How Much Do You Drive Your Classic?

This year only about 8000kms. I like longer drives 500 to 1500 kilometers, this includes gravel roads, a winter rally and some commuting when main vehicles are down. I won’t own a car for shows again, I drive it, break it, fix it and repeat.

My drive is a 1979 Mini

I drove my 1971 Citroen DS in a light rain to work today.

I drive it to Home Depot to pick up plants and carpet rolls and big boxes because it’s easy to take out the back seat and carry big things.

I drive it on beautiful Sunday afternoons because it’s a pleasure to float effortlessly along a country road.

It’s not a museum piece. It’s a work of art that can carry a lot of groceries.

I drive my 1965 Gilbern GT1800 every day and cover on average about 10000 miles a year. Commuting in a classic transforms a mundane chore into an event, a quiet moment of joy, mechanical theatre before and after the working day.

I drive only drive classics and am in the very lucky position of having a number of them. It surprises me how many miles I do in them as I often think I don’t use them enough. I checked through my annual UK MOT (road worthy test) certificates and found the following over the previous years motoring in each:
Alfa Romeo Giulietta (1982) 3.0 daily: 7000 miles
Fiat Dino 2.0 coupe: 4000 miles
Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6 3.5: 2000 miles
Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.8: 1200 miles
Alfa Romeo 75 3.0: 4000 miles

The Dino did a weeks trip to Italy which accounted for half its mileage last year and the 75 3.0 did two trips for track days at Spa, so again a fair bit of mileage in a condensed time. However, I felt quite pleased that they are getting used as intended.

I drive my spider most weekends attending Cars and Coffee, car shows and general drives.

I drive my restored 1968 Chevrolet K20 Suburban every weekend. Usually just short loops around my city on the back roads during the summer, and on longer trips during the cooler months. I always say, if you don’t drive them they will wear out sitting still.

i dont actually own a real classic but a young one, still 4 months older than myself. I’ll probably drive it in weekends or after work at night, or ealry morning on backroads. as long as i have money for gasoline because rotary.

When I first bought mine I used it as a daily, now I take the train to work but try to use it every weekend.

Another reason to look forward to weekends 🙂

Always suprising to read these insurance statistics as the figures seem so low… hard to understand how one can leave its beloved car(s) stuck in the garage… for weeks… and even months !
Of course it depends on what type of car you have but I find some – especially youngtimers from the eighties and early nineties – make great DDs.
I drive 2 youngtimers on a daily basis : a Porsche 993 Carrera with wich I have driven 25K miles during the past 2 years and a half… and a Lancia Delta HF Integrale 8v that keeps me delighted on a daily basis… after more than 8K miles during the past 12 months.
Considering my experience I would say ” the more I drive them the less issues I face”… so get out and drive… tastefully 😉

For 12 years my daily drive, motorkhana, & hill climb competitor (and only car) was my Datsun 2000 Sports Roadster. Even the commute to work was a pleasure, with those Solexes roaring every time I hit the loud pedal. She’s off the road now, as we fix the body up, so I doubt she’ll still be the daily after that. But I’ll be driving the wheels off her every chance on weekends!

From late March to late November almost daily. I am blessed to live at very dead end of 26 km of beautiful, orchard and vineyard lined roadway that snakes through the Naramata Bench in The South Okanagan of Beautiful British Columbia. So Ih ave to drive at least 50 km just to get to town, or at least 13 km to the village. I have several loops, all are picked by the amount of time that I have to spend on that particular day with “Joy” my British Mistress. She commands attention where ever she goes. She is high maintenance to a degree but rewards me with wonderful company and a great conversationalist with her engine sounds and road noise. Last year I drove around 1800 miles.

I’m not sure if it’s a car or a motorcycle but I go for some big rides around my island home of Tasmania on my 1982 Suzuki GS1100G sidecar outfit which has classic car registration. This would probably add up to about 3000 km, which is about 1900 miles a year. And when I get on it I don’t want to stop. Mostly I have someone come along in the chair. Even quite nervous passengers feel relaxed after a while. Some younger ones have even gone to sleep towards the end of the ride.

For me, the most important thing is the driving. With my former DD, a Porsche924 I drove 5000miles a year. About a month ago, I changed it in for a 65 Ford Mustang with whom I’ve already driven 800mls through France and Germany. For me, it is important, that I don’t have a showcar as Daily driver, because I don’t want to be too scared, to drive and park it in city traffic.

‘Though some might not consider a 32 year old XJ6 a classic, I certainly do and I drive mine every week day, so about 12k per year. My sense is that it was meant to be driven when it was built and that’s how I use it. I care for it but it has its share of parking lot dings and rock chips as a result. It’s impossible, I think, to have keep a classic (or any car, really) in really great shape if you also want to drive it every day on modern roads. There’s nothing wrong with having a classic that you keep in a garage and only drive on the weekends and holidays. As long as you do drive it and it doesn’t get from place to place by trailer.

If we are going by the government (at least in my area) definition of classics (25 years old) then I drive mine daily still, and put about 12,000 miles on it a year! But I dont really think it counts as a classic yet, maybe in another 10 years!

When I had em back in the glorious days of classic car ownership .. the ‘ F ‘ words were daily drivers [ had em one at a time .. trading up as I went ] with a Zakseepd Capri then replaced by an Alfetta GT as the backup car when the snow was too deep etc .

But how much would I drive one today what with the ludicrously escalating prices , traffic congestion , rapid deterioration of driver skills and civility ( both on the road and parking ) etc etc you might ask ? Not at all . Which is why in a word I no longer own a classic [ nor will I ] preferring to admire them from afar taking the occasional spin in a friend/ associates classic [ or exotic ] from time to time . Cause as I’ve said many times previously … if I aint using it .. I aint owning it .. collecting having zero appeal for the likes of me …

4-5k every year in my 02