Our virtual trip to Cuba brought home the point how most of these cars there are precious family heirlooms, and kept going indefinitely due to the great difficulties of buying new cars or even just buying and selling old cars. The closest equivalent in the Niedermeyer family is my ’66 F-100, now dubbed “The Bruised Banana”, which I will have owned 30 years this summer (top picture: 1993; bottom: 10 minutes ago). And I have a detailed write-up of it and its role in my life and work, coming for its anniversary. Let’s just say I’ve taken a somewhat Cuban approach: it’s a work vehicle and I’ve kept it running with the absolute minimum of expense and work.
But I know some of you have had cars a lot longer than that, like Bill Mitchell. Or a whole lot shorter, like Jim Klein. Where do you slot in? Are you a keeper or trader? And what’s the longest you’ve owned a car, or had it be in the family?
I owned my ’67 Mustang for 23 years. However, my record for owning a vehicle is the 38 years I have owned my ’79 Malibu. I ordered it in February and took delivery in March of 1979. It has outlasted a lot of other cars in our family. Like all long time ownerships there are a lot of memories associated with it, both good and bad. The good ones include vacations, a few car shows, and taking my infant oldest grandson for his first burn out. Yeah, I know it was immature. My daughter didn’t understand, either. The not so good memories include the broken transmission 2 weeks before a vacation( I fixed it in time) and some of the people that rode in it or drove it who are no longer with us. I plan on keeping it until I am also gone. It is in my will for one of my son in laws who appreciates old cars.
That’s its front fenders on my avatar. I would post a picture but I don’t know how.
15 & 1/2 years we’ve owned our 2001 Toyota Highlander. Not looking to sell it any time soon, though we have people leaving notes under the wiper about their interest in it. Next closest is my ’81 Fiat X1/9, which I’ve owned for 10 & 1/2 years.
My first car, 1969 Fiat 124 Spider, lasted only two years but then:
1971 VW Type 3 Fastback purchased winter of 72/73 sold in 1986. 13 years.
1984 BMW 745i purchased 1/2001 still have it.
1994 Suzuki Swift GT purchased in 2002 still have it.
1998 GMC Safari purchased 1/2002 sold 2016. 14 years
1965 Austin Healey 3000 purchased in 1996 still have it.
1978 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham purchased in 1995 sold in 2006. 11 years.
Wow. The longest I’ve owned a car was 11 years with my ’80 Pontiac Phoenix. My current car, an ’07 Subaru Outback, is coming up on 9 in June. My Dad had over 90 cars during his life, and his longest owned was a 1927 Pierce Arrow model 80 Phaeton, at 12.
79 years – Grandpa purchased a used 1936 Ford phaeton in 1938 which remains in the family today.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbeebe/14282783427/
9 years or about 200K miles is typical pattern.
1986 Mazda B-2000 pickup. Traded in 1995 at 180K for 1995 VW Passat, for wife. Passat only lasted 2 years, traded in on 1995 Mercury Villager van (due to birth of 1st daughter).
1995 Villager given to family in need in 2006 at 230K miles.
2005 Town and County van, traded in 2010 at 120K miles. Started falling apart, but meet my expectations for a Chrysler car.
2010 Honda Pilot – Still have. 170K. Driven by daughter now. Has replaced 1995 Chrysler van as least reliable car I have owned, but wife loves it and purchased a 2014 Honda Pilot to replace it.
2006 Scion xB. Given to family in need in 2015 at 210K miles. Still miss the toaster.
The ’99 Taurus is mine/wife’s since new. It’s only got 140K (we both live close to jobs), and has never let me down. Almost daily I compute cost of occasional repairs vs. its market value vs. my “itch” for a new car. Still, it’s the longest we’ve ever owned any car, and absent *major* expenses (big front-end problems or transmission failure, probably), is still providing pretty cheap miles. Plus, it’s a little fun to be driving a car that’s becoming “thin on the ground,” as some CC-ers say. Will I own it long enough to be a bonafide CC daily driver, however? Not likely, I suppose…
Wow ~ so many cool vehicles and great stories ! .
