Classic Mopar as a daily... Crazy idea?

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AAR 64Valiant said:
What's your plan to insure it as a daily driver?
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That was my thought exactly. If you drive a classic Mopar daily, you won't be able to get the good classic insurance from the classic car insurers. They don't allow daily driving. I think that either Haggerty or Grundy might offer a daily driver policy, but it is likely very different than their regular classic car policies with agreed values. If you get in a wreck, and it is your fault, they may very well offer you $10,000 for a car worth $35,000. Check insurance policies CAREFULLY. If a company will not share with you what they consider the value of, let's say, a 1969 Barracuda with 340 4 speed and AC that is in #2 condition, run. If they won't tell you that, they will likely screw you when the time comes. I may be wrong, but I just want @MopaR&D to be careful and do his research. I got screwed really badly by the insurance company of a woman who hit my 98 Dakota truck. I don't remember the name of the company. It was a weird name that had 'green' in it. I had spent several years fixing it up. I did a kickass paint job on it, powder coated the wheels, Put in a nice bed liner, powder coated the bed rails and put new tires on it. The interior was next. I had to fight to get about $2500 less than it was worth. This picture was taken shortly before the accident. Be Careful


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TT5.9mag said:
200,000 miles? That’s just getting started. My daily has 623,000 on it and I’d drive it to the east coast and back right now. Hell at 190,000 I put a turbo on it!!
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Holy crap....That MUST be a diesel!
I finally met someone with more miles than me.

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junkyardhero said:
How about a classic, 4dr a body would meet your criteria but with the stipulations you'd either need to find a unicorn or plan on building it out. which, again, isn't some wild thought, but that's time and money.
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How about THIS one....?

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My plan all along was to build my '72 Duster to be a daily driver. I won't of course as my current one is quite a bit more comfortable but if I get that wild hair I will have no fear about firing it up and driving it to work on a nice day.
 
70 Duster \6 3 on the tree... or any variation of an a body 66 Darts are neat...they are th e right combination of ugly and beautiful :)
 
My feeling is as long as you don't care about it that much I mean about it getting hit.There is too much crazy traffic for me to drive a valuable classic everyday. I have been hit twice and my wife once in the last 2 years and avoided countless other idiots from hitting me.
 
Believe it or not I have a 2008 Ford Focus sedan with manual trans right now that has 317000 on it . Still runs no check engine light and gets 37 plus MPG. I've also ran Taurus's well past 200k as well as I put 347000 on an escort ZX 2 also manual trans i got rid of that cause it rusted out...
 

To answer your question, the "Malaise era " cars can be tough sells. I would buy a solid car, decent interior and paint and GOOD mechanically and working AC. And do not pay too much for it either unless you will keep it and love it!

My last beater was a 95 Ford Ranger, the little truck. I picked it up sitting out in the Mo. sticks for cheap back about 2018. Sold it later with 335,000 mi. and still got 25 mpg and needed a complete tune. But, I usually drove daily an old Duster back in then 90s, 2000s. Many. Never restored the dailies, always bought just a pretty solid good driver, slant or 318. When I would sell one, I was always way ahead and never spent anything hardly on one, maybe a timing chain or water pump. Drove anywhere from 120 mi daily to as little as 60. NO AC, but I worked outside so getting in that car and going 60-70 mph was like a cool breeze! Only ran used tires too and never had a flat! But I carried a spare and jack!
Things were way better back then before StupidBook MarketPlace!!!
 
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barbee6043 said:
To answer your question, the "Malaise era " cars can be tough sells. I would buy a solid car, decent interior and paint and GOOD mechanically and working AC. And do not pay too much for it either unless you will keep it and love it!

My last beater was a 95 Ford Ranger, the little truck. I picked it up sitting out in the Mo. sticks for cheap back about 2018. Sold it later with 335,000 mi. and still got 25 mpg and needed a complete tune. But, I usually drove daily an old Duster back in then 90s, 2000s. Many. Never restored the dailies, always bought just a pretty solid good driver, slant or 318. When I would sell one, I was always way ahead and never spent anything hardly on one, maybe a timing chain or water pump. Drove anywhere from 120 mi daily to as little as 60. NO AC, but I worked outside so getting in that car and going 60-70 mph was like a cool breeze! Only ran used tires too and never had a flat! But I carried a spare and jack!
Things were way better back then before StupidBook MarketPlace!!!
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Malaise era stuff ain't so bad once you chuck all the lean burn weirdness in the trash just be ready to go slow everywhere
 
MopaR&D said:
I've had my 2000 Buick Park Ave Supercharged as my daily for the past 6 years or so and it's been a trooper but it's getting a bit long in the tooth. It's about to hit 200k miles on the odometer and I have anxiety sometimes about something big going wrong with it like the transmission or a big electrical failure so I'm tossing around ideas for my next daily driver vehicle. I also don't like having to run premium gas and the fuel economy isn't great, average about 19-21 mpg. For a while I was looking at newer cars but I really hate dealing with electronics-related issues and the complexity they have, difficulty of repairs, expensive parts etc. So I started thinking, the cars I am by far the most comfortable with are the old-school RWD Chrysler cars and trucks. In this day and age most people would think it's crazy to rely on a 50-year-old vehicle with carburetor, distributor, etc to get around but I know these cars like the back of my hand. My '70 Duster was my first car and I've pretty much taken apart and rebuilt every mechanical device on that car at least once. It's now so reliable that for the past few years I have done nothing but regular maintenance and I can jump in at any time and drive it wherever.

