No offense, but I wonder which 17 year-old kid will get excited about buying your Saab 40 years from now.

I also wonder what if any of the individual parts of my Honda Accord will still be functioning in 40 years. It's a great car now, but will anyone be driving it in 40 years? It's possible I suppose.

What's the definition of unreliable anyway? How about a 45 year old car that drives just fine with an amazing amount of original parts on it, original paint which still looks pretty darn good and a good looking original interior? I would call that reliable.

In 40 years, I wonder if humans will even be around to drive cars. Who knows. But even if they aren't, I'll bet my 64 1/2 Mustang will still run!

Gregg

 

I had old cars as daily drivers forever, the newest ones I own are 98s. One looks really good for being a 12 yr old car, the other is rough but still runs. Prior to buying the 98 Formula in 2004 I was daily driving a 1970 GTO with a 455 in it. I had been driving that GTO to get to work and across country for PCS moves since 1994. In all that time it only let me down once, but I do enjoy working on them and I have had to do transmissions on all my newer vehicles too. The cost of my newer rides is much higher than the old stuff provided I am doing the work. Insurance, parts, price, it is all more money than buying a wreck and fixing it. Depending on the car, engine, trans, and driving style the fuel mileage might even be a wash.

You simply cannot get an easier to work on car than a 64-73 Mustang/Cougar/Falcon/Fairlane. You dont need much in the way of tools to do most major tasks, brake jobs and other maintenance is simple and straight forward. They are wonderful vehicles that will teach you much more than just how to get from point A to B.

Its not to say that owning a 40+ year old car is just hop in and go any time, there are things you need to know and learn, and things that have to be done on a regular basis. I got the 98 because I needed something else to drive so I could attend to some issues the ol GTO had from before I bought it in 93. Its difficult to do major work like body and paint when you are driving it every day.

That brings us to getting a car that is decent enough to drive and keep running. Something needing extensive work just to keep the suspension under the car and the seats inside it might not be a good daily driver. Also dont tear it apart if you need it the next morning, and dont start a paint job unless you can finish it. I learned that the hard way with the Cougar, and now I havent driven it in 24 years. The parts might cost you a bit and take a weekend to fix it, but if you do the work right it will work when you need it to work. You wont learn anything by driving a fill it and go car, but you will have some aggravation and stress. Learning is rarely an easy and painless process, expect things to break just dont cause it.

As to what car to get, well find one you can afford that isnt a heap of rust or bondo, dont get too excited about performance other than getting you where you need to go and learning how to keep it running. Dont go and buy the first one you look at unless it is a decent car, the price is right, and it isnt too far off what you want. The Cougar was the first one we saw, but we looked at probably 40 other cars that day. We came back to it because it wasnt a rusted heap, it ran, it wasnt too far off what I was looking for, and the price was in my budget.

I got the Cougar at 13 with money I earned working on the farm and selling sweet corn in town. I was the only one who ever worked on it, and I have rarely taken any of my vehicles to a shop. Now I do frame off rebuilds and can repair anything on any car built between 1930 and 2004. Its only taken 27 years to get to this point. I woudnt be here without my Cougar or the GTOs.

 

Get a solid I6 or V8 coupe... you can still find decent examples of both, though the v8s are a bit more. A stock 289 (non k-code) isn't really very fast so if you were my kid I wouldn't be too worried about you hot rodding it. Since you say you have some people to help you with parts/paint/etc just make sure the body is not rusted like said before.
Put some work into this car and keep it forever... Don't ever sell it or you will regret it. Everyone regrets getting rid of thier first cool car, and for you, the cost of these cars is only going up so you may never get another chance at one.
You can put overdrive in the car eventually and get decent mileage. Even EFI conversions are easy to do with some basic car knowledge. You are lucky that if you do have a problem, you have this site. Most of us didn't have this at our disposal with our first cars and spent a lot of useless time/money "fixing" stuff incorrectly. Good luck!

 

I agree. I drove my 66 every day for over 20 years, and it broke down twice. I was able to fix it at the side of the road and go home. With proper maintenance, they are at least as reliable as a "modern" car. Maybe more- one of those times was an ignition failure. I put a piece of roadside trash in the broken points, and drove home. Try that when a modern electronic gizmo dies.

"99.9%" is not as good as the reliability of my 66. It's in storage now, I went over there the other day because the engine hasn't been turned in months. Started on the first try, just like it has since '74, when I got it.

Anyone who claims these cars were unreliable when new wasn't there. I was. There were half a dozen of these cars on my street then, family cars, daily driven summer-winter, in snow or rain.

Safety? There's a lot you can do to improve safety in these cars. You won't get air bags, but proper 3-point seat belts, and actually wearing them, are more important than bags. I have 67 arm rests in my 66. Didn't feel like having the 66 plastic base driven into my hip in a side impact. TMI has excellent factory-looking headrest kits. Better handling and braking is easy, and helps avoid accidents in the first place.

 

Probably the MAIN reason that the cars of the sixties and earlier were considered unreliable by many was due to their inability or unwillingness to keep the ignition systems in good shape.

These old cars with point ignitions would start reliably if points and plugs were replaced about every 10,000 miles and everything checked and adjusted properly. Many people wouldn't or couldn't do this, so the first cool morning in the fall, the streets looked like an auto repair parking lot with so many hoods raised.

I was watching an old episode of a show from the fifties called Highway Patrol. The show was made in the mid to late fifties and used virtually new cars. What was common place in those days seems so weird to watch today. When they jumped in one of those brand new carbureted, battery ignition cars the starter would spin the motor 10 or 20 revolutions before it would start....whir,whir,whir,whir,whir,whir,whir,whir,w hir,whir.... vroom With todays injection and electronic ignitions, we take for granted the fact that our cars light right off as the first spark plug fires.

This doesn't mean that other things won't cause problems, but the lack of maintenance of point ignitions was a HUGE reason for no start situations. Today, with an old battery ignition system if you will either stay after the ignition system like we used to, or convert to an electronic ignition, it will be as reliable as most anything on the road.

Todays cars are more reliable in general because they can tolerate much more neglect. Unfortunately there are plenty of drivers that tend to neglect their cars. For the most part, old car enthusiasts don't fall into this category.

My $0.02,

 

There are things you can do to make a classic car easier to drive and less up keep on it.

 

In the 60's, my Dad would freak people out. His cars were so well tuned he would reach through the window into the parked car and the engine would start instantly. In an age when you'd have to pump the pedal to prime the carb and set the choke, it was downright strange.

Of course, any POS modern car will do this. One drawback- when the engine will start on the second revolution, you won't even be able to tell the battery is getting weak. Then that cold day comes when you need three revolutions, and you don't have them.

 

Even in the points days, my cars were pretty much like your Dad's. They not only started well, but ran like a Raped Ape as well.

Ca. 1972 I had a 69 Roadrunner, 4 speed 383, stone stock saving for the Holley that I put in place of the Carter AVS. I kept it in fresh points and plugs and properly tuned.

A good friend of mine had a car exactly like it almost down to the color. His had been souped up a good bit with headers, an Edelbrock with three barrel Holley and a little more cam. He was always convinced that his car was way faster than mine but he never bothered keeping it tuned up. I assumed that it would be a little faster than mine.

One day we ended up at a stop sign facing about a half mile of straight four lane, so it was on. At what I would guess to be about a 1/4 mile I had three solid car lengths on him.

Never underestimate the value of good and careful maintenance. It pays off in fuel economy, longevity AND performance.