Life has a sneaky way of causing massive headaches in what seems like an instant. Maybe the company you worked for shut down, maybe your house sustained damage that isn’t covered by insurance, or maybe you had a medical emergency. Sometimes, you just need money, and if you’re a car nut, there’s a chance that you have some iron that could be converted into cash. But even if the cards are all down, maybe there’s a car that you’d hold onto until you had no choice but to let it go. What is that car, and why?
My wife and I try to keep a multi-pronged approach to unexpected expenses. Our primary buffer is a savings account. Earlier this year, my beloved green-cheeked conure, Kathryn Janeway, suffered from a partially broken beak followed by lead poisoning. I stopped keeping track of her vet bills after the register hit $2,500. But I didn’t cry about the money because I love that bird and would do anything for her. I also had that safety net of the savings account.
Sometimes, I think about what would happen if our savings account is not enough. What if one of us entirely lost our income or had some medical emergency that racked up tens of thousands of dollars? I have long recognized that my car collection is a potential source of extra cash. There’s nothing I own that, on its own, is worth more than maybe $12,000 on a good day. Most of my vehicles are worth in the ballpark of $6,000 or less. So if the emergency was big enough, I’d have to do a fire sale.
It would be agonizing to see my favorites go. I love running my 1976 Suzuki RE-5 rotary every chance I get. My 2019 Indian FTR was a dream I had been chasing ever since that motorcycle was announced. I’d even feel my heart breaking for my overly complicated 2006 Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI. Sheryl loves her 2012 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI so much that when I recently offered to sell a large chunk of my fleet to buy her a certified pre-owned Lexus, she actually got upset at that idea and deleted the ads I was writing.
But if a real emergency arose, I could do it. I could zap all of my cars out of my ownership. But there would be one I’d keep around. Perhaps unsurprising to a longtime reader, the car I’d keep is my 2012 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe.
This car and I have been as thick as thieves since I brought it home on March 6, 2012. See, I even remember the exact date I bought it! This Smart was my first Smart, my first new car, and my second-ever car. The Smart Fortwo was my teenage attainable dream car, and this car was proof that, no matter what bad things happen in life, dreams can still come true.
This car and I have been everywhere and done everything. This car was there when I got my first real girlfriend, my first big job out of high school, and through every peak and trough of life. It was there when I was unemployed, and it was there when I met my wife. More than 20,000 miles of the 162,000 miles on this car’s odometer were spent towing trailers.
Another 1,000 miles or so were spent off-roading. I was taking this Smart into the dirt years before the off-roading community even discovered Smarts. I didn’t need any gigantic mud tires or goofy lifts to do it, either, just oversized snow tires and knowing how to pick my lines. This car is proof that your car is what you make it, and these tiny plasticky Smarts are more durable than you’d think.
So, if my world entirely fell apart, I would hold onto this car, as well as whatever car my wife would have at the time. I’d use the Smart as a symbol that I could build again, and that the bad times wouldn’t be permanent. Besides, on a good day, this car is worth like $1,500 anyway. But if every single option were exhausted, it would have to go.
If such a car exists in your possession, what would it be? Which car would you have a hard time giving up, even if, theoretically, getting rid of it could help?
[The original version of this Autopian Asks was framed poorly. Obviously, if your kid needs medical care, who cares about a car? It has been reformatted to be a bit clearer on the objective. We apologize for the original framing.]
Top photo: Mercedes Streeter
The 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (LJ) Rubicon in Electric Lime. That’s the Forever Car; everything else in the fleet will eventually be sold; but we love this thing and it’s easy to keep it running.
The goal is to get one or two more Forever Cars and just keep them until I die. I’d love an 80 series Land Cruiser and a W123 or W124 Mercedes. I might also consider a big, simple, American station wagon due to the parts availability; something like a Roadmaster for crossing the Western US.
My ’64 F100 coach-built crewcab. It is already written into my will to go to my grandson, and I need to change the pink slip to include my daughter to lock in ownership. Included in my will is very strong language that the truck shall NEVER go to my grandson’s biodad (he’s an irresponsible jerk). Dad bought the truck in ’65, when I was 10. The first vehicle I every drove was this truck, sitting in front of mom or dad long before I could reach any pedal. Nope, never sell.
