1995 vert with 202 original miles. To drive or not to drive?

[GnatGoSplat]

A wise decision to drive it. Life is short and unpredictable. Enjoy the car today, because you might not even be able to enjoy it tomorrow. I doubt these cars will ever be highly sought-after classics. Usually those cars were also very popular when new, and none of these cars were popular among enthusiasts even when new (notice the lack of aftermarket upgrades). It may be worth something in 30-years, but not enough to change your life. After all, you can buy fully restored 1929 Model A Fords for $15k or less.

 

I would not bother to change plugs and plug wires unless you have a reason to, like the car not running right.

 

The tank is most likely fine. I actually had untreated 11-year old fuel in my Grand Prix that had gone bad... turned orange and smelled funny, but the car still ran fine on it. It did not corrode the tank at all. The fuel sender on the other hand, had corroded and showed a full tank even when it was empty. However, if your fuel level sender still works, you're in good shape. I would just fill the tank with fresh fuel which will dilute the old.

[Galaxie500XL]

Got to thinking. I subscribe to Hemmings Muscle Machines magazine, they've been occasionally covering newer cars (80's- early 90's)...might be worth approaching them, maybe they'd do a story on the car? You never know.

[MemphisMan]

Well, as it turns out it wasn't as hard of a decision as I thought it would be. Once I saw the car I knew I wanted to drive it. Mind you, I bought the car without ever seeing it in person, just a lot of pictures, so the first time I saw it in person was when it was delivered to me. My friends told me I was a bit crazy for buying the car over the internet but those of you who are loyal to these cars can hopefully understand my madness. I had the car delivered to the local Chevy dealership where I had all the fluids replaced. Once that was done I drove it for the afternoon before taking it home and putting rubber protectant on all of the weather stripping. Guess which pieces I did first? Yep, rear quarter window seals. Then I hand waxed it and rubbed down the front and rear seats with leather protectant. I'll baby this car as best as I can.

 

Initially the car had a rough ride. This was because the tires had flat spots from sitting for very long periods of time. While it was in storage it was moved from time to time, but it sat for long periods of time in the same spot which caused the flat spots in the tires. The flat spots are gone now and the car rides super. I am, however, going to remove the tires and rims and set them aside to preserve them. I'm putting a set of 18' chrome American Racing Maverick rims with 225/45/ZR18 Hankook Ventus V12 evo K110 tires. These rims are the only modification I'm planning for the car, but we all know how modifications start out right?

 

I now have 467 miles on the car and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. The wife and by 3 sons love the car too. It'll be in the family for many, many years. I've attached some pics of the day I picked up the car. I'll post more next week. I'm going to put in a local car show on Saturday just for kicks...my buddy has a restored 71 Cutlass vert and wants another Cutty there with him.

 

A few of you had mentioned taking a lot of pictures of the car when it was in new condition. I'm going to do that on this coming Friday, the day before the car show. If anyone wants to see a particular shot to help in a restoration they might be doing just let me know and I'll be glad to send you some shots. Again, thanks for all the replies to my original post. These are pics of the car arriving in Memphis from Cape Cod.

Edited September 14, 2010 by MemphisMan

[Twenty]

You can now say "I bought a 15 year old car a few weeks ago and have already more than doubled the amount of miles it has."

[jeremy]

pretty damn cool to get pics of them taking it off the truck

[94 olds vert]

Looks very nice. Enjoy it!

[GnatGoSplat]

Nice! What company did you use to ship it, and would you recommend them?

[slick]

Pretty cool!

[jake91]

i dont like you LOL

 

beautiful car

[Crazy K]

SEXY!

[MemphisMan]

I used www.intercitylines.com to ship the car. I've never shipped a car before so I was flying blind. The seller recommended Intercity because he had heard good things about them. The only bad part about choosing them was that I had to wait about 45 days before I got the car. I knew this going in because they told me they had limited availability because all of their trucks were being used for the Pebble Beach car show. I decided to wait anyway because they were competitive with other companies that only used enclosed transports. Man, that was a loooong wait because I had already paid for the car. The seller was very cool and said to take all the time I needed because it wasn't taking up any space that he needed. I was very happy with Intercity's service and would recommend them. The folks that delivered my car were a husband/wife team and were very professional. All of the cars are wrapped in blankets and then covered with plastic just in case the cars on top leak any fluids. It's funny, the driver told me that they had dropped off a 6 million dollar car 2 days before they gave me my car. My poor Cutty was probably being laughed at by all of the exotics during the trip

[MemphisMan]

I have been...the weather in Memphis is beautiful at the moment!

[MemphisMan]

Jake-You have a better color combination. If I could change anything about the car, I'd make it blue/white/white, but it's not like the choices of 200 mile verts was very great!

[virtuetovice]

That

is

fucking

AWESOME!

 

You are a lucky one.

[jake91]

Jake-You have a better color combination. If I could change anything about the car, I'd make it blue/white/white, but it's not like the choices of 200 mile verts was very great!

lmao

thanks

[ss427]

Looks gorgeous! Really dig the color combo

[Breakdown]

I'm especially neurotic about the preservation of mint condition things. i'm trying to break out of that, but I'll probably never get there. I could buy brand new tail lights to replace delaminating ones on a Grand Prix and then have to sell them after getting rid of the car.

 

Apparently this runs in my family. My mom's older brother has a collection of wonderful Pontiacs, they've even branched off into some other cars. New Altima coupe, an 80's Z or two (Nissan/Datsun Z, not Camaro) and guess what they drive around in most of the time. 1990 Town & Country minivan . . . . or 1977 Honda Accords (they have multiple) all because of a few door dings that they've gotten while having nicer cars on the road!!!

