Kellen was not a keeper
I frequently read about cars and personal stories that make me reconsider my entire approach to vehicle ownership, and this happened again yesterday with CCer TBM3FAN’s five-decade COAL writeup on his 1968 Mercury Cougar. In honor of his excellent reminiscences and admirable devotion to his car, I’d like to expand on it and ask a question of the CC community: What would your 50-year keeper be? I propose we follow TBM3FAN’s circumstances in establishing some criteria for answering this question.
Criteria 1: The car should have been accessible to you as a 16 year old. For me, that means I had to afford the payment, upkeep, and fuel using my pizza restaurant high school “salary”. Your own circumstances may vary.
Criteria 2: Limit the influence of hindsight in your choice. By this I mean, do not allow the current market value of survivors on Hemmings or Bring a Trailer to be the overriding consideration. We’re not talking the Apple stock you wish you could have purchased, we are talking vehicles you want in your life. Also consider your changing tastes as you aged. As a new teenage driver, what would have caught your attention back then and still been kind of fun to have around now?
Criteria 3: Given the low probability of keeping a car running after 50 years of daily driving, feel free to assume that the car was used as your daily from age 16 until natural circumstances would have reassigned it to second or third car status. Say, your first real job, the start of your family or a move to a region where the vehicle just isn’t suitable for daily use. From there it can sit in a garage and be brought out, pampered, and cruised across town on a summer evening. Or filled with firewood and the carcass of the elk you just bagged. As above, your circumstances may vary.
I’ll start. Remembering my interest set and financial ability back in 1998, this is would likely be my 50 year choice: The 1995 Toyota Pickup, 22RE 4-cylinder engine, 4WD, 5 speed manual transmission, short cab. An odd, perhaps droll choice, yes. It doesn’t “wow” in 2018 the way a 1968 Cougar does. But I’m from a different generation–the wow factor of the late 80s/early 90s is only kept from rock bottom by the Malaise Era that preceded it. So no 1960s glory for me.
I would have liked a stoplight demon at 16 years old, but this little truck is where my interests truly were at the time. I live in the Intermountain West where public lands and dirt roads intersect. I spent time out there exploring in my little car or with friends, two of whom owned Toyota trucks similar to this. Jealous is an understatement. These trucks were the ticket to getting beyond that first modest washout and into the backcountry. I lifted the pictures from a highly representative Bring-a-Trailer listing. It is specified just the way I would have wanted it, with the extravagances of a tachometer, air conditioning, and a clock.
To the teenage Petrichor, these trucks represented a state of freedom, possibility, and personal invincibility and optimism that still persists as an imprint on my psyche today. I love ’em. They looked cool then with their tall stance and mighty ground clearance. They still do. They looked good when shiny and clean. They looked good when coated with dirt and dust, and that got you respect in the high school parking lot the next Monday. And when you pulled out of that lot at the end of the day, even the weak 4 cylinder announced your departure with a guttural cooling fan roar.
Sure, they were slow. Damned slow. Four cylinder or six, didn’t matter. My friend’s ’92 with slightly oversize tires was nearly impossible to keep near 65mph on grades. You’d still lose pace in third gear. She marveled at my ability to return 26mpg on one trip, though. The truck, I told her, liked me. My other friend’s 1996 Tacoma was light years ahead with the newer 2.7L 4-cylinder (I can still get one of those in a base 2018 Tacoma if I’m feeling nostalgic). These trucks are also uncomfortable–poor seats, flat seating position, lots of road and engine noise, iffy directional stability–but that stuff wasn’t even on my radar back then.
As for practical matters, these were affordable (if barely), were OK on gas, and seem to be essentially indestructible and cheap to keep on the road. I’d have happily driven this through high school, college, and until we purchased our home in 2009. It would be 14 years old and have an estimated ~170K miles on it by then. That is the year I would be looking at purchasing my VW Sportwagen. I suspect I’d still purchase that VW, so the truck would have become a third vehicle used only on mulch runs and camping trips for the two of us. Our twins arrived a few years after that, at which point this truck would have been utterly useless for even weekend outings. I’d like to think that I still would not have sold it, but rather would have recognized its role in my life up to that point and given it a nice relaxed retirement here at home.
It would be used very sparingly during this retirement, and probably would not have crested 190K miles as of today. I would now have proper appreciation of the pseudo-cult/iconic status of the rig and would consider some cosmetic and mechanical restoration to at least keep it shiny and fully functional. Could it last another 30 years? I think so. The only question there is rust; we aren’t in the salt belt but do use some and I have to wonder if my teenage/early-20s self would have kept it clean enough during those important daily driver years. One thing I am certain of is that I would smile every time I got behind the wheel of it for the occasional Sunday drive, remembering the years and memories experienced in a simple, purpose built truck.
An adventure, courtesy of a 1996 Tacoma, circa 2000
So I pass the question off to you, Curbside readers. What would your 50-year vehicle be?
I was 90% there. I bought my 67 Galaxie 500 convertible in early 1977. By the summer of 1978 I paid dearly for high quality metal repair and paint and relegated the car to “garage queen status” through most of my first year of college. Had my finances been fatter (and with reliable storage) I could have kept the car, as it had only 72k on the odo at the time. Alas I was unable to care for it. I have often wondered if it is still with us, as I had gotten it past the prime death-years of an old convertible.
16 years old is the end of 1975. At the time mom was still driving her ’65 Dodge Dart sedan with 225 /6 Torqueflyte. A dependable rock of a car until my brother did it in in 1979. Aaron65’s COAL series on his “Dirty Dart” station wagon makes me wish we still had it. Dad was still driving his 1968 Cutlass Supreme which I don’t really miss; however the next car he had was the 1978 Datsun 810 sedan with a straight 6 and 4 sp. manual he got in late 1977. I had a hand in extending the life of that car and dad finally gave it away after 24 years of ownership, which I had the last 2.5 years when I didn’t have a car during that nadir in my life. I’d have some feelings about keeping the car, but dad’s poor attention to maintenance could potentially make it a money pit. It had no rust, and I still consider it the best highway car I ever had. I’ve never seen one since.
