These Are The Oldest Cars You Can Still Buy New

The Quattroporte is scheduled to be replaced in the not-too-distant future, but if you’re so inclined, you can still buy a brand new full-sized Italian luxury sedan which was introduced over a decade ago.

Renowned designer Henrik Fisker had a dream of selling a plug-in hybrid super sedan called Karma. That dream came to fruition in 2011, and the whole company went bust the next year when its battery supplier filed for bankruptcy. Chinese supplier Wanxiang Group purchased the whole mess in 2014 and by 2016 had reverse-engineered the Fisker Karma into the functionally identical Karma Revero.

A lot has changed with the company since, but the car still looks pretty similar to what launched in 2011. In fairness, it looked like a space ship back then, and it still looks like it comes from the future today.

The Model S is arguably one of the most important cars in history, as it brought electric vehicles into the modern era. Prior to this car the world of EVs was a batch of cobbled-together half-assed compliance machines pushed out by reluctant automakers. Company designer Franz von Holzhausen was just 39 when he started working on this car, and he’s still tweaking the design sixteen years later. The Model S launched in 2012, and while it has changed a lot since then with iterative upgrades coming seemingly every twenty minutes, it’s still based largely on the same original platform.

Over the course of the last thirteen years Dodge’s Durango has been offered with four different engines and six different transmissions across two different facelifts, pumping out power 290 horsepower on up to 710 ponies. There are a wide variety of third-generation Durangos out there, selling pretty consistently around 60,000 units per year since 2011 here in the U.S. You practically can’t walk twenty feet without tripping over one.

The Nissan Patrol-based QX80 launched in 2010 as the QX56. That’s right, the QX80 is so old, it predates the current Infiniti alphanumeric nomenclature system. This one is departing at the end of this year, however, making room for a desperately-needed new QX80.

The Mirage is one of just six cars left on the U.S. market available for under 20,000 dollars. Unfortunately that list will drop by another member later this year when the Mirage is discontinued. I think some people have been unfairly critical of this car, when it’s a solid little compact that delivers just enough of what you need without the stuff you don’t. More cars like the Mirage should be bought and built, not fewer.

While the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport didn’t start selling in the U.S. market until 2014, it is essentially a different name for the Japanese-market Mitsubishi RVR, itself based on the Lancer sedan launched in 2007. The Outlander Sport pretty much occupies the same spot in Mitsu’s lineup as the successful Eclipse Cross, but because it starts three thousand dollars less expensive ($23,695 MSRP), it’s sticking around for a while as the bargain option.

When the R35-generation GT-R launched in 2007 it was the king of the world. It was capable of taking on supercars like the Porsche 911 Turbo or Ferrari F430 and winning. And it managed to do all that for less than $70,000. The car’s price exploded in those first few years, and it starts at $120,990 today. Admittedly the car has gained around 90 horsepower in the last 17 years, but it has largely been left behind by the rest of the supercar world.

While we didn’t get the current generation of Ranger in the U.S. until 2019, it’s been available in other markets, most notably Australia, since 2011. The T6 Ranger has been face lifted three times. The most recent facelift is referred to by Ford as a new development, but it shares the same basic body structures and window/door openings as the 2011 truck.

Toyota’s long-in-the-tooth 4Runner is still kicking after fifteen years, and for good reason. Toyota still sells these things by the boatload. It’s so old that it still uses a 5-speed automatic. Amazing.

When 2023 production sells out, the current Challenger will meet its demise, but they’re still out there on dealer lots right now. Dodge unveiled a Challenger concept in early 2006 and customers started placing deposits for the new car in December of 2007. Those early Challengers are older than children who will receive their driving licenses this year.

The Chevrolet Express is maybe one of the worst vehicles I’ve ever driven, and that’s saying a lot. This is a very old platform with function being its only purpose, form and comfort are afterthoughts. When the Express made its debut in 1995, approximately 40 million people worldwide had access to the internet. (For the record, I didn’t get internet until 2001.)

The Ram Promaster was brand new to the U.S. market in 2014, but it’s based on the same shared platform as the Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer, and Citroën Relay/Jumper vans, which debuted eight years earlier. It’s an old van, and it feels it. The recently discontinued Promaster City, likewise, was a Fiat Doblò dating back to 2010.

Like its platform mate Challenger, the Charger is on its last legs. The Big Three brand said it was discontinuing the V8-powered models at the end of 2023, while the V6 Charger will continue until the electrified model makes its debut later this year. Don’t forget that the LD platform underpinning this monster is largely cribbed from the Mercedes-Benz W220-generation S-class which bowed in 1997.

Do you remember the old Snoop Dogg and Lee Iaccoca commercials? Yeah, that’s how old this car is.