 

I'm trying to live for today in life.

 

When you die, and I say when because it's going to happen, just probably (and hopefully) not soon, you don't get to take your mint condition Cutlass Convertible with you. However, you would be permitted to take the memories of driving said car with you.

 

There's been so many movies that motivated me, given me perspectives on life. Etc. I'm a huge fan of time travel, what if, love against all odds etc.

 

While Home Alone did primarily offer an annoying little kid with a huge imagination, and dumber than retard villans, it offered something else, and here it is:

 

used to have this really nice pair of rollerblades and I was afraid if I wore them, I'd wreck them... so I kept them in a box and you know what happened to them? I outgrew them. I never wore them once outside; I just wore them in my room a couple times. If you aren't gonna use your heart, then what the difference if it gets broken? If you just keep it to yourself, maybe it'll be like my rollerblades - when you do decide to try it, it won't be any good. You should take a chance - you got nothing to lose.

 

It's kinda deep for a movie that stupid and that shallow, I mean the heart part was cheesy, but I took the rest to heart. It's why many of my Transformers, and Loose and out of the packaging. I bought them for my enjoyment, not resale.

 

I'm guessing that you'll never grow out of the car, but your eye sight could go to the point where you can't drive it anymore. Car technology could get the point where after you drive your DD, hopping into that convertible it feels like a piece of garbage and in 2025 it simply cannot be enjoyed on the same level as in 2010.

 

Your car, your life. Let your car live a little.

[gp1991]

Nobody anywhere can tell you how much it might be worth someday. But you probably have one of only a few that have never been registered. (I know there is a 1988 pace car out there and the GM Heritage museum might have one.) There is nothing special about your color combination -- it was very common for a 1995. So once you start putting miles on it, it will depreciate rapidly.

 

It is tough to say whether these cars will be collectible in the future. Remember that people were junking all these muscle cars that sell for big money today back in the late 1970s --- just like people were junking these cars last summer during the Cash for Clunkers program.

 

Pretend that a guy bought a 1965 Pontiac GTO in 1980 that had 200 miles on it. What would it be worth today if he put 80,000 miles on it? A good amount. But imagine the reaction to it at a classic car auction if he had just stored it for 30 more years. He would have been an idiot to put miles on it.

 

Of course the future demand for these cars might be more like a Pontiac Tempest than a Pontiac GTO, but only time will tell.

 

but you would not have good memories of cruising around in the gto and that would be more worth it to me.

[kwik-6]

What's interesting is that there's a real diversity of people in this forum. We all love these cars, even though they will likely never ever be top-dollar collectibles. For some, the fact that they are not collectible is what makes them affordable and in some cases, enjoying them can be pretty low-buck, especially if you are good at fixing all the little aggravations that goes with cars that don't have a ready supply of replacement parts. If you own a Buick GN you could buy pretty much every part "new" or "restoration"...but it's pretty expensive for many folks. I've got one and now that it is finished, I hardly ever drive it. What we see in this forum are people who have magnificent verts for very little money. I cant believe how nice some of these cars are. And there are others who just drive'em hard and fix'em when they break. In my case, I just love the style and the ride..it's simply unique. I coudln't afford one when they were new, but last year at this time, I found a great 94 vert with about 40k miles. I spent the winter on cosmetics..then put tires and new fluids into it. I drove it a couple of months to know it was solid and strong...so I put on a new top. Now I've probably got 7k into it which is way more than most people would pay for it. But it's still pretty cheap for such a head-turner and I plan to keep using it as my summer "beater". I put 10,000 miles on it this summer and had tons of fun (and even got all the leaks stopped), so it seems to me that these cars are really meant to be driven. I know it will need a timing belt sooner than later and yes it leaks oil and I may even get that fixed. Still, I'm glad the two owners before me "saved" it for me ! I say drive it and enjoy it. You are lucky.

[ManicMechanic]

Is that the original boot? Is your top black or white?

[MemphisMan]

Yes, it is the original boot. The boot and top are both tan.

I believe all of the boot storage bags were black.

[ManicMechanic]

Hahah...Sorry, was asking Kwik-6. it seems that some 1994s came with a white interior and a graphite boot from the factory. From my research it would be that cars with black tops came with graphite boots and cars with white tops came with white boots.

[kwik-6]

Sorry... I was travelling all last week and did not log on. It has a white interior, black top, black boot. It was a complete repaint when I got it. the original colour was an aqua blue, the current shade is apparently a '93 colour. It was done REALLY nicely by someone, all jambs, trunk, underhood...it's hard to find a spot where you see the original colour. I do have a white boot for it, but in my opinion, it doesnt look so good.

[bender01]

You need to drive it as a sunday driver just to keep things moving! Mine is a 91 with 62K miles on it but 58K were put on by 98 when it got moved to theyre retirement home. It sat and sat in a garge til I got it a few years ago. When they finally retired. Sitting for long periods of time isnt good either. Hemmings did mention in fall of 09 that these will be a top 10 collectible of the 90s. So if you had a 25k mile gem in 20 years you could probably get what You paid or more. Minus maintenance items of course and think of the fun you and your family will have had. Your kids will always remember the car!!! Thats important to me!

Ben

[White92Cutlass]

MemphisMan, did you ever get a chance to see if some magazine would do an article about your car?

Edited January 11, 2011 by White92Cutlass