GM destroyed almost all their EV1 cars , they were leased. People who leased them wanted to buy one but they would not let people buy them. Even a movie about that:
Actually I’m thinking that might be the most likely candidate. As I said in the OP I’m thinking we’ll likely have to go back to at least pre-WWII to find anything where there are literally none left, if not earlier.
I actually thought “collector car” insurance was cheaper than regular car insurance, since such cars typically aren’t driven that much. IIRC such policies usually stipulate that the car can only be driven a limited number of miles per year, and only for certain reasons like to car shows and the occasional weekend drive.
I thought of those, but I don’t think the EV1 was technically a production car. IIRC all of them were officially prototypes.
It would depend heavily on what the car is and whether you have an “agreed value” or “stated value” policy.
Indeed. I’m sure insuring something like a priceless Ferrari 250 GT California is going to be expensive even if you don’t drive it at all. But I would guess insuring something more pedestrian like a 1955 Chevy that you only drive to get ice cream on summer weekends would be fairly reasonable.
Not exactly the same thing but my cheapskate brother’s car is an old Toyota Camry, I think a 1990 model, that he refuses to replace. He got “classic car” license plates because the registration fees are cheaper. Keep in mind that my mother offered to pay for a new car. As I said, he’s a cheapskate and he’s stubborn.
And those plates come with the same stipulation that the car can’t be driven more than like 2000-3000 or so miles per year (I’m sure it varies by state). In other words you’re not supposed to use those plates on a daily driver. I assume if your brother gets caught (unless he actually does manage to stay below the mileage limit) they’ll make him pay for the regular registration.
A friend of mine keeps and maintains a fleet of old cars that he registers and insures cheaply as “collectibles” for the purpose of lending out to friends who need local transportation for a while.
that was “Peak Camry,” for what it’s worth.
I don’t see where that mileage limitation is in place in Connecticut.
I found this article that goes over the application process for Ohio. It mentions that the car must be “used for exhibition purposes, NOT general transportation” but doesn’t mention any mileage limit regarding the plate either. It does mention mileage limits imposed by insurance companies. Maybe I conflated the two, or maybe it’s only certain states that impose the limit. But I imagine they must have some similar requirement that it not be used for general transportation at least.
About a month ago, I was poking around wikipedia and found a related page. I think I was trying to look up Jack Benny’s car and/or the Clampett’s truck for the Giraffe Boards Penultimate megapoll on vehicles.
At the very bottom of my linked Brass Era page, there is a cool chart (with links) to eras of American automobile history.
I had an 85 baby blue Chevette that was passed on to me from my dad when he bought a new car (a gold 1991 Chevy Cavalier.) My Chevette did 0-60 if pushed off a cliff. Anyway, I do very very very occasionally see a Chevette out in the wild, still. It’s probably been about 3 years since I’ve last seen one, but I do, along with the similarly styled Dodge Omni.
Tucker only completed 50 of their cars in 1948, yet some survive.
At that value, you may not see any in a museum but they do exist.
I had a 1984 Alliance. Miraculously it made it to 70k. Funny thing was it ran great and was reliable until around 60k. Then BAM! Thing after thing went to shit. I had the balls to trade it in when I bought its successor and the dealer threw pity on me and gave me $500 credit.
But, before it went to hell, I was enjoying it. I had a coworker who asked me if I liked the car. At that time it was still running fine so unfortunately for him I talked it up like it was the greatest car ever made, and so he bought one. Thank god I went to a new job before the inevitable happened to his.
That’s actually a dangerous move, insurance wise. In most states “classic car” registrations do not allow for regular use of the vehicle, hence lower insurance to go with lower registration. If the insurance company finds out you used it as a commuter car and you get into an accident they will deny the claim.
If you include that, you may as well include the Chrysler Turbine, which was technically a concept car but in addition to five prototypes, they eventually handbuilt 50 of them that were lent free of charge to select drivers for 3 months at a time as part of a public test program, and over the years 203 different drivers in 133 cities drove a cumulative one million miles in them. Technically a “concept car”, but with a much bigger presence than a typical concept car that might only appear at an auto show. Chrysler eventually destroyed most of them, as GM did with the EV-1, and today only nine exist, most of them in museums and not operational. One of the most famous is the one Jay Leno bought from the Chrysler Museum, which is one of the very few operational ones – there’s even a Jay’s Leno’s Garage video of him taking it out on the road. Would love to know what he paid for it – it supposedly cost Chrysler nearly a quarter of a million in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars to hand-build each one.
I had a Renault Encore, and I second that statement. “Click & Clack” on NPR had no love for them either.
Many years ago, I worked with a woman who came of driving age during WWII (I found out a while back that she died in 2008 at the age of 84) and she said her first car was a Model B. Nobody else there had ever heard of it, and I haven’t seen any evidence of them online either, but she swore that was what it was called.
There was a Ford Model B that predated the Model T:
Although if she started driving in the 1940s a Ford Model B would have been a very old car even then.
ETA: Ah, Ford re-used the Model B name from 1932-34, as it replaced the Model A.
Yep. One of my very first cars was a ‘68 Valiant. Didn’t have power steering or power brakes which made city driving a chore. But that engine was a champ!! My parents had a 1960 model with I believe the same engine. My Ma called it “the truck” because of how rugged it was for it’s size.
What surprises me is how I almost never see Dodge/Plymouth Neons anymore. It wasn’t that long ago they stopped making them and they used to be everywhere, like freaking flies.
One of the first cars I bought brand new was an ‘82 Chevy Citation with the 6 cylinder engine. Ugly as shit but it was very roomy inside.Great in the snow. I put 188K trouble free miles (other than expected maintenance, brakes, etc) when the timing chain went and screwed up the engine. I’m sorry some people did not have the great experience with theirs like I did mine.
I think you got lucky. The Citation and its brethren had a poor reputation.
2nd Gen GM X-Platform: also the Pontiac Phoenix, Buick Skylark, and Oldsmobile Omega.