My first car was passed down to me from my dad, it is whereI kissed my now wife for the first time after our first date, and I wanted to keep it forever if I could. I had to emigrate, and I considered taking it with me to the new country, but due to the distances involved, it was way too expensive. I left the car to my cousin in the old country.
My second and current car is the first one I bought myself directly, it is the car that brought my son home, and now that I plan to emigrate yet again to a third country, I hope I will be able to ship it to the new location. But times are tough, I’m not even sure if the move will pan out, and if does, not sure how well I’ll be financially.
I know those are inanimate objects, they have no personhood, but I attribute it to them anyway because they’re part of MY history. In a way I guess I share some of myself with them, and keep them as a tangible part of sorts of my own history. But I also know that they are there for this purpose, and if I need, they can go. In a way, they will be “happy” to go if I need them too.
I still keep one of the original keys from the first car in the glove box of the second one, though 🙂
My forever car is my 2001 Audi S4. I bought it in 2003, I drove it to 280k miles and it broke the timing belt because I was too strapped to get it changed. In the years since it went down I have spent as much storing it as it would have cost to fix it. I don’t really care. I’m at the point were I can now start to get things in order to get it fixed back up, but I don’t think I could ever get rid of it. The only way I could see it going is if I merged it with another black S4. I missed the bottom of the market on them I think, So cheap parts and cheap parts cars are gone, but I will get it back on the road one day.
I had a car I would never give up, then I did. It’s a quite dark story so I’ll not go into details, but it was a family heirloom, the car I learned to wrench on with my parents, learned how to drive stick with, and always knew it would be there. I used to think if worst came to worst financially I would sleep in the car and sell my house.
Yea that all changed and I HAD to get rid of it for reasons I won’t get into.
The car itself was not anything super special, though it was quirky. A 1966 Chevelle with 3 on the tree manual, 4 door hard top (no b pillars). No radio, no a/c. Just a small block Chevy.
It was very hard to do, but a few years later I realize it was freeing to not have that over my head, thinking I had to keep it as I kinda based aspects of my life and future plans around making sure I had the car. Now I have been able to get something I more specifically wanted for myself that fits all my new criteria and I don’t plan on selling this new one but I have not locked it in my head that I can’t ever sell it either.
As they say, sometimes the things we own end up owning us…
Huh, my post required approval?
Yeah, and I’m not entirely sure why. The spam filter thought your post was spam for some reason. It doesn’t actually give us the reason, which is very annoying.
Since (outlined below) I reject the very idea of the question, I’ll answer it in a slightly different way:
In what order would I sell my cars if I needed to raise cash?
1 – Blazer project. I’m kind of tired of this one already anyway.
2 – Van. Presuming a temporary cash flow situation, I can always get another one later. The truck can still handle family duty, plus outdoor chores and deep snow.
3 – Viper. Its value has never been higher and I’ve never driven it less. I still love it and have no desire to sell, but at some point cash would talk, and having so much money tied up in something so rarely used doesn’t make sense. I can’t drive it half the year, and I can’t carry my family in it.
4 – Caddy. I still can’t drive it in winter, but it can at least carry the family in a pinch.
5 – Truck. This is the one thing I own that could do it all if I asked it to. Getting rid of it would be an admission that driving isn’t really in my immediate future for whatever reason.
This is the right way to answer this question.
If you have more than one car…
My 1985 Ford LTD LX. I’ve owned it since 2001, it has been in several magazines and books, and over the years I have put hundreds of hours of work into it. I used to say I’m keeping it despite it not being worth much, but the value of these cars has steadily been climbing and now it actually has some real value.
I’ve never been so attached to a car that I’d struggle emotionally to sell if the money was needed for a better purpose. And “if everything depended on it”, I can’t fathom anyone being so entwined with a machine that they wouldn’t let it go.
Of my four vehicles and two motorcycles, I’d have to keep my TR6 to the end.
