Do You Ever Keep Up With Your Old Car?

[macarose]

The only new car I ever bought was way back in 1994. A red Toyota Camry Coupe LE.

I had it for 12 years and 235,000 miles.

When I sold it, the next owner took great care of it as well. All was well in the world until...

The owner who had it after him rolled back the odometer... a solid 200,000 miles.

From 283,000 miles to 83,000 miles.

29 years from the day I bought it new, and probably close to 400,000 genuine miles later that Toyota Camry is still on the road. I'm hoping it hits the big 3-0 and 400k mark. I may even make a trip out to South Georgia by September of next year.

Have you ever kept track of your daily driver after selling it?

 

[addyguy]

I saw my Buick Skyhawk for a couple of years after I traded it in on the road bc someone in my area of the city bought it, ironically.

My 1991 Toyota Corolla SR-5 I sold to a buddy who really wanted it. He drove it for about another 3-4 years until the rear floor rusted through where the shocks mount and it was done.

Others have either been wrecked or scrapped; or I have no idea what happened to them.

 

[joekingcorvette]

I usually don't ask because if something went wrong with the car they let you know about it. I have often wondered what happened to some of my previous Corvettes.

 

[marc1]

Generally not my daily drivers, except my last one, my 2006 GMC. I sold it to a friend, that is usually a forbidden transaction that I won't do, but he really wanted it and all my cars are mint typically and well maintained so I broke my rule and let him buy it. He sends me pictures once in a while, it is an acreage truck now, he needed a good vehicle for general purpose acreage work (snow clearing, work around the property etc.) so he sends me photos of it plowing snow or carrying wood etc. That is the only daily driver I know the whereabouts of it. My muscle cars are about 40%. Two went to car guys more or less in my car community circle so I get pictures / updates occasionally. Some of them disappear off the face of the earth and I have never seen them again.

I had a mint low mileage 1987 Chevrolet Silverado short box, so last year of the square bodies and first year for FI, that I sold to a guy in Texas a long long time ago, I often wonder what happened to that truck .

 

[eljefino]

I've seen a bunch of them. 1994 Dodge Spirit. Couple of 90's Saturns. Found my B4000 in a junkyard with a bunch of right-wing bumper stickers on it. Volvo with a busted license plate stud and dented door, with the new license plate hanging off at an angle. Prius, with 300k+ miles, still on the road a couple years after I was done with it. Olds Van and Ciera wagon I sold on Craigslist, back for sale on Craigslist, in apparantly likeable condition.

I don't ask how they're doing. I don't want an earful.

 

[AZjeff]

My daughter's 2002 Saturn L200 that we bought off lease in 2004 in Pa is still running, we see it occasionally. She drove it her senior year in high school, brought it to Az, then to Ca and I finally sold it in late 2014 here in Az when she got the 2015 CX-5. In 10 years it got 2 batteries, tires, an AC compressor and a trans service. Sold it for $2000 less that we paid for it.

 

[Nick1994]

I saw my '97 Camry a couple times going down the road after I sold it, but I only owned it for 8 months.

Other than that, earlier this year I gave my brother my old '00 Camry that I owned for almost 8 years so I see it all the time. Sure is a tired ol' girl these days.

 

[nickaluch]

Guy who bought my Supra still sends me occasional texts of the car same for the 340 duster. My trans Am a guy bought for his girlfriend last I heard it was totalled happened rather quickly

 

[ron17571]

I owned a 72 Challenger that was in mint condition when I sold it, later I saw it in a parking lot and it was all thrashed. It made me depressed seeing it.

 

[Number_35]

My last few cars have gone to my sons, so I not only keep track, I get to service and repair them too.

 

[Oillover]

When I was younger I tried to keep communication with the buyer (as my vehicles were always in great shape when sold).

These days, I haven't the time nor interest to see how the car/owner are doing.

 

[carviewsonic]

20 years after I sold my '66 Impala my wife and I saw it in the city we had recently moved to, about 700 kms from where I sold the car twenty years earlier. I pulled into the mall parking lot to take a look and it was definitely my old Impala. It still looked pretty good (for a driver), and hadn't been changed in any way that I could see. Even still had my amateurish armrest repair.

 

[MCompact]

The only car I can keep close tabs on is my 1973 Bavaria.

 

[Lubener]

I have been getting monthly Carfax service updates via email on a car I sold in 2018. I pulled a report once while I had it when I had a 30 day unlimited subscription years ago.

 

[Creekside]

No. I get attached to my vehicles and I prefer to not know where they end up or what has been done to them.

 

[Skippy722]

My 2011 Durango may or may not still be in my carfax account so I can see when it gets an oil change or whatnot. It’s down in Georgia somewhere

 

[Bailes1992]

Back in 2012 I bought my first 'new-ish' car, an '08 Ford Mondeo Titanium with a 1.8 diesel engine.

Over the course of the 3 years I owned it, I'd done a few mods and driven it all over Europe. I think I put ~70k on it in those 3 years and it never let me down!

Then one day the DMF catastrophically failed without any prior warning (other than the ~165k on the clock of course). I sent it in to my trusted local garage for replacement but unfortunately found out that at some point in it's past life it had previously had a DMF replacement and whoever had done it as cross threaded 3 of the flywheel bolts.

We discussed repair options, option 1 was to run a tap through the holes, use thread lock and pray they don't back out. Or option 2 was to replace the crank or engine.

The car wasn't worth throwing an engine into, or rebuilding the engine in it. But also as I needed the car for work, the thread lock and prayers method was no good either. I discussed getting the car recovered back to my house so I could break it for parts and the guy who owned the garage asked if I'd be willing to sell it to them as they knew it was a well looked after car.

They bought it off me for a reasonable price, and went with option 1. Car served them well for a year or two and then it was sold to a friend of the garage owner who put it through a hedge and wrote it off driving under the influence.

After that, I decided it's not worth trying to follow cars.

 

[DV0993]

I don't keep track of my old cars, but I try and pick up the old owner of my s2000 once a year.

 

[John105]

It takes a certain personality to do that. Like my bros. Apparently his gone ford raptor is still connected to his phone/app? I’ve asked him how does a person go from a Raptor to a Tundra? You still want the Raptor, don’t you? Why don’t you get the new R?

My wife’s cousin sold a 2001 bmw 330 and the buyer kept texting him for 2 years asking about the car. I told him jmoymmv get a new # these folks are stalkers!

 

[Egg_Head]

Old cars and old girlfriends are best kept in the rearview mirror.