What happens when an obsessed car enthusiast who was convinced he’d die alone meets the girl of his dreams, gets married, and has a child? Well, he finds himself both overjoyed and in a bit of a predicament, with far too many cars that…kind of don’t work for his lifestyle anymore. Why am I speaking in the third person? I have no idea, but I got zero sleep last night, so please bear with me as I talk about my current automotive dilemma now that most of my cars no longer work as daily transportation.
Over the past few weeks since welcoming my child, Delmar (not his real name), I have been driving around almost exclusively in my wife’s Lexus RX350.
Look, I’ve reviewed her 2017 RX350, and it is truly one of the best crossover SUVs money can buy — it rides great, it’s powerful, it’s spacious, it’s reliable, and on and on. But while it’s an impressive machine for how well it performs its intended function, it doesn’t exactly stir my soul. OK, I’ll say it: It’s a bit boring, and I’m starting to go crazy.
Obviously, complaining about driving a luxury SUV is very much a first-world-problem, but you know what I mean here. I’m a car-nut who is used to daily drive a 1965 Plymouth Valiant, a 1976 Postal Jeep, a 1992 Jeep XJ, a 1948 Willys CJ-2A, more recently a BMW i3S, and on and on. To go to a literally-beige Lexus crossover is a bit soul-crushing.
Anyway, I think it might make sense to go through my current collection of cars and evaluate their utility now that everything has changed for me and “my life is over” (as the young folks say).
1985 Jeep J10, 1989 Chevy K1500 Silverado
Let’s hop right into my biggest dilemma at the moment. I own two pickup trucks, and I cannot justify that, so I need to whittle it down to one.
On one hand, I have my 1985 Jeep J10, which has always been my dream truck. On the other hand, I bought a 1989 Chevy K1500 on a bit of a whim back in January because it was such a good deal, and you know what? It’s actually a great pickup. I think I’m comfortable saying that it’s much better than the J10, objectively speaking.
But that J10 purchase was never really a rational buy. I picked it up a decade ago because I think it looks badass, and also: It’s a bit of a relic of a bygone era. It’s got a carburetor, manual locking hubs, a true bench seat, a four-speed on the floor, a stamped tailgate, and a regular cab layout with an eight-foot bed. It is a truck’s truck.
The K1500 doesn’t have a carb, manual locking hubs, a stamped tailgate, or a regular cab, and its bed is only 6.5 feet long. But man is it a great daily driver; it rides like a cloud, its throttle body-injected 350 V8 fires up and generally runs quite smoothly, offering good power. And, crucially, it has two rows of seats.
That’s my concern with my J10: With only a single row of seats, does it really make sense to keep? I mean, I get that I don’t need space for my whole family in my daily commuter, since I’ll be driving to work alone, but the J10 isn’t my commuter — it’s my classic weekend cruiser and Home Depot runner. And for that, is it realistic that I’ll be just driving around all by myself without my wife and kid?
Should I keep the Chevy so I can take them with me, even though the J10 is clearly the cooler truck? I don’t have the answer.
[Editor’s Note: I guess we’re not talking about this? I’d have thought that could make this choice easier, but what do I know? – JT]
BMW i3S
The two daily drivers in our household are the Lexus and the BMW i3S, and that may make you wonder: “Why not just drive your beloved i3S instead of the Lexus?” It’s a fair question, especially given that the i3S is actually quite a safe car, having scored excellent marks in IIHS crash testing.
The issue is that the i3S is really not the most ideal family car. The big thing is that the infant car seat only just fits, and what’s more, getting the child in and out of that seat — especially when parked next to another car — is a huge pain in the ass. You end up getting stuck in this weird space between the rear door and the front door that needs to be open to release the rear door.
The overall interior volume isn’t bad — the entire continent of Europe has raised families in much smaller cars — but relative to the Lexus, the i3 is a pain in the Arsch for loading/unloading a baby.
I still plan to keep my i3, because I’m hoping once that seat becomes front-facing, it’ll be easier to install/remove young Delmar; plus, the i3 is the ideal one-person LA commuter. But there is part of me that wonders whether I should make sure all my cars can easily fit the whole family, or if it’s OK to have one or two that don’t.
Growing up, my dad had a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee as his commuter, and it only seats five, while there were eight in our family. We had a Chevy Astro as well, so I think having one car that easily fits everyone and one that doesn’t is OK. And again, once that seat can flip around, maybe it’s fine.
