Who here daily drives their vintage Pontiac?
 

If you do daily drive your old Pontiac, why do you do so? And if you don't, why not?

I'll start by stating my own reasons which has mixed feelings. First, I simply just love driving car because, mechanically, it is capable of safe operation in today's traffic conditions.

Secondly, I don't want to daily drive the car because of the quality of replacement parts. I do most of the repairs myself, and have been doing so since the mid eighties. These days I can't seem to get a water pump not to seep along the gasket surfaces. Perhaps it's the aftermarket timing cover that also contributes to an annoying oil leak.

Thirdly, my car gets about ten miles to the gallon and I can't drive it much with gas at four plus dollars a gallon. My car/cars are not show cars and I am not concerned about the future value of them so I drive them often.

I've gone to the trouble of making my cars reliable. I drove the same cars when they were just used cars years ago and not anywhere as reliable. I am old. What should I do? Leave it for the next owner to enjoy?

I don't daily drive mine because gas (euro98) works out to
just about $9 a gallon here..

After I finish fixing all the issues that prevent me using it as a daily, I'd love to drive it more often but the reality is I will have to restrict myself to a monthly gas budget for the toys and once that's gone, they sit until my next paycheck comes in.

I retired a year ago come November. All my stuff is old, like me! I drive my 37 at least 3 or 4 times a week, Occasional road trips. My Firehawk, not so much. It has 19K miles. The rest of the time it's either my 95 Cherokee or the 97 F250. The 37 is my favorite to drive, very dependable, lots of power and cold A/C! I'm thinking of getting the Firehawk out more as it's a blast with the 6 spd. Like Goatracer1 says, why save it for the next guy!

Greatly reduced driving my 68 GTO this year. Hopefully just because of home, garage & property projects.

95 TownCars(s) are my daily drivers. Built for comfort, and decent mog.

I plan to drive my 62 Catalina with bathtub intake and 2 AFB's , 2000 or so miles a year. I know that doesn't qualify as a daily driver, but these cars are made to drive and I will when I can. Not in snow or ice.

I drive my 71 TA everywhere. Put thousands of miles on it each year. I take it to breakfast/lunch/dinner, to Home Depot, various auto parts stores, car shows, the race track, down town to do some shopping, basically I take it wherever.

Life is too short not to enjoy the things you like.

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Being retired I hardly drive daily. However, I will drive it when I have errands. Sometimes twice in a week, sometimes not for two weeks. Sometimes I make up 'excuses' just to drive it.

Great thread! I just sold my only running vintage Poncho; all I have left is the non-running '67 GP 'vert in my signature pic. Before I sold it, I didn't tend to drive my TATA much as it had the nicest paint of any car I'd ever owned... I hated to take a chance on blemishing it. I do have a '67 Cutlass convertible with a horrible paint job that I drive a lot as I don't mind going down dirt roads or bumping shopping carts out of the way with it. I love how easy it is to load groceries in it, too, as the top hasn't been up in about 22 years.

I think of my car as a driven show car. I try not to let it sit for more than 10 days or so all year long. However, in the winter here in Pa. it could be longer waiting for the roads to be clean and dry. In 20 years now, I have only been caught in the rain twice. I did not do all the work on it so I could sit in the garage and look at it. I feel like a kid again when I drive it, bringing back memories of my girlfriend (now my wife) and I driving around in my 67 GTO convertible.

Like others I try to make it reliable, but I live in downtown Boston and garage/work on the car at my shop about 15 mins outside of the city. I have a small tandem spot in my 50 unit complex so its a pain to park, plus I scrape my subframe connectors bad getting into the lower garage. So if I want to drive it it's a 30 min round trip.

Usually I end up driving it to car shows whenever I can, and around Boston and the North/South shore during the weekends. I have a place in Truro down the cape which is about 100 highway miles (so I need a TKX, at least that's what I tell myself) where I will drive it down for the week.

There are a lot of car clubs that come into the Seaport here, but they are all Lambos, BMW's, Ferrari's and they drive around and show off (lot's of ritzy outdoor dining in the summer) so it's fun to tag along with them.

Just got back from the store in mine.


It does guzzle gas though.

Got 3 shoutouts. 2 wanna be players. 1 lexus and 1 pathfinder. Amazing. They think they can play with what they have. Course, they don`t know I have 630hp or so.

This was only a 5 mile trip.

My car is our second car. Wife drives our family car (2010 Honda Odyssey) to work. I'm not working (disabled) so when I need to go and get something or visit friends, I drive the Firebird. Probably fill up every 3 weeks.

Drive my 64 Lemans almost every other day. Recently drove it 1600 miles to NC and back to FL. It's not a show car and could use another restore session but not sure I want to spend the money then have to worry about dents and dings. So for now just keep it running, needs a new ps box as it is leaking, once that's finished I'll keep driving until I make up my mind to go any further on body work.

that sucks Charlie...sweet bird 72

In the 2000s (is that a thing) I drove the 74 t/a to work all summer/spring/fall and then my winter beater if it rained/snowed (81 AMC bEagle 4x4). Did that for YEARS.

Then I moved out of the city and only drove her on fridays - never did spring for an OD.

Recently sold her and got a different '74 with a much hotter cam/455. Luckily I work from home these days...lol

I do drive my cars... but not everyday.

I don't daily drive mine because it is way too hot here in the summer. I do drive them more in the winter/cooler weather times of the year. The parking spaces around her are way too small and do not want people banging their doors into it. Everywhere around here has heavy traffic. I don't want some dirtbag on welfare or an illegal running into it even though my cars are insured. This area is the car theft capitol of the country. Yes... I live in a sh!thole.

Mine at another store;

I dont daily mine because of two letters.

AC.

Its just too hot some parts of the year to drive it every day. In the spring and fall I drive quite a bit.

After getting my car in 1985, I finally got that covered.

I drove my TA as often as I could when we lived in PA - Sunday morning coffee runs, trips to Home Depot etc. etc. However, as some have already mentioned, no A/C was a showstopper during the hottest days, and the car was tucked away during winter months.

Now that we are in NZ I plan to drive it more often. The weather is more moderate and no snow where we I live. I'll use it the same way as I did in the US - just more regularly.

That's a few months away though - I'm still working to get it complied.