Who has the oldest Daily Driver?

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Originally Posted by Falcon_LS
The '83 Caprice brings back good old memories, I had an '80 with the 305 and 3-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic with electronic lock-up. That 305 only produced 155 horsepower, but I loved hearing it run at high idle first thing in the morning, with its 4-barrel Rochester carburetor. The clicking/ticking each time you shifted into gear, and that exhaust rumble as it took off are all good memories.

Snapping chrome door handles on the outside, sunvisors that kept dropping down, inside door handles loosened over time, cracking dashboards, bouncy speedometers were all part of GM's "Mark of Excellence" at the time, but I still loved that car and the '79 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency that was in the family.

Never really understood why USDM versions had 85 MPH speedometers, whilst export vehicles got 200 km/h (125 MPH) speedometers. Were domestic version limited to 85 MPH? I know first hand export models were well capable of 200 km/h.


The original cluster was a 140km/h speedo. Same as the American speedo but different unit.

My ex girlfriend broke both the door handles in an ice storm years ago. I finally fixed the driver's side but the passenger side is still broken but my girlfriend has it mastered lol. Yes the sun visors fall down a lot and yes I've tightened up the door handles when they loosened off. The dash is just starting to crack as it previously got garaged a lot before I bought it which is why the vinyl roof is still good.

Mine came with the 3 speed lock up but I pulled that out and put a 4 speed lockup from an 89 with 220k on it back when the car had about 180k on it. I also put an 8.5" heavy duty rear end with 3.08 posi right before swapping transmissions. The original rear was okay but it was the light duty version, 2.41 open gears and had leaking axle seals and worn axles. So it made more sense to swap the good one in.

Sometimes the annoyances of a 35 year old daily driver bother me but then I remind myself how much money it saves me and I never really worry if it will break down on me. I have CAA (triple A in Canada) and in 8 years it broke down twice in one month. The original starter failed on a cold day and I thought it was a loose battery cable which ended up stripping so I couldn't get it going even by hitting the starter with a hard object. Then a month later the replacement Ac Delco starter solenoid stuck and it kept cranking slowly and then cracked the nose cone.

Unfortunately the 86 (my parts car) and 83 use a different starter and Ac Delco is the only thing I had available to put on that day. Luckily the part was about $65.
 
My summer daily driver when I had the intake off because the gasket failed and started leaking coolant (it was actually pitting of the aluminum on the edelbrock intake). If I left the original cast iron one on I never would have had a problem but what fun is that. I also wish I never put headers on it but too late now.

When oil was cheaper 10 years ago I blew a lot of money using amsoil 5w40 and sometimes 0w30, German Castrol, etc. Always the good stuff every 3k miles. The past few years it gets whatever is on sale at Walmart or Canadian Tire. Usually Pennzoil platinum or Castrol Edge, mobi 1. I was going 4-5k when it got a lot of highway miles. Now it's mostly short trips about 4 miles to work so I do 3k max.

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Glad to see some gmt400s and b bodies up in this piece. I get bored of hearing about all the new cars and Japanese imports members drive lol. I've had a multitude of late eighties/early nineties gm vehicles, and have always had good service from them.
 
Originally Posted by Falcon_LS
ed that car and the '79 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency that was in the family.

Never really understood why USDM versions had 85 MPH speedometers, whilst export vehicles got 200 km/h (125 MPH) speedometers. Were domestic version limited to 85 MPH? I know first hand export models were well capable of 200 km/h.


It was an oil crisis thing-- they thought that if our speedos only went to 85 we'd feel "satisfied" at 55... which also had to be highlighted.

Seems to have lasted from the mid 70s to late 80s. Coincide with the 5 mph bumpers.

Supposedly one of the imported sports cars (Ferarri or similar) had tick marks all the way to 150 but only numbers to 85, technically complying.
 
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