My biggest must-haves options are good working A/C and cruise control so I'm leaning towards later upper-end stuff like a mid-late 70s B-body, would love to have a Cordoba or Charger SE (Magnum would be ok too but I don't like their styling as much). What do y'all think? I know I just mentioned gas mileage but if I could manage at least mid-high teens on average being able to run regular gas that would be acceptable.
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For 5 years I drove my Dart for all my service calls and daily driving.
Now that I am retired I drive it as my normal daily.
Nice stereo, climate control AC, 4 speed automatic with converter lockup, 4 wheel power discs.
Mild built 5.9 Magnum.
80mph at 2,200 rpms and right at 25 mpg hiway.
I can fix anything that ever goes just like you, and I use easy to get parts like GM hei.

It’s a blast, and not even close to boring.

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I fall into the "No" category, for the following reasons:
1. Relying on any part (engine, wiring, suspension) of a 50 year old car is contrary to reliability.
2. Spending the time and money to make it as reliable, comfortable and economical as a new car is price prohibitive.
3. Insurance to make your classic a daily driver would be cost prohibitive.
4. Why risk a classic for daily driving? If it's wrecked, insurance would most likely total it and you've taken one of few out of the population.
All that being said, I drive a V-6 Camry on my 100-mile round trip a day commute. I consider it a throw away car, so I don't stress about rock chips, other drivers, etc. It's got 225K on the odometer, working A/C, get's 25 mpg with my heavy foot, it's comfortable to ride in, Sirius XM radio. When it dies, I'll just go buy another Camry, rinse and repeat.
 
I don't see an issue with daily driving an old car, but my issue is I want some of the new car features now. I drove my '74 Duster as my daily for years until I sold/traded it to a friend in '98. Since then I had the privilege of daily driving a '15 Challenger R/T 6M and it kind of has become the benchmark and target. Because of that, I want AC, CC, EFI, OD and a nice suspension, and it's why I am building my G3/T56 Duster. It won't have all of those things when it first hits the road, but I expect to drive the wheels off it regardless while I work towards those missing features.

I have never insured my Duster using classic car insurance. Insure it like a regular car so you can drive it when you want. Not saying there can't be issues with value if something happens, but we have to be honest and admit the insurance companies are in business to make money which means they will use everything they can to give you as little as possible in every case. Or they will charge you through the roof and put restrictions on you to make up the difference and then stiff you entirely when they determine you violated the restrictions. Just my thoughts on insurance.

If I was looking for something to daily, I would think about an F-Body, depending on the deal. You can get them with AC, CC and a V8 (or swap one easily) right from the start. The suspension is a turn off for sure, but Firm Feel still sells the k-frame rubber biscuit delete kit and a Diplomat cop car could give up it's entire suspension which is an improvement. Add some 12" brakes, a 42/48H and some 17" wheels and go. Biggest advantage is they potentially already have all you want as opposed to another A-Body where you would have to build those in. I'd look for one that isn't too rusty as there are issues, but rust makes it less of a big deal if something does happen.

A Diplomat or Cordoba is an option, too. I just lean in the direction of an F-Body because it is so similar to an A-Body. And I had a '78 Super Coupe Volare for years and miss it.

If not those, I would look at cloning @TrailBeast's car. But that's a build rather than a buy and improve (again, depending on the deal).

Either way, if the current daily is working fine, now is the time to jump on something and get it up to snuff before something does go wrong. Plus, when you do get the classic to the point you can daily it, you have a backup for a time in case a problem crops up.

I say do it, and do it now. :)
 
The reality is, the easy button is probably an S197 Mustang. Find a '10 or older 4.6/3V as they are cheaper than the '11+ 5.0 ones. But they check all the boxes and are probably cheap enough.

The SN95 cars are probably cheaper and would do the job fine, I just think the S197 is a better car all around for not much more money.
 
I never put collector insurance on my 70 Dart and it was my daily summer driver for years. Yes it got a few paint chips and a small scratch or two, so what? I built it to drive and enjoy, not sit in the garage and look at it. The only time it broke down on me was at home, that car never left me stranded and I put over 60k hard miles on it. Didn't have a/c, that would have been great, but between the front vent windows and those huge under dash vents, it was fine once I got out of slow traffic.
 
I'm on the no side. You can add AC, overdrive, good brakes, good tires, cruise control, etc. Those all make the car more comfortable and drivable.

But crash worthiness would be a big problem for me. Front end collisions are catastrophic in A bodies. Consider that Chrysler had to replace the A body with the F body largely because they wouldn't meet crash standards for the late 1970s. Zero side impact protection in 72 and earlier cars, so even a minor side impact / T-bone collision on the driver's side and you could severely injured. Maybe with a 73+ car you would fare better, but still not like something built in the 80s or later. Someone cuts you off and the car ends up on its roof? Those A pillars will fold like a cheap suit.