[Editor’s Note: Personally, I think an i3 is a completely fine baby car. Well, the getting-trapped-in-the-doors thing sounds annoying, but I took my kid all over the place in my ’73 Beetle, and it had half as many doors! An i3 is many orders of magnitude better than that, especially safety-wise. But the Beetle wins for helping to keep your baby smelling like gasoline, oil, and horsehair. – JT]
Jeep YJ, Ford Mustang
So we’ve talked about the trucks and the daily-driver, but what about my classic cars that are a bit less utilitarian — my Sunday cruisers? To me, the fact that these can fit a child (once he’s older) means they’re in the clear. No, I can’t drive these far on the freeway like I used to, because they’re not safe, but if baby-Delmar wants to cruise around town in the YJ old Mustang, I bet he’d love it! (My old CJ-3B will hopefully have found a new home by then).
I don’t really see any issue with keeping ’round-town classics that can fit a family. It’s just the J10 that has me worried, because there’s no second row. [Editor’s Note: It’s a bench seat in the J10! We’ve had three people in there before! I was even in the middle! Elise (NHRN) and Delmar (NHRN) could all cram in there! Just you know, it’s maybe not the safest.– JT]
Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ 5-Speed, Diesel Manual Chrysler Voyager
There are two vehicle that I’m a little worried about, because they’re not really ’round-town-cruisers; their best trait is that they’re great road-trippers. Do I think it would be loads of fun to drive 35 mph in a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee five-speed or a diesel manual Chrysler Voyager? Not really.
At least with the Mustang you get a nice sounding V8 and a totally different driving experience than you’re used to, and with the YJ you get open-top fun. But the ZJ and minivan? They’re great on the open road, or in the case of the ZJ, overlanding off-road.
I’d love to keep them both, because they’re amazing machines, but if I can’t regularly drive them with my family on the freeway, I’m not sure how useful they’ll be.
Then again, how much of car collecting is really about usefulness. I mean, none of this is rational; should I even be trying to rationalize it? Yes, yes I should. I’m a family man now and I have responsibilities. Frivolities need to be curbed! Right?
[Editor’s Note: I disagree with that above sentiment entirely. Some people love to tell new parents that kind of thing (I think they just get a perverse pleasure at seeing new parents’ faces go ashen when they get told they’ll never have fun again) , and I suspect David has heard it plenty. But it’s bullshit. You don’t need to curb frivolity, automotive or otherwise. You just need to involve the kid in it, because they’ll love it. There’s no right way to be a parent, and every kid is different, but I’d counsel, as a fellow dad, to keep the cars he likes, because a happy parent is a good parent. – JT]
Upside of the kid is also wrenching help from little hands
That’s how I learned
Picking the name Delmar (NHRN) seems like tempting fate into having A Baby of Constant Sorrow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Brother%2C_Where_Art_Thou%3F
You’ve got the Lexus and the BMW, you are good baby-wise, so don’t over think it. The old cars and the trucks will be LOVED by little Delmar. I had two car seats in the back of an e30 convertible for years. I didn’t take that on the freeway with the kids back there, but they still miss that car.
It doesn’t matter that the BMW isn’t super easy, like the lexus. That’s why you have the lexus.
However, sad as it is to say, you need to dump the J10, if only because you can’t smog it and therefore, you can’t drive it in CA.
Embrace the minivan, get the best Mazda5 you can find and thin the herd. The J10 is,arguably a Michigan David vehicle and IIRC has a tall rear axle that makes it a bad tow vehicle so sell it and keepthe K1500. The diesel minivan should be sold or raffled to a deserving Autopian for further adventures. The Mustang is a family heirloom and needs to be kept. The ZJ should be either sorted out or sold, even if it was Michigan David’s holy grail. You have a family and new priorities now.
The YJ could go either way.
I went through this exact dilemma when I got married. Well, not exact. I had two cars. My 1968 Olds and a 1991 Corvette. We carted the kids around in a 2001 Sable Wagon at the time, but I did have to face reality and sell the Corvette. It took some time because Corvettes can be hard to sell (especially in 2001). But I ended up replacing it with a much more kid-friendly family hauler – a 1987 Monte Carlo Super Sport.
So, yeah the pickup should be fine. You’ve got bungi chords for the bed, right?
As someone who spent much of their youth in an ’83 Monte SS, it is a great family hauler.
Kids are now irrationally expensive in a large metro area. Keep the i3 because you paid a lot of money for it and it is your newest car. Sell literally everything else and put the money into a college savings fund for your child. They are going to need it and saving money is not going to get easier.
