting is just around the corner and will be done regularly until probably late March. No big surprise nobody round here runs a 1980's Ford as a daily!

[Dyslexic Viking]

1 hour ago, 5speedracer said:

We had the first frost of the autumn last night so presumably salting is just around the corner and will be done regularly until probably late March. No big surprise nobody round here runs a 1980's Ford as a daily!

I have had several frost nights now and the road salting can start at any time. May also get the first snow soon.  I miss summer already.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

Makes you think after owning it all those years what’s point in selling it and getting two poxy grand for it? 

Not enough undercover space and the bloke I was picking it up for was a friend from the P4 club, don’t think he’d even paid that much for it. 
Just remembered , they’d got a couple of collapsed sheds at the bottom of the garden that were full of N.O.S body panels that a mate had collected, bought up from VW dealers in the 70’s. All NSU apparently, although as far as they remembered not RO/80 because someone had a look about 20 years ago. Probably bulldozed to build a couple of £2million  houses by now.

[jon.k]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-63296814

A reasonably old lorry and a very old driver.

[Adrian_pt]

This 1938 Opel, with extended bootlid, was in regular "normal" use till a couple of years ago in rural Romania. There's a rebodied Willys Jeep from 1942 which was also going strong till recently - and quite a few prewar cars made it into the 90s. One guy bought a BMW 327 new before the war and kept it till 2005, having fled with it to West Germany in the late 60s. 

Stayed with a French family a few years ago who were still using Land Rovers they'd bought new in the 50s.

I've kept the Saab 90 for 17 years and it was 20 years old when I got it...

[Dyslexic Viking]

Have just read an article about the Volvo 831/832 they were made from 1950 to 1957 and the one in the article a 1952 model was in taxi use until the early 1970s and has done 1.2 million kilometers! Even more impressive in 1984, 2 of these were still in taxi use in Stockholm, Sweden.

For those who do not know these Volvos were made for taxi use and were very durable cars. And the engine in these was a 3.7 liter 6 cyl flat head with 67 kw connected to a 3 speed gearbox.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Time to bring this thread up again.

One of the Norwegian old car magazines I read has now written about this 1936 Plymouth which was in use until the end of the 1960s and is unrestored.

This is not unusual, there were still many 1930s American cars on the road here in the 1960s. And these figures that this car magazine has found prove that in 1936 324 new Plymouths were registered in Norway in 1959 there were still 275 1936 Plymouths registered. And as the magazine writes, many of these were taxis, they went through 5 years of war and very bad roads. 

Another car they wrote about was a 1928 Chevrolet that was on the road until 1961 and over the years changed bodies 4 times! Everything from 2-door to 4-door and small truck.

This time they also wrote another one like this. A 1936 Volvo it started life as a 4 door sedan was converted in the early 1950s to a van and was converted once again in the 1960s to a truck and spent its last years as a farm truck and was on the road until the late 1960s.

I really enjoy reading stuff like this and it's so different compared to how things are today.

[Dyslexic Viking]

And realized that there is also one for sale here now that fits into this thread.

1934 Chevrolet van that was in use until 1967 when the current owner bought it, he converted it to a simple camper and used it on trips both long and short until 1974 when it was parked in the barn. And he has got it started again now and it is running.

[GagaStan]

My sister and brother-in-law had a 2005 (kamm-tail) Prius, an ex-taxi as far as we knew. Grey-imported from Japan, it was still going strong at 450,000km. Comfortable, spacious, fantastically economical in hilly Wellington where most cars get shite mileage - regen braking really came into its own on the downhill.

Only gotten rid of as the battery pack, original as far as we know, went kaput and the owner of the car (BIL’s employer) didn’t want to repair. A shame, as the rest of the car was absolutely fine and wore its miles well. Toyota really know how to make a durable car, at least where the roads aren’t salted.

I loved it for being a big fat middle finger to all the hybrid-hating, “untested technology” crowd. All the way to the end it would do 70mpg on a run.

[Dyslexic Viking]

The myth that cars used to not last is easy to disprove when you go through Norwegian archives and here is 2 examples.

The picture below was taken in the mid 1950s in Norway of a 1927 Chevrolet and it comes with history. The car was used when the photo was taken by rural postman Odin Albert Jensen, he had it in use as a post car delivering post for many years, he sold it in 1956 when it was 29 years old when he bought a new Ford Thames 300e van. And it probably lasted many years after that.

 

1926 Chevrolet picture taken in 1965 in Norway. The picture is without further information but it is clear that it is now only used for farm work after almost 40 years of use.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Have found another picture from Norway, which is supposed to be from the mid 1960s.

And I like to find pictures like this with old cars still in use. Here is a what I assume is an early 1930s American car in the picture and to late 1930s or 1940s American cars.

[Dyslexic Viking]

As I have mentioned before, there were many Ford model A's still in use in Norway in the 1960s and many have survived and can probably say that they were one of Ford's best car models. Now I have come across the story of yet another Norwegian model A and this one is a good one.

Rural postman Kåre Eriksen bought a second-hand model A in 1947 to use both privately and for his job as a rural postman. He used this in both until 1969 when it was replaced by a new VW, the Ford had then passed 500,000km in his ownership.

 

Picture from 1969 from a newspaper article where they wrote about the new purchase and retirement of the faithful old Ford. The new VWs durability and quality was probably a disappointment I would guess.

 

And the Ford still exists today and is approaching its 100th birthday and probably has at least 600 to 700,000km on it now.

[The Vicar]

There is the great story of John Taylor in Dublin who has been driving the same ice cream van in Dublin since 1968 (for eagle-eyed viewers, the reg is indeed from 1971...back in the day there was no real hurry to register your new vehicle). He is still going strong AFAIK. Photos (except the last one) are mine:

 

[Matty]

1 hour ago, The Vicar said:

There is the great story of John Taylor in Dublin who has been driving the same ice cream van in Dublin since 1968 (for eagle-eyed viewers, the reg is indeed from 1971...back in the day there was no real hurry to register your new vehicle). He is still going strong AFAIK. Photos (except the last one) are mine:

 

Thrupenny bit fg?