[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by i82much

i might consider driving a classic as a daily but there are two big reasons i don't. first and foremost, safety. i love the feeling of putting my two small kids in the back of my 2500HD crew, knowing we have stability control, antilock side impact air bags, etc. it's just not worth the risk to me to put them in the back of my GTO or something along those lines on a daily basis. once in a while on a weekend drive? sure. every day to school and back? never.

the second thing is reliability. i like to go deep into the idaho back country as often as possible. we've taken my 72 K10 back with us but only when we also had a newer vehicle along for the trip. i trust my 72 pretty well but when you are fifty miles from the nearest hard road there is something to be said for having something newer with you!

I was never a safety nut. I grew up in these things and survived, got my license and daily drove a 56 Nomad with manual drum brakes and manual steering and a pretty hot 327 that would quickly get me in trouble. Taught me respect.

I figure if it was good enough for me it's good enough for my family. My wife actually prefers the classics, and absolutely hates air bags and the like. It was her idea to get rid of the new stuff. Now she loves her 69 camaro with a stick and drives it everywhere. It turns into the family car on the weekends when we go on trips or run errands.
My son grew up in the classics. He's now 22 and hooked on old cars. Loves his 65 bug.

As far as reliability, I trust the old stuff more than the new cars we had. There is so little to go wrong and so easy to fix when it does. His Bug is a perfect example. Geez that thing is easy to work on, I don't think there is a simpler car on the planet, and with 2 litres, a couple webbers and some other hot rod parts it squirts around pretty good too.