Accessible car at 16? I lusted for a 1969 Dodge Charger. Those dumbass Dukes on TV quelled that later in my life.
My first car was a 1973 VW Type III squareback when I was 22. Even then no one seemed to know how to fix it right and reliably. The bearing burned out after two years. My second vehicle was my 1982 Toyota truck, which rusted out from under me in 1998. I cried the day I gave it away after 14 years but it was in no condition to drive 1000 miles from NY to GA. Right now I still have my 2001 Nissan truck after 18 years. Once I retire in about 10 years I don’t know what I’ll do with it.
In homage to TBM3fan, my dad’s older brother had that generation of Cougar. I thought Uncle Bill had a neat car. Love the sequential tail light blinkers.
No question for me, it’d would be and likely will be my ’72 Torino. It’s been with us (Dad and I) for 47 years so far. While I have officially owned the car for about 16 years now, prior to that it was with my Dad from day one. So while I didn’t own it from new it has been heavily involved thought my whole life. I spent my childhood in that car, it was one of the cars I learned to drive on, I learned to change oil and tires on it and even my teenage and young adult life I used it regularly before I took ownership. We are coming up to 50 years of ownership between Dad and I, and I plan to recreate one of the photos he took when it was new. This is one car that I will never sell, and hope to pass it down to one of my children, although not anytime soon.
My first car in 1996 when I turned 16 was a 1941 Plymouth sedan. I drove that car to and from school and also to my job on the weekends for the first year. And after that it was driven on weekends for the next 5 yrs. I still have it but after marriage and after the kids started coming I didn’t have time for it any more and didn’t feel safe caring kids with out seat belts for the car seats. But I plan on keeping it till I die.
Depends on whether a portion of that 50 years includes sitting “stored” for very long periods of time. I still have my first car, a ’79 Malibu, 22 years in now from getting my driver’s license in 1996. However it hasn’t run since 2001. I do still plan to rectify that, but life keeps getting in the way. Again and again and again. But I digress.
If that counts, then there you have it. Unless something drastic happens that car will still be in my life 28 years from now, assuming I make it to the ripe old age of 66. (I wonder some days.) Extra credit for the fact that I’ve “known” the car since my early childhood as my grandfather was the original owner and my Mom drove it from ’85 to ’96.
As a “what if” exercise? If the Malibu hadn’t already been preordained, my choices would have been constrained by the fact that it would have been hard to scrape together more than $1500 or so, and I didn’t work enough to afford a car payment of any size. Thinking what I could have gotten into in ’96 for that price, and excusing the somewhat unlikely circumstance of finding a good one, I’d like to think I might have ended up with a Dodge Mirada. Preferably an ’80 with the 360 and alloys. Always had a soft spot for those cars and, had I found a good one, the already-rare nature by the late 90’s probably would have turned it into a long-term keeper.
I would pick a 78 ford Ltd landau coupe. Best car ever. With a few mods economical and fast, safe and durable and comfortable and simple.
Next month will be 28 years for the ’86 Jetta, if I last another 22 the car should also.
If I’d have hung on to the ’70 C10 (’76-06), would be going on 43 years next month.
63-67 Galaxie 500, with a V8. Though I have no intention of ever parting with my 1989 E30 Cabrio, which I’ve now owned for 20 years.
Fifty years is a long time, if I bought my first car at 16, it would be 48 years now. My first car bought after H.S. graduation, was a ’66 Mustang coupe, 289 V8, four speed. No power steering, brakes or A/C. A simple car that would be easy to repair and keep running over the years.There sure are a lot of car lovers out there that have done this. I found this car lacking in several areas and moved on after a year or so.
I found a ’64 Cadillac that checked a lot of boxes. A very impressive gold hued convertible. Gas was still pretty cheap in 1975 and the car was not yet considered to be a huge, oversized monster. This car was built during Cadillac’s heyday. Build quality and the quality of the materials used for the components was good. This was still a pretty simple and basic design, easily maintained. Easily able to last the fifty years, even in regular service.
Motorcycles were always the main focus of my youth but I only bought one, brand new, bike, a ’77 Harley XLCR Cafe Racer. Impressive to look at, only so-so as a performance machine. It fell short of the Kawasaki Mach Three and Honda CB750s I had owned previously. It was better than the older chopped Sportster that I had built and ridden before. I modified the XLCR and held onto it for over twenty years. My bike riding buddy was single and went through a series of brand new HDs. That old XLCR just felt older and more outmoded every year. I rode it continually and kept it well maintained. I even rebuilt the engine once. Finally I just got tired of it and sold it.
Could I have held onto any of these things for fifty years? If I would have a place to store them once I had grown tired of them, perhaps. Then the years could have passed while I ignored them and maybe nostalgia would have taken hold. It’s not like they were worth anything at the time I sold them. Would I ever buy another example of these vehicles now? I don’t think so. I bought a ’70 Mustang several years ago and again I found that I was disappointed with the car after a couple of years. Maybe it’s not them, it’s me!
I do love having older cars, I’ve got five “hobby” cars now, along with two more late model cars purchased new. Maybe I am fickle. I think that it’s because I do not want to hold onto a specific car because of a sentimental connection. I just don’t form that kind of a connection with any object. My Wife is definitely skeptical when I tell her about my current “dream Car”. She knows me too well. It doesn’t matter what it is, it isn’t going to be kept around forever! I tell my Wife, “One Wife many cars!” Apparently, even she prefers that scenario