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In non-rusting country, it's not remarkable to find 10 to 20 year old cars still on the road, not necessarily pampered garage queens either, although if they are not well-kept they will be showing their age.
You mean 20-30 year old cars. 10 years old is model year 2000. There are millions of those on the road even here in the rust belt with salted roads in the winter. My own daily driver is a 1998 (13 model years old now), and spent most of it's life in the NE. It's not even an OLD version of the car, as the previous bodystyle to it (1988-1994) are still common. 20 years old now is '91, and even those cars are still common all over the east coast a daily drivers and non-pampered cars. Cars from the '70s to mid '80s, however, are pretty much gone from the roads as daily drivers around here, though there's an older lady in my neighborhood that daily drives her unrestored '65 Falcon 4 door (not even using historic plates).
But head back to Oregon and Washington state, and daily drivers from the '60s and '70s that aren't garage queens are actually fairly common still. It's fun to take someone from back east out there and let them see that.
As for the 928... solid choice for a GT cruiser, but a little plump and soft for my tastes. Plus, I can't stand that most U.S. market 928s came with a 3-speed automatic. Nice motor though, especially from the 928S4 (32v engine) era forward.
The autobox was a 4 sped unit frm Mercedes, and actually not too bad a transmission, especially behind the larger displacement, torquer S4s. The 32V engine was available 2 years before the S4, in the '85-86 928S, my favorite years for the 928 (the late '86 versions are the only ones I'd personally look for now, as they have all the suspension and brake up grades of the S4 wth the earlier S body). The S4s, especially the later ones, were quite rapid, however, but all of them make great daily drivers. When I was in the PCA a number of members were getting 250-350k miles out of them as daily drivers that were also used on the track on weekends, which was really impressive. For daily driver duty that includes commutes and an occasional autocross, the auto is a good choice, as the dual clutch manual trans one can be really pricy to change clutches on, and the box is a bit notchy in use, feeling a lot like the early 901 transaxle in the early 911s. But on an open road or a road course, that same box is a pleasure and the only choice for track days. And then in the S4, that got changed to a more normal single clutch unit that is really nice, but much harder to find.
The 928 GTS is the best one, but the prices on those are still rather high, and going up again.
THis is the version I want:
Another outstanding car of that era that makes an excellent daily driver is this:
The E24 M6.
Again, finding one with the manual can be tricky, but the automatic ones are still excellent cars, fast and comfortable on the road. They are still available all over, and you can do well even with the 635CSi models. As they get older, into the 633s and 630 variants, rust is an issue, but they can still be realtively cheap to maintain and own. I'd daily drive one with no hesitation. Same for the E28 5 series if 4 doors are your desire.
Have a Lotus and Z06, but still use my '98 Taurus from highschool as a beater car, grocery trips etc. For a 13 year old car, it runs excellent. Never had any engine issues, only needed normal maintenance and few little issues I've had over the last decade cost me less than $500 combined.
For a $4000 car, not much is better for a beater..
Buddy of mine has a 928, the "trick" of 928 ownership is to be a good, no make that excellent DIY mechanic. If you do the maintenance yourself, they are not too expensive to run, but failing that, you need a very good and very honest shop to take care of the car.
Older pickups, particularly 60's to about 72, are a damn-near no miss deal. So long as you don't try to make a really rough one really nice, or pay way too much for one in bad condition, you should pay only for gas, tires, and oil - keep it as long as you want, sell on for all you paid for it and more (assuming non-rusting country) (why do any real car guys live in rust country anyway?!)
Why did you stop at 1973 which is a different body style than 1972?
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