If you need a truck for something just rent one. Or borrow a press loaner and write a review about it.
So you’re in pretty good shape as far as daily drivers go with two modern, safe, reliable vehicles:
1) A largeish CUV that can haul the entire family and plenty of gear with ease
2) A “large enough” family sedan that can also easily be a family hauler in a pinch
I’d plan to make the Lexus the designated “kid car” as much as reasonably possible. You and your wife can switch off between that and the i3 depending on who has more kid hauling responsibilities that day. If you’re all going to the same place, obviously take the Lexus.
Everything else in your fleet falls squarely under the category of project/hobby car, so which ones you keep is a matter of your personal preference, available time and desire to wrench and financial situation. None of these other cars will be used more than sparingly to haul the entire family, so I wouldn’t worry as much about practicality, seat count and safety. Here’s my thoughts:
Trucks:
Keep the J10. It’s super unique, difficult to replace and you have an emotional attachment to it. The Silverado is technically more family friendly but it’s still not great for kids considering it has a cramped backseat and no proper rear doors. I doubt you’ll be using it for family hauling at all.
The other four (YJ, Mustang, Voyager, ZJ)
I’d keep the Mustang and YJ and ditch the other two. The Mustang and YJ are both classic convertibles in quite good mechanical and aesthetic shape (well, other than the gasoline smell in the YJ and the Mustang spontaneously combusting, get that shit fixed), and the quintessential SoCal “fun cars.” The Voyager is in good shape but it’s on another continent; how often will you realistically use it? Probably once a year at most. And during that once a year visit, you’ll want to spend time with your folks, wife and child and not working on getting a decades old car that’s been sitting for a year inspection/road ready. The ZJ is just a lost cause at this point, man. If you didn’t have the time and motivation to make headway on it while you were single, it’ll be nearly impossible now. Especially having other multiple old vehicles that will undoubtedly need attention.
Good luck!
Perfect answer
I’m with it. Minus the ZJ part because I’m basically stuck with it. Nobody’s gonna buy two broken ZJs, and you know I can’t scrap the Grail!
…for the price you want. They would sell for $100.00.
We have 3 kids and we made it work with a van and a MINI. We took turns with who took who or who picked up who from daycare (my daughter was 6 years older, so she was always going to a different location). Car seats fit into the MINI back seat like it was built that way and the kids loved that car.
So I say one family hauler, one semi-family hauler, and one or two fun cars.
How about 90’s Land Rovers? A Disco is spacious, cool AND will keep you wrenching.
When I had my kid, my adoptive “racecar mommy” who has 7 actual kids and then just kinda collects other “kids” along the way gave me a good piece of advice, “don’t try to fit your life around the baby, integrate the baby into your life.” This means a kid born into a car family just gets folded into all the mayhem of unusual cars. Hence my kid spent her early years in the back of a couple Fiat 500s, a Focus ST, STi, and even in the front passenger seat of a couple RX7s and Corvettes without airbags. I checked with her pediatrician and made sure that those last few cars were specifically allowed. Having one “family size” car was perfectly fine for when we did things as a family unit, but most trips with the kid are one parent with kid outings. So my advice is to keep what you think will create great memories for you and Delmar.
Also, try popping the kid seat in through the back hatch of the i3, I found that to be significantly easier with a baby seat in the 500. You’ll get weird looks, but your back will thank you.
I call dibs on the manual diesel Chrysler!
You want the steaming hot take? Sell every expletive one of them! Then buy New NOW, NOW, NOW! Don’t you read TMD? It had to be said, but not something I would do.
You Sir, are in a very enviable position on several fronts. Public notoriety should allow you to get top dollar for whatever you shed. Close relationship with a well connected dealer/investor/connoisseur should allow insider advantage to whatever you want to acquire. It’s all a matter of making up your mind. Recommend you trim the fleet, and update to “better in every way” more modern options.
Maybe the fake name should be better than Delmar. We gotta keep it car themed, but Frazer kinda works, has a Jeep connection. Same deal with CJ.
I don’t know, Delmar puts me in mind of a salad company that is recalling all its products. And as you said, not his real name, so it can be changed whenever you want.
I was thinking that it might be a double fake and D(NHRN) is actually just D?
Woh woh woh.
Delmar is named after Delmar “Barney” Roos, the chief engineer of the World War II Jeep!
Do not disparage his name!
In that case I’d go for “Barney”.
Delmar sounds like a trade name for a plastic-coated chipboard product from the 70’s.
I mean the salad company disparaged it first.