I want to tip my cap to your excellent taste in 80s plastic scooters. I’ve not seen an Elite 150 Deluxe in maybe twenty years.
Speaking of which, the closest I came to having wheels I’d “never” sell, was my modestly clapped-out Vespa PX150 shitbox (it had a 210cc engine swap). It broke my heart, especially when the buyer made it clear he’d be parting it out, and it’d never get back on the road again. But it was the right thing to do.
It wasn’t for lack of cash, either. It was lack of garage space.
My grandad’s 95 silverado. I inherited it when he passed away. I’ve had it for the last 6 years and will never sell it.
My first car, a 1989 toyota pickup that my Grandpa gave me to and then took back. It then went through my brothers hands and sat parked for 8 years at my moms house before I took it back for good. Only 167,000 miles on the clock and the vehicle I will never get rid of. I would sell my kidney before it.
My truck. A 2006 GMC Sierra that I bought new, which has been my noble steed through an incredible amount of life changes over the last two decades. It has asked very little of me, other than a steady supply of 87 octane, and has never let me down. It is part of the family in a way that no other vehicle has ever come close.
I’ve said for years that the second owner of my truck will be whatever junkyard takes it when the frame breaks in half, but the aftermarket has plenty of solutions for even that problem now.
My 1968 Olds Cutlass S (4-4-2 clone). I bought it while is was in college in 1995 and when my life plans got ruined, I focused on making that car everything I wanted it to be. It’s been there for all the highs and lows of my life, and it played a big role in the evening I proposed to my wife. I’ve been through every inch of that car and know everything about it. I’ve already discussed plans with some of my kids on making sure it stays in the family.
The answer is definitely my 1991 Mazda RX-7 Turbo. However, if I need the cash and I have exhausted every other possibility, then it’s gone. My family is my family, and as much as I love my cars, as much as we sometimes think they have a personality, they are a collection of metals, plastics, glass, and fluids. There will always be other ones. There will be no other family.
The one I would keep? take a guess!
I don’t understand the premise of the question at all.
“lost our income or had some medical emergency”
Sorry kid, you can’t have that life-saving operation, Daddy needs to keep his car.
Don’t worry that we’re homeless! We can all sleep together in my prized possession which is more important than your well-being.
I don’t mean this negatively to those that may actually have an important car, but as a father of two kids, it’s possible that my perception of a worst case scenario, and my feeling of responsibility is just a bit different than others with different life situations
I’m right there with you, I sold my project car after my first kid was born, because I had a family now and a 2 door hatchback wasn’t going to be the right thing for the job anymore. I would literally liquidate everything I own if it meant I could save my kids.
This was my exact reaction too.
I love my cars, but if it’s really a choice between losing my home, losing my health (or my kids’ health) or something that’s truly life threatening, the cars would be on the chopping block right away.
the question is would you sell it instead of mortgaging your house to cover a college debt that you did not plan for or something? I think I would probably do the second mortgage if I could swing it, or maybe refinance.
It probably depends on the nature of the need. If it’s a one time thing somehow, maybe sell a car and try to buy one back afterwards. If it’s a longer term need, I might lean toward the mortgage as well.
And I agree, but I am thankful for enough wealth that getting rid of a 12 year old Fit wouldn’t be necessary. Plenty of stuff could get liquidated first. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Rockefeller (I just gave away my age), but I have other things to sell first.
Yeah, if I’m to the point where I’ve exhausted all my options before needing to sell a car for cash, we are probably dealing with multiple simultaneous crises. It’s an interesting exercise but (hopefully) not a realistic one.
Seriously. I don’t have kids but I have multiple pets. And my mom is not getting any younger. If the chips were down, it’s still just a car. There are others out there.
Even my Lil Red Express, my supercharged MK1 MR2, they were replaceable.
100% agree. If the family is somehow at risk, everything is for sale. My own non-vital organs included.
I’m with you there, and not even just for life/death. If my cat needs major quality-of-life surgery or I hit a point where I’m even thinking of compromising the quality of food my family gets, the car’s getting downgraded.
I could have found Michele Mouton’s career-debut A110 in a barn and lovingly restored it for all I care, if my family’s quality of life is compromised, it’s sold.
