time capsule stuff.... me personally.... by the time I pass assay im going to have 100K+ on my mera and my IMSA... I don't buy a car for it to sit.
I already have more than 200,000 miles on one of my Mera show cars. The other one is about 90,000 and the two project cars are between 60,000 and 90,000. You will have a ways to go if you want to catch up to my non trailer queen vehicles.
Nelson
[This message has been edited by hnthomps (edited 11-09-2013).]
I have a '87 GT I drive a lot and a '96 WS6 T/A I ordered that is being preserved with 5300 miles. I do both. It all depends on what tickles your fancy.
But, but, but... isn't the excitement induced by driving it, rather than just looking at it?
"PONTIAC: We are driving excitement" says the slogan on the price sticker for the 1996 Firebird Formula WS6. Who's to argue? With 305 fine and healthy V8 horses under the ram-air hood, Pontiac's top performance model offers plenty of excitement.
Disclaimer: I have a 1988 Formula I bought from the original owner in 2008 at 5,200 kilometers. He bought it when his son was born, but the son chose a Mustang convertible from the garage so the Fiero was available. I bought a 1984 SE new & am still driving it at 363,000 kilometers so to find a 'new' showroom condition Fiero was certainly exciting - for me! (It has 24,000 kilometers on it now.)
That's funny right there..... How long have you owned the IMSA? How many miles have you driven it?
There is a big difference between it sitting because I cant drive it and it sitting because I don't want to drive it, when the 3800swap is done i'll be racking up the miles like crazy on it, same with the mera.
I am certainly a "driver" and enjoy driving my cars a lot. However, I am thankful there are people who collect cars and don't put many miles on them. If that type of person didn't exist, then it would be impossible to find a sub 50K mile fiero at this time. Using one of the low mile examples as the base for your engine swap tends to save you time and $$$ fixing rust, painting panels, and replacing interior parts (but will cost more upfront).
Some people are just collectors, think Jay Leno. To me we are a rare breed that still thinks cars should be driven to be enjoyed instead of just sitting in a glass garage to be wiped with a baby diaper ever day. sure they look pretty, but I made cars for a living and they were made to be driven and in the case of our Fiero's made to be driven hard. While the 80s were not the pinnacle of the auto HP ratings, there were things made, like our Fiero's that were great, think the space frame idea. while our cars were just an experiment by GM as far as the space frame goes, they used it on other vehicle since the Fiero and probably will well into the future.
I like driving, always have and that makes it fun to me to have a car and drive it, I would never buy any car and just fix it back to perfection only to let it sit in a garage and never drive it, but that is me. some people think of them as trophies to be polished and revered. but to each his own, those that just keep them in garages eventually tire of them and will sell them to those of us who will use them, because in the end they are just cars and made to be driven and enjoyed, no matter what they are be it a Fiero or Ferrari or anything else, they, the cars/trucks/bike are not happy when they just sit there because that is not what they are made for. they were made to be driven.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
A guy I used to work with used to scold me all day for taring apart my Fiero to switch the engine & transmission. Numbers matching, numbers matching, that's all he kept saying. After driving from the swap, pffft, I could care less about value. The smile on my face is priceless (imo). It's a car, not a baseball card.
Not much "driving excitement" with the 2.5 anyway... plus it takes exactly 5 seconds to disconnect the speed sensor in a Fiero, drive it for 12 years without the speedo working (no big deal), and then plug it back in. Takes about 30 minutes to roll back the odometer, and takes about 12 minutes to switch the dash from a lower mileage car.
Moral of the story? Mileage means very little...
I like driving mine and don't really care about sparing the mileage. What I do not understand is driving a car you want to preserve in salt and snow. That will destroy a car far faster than anything.
Now why people have low miles may be about a lot of things.
In my case since my son was born we have to take two cars to go anywhere. So I end up mostly going to shows on my own. I do not drive it daily to work because of the collectors insurance and historic plates not to mention the rock and crap on the freeway at rush hour.
