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.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a20df936_b.jpg

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.

I drove my 69 GTO convertible anywhere until the most recent engine problem. I have to reassemble the engine and it will be back on the road. The ac works but if its not too hot I just leave the top up and the windows down in the hot sun.
One problem is all the people who beep at me; I think I've committed a traffic violation but they just want me to know they like my car. My car is a Frankenstein car; it was recreated from a stripped body shell.

MY 87 grand prix was my daily until the tranny went out. Just haven't had time to pull out the 200-4r yet and rebuild it.

It isn't a Pontiac.. but it is powered by a Tri-Power '58. Not quite "daily" but I do drive it a lot in the summer. The most-recent outing with the lakester put 1,800 miles on the GMC.

I daily drove my '65 and '67 GTO's for 30+ years. Since retiring last year, pretty much only on the weekends or errands. Taking the '67 on a 1000 mile trip next month.
No biggie. The '67 is the newest car I've ever owned, out of many. My newest vehicle is an '05 Toyota Turndra, but I've never owned a car without wing vents or with disc brakes. Been driving since 1976.
For the past 7 years, been driving my '61 Corvette a lot because it is 'new to me' after all these years of GTO-only driving.

I drive my 70 Formula daily. Sometimes shared with my wife who likes to drive it to work on occasion. Her primary driver is a 69 Z/28. Both cars are used as transportation, errands, Home Depot, out to dinner, the grocery store every week etc....

Reason?? We just don't care much for new cars and that's pretty much the gist of things. We got tired of the extra expenses of car payments, high insurance, high registration, high maintenance, and really don't need all the creature comforts. Was my wife's idea about 15 years ago to get rid of the new stuff even though I'd been driving old cars all my life. Now you can't get her out of them.

Gas mileage? My Formula gets 17 mpg highway and about 13-14 around town, with it's 400 turbo and 3.31 gears. Cruises at 70 comfortable. Been this way for the last 25 years and I have no complaints. It's at least as good on gas as most of your large SUV's with EFI and overdrive that everyone drives around and in some cases even better. I'm okay with it, but I know an overdrive would pick those numbers up quite a bit. Maybe some day.

The Z with the Muncie and 3.55's would get 17 highway and 13-14 around town, identical to the Firebird. But as we found we were using the Z more often for family trips and longer road trips because it's simply more comfortable for everyone, I decided to toss a TKO overdrive in it. Now it gets over 21 mpg highway and if I can tickle the overdrive around town it'll pickup to 15 mpg on a tank. So it's actually very economical in my mind.

We'll never own a new car again, have no interest in anything the OEM's are pumping out these days anyway.

Every one of these posts should have had photos! ;)

Give me a few minutes

i daydream about daily driving my gto and have numerous ridiculous posts on here about snow tires and mud flaps for my gto on here. but the reality is, i am going to hunt gnarly forest roads every year and drive in the snow frequently, so i need a newer daily regardless.

i even have an old 72 k10 to satisfy my old junk desires in the winter, but i would not take it hunting or put the kids in it if there was snow or ice. i like having antilock, stability control, side impact airbags, etc. for driving the kids, especially in the winter.

Here was my daily for a few years

72 K5. I did an LS 6.0 swap in it, it was great in the snow and I hauled the family around in it everywhere. We even went off road frequently all around the mountains here.

One picture of all of us at the Grand Canyon. The 5 of us just piled in and went on a road trip.

Also got a hankering on occasion to take it to the dragstrip and have some fun. Ran 14.30's at 94 mph and embarrassed quite a few cars. It also knocked down 20 mpg highway.

https://youtu.be/msgSc3S-yHA

This is my daily now

https://youtu.be/er1z7PpqsnY

Here is my wife's driver, we take the Z on family road trips, this time cruising 66. We usually do about 300 miles in a day and hang with the group. Some do more, we make a weekend out of it. The car sees about 150 miles every week anyway so not a big deal to me. Dad is following in his GTO.

https://youtu.be/fpuGGnJFs4Q

My son and I with dad in tow cruising into Goodguys. This ends up being close to 250 miles for the day by the time we do the Pavs cruise in the evening and get back home, and another 200 if we do the cruise/tour of the local shops on Thursday.

Always a good time no matter where you're going when you drive a classic...

https://youtu.be/fVVN4w8Fpgg

gosh you better hang on to that one...she gets it...lol

I bet that K-5 Blazer gets the most looks!

I do have a beater car that I use for commuting, but if the weather is nice and I'm off from work, I'll take out the '79. Only time it has left me stranded was a ball joint failure, but nothing ever mechanical or overheating. Usually take it out 1-3 times a week.

I drove 69 firebird convertibles daily for many years. Just the last couple I haven’t driven them daily In fact I used to keep all my tools in the trunk and drive it to job sites.
Today especially with the cost of new cars so high. It’s actually cheaper today ti drive an old firebird even if you had to redo the body every 10 years . In my high tax
State driving an old firebird is much less in taxes as well on a 350 2bbl car . I’ve even driven my current convertible on 5 hour trips several times never really had any issues . Car runs like a top and gets 21 MPG. Turn signals are intermittent at best and the gas gauge doesn’t work but she always gets me home.
The 21 MPG is with and all
Original 350 never been cracked open and a 4 bbl edelbrock.

Blue Charcoal '65....owned and driven since 1982, never out of service or off the road, never restored, Flambeau Burgundy '67, owned and driven 130,000+ miles since 1983, never restored, never out of service. Neither car saw a garage until 1993. Attachment 596396

updated with pics...as req

I thought I had a lot of money in my car until I thought about what I had paid for my wife's minivan. It is actually way cheaper to drive an old car and way more fun. I do drive it in the winter but not on snowy roads. Like I said originally why spend all that money and do all that work to let the next owner have all the fun.