For the first 5 years of my kids life, we had a stickshift Cruze and a RAV4. The Cruze got replaced with a Model Y. 100% regret letting the Cruze go and not using it as a fun car. But no place to park it where it wouldn’t sink into the ground and rot meant it had to go.
What’s the rush? Is it the expense of insurance, car tags & smog checks, storage, etc.?
Whatever car you use at first, it still feels awkward to use the car seat and stroller. It might take trial and error before you get the setup that works best for you (removable infant seat vs. larger reversible seat and larger vs. smaller stroller.) I can see how the double doors of the i3 are a hassle. Pay attention to how often you drive it solo.
Maybe start with cars that were your least favorite before Delmar. Or weed out duplicates (one truck, one Jeep, etc.)
I guess you already have a minivan… sort of.
I drove my infant around in a 1988 325i convertible until he was five. Then it was a 2004 CTS-V. We did have a GMC Safari van when he was born. If you like your car, you can work around a little inconvenience, especially if there’s a back up car (the Lexus) in the family. I agree with Rusty. No need to be hasty.
Wait, how did your minivan get on the “not family friendly” list? I get its a hassle to have a car on another continent. But if this is about making your fleet functional for your family, it would seem this should be pretty high on the list of keepers.
You never really pointed out a single reason any of these vehicles might be a burden to your family. Does having these vehicles actually cause any real problems or is it just a matter of trying to find a purpose for possessing a thing you like? You never really needed any of these in the first place. You bought them because you like them, you continue to like them and that’s their purpose. Keep them all if they make you happy.
I spent almost ten years of my formative years in a one-car family. That one car was a bought-new 1990 poverty spec Honda Civic. You need ONE car to move family. Every other car is bonus car.
(I currently own one four door reliable modern car and two ancient deathtraps with two doors)
David, isn’t the Mustang your brother’s? It’s never struck me as your own passion, so maybe give it back to him or sell it.
When my first kid was born I sold my 2002 Trans Am WS6 for a 1994 accord… Drove safe and boring cars for several years, then realized how miserable it was making me and went back to fun cars. Is a Miata a good family car? Nope! But all three kids love it and the other two love to shift when they get to ride in it and we’ve got great memories in it and that’s more important to me.
Yes, the safety or lack thereof is concerning sometimes, but I can’t live my life trying to avoid getting hurt. It’s no way to live and we’re all happier when I have fun cars. Now if only I could find time to get the Yugo you know, going.
RX is the perfect family vehicle. Yes, it may be “boring” but look at that as a positive.
You want your wife and kid to be able to safely get to their destination with no drama. The RX was BORN for that. It will do it over and over for years to come, the chances of you ever needing to wrench on it in the dark by the side of the road at 2am are slim to none. Keep up with the maintenance at your leisure and it will run damn near forever.
Carseats are incredibly huge and bulky.
We traded my Fiesta 1.0 SFE hatchback for a Focus ST right before our kid was born in 2017. The rear-facing convertible was tight in the Focus, but we figured that was for a limited time…then guidance changed, strongly suggesting staying rear facing much longer. That got old, we eventually traded it in on a 2021 Toyota Venza hybrid. Not an exciting vehicle – but safe, practical, functional, and reliable.
We flipped the seat around a few years ago, but the Venza still feels pretty tight cargo-wise on long trips or if we have five people. Trying to convince my wife the time is right to upgrade to a Land Cruiser.
The only two vehicles that can be justified for the regular transportation of anyone you care about are the Lexus and BMW. Everything else is a toy. The point of a toy is that it doesn’t need to be justified and is assumed to be a conduit for exchanging money for entertainment.
As I said further down, I have no children myself, but my mother daily drove a Monte Carlo SS through the 80’s and a Camaro through the 90’s. I was the third of three kids. Just because a car is impractical for children doesn’t mean you can’t use it.
So here’s how I see it:
The trucks: As I recall, the plan was always to get down to one truck anyway. If you haven’t gotten the J10 California compliant by now, I don’t think you are. Keep the K1500.
The i3: Is perfectly fine.
The YJ and Mustang: If you don’t want to drive them on the highway, that’s your decision, but they were built for those speeds. If you’ve got a place to store them, I say keep.
The Voyager: Unless you plan on going to Europe even more than you did as a single man, it’s probably safe to let the van go.
The Ultimate Overlander: Certainly the timeline for completion has gotten even longer, and the trip it was getting built for may never happen, but I think even the kitten house still has a place with you. I won’t be surprised if you sell it, but one big long term project vehicle is fine.