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Looking back I realized while reading this article that I’d bought my 1960 VW # 117 DeLuxe sliding canvas sunshine roof Sedan in 1975 during one of those fake ‘oil crisis’ deals that resulted in end of price regulations so now we have high priced gasoline .
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It was parked kitty wampus 2/3 on the curb/side walk in Santa Monica Ca. in a _large_ pool of leaked out oil, $250 IIRC and I bought it on the spot .
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36hp (1192 C.C.) engine and a later model full synchromesh gearbox that lasted over ten years and about 200,000 miles before permanently loosing forth gear far from home late one night, I’d already purchased a used, unknown quality original crash box tranny from Crooked Cliffy, installed that the next day and it was the quietest crashbox VW tranny I’ve ever driven, it’s still in the car .
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I wrecked it badly in the very late 1970’s and had to weld on an entire new front body clip, cutting across through the gas tank opening to make a good job of it ~ 1960 is a one year only front clip, happy to have found that =8-) .
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Not as many engines as one might think as I get about 150,000 miles out of each one, build them carefully, tune them sharply and service them religiously and they’ll last a long time, even when always driven flat footed as the early, low power ones need to be driven .
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42 years ?! wow, who’da think it .
My Son has it now, when I decided I wanted another Beetle last year he said ” that one is _MINE_! ” he knows he came home from the Huntington Memorial Hospital in it after being born in 1979 .
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I asked to borrow it’s engine after I blew up my recently purchased ‘ 59 Beetle’s engine, he said ” !NO! ” perhaps forgetting all the vehicles, parts, tools and spares of mine he’s taken and ruined over the years =8-) .
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I lost track of all the hundreds (?thousands’s?) of cars, trucks and Motos I’ve had over my life but this poor old raggedy thing is still with us .
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Where the hell did all those years ago ? .
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-Nate
The longest I can recall a VW polo my Mum had from around 1990 to 2002, before it was traded for a Seat Ibiza with power steering(!) and a 1998 Vauxhall Astra my Uncle bought as his umpteeth Vauxhall (he was on the staff of Vauxhall Bedford for 30 years) which was still in the garage when my Aunt died earlier this year.
My longest car ownership by far has been my 1981 Pontiac Trans AM Nascar edition that was bought in April of 2000 meaning I have had her 17 years this month! My where did the timed go? She is in need of some service and minor paint/accent stripe repairs but overall is in good shape considering it is now 36 years old.
It is still a total joy to take it out on a nice sunny day with the T-tops off on a nice long cruise.
I’ve owned my ’68 Cougar since 1993. As far as daily drivers go, I’ve owned my Lincoln LS since January 2002 — special ordered it brand new and it’s been a great car. I’ve also owned a ’73 Marquis Brougham since 2003. Funny thing is, I’ve owned lots of other cars in that same 20 year plus time frame, just not for long.
Owned ’70 C10 Chevy from 1976 to 2006. Had about 160k miles on it when sold. Runner up is ’86 Jetta GL bought in 1991. 26 years and counting. 300k miles, original drivetrain, still runs and shifts well. (1.8 gas manual trans) Plan on keeping this car for life.
It’s great living in the no (or low) rust inland West Coast
Longest: 5.5 years, 2005 Nissan Sentra, Special Edition package. SE-R interior and trim on the 1.8 S
Should have kept longer!!
How about the shortest owned?
Fess up, who’s here that knocked the front off pulling out of the dealership?
The 1964 Mercury Montclair 4 dr. breezeway sedan bought 1964 by my parents and I got to drive home from the Madras, Oregon dealership is now in my yard . The wife and I drove to Yellowstone and back a couple of years ago
Until a few years ago my longest-owned vehicle was my 1965 Ambassador 990 convertible. Owned it 18 years, sold it when front-end replacement rubber was impossible to find (not even Steele offered any, in 1997), so I reluctantly sold it. Bought a 1990 Taurus wagon which I still own, it will be 20 years in December of this year. The Rambler had over 200,000 miles on it; the Taurus just turned 194,000 miles and shows no sign of stopping. I’ve done all the routine and major maintenance, except for the transmission rebuild at 186,000 miles two years ago. (Must be a record for a Taurus transmission.) Everything still works, and the A/C still works fine. May as well keep it a while longer.