To me a drive in the evening with the tops out is relaxing. It may not be a long trip but I still get the car out.
On the other hand even though I keep it up for show I never trailer it and have driven it to 3 different states for shows. Even with that it is still show room new.
Mine is a fun car...it's not my daily driver. I kept it at home in the garage, and drove it on nice days, and to car shows. A few years ago, I got a daily driver that I wanted to keep in the garage, so I rented a storage unit to keep the Fiero in. Out of sight, out of mind...I rarely ever drive it anymore. When I do, I have to go out and pull the battery and bring it home to put a charge on it, as there's no electricity in my storage unit for a battery charger. I really DO need to go and get it out more...but with Winter on the horizon, it will probably not see the light of day again until Spring. It's not that I don't enjoy driving it...I do, immensely. It's just that there are so many other things in life that demand my time that I just don't have that much free time to go through all the steps I need to do to get it out on the road.
This, as most topics, functions on opinion. My first car is a low mileage (13k) example. I plan on passing it down to my son. Hulki's 88GT has only 5900 miles. That one, for the Fiero fanatics, has some history behind it. It will be passed down to my daughter. They will both always be low mile cars. You see, "dad" has always had Fieros so my hope is that my children will be able to enjoy the memories of when we went out in a Fiero to Sonic for milkshakes, lunch someplace, to the store for mom, etc., etc. I drive my Indy every day because it is so fast! No, really it is because I get good gas mileage in it. It is such a short drive to and from work that it doesn't rack up the miles. Fridays are MERA days, except during winter. and the GBCT goes on Mondays. So all my cars are low mileage cars even though three of them are driven.
I like driving mine and don't really care about sparing the mileage. What I do not understand is driving a car you want to preserve in salt and snow. That will destroy a car far faster than anything.
I agree about salt.
I love driving mine too, However I dont do it "daily". Alot of folks dont drive them to work everyday, of course we all have a different work commute too. Many drive them for fun and to shows, etc. Me too. Like classic cars. Weekend cruises, evening sunset joyrides, local car cruse in events, long haul carshows. To movies or other fun events. I suppose it depends how much you want to spend on insurance too, and fixing damage from daily driving, paint scratches and knicks people banging doors into the car, keying it etc. If you work in a bigger city there is some risk. I Iive in the north too, many of us are used to storing some cars we love, and driving more common cars for winter. Because the salt eats anything metal on the cars. Gravel roads...etc.... I do know quite a few Fiero owners who have a "daily driver" that gets the road rash, and a nicer more well kept car that is brought out less often. I guess some of it could be about maintinence and restoration costs, once one is nice keeping it nice.
In all honesty though low mileage means very little all things considered. I have seen 50,000 mile Fieros that are utter basket cases with a slew of issues. I could put those same vehicles against my 280,000+ mile '86 GT and I would bet mine would come out better.
I do agree that it all boils down to opinion though - and there is nothing wrong with that as everyone is free to do what they want - but all I think about with cars that aren't driven are "missed opportunities." Missed chances of enjoying it. Missed moments of vehicle and the road that only come around one time.
In march 2010 my car had 29,500 miles,i am now at 55,656. 3 previous owners drove the car verry little,i am the 4th and it is the only car I own or I ride my motorcycle that just turned 60,000 miles(1996 kaw vulcan800) both red too
I do agree that if not stored or used properly I have seen very low mileage cars in need of a lot of work. Stuck calipers, bad master cylinders, stuck rings and valves etc. We had a 65 Corvair once that had been parked in 1967 and we got it out around 1990. The valves were sticking and the carbs needed rebuilt. This car was so original it even had the original Ribbed Firestones on it. We had to do some work but it did finally run like new.
I also know of a GTO Judge convert that rusted out in a dirt floor garage with less than 20,000 miles. Same for a 65 Riv GS that is rotting away in a back yard with less than 30,000 miles.
