Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Maybe I'm really not a car guy, Part Three

Iiit's baaack!

Chewing the same buffalo fat, over and over,... again.

I was at Barnes and Noble and was checking out the magazine racks, though I seldom buy any magazines anymore.

As I was searching the titles, I encountered a guy and we began a conversation about cars. 

He asked what kind of car I owned.

Later he asked me what car I would like to own. 

He told me that he had his collector cars stored in a country property and that they had been lost in one of the recent big forest fires. 

He had two Lincoln Mark IIs that were burned and another car was lost at a body shop in the same area. 

Worst of all, he'd also lost his home and ranch.

I'd read about some serious collectors who had suffered similar losses, and it seems to me that he was one of those serious collectors.

He was now living in Santa Clara while his legal battle with PG&E and the insurance company played out.

As our conversation progressed I asked him if he was familiar with the AACA forum. thinking that he might be a member.

He replied that he had belonged to the Lincoln Continental Owner's Club. He said that he didn't follow any online forums.

I thought that it was funny that he didn't belong to, or follow any online forums. He told me that he didn't know how to use a computer well enough to go online. He did say that he watched programs on Motor Trend TV. 

I thought that was kind of strange. Even I know to negotiate the web well enough for my purposes!

I asked him if he had any grandchildren that could help him with that, and he said no. 

He started to offer me advice on which cars would be a good buy, he said. "you could find a nice Lincoln Mark II or Continental for less than fifty thousand dollars." I laughed and said,"Maybe, but fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money to me." He seemed kind of puzzled by my saying that, I guess he expected me to have that kind of money to play around with. 

I told him that I had a blog, and my emphasis is on participating in the car hobby in a manner that is comfortable for the individual. Usually at a lower price point.

My point is that everyone should participate in the car hobby at a level that they are comfortable at. 

The '40 LaSalle that I was interested in, and went to see, has been relisted on CraigsList once more. 

I hadn't forgotten about the car, I'd replayed several scenarios of what owning that car might mean to me. This would be a car that would not be a daily driver, it would probably only be taken to Cars and Coffee events and shows. I really don't know how much I would drive it, it is important to me that it can fit into the garage. I wouldn't want it parked in the driveway.

I got to thinking about my '70 Mustang coupe, that I fixed up about five years back. It was a simple, basic, no tech car, that was easy to work on and had great parts support. It was a simple as a '54 Ford or a late 40's Ford, for that matter. It was much the same as an early 1960's stripper. The only options had been an automatic transmission and power steering. The LaSalle is at a slightly lower technological level, it has a manual transmission, but doesn't even have turn signals, seat belts, or tempered glass windows. 

Some might consider it kind of a death trap.

Would I actually be happy owning and driving a car like that? Would I even drive it?

I had my old cars back in the early 1970's; my '57, '64, and '70 Cadillacs. The '70 was a late model car, but the '57 as well as the '64 were already pretty old, but I thought of them as "modern cars" and I drove them as such, at regular freeway speeds. 

I sold my '70 Mustang because I got tired of it. It didn't seem to offer any intrinsic traits or appeal that outweighed it's Spartan equipment level, or its poor driving experience.

It would be awful to buy that LaSalle and then discover that I hated driving it.

I'm thinking that if I really want a Cadillac again. I'm going to look for something around ten years old. 

It's lucky for me that I don't have the money to buy the LaSalle laying around. Instead, I'd have to get serious and sell a few of my cars, starting with my '06 Mustang. It's the only one that will bring in a little money. I'd have to make some hard choices. I'd have to do the same to buy the newer Cadillac, but I'd be buying a car that I know that I'd love to drive. 

I remember when these were new. 
Guys were ecstatic when they bought them!

There have always been lots of enthusiasts that bought new, or almost new cars. They bought the muscle cars and the latest versions of the Pony Cars, back in the '60's and '70s. I remember how happy guys I knew were when they could afford to buy a new Trans Am! Or they bought little imported sports cars. Or a shiny new Harley Davidson! However, there were always traditionalists that stuck with old time hot rods and Fifties models. 

Of course, the benefit of buying a new car is that it is something that you can drive and enjoy- right now! No rebuilding needed. 

So maybe my time with old cars came to an end back in the mid 1990's. I had my '66 Riviera, '56 Cadillac, and even a '22 Dodge hot rod project. Most of my other cars since then have been ten to fifteen years old. The important thing was that I was still having fun with my cars. Actually, I'm still having fun with my current collection of cars.

I think that still qualifies me as a "car guy."