I’m replying to myself because I re-read the headline, and the question and felt I interpreted the question too severely, like it was “wouldn’t sell no matter what!”
I got caught up in the line, “if my world entirely fell apart, I would hold onto this car”, and I didn’t appreciate the later caveats, “But if every single option were exhausted, it would have to go.” and “you have a hard time giving up”, but would.
So, I think everyone agrees that some things come before cars. Sorry if I misread the question.
The headline was changed. The discussion here makes less sense now in light of that, but it was originally “no matter what”.
Thank you! I thought I was mean and crazy for a moment.
Clearly it was edited after the fact.
@Mercedes, Can we get an [edited] tag in the headlines just like our comments get tagged?
That’s easy. Elroy is going nowhere. Twelve years of terrific memories.
https://flic.kr/p/ZGHMyU
Elroy sure is a handsome lad.
Thanks. I thought the link didn’t work.
Delete
None of them, well I only own two cars anyways. My 03 Civic has somehow stuck around long enough to be the longest I’ve ever owned any vehicle, at just over 5 years now, but my sentiment isn’t too deep.
Mostly I’ve either owned shitboxes that were so used up that any significant repair warranted full replacement, or I was on the corporate provided new car employee lease deal that was too cheap to ignore. Now that I’m on neither I don’t have a huge urge to get rid of either my 03 or 13 Civics, but if I needed the cashflow they’d be gone tomorrow and I’d fix my mountain bike.
Fortunately, or; unfortunately neither is worth enough to get me out of a significant bind, and I’d have to tap other resources should I need large amounts of money money for an unplanned urgent expense.
I’ll be honest, despite my undying love for vehicles, there’s none that I wouldn’t liquidate if needed.
I’ve done it a few times already, sell off for the sake of finances and buy something else later.
I’ve wanted a Mini for so long, and i finally have one. I plan for it to be a forever car.
But if I needed that money for the sake of my immediate family, it’s gone as quick as I could sell it.
The only vehicle I ever had sentimental attachment to was my grandfather’s Jeep, which met it’s end in a car accident.
At the end of the day, they’re just things. Things I love, yes. But things are not people, and things can be replaced whereas people cannot.
Not in my possession yet, but in a year or two I will be buying my dads Miata off him, and I don’t see any reason to ever part. It’s a ’21 Club with the BBS/Brembo/Recaro package in Machine Gray Metallic. That paint has every bit of the color/shade shifting joy of Soul Red Crystal, but in a much more under the radar color, both from the same Takuminuri line of Mazdas “artisan” multilayer paint. It’s fragile and loves to chip, so PPF will be a day one endeavor. He bought it new, already has a Progress front sway bar, but is otherwise stock and mint. It’s the perfect spec of the perfect car for me, and come hell or high water it will remain mine.
Unfortunately, I’ve had to run this calculation several times during my college broke years. Especially my last semester when all the sudden my entire tuition bill was due the third week of classes or else they wouldn’t let me graduate. (Apparently making 7 semesters of payments on time wasn’t a good enough indicator of creditworthiness).
The only car that survived that fire sale is my first car, 1971 Triumph spitfire, a real turd in a lot of ways, but too emotionally invested to ever get rid of it.
Also, it’s probably only worth about $500 so selling it wouldn’t help too much.
It’s been sitting for about 10 years now, but eventually it’ll go back on the road whether it likes it or not! Life keeps getting in the way, but someday…
At this stage the car will have to be completely destroyed- vaporized- in order for me not to own it.
If I could turn the clock back, I never would have gotten rid of my ’88 Nova. Lovely little thing, just wish the transmission hadn’t gone out at a point of my life where I couldn’t afford to fix it.
I also want to keep my Bug.
I’ve been in that position.
Transmissions are a huge, sudden, unavoidable cost. I had to sell my cherry 68 Chevelle (4 door but I’m into that) to pay for a transmission rebuild in my daily driver. Went to buy a replacement several years later and what was then a $1500 car is now 5K for a ratty one or 10k for a grandma survivor… ugh.
It’s my username