Used Car of the Day: 1997 Audi A6 Quattro

So in general its tough to say because its become obvious you will own nothing and be unhappy isn't just a joke meme. If someone is like myself and plans to keep a daily at least ten years, your best hope would be the end of the early 2010ish product cycle but with a mature drivetrain. So Toyonda products come to mind since they run long cycles on their bread and butter models, Volvo believe it or not because they kept the Whiteblock going till 2015ish and P3 (2006) is an improved P2 (1998) which itself is an improved P80 (1991) but FWD Volvo can be a headache without a reliable indy. Ford's Panther of course, GM W-body, probably GM trucks or Ford trucks running the 4.6 or 4.0. I don't know enough about Chrysler/Daimler/Fiat but have been anecdotally told about Hemis north of 200K on LX cars so maybe those? The Daimler/Chrysler 3.7 can put up serious miles as well as I have seen them in the flesh as such.

But its probably going to be for naught because the Forces of Evil™ seem to already be leveraging the also evil insurance industry to price out the proles from driving what they already own. If I am in league with satan, this seems like a logical solution to me because it solves the problem of prole freedumb while also giving an out to those pushing it: "oh its not us [the gov't] or [political party/movement], its the X". The only legal move I can see is classic/antique registration, and I forsee them limiting or closing that loophole over the next two decades.

For the past few years I've been saying everyone needs to scoop up a classic/antique car now and register it as such, while rules vary among the states generally speaking the catch is limited use and the example be over a certain age. Because its a state registration/inspection issue, it will take years for the majority of states to limit or close this loophole. There could be a scenario where no one will insure them (or states will not accept new registrations) but the limited use becomes an advantage with the policy because by and large its very profitable and from a capitalist perspective why drop high margin policies?

Both of my Volvos cost zero registration, $327 for both with full coverage, the catch is one day a week general usage plus parades, meets, shows. Although I just had it out last Tue when my daily was in the shop, generally speaking a convertible in Western PA is good for six months of real use if you're lucky so the C70 is easy to keep within the rules. The 244 I treat the same, because I'm not driving a circa 1966 platform around snow and hills and risk damaging it. I usually alternate them in the nice weather, because of them I only drove about 3,500 miles from Dec 2022 until November 2023 in the daily (then drove a lot in Nov-Dec but still under 5K for the year).

To anyone reading this, if I had room I'd be Panther shopping right now and then a parts hoarder for said Panther. The last of them are almost up to 15 years which is the threshold for some state's classic status. Trucks will unlikely ever go the classic/antique route no matter their age, outside of some garage queens they all will be used up. Most of the 90s stuff worth messing with is already gone but a cherry JDM/domestic SUV or JDM/Euro car/wagon would also be a nice buy if you can handle one. The 200 Volvos have become collectable (and kinda pricey when clean) but the 700/900 have not, and they are fundamentally similar in drive line and build quality.