Old cars are wonderful. I own one, and I highly recommend buying one yourself. That said, they're far from perfect.
Aside from the whole safety thing, old cars have a different sense of reliability. In the context of new cars, reliability means you never have to take your car to the shop ever. In the context of old cars, reliability means that if you perform routine maintenance, you'll only have to go to the shop when dammit something broke again and there aren't any parts for it in this state.
TwinCharged happily announced the purchase of an OG Mini, and shared the joyous creation in our post on universally-beloved cars.
This just arrived! We're restoring it for a friend, who hasn't got the time to do it himself. He said he might give it to me as a first car!
It's amazing how long the BMC Mini lasted. This a 1998 model for the Japan market, with A/C as standard.
Neuro, however, went off that OG Minis aren't all that.
original MINI's are over rated v hard to work on stalled in damp weather and BMC only made a profit on them for about a year of the entire production run - and if you are tall and have a minor shunt you get your knees shattered to pieces
MJMgC rebutted that Neuro's critiques might have more to do with old cars in general rather than the Mini in particular.
Actually, Neuro, all cars from that era did not work in the rain/damp. I learnt how to dry a distributor cap before I learnt to drive. The Mini was incredibly fickle. Even the brakes were a brute to balance, and would overheat at anything resembling spirited driving. A friend put his knuckles through the windscreen in a crash in one, saving his kneess, no doubt..
But... they were a blast, had tonnes of personality, and were easy to drive badly and hard to drive well. A classic with charm to boot.
So old cars can be great if you know what you're getting into. But old car owners know that there are some things that are better left resigned to the history books. Things like drying a distributor cap.
What old car maintenance did you hate the most?
Photo Credit: Raphael Orlove