I put ~6000 miles per year on my car, but most of those miles are country roads or highway cruising. When I'm driving my Dart I'm always at a heightened level of awareness, and when I'm in normal city / suburban traffic (as opposed to country roads) I'm hyper aware. Of course I don't want it damaged, but it's more about the safety aspect for me.
 
I appreciate all the food for thought guys. Realistically it won't be until sometime next year that I can seriously look at getting another vehicle. I just wanted to get some ideas from other Mopar gear heads.

A few months ago I sold my '72 D200 and I think I'll get a truck (Cummins diesel to mess around with) before I get another classic. Probably some newer family vehicle for the wife to drive after that too.

This past year has been tough, big life changes and commitments that have forced me to put my hobbies on the backburner so I started looking for a way back to be able to have some gearhead fun once in a while. But if I can just hold out a few more months until I can get a better job (one that doesn't suck out my soul and actually has benefits like PTO, paid vacation, health insurance) and have our wedding reception out of the way so I can stop hemorrhaging money for that then I'll be able to get some of my own life back.
 
I daily drove my '72 Challenger for almost 8 years and put about 70k miles on it in that time. No AC, no cruise control, just a fairly stock 318/904 car with 2.76's and then 3.23's in it. I replaced that with my '74 Duster, there was a couple year overlap there but my Duster changed engines and transmissions like 3 times in that space so for most of that I only had 1 or the other on the road. My '74 was the newest car I owned up until 2021, so from 2008 when I bought my Challenger to 2021 the newest 4 wheeled anything I had was the '74 Duster. I had a '71 Ford F100 as the back up in case something broke.

I just run regular insurance on all of them, as pointed out classic insurance limits use and you can't daily drive with pretty much any of the classic insurances out there. But neither my Challenger or my Duster are fully restored or show quality. On my Duster I'd get pretty thoroughly screwed on value because it's a '74, but my plan was always to just buy it back and take all the expensive modifications I've done off of it to put on another one. The car only cost me $2k so everything I've put into it is what makes it worth more anyway. The buy back would also be cheap, so that's not an issue. And if none of my expensive stuff (T56, suspension parts, giant disk brakes etc) survived then there's a good chance I wouldn't be in any shape to part the car out anyway. I don't have classics for the monetary value, I have them because I like driving them. Can't have everything be about money.

All of the suspension and braking was upgraded on my Challenger and even more so on my Duster to handle the rigors of modern driving, same with adding the T56 to the Duster to be able to cruise easily at modern freeway speeds. Obviously there's the safety and survivability factor as well, but, you can get hit by a bus crossing the street or hit by a tree sleeping in your bed too. If you put safety that far ahead of quality of life, well, I don't know what to tell you. Nobody lives forever and if you don't enjoy the time you've got there isn't much of a point.

I will say that having a reliable back up has a pretty big stress reducer for me. I inherited a '02 Dakota in '21 and after some initial work to get it back to daily driver condition it was a pretty big load off to have that ready to go in case something went sideways with the Duster, no more crazy wrenching sessions to get the Duster back on the road to avoid driving a '71 F100 4x4 with a 390 at 9 mpg all the time. Even more so now with my new 2500. Sure, it means sometimes I just don't drive my Duster just out of convenience/laziness, but I still drive it more often than the vast majority of classic car owners and I still drive it on a 120 mile round trip commute when I take it work. But it is definitely nicer knowing that if something does break or if I have to do some maintenance that there isn't a "few days" timeline on it.

So yeah, absolutely NO reason you can't daily drive one of these cars. With proper maintenance they can be plenty reliable, my Challenger was towed home exactly 0 times in 70k miles, and that was with a mystery meat previous owner rebuild on the 318 and who knows what on the transmission, that damn thing could be factory inside for all I know. Since I started driving in '95 I know for a fact that the majority of miles I've driven have been in classics, the miles I've logged in modern vehicles pales in comparison to what I've driven in pre-'75 vehicles. I probably put 100k miles on a '56 Austin Healey.

Not saying that it's easy, there's definitely some choices/sacrifices in there. But I'd still rather have logged the majority of my driving miles in classics than anything else.
 
Insurance? Nah drive old junk not "classics". My family used to drive worthless b bodies growing up now I drive worthless m bodies
 
I daily my old Mopars on days my GF needs my daily driver. Sucks sharing a car and she won't drive the stick shift B Body (to short). My commute to work is 30-40 miles to and from, depending on which way I go. Sucks alittle on the gas, but it is what it is. I try not to drive in the rain too much but I will when needed. I can go without the AC, my 8 yr old thinks it's cool I just give her my headphones and she just watches shows in the back seat.
 
Well I will say this an older car needs maintenance my newer cars I usually just do oil changes brakes and tires for the most part and run up alot of miles on them. When I work on a car I want it to be my classic i dislike working on todays stuff but i can do it etc. In a previous post I stated 70 Duster slant 6 three on the tree why? my uncle daily drove one in 1980 it was his family / work car. Yes these cars can be driven and were.
 
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