My wife and I drive the old ones most every day. She has a 04 Mercury Grand Marquis she drives to work as its a 100 miles round trip. Given that the MGM is based on the fleet chassis of the crown vic, it soaks up miles easily and is super easy to maintain. She's coming up on 300K miles and we are on the third set of shocks and second set of springs. Everything was updated to police car specs when I had to replace parts and it rides on 19 inch Mustang Wheels. Real nice cruiser that is decent on gas but not so nice that the 100 miles a day wear bothers us. I've finally gotten her in the habit of driving the Firehawk to town for errands or fun instead of her commuter. She will now drive the 71 Lemans we picked up for errands and stuff as well.

I have to drive my 18 Chevy to work every day to carry all of my tools and supplies as a contractor. As soon as I get home, it gets parked and I do all of my running in one of the three older cars, the firehawk, the Lemans or my TA. My wife won't drive the TA as it is a stick.

As for gas, the Firehawk gets the best of any vehicle we own. The MGM is a close 2nd. The LeMans is the worst at an average of 10 mpg right now but we've only had it for a week and its a healthy 455 with 3.55 gears and no OD, yet. My TA will get 12-13 around town and 20 plus on the highway. My truck gets 12-14 around town and might get close to 20 on the highway. If I've got to run around the truck and my TA are a wash and it feels like work driving the truck as I'm in and out of it all day. The classics make it feel like I'm off work even if I'm running errands related to work.

Insurance, even with agreed value policies, is less than a newer vehicle and to me offsets the gas mileage difference. The only car payment we have is the truck and that is a necessity as it is how I pay the bills. My old one was looking rough and starting to cost me to much in repairs and 2 years ago they gave me stupid trade ins on my work truck and an 07 charger I had so I took on a small payment.

As the others have said, drive them when you can or why have them? I've put 3k miles on the TA since I got the motor back in in March/April. We are on our third tank of gas already on the LeMans in a week. We don't take vacations so what I save on them, I'll pay in gas to go cruising with the wife as she enjoys it as much as I do. She says the new cars have no soul.

Short answer, Yes.

Long answer, I have several and drive them all interchangeably, but when I'm home, they are all I drive.

71 GTO for daily duties around town.

74 Bonneville to make my run to the airport each week to work. She sits there while I fly, and comfortably takes me home end of each week. R12 factory A/C is nice.

72 LeMans GT for trailer towing, and misc around town/sundry errands.

67 Wagon. Well, whenever the need for a wagon arises.

67 GTO. Just to light my hair on fire once in a while.

All driven every week.

Speaking of... I'm off to my eye Dr appointment. In my 71... :3gears:

Agreed, drive that ‘94! I’ve got a 94 Formula 6-speed also, more of a track/race car than a daily but it still has A/C!

Bought a 78 Lemans in West Virginia 2 years ago. Put in a 455/6x combo with TH400. Installed 2.14:1 gears in the rear end. Drive it everyday day to work from Spring to the first snow. Kind of a beater but I Really enjoy it.

These days I try to drive my rides twice a week. 68 FB Sprint and 64 Mercury Comet. They are not show cars and are driver quality. My rides live in the driveway and often are hit with lawnmowers and bicycles. I’ve been wrenching and driving classics since the 70’s and just love sitting behind the wheel the sound and the way it drives. I think for all of us it’s like therapy whether driving or just doing maintenance it’s something we all have in common. 👍

You really are Mister Pontiac...nice to have options

I have to invent places to go these days with voivod and wfh lol

My nice weather daily driver since 1999
 

Here is is

Driven to work today
 

Drove this today.

Looks great! What part of CA do you live? I’m in the Central Valley so my non-AC GTO is in the garage today 😞

I daily mine when i know the weather is going to hold up. Im not scared of temperatures or a light rain, but seeing as how my area uses salt like it's rain water, winter driving is a no-no.

Like my signature says, 100% Pontiacs in my driveway.

1984 GP, project 455, not yet finished.

1999 GP, old Mary Kay car, driven daily rain or shine, used to pull trailers, and haul anything that fits in it. 140,000 miles

2005 GTO, daily driver barring snow, and salt, pulls trailers, and goes to get anything that will fit in the undersize trunk. 144.000 miles.

2008 Vibe, daily driver, bought new, currently 300 something thousand miles (odometer physically hit 299,999 miles 4 years ago, Vibe odometers cannot register higher than that). Trailer hitch, but relegated to lighter loads with a 4 cyl.

Trucks:

88 IH S1600 ex U Haul truck, currently being made into wrecker. 7.3 IDI N/A diesel, Vulcan wrecker body 210,000 miles.

93 K3500 6.5 TD dually stake body, just retired with blown 4L80E at 270,000 miles, engine runs perfectly, body is very rusty.

95 3500HD, 6.5 TD, 4L80E, straight truck, van body, electric over hydraulic lift gate. Currently using it to move my possessions from old house to new house, runs perfectly, minimal body rust, 250,000 miles. Slated to be made into dump truck after home move is completed.

97 K3500 dually to replace 93 that transmission failed recently. Has 454, that is not at all impressive to me (it may get a Pontiac in it if it needs any major repairs). 4L80E, stake body, rusty body, 256.000 miles.

My newest car is a 2008 with way over 300,000 miles. All Pontiac cars.

Everything I own I usually drive till the cost to fix it grossly exceeds the value, or it isn't any longer safe to drive on public roads. That comes from being a mechanic over 50 years, and being raised by depression era parents, squeeze a nickel until it spends like a dime.........;)