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
As of right now, my 1996 F-150. It took a few months of looking for me to find one that fit my criteria (XLT, V8, must be rust free, lower(sub 150k) miles, stock or very close. Bought it from the original owners with 70k original miles, it’d be pretty hard to replace. It should last me awhile. My other car is a 2009 Miata, which should be easier to replace one day if I needed to sell it
My Firebird obviously. Everything else is replaceable if I needed to get rid of a car for money I would hope that would be the last resort of something to sell.
My Tacoma X-Runner. It’s not special. It’s not fast. The clearcoat is shot. It’s mechanically stock. It’s not super comfortable on Denver’s roads, and doesn’t handle well enough to make up for it. But damn I love thst stupid truck, and plan to keep it forever. The 4.0 L V6 is Toyota-reliable, if a bit thirsty for what little power it makes.
My manual 850 turbo- it’s like a bad friend fun when with them but later you wonder where your pants are and if you can go out in public later – fun car but not civilized
I don’t currently own a car that I couldn’t live without. I’ve got an ’89 240 wagon (manual/AC), a ’94 Miata (w/hardtop and only 85Kmiles), and my daily, an ’04 XC90. If necessary, I’d sell the two Volvos before I sold the Miata, since replacing the Miata with another like it would be the most costly/time-consuming scenario of the three.
I bought a new GMC Sierra 1500 in 2008 when I was 49 years old. I am now 67 years old, and the Sierra has 130k miles. I expect it to go at least another 130k. Will I go another 18 years? Who knows, but I can’t give up my “forever” truck.
Also, my 2010 GMC Canyon regular-cab, 2WD, 5-speed manual pickup truck with hand-crank windows. Every truck (besides my El Camino) has been a regular-cab, 2WD pickup with 3 pedals.
Now you cannot buy one anymore, unless you can find a decent used one.
I have had my 1972 Super Beetle since I was 11 years old. It was auctioned off to help raise funds for my Boy Scout troop, and since I had always wanted a Beetle, and my dad wanted me to learn how to work on cars, he got it for me. I’m 33 now, still have the Beetle. It’s never been my daily driver, but has been with me everywhere I’ve lived since I moved out at 19. I’ve gone through just about everything on it, and am currently saving up money to clear the last hurdle: rust repair.
I leaned how to drive on that car. I gave countless manual transmission lessons in that car, to anyone who wanted to try. I rebuilt the engine back in 2017, tried my hand at bodywork back in high school, in short, I have learned a ton from that car and the folks I’ve met along the way. I’ve put way more money into it than it’s worth and it will absolutely never be for sale.
This Ferrari Luce I just bought over the weekend. It’s really special to me. I guess if the right buyer came along, though, I could let it go for the right price; my physical cash pile is visibly smaller and it’s driving me a little crazy.
Don’t you just hate it when the diving board into your money vault becomes a high dive?
But clearly the answer isn’t to sell anything, it’s to find some more peasants to squeeze out of their retirement funds. They tell me work is its own reward, so why would they want to retire anyway? 😛
None, if it comes to a matter of having a bed to sleep in and roof over my head. Can always find another, when times get better again, after all they’re just mass produced machines.
Even my very rare ’62 Porsche (it will be the last one to go), which has been with me since ’03: Must be at least a thousand of those around still?
Most difficult sale for me was my ’94 5 speed SHO. Decided to sell in early ’06 after my daughter was born. I just could not comfortably make a modern baby seat fit well. Add in a deer strike and it was time. I’ve learned that most cars are not forever cars. Enjoy them and make memories with them, but sometimes you’ve just gotta let go. Lives change, situations change, times change. I had 5 great years with that car.
My 2018 4Runner is everything I want in a vehicle. It’s our family’s adventure vehicle. We’ve been over 13K feet passes in the San Juan mountains. We towed a camper trailer to Yosemite. It hauls our musical equipment to gigs. I have off roaded it to the point where I was sure the truck could handle an obstacle but I wasn’t willing to try. Many more stories.
It’s sooo expensive between gas and off road tires. It’s also our most valuable vehicle despite being the oldest with the most miles. For the right financial emergency, it would have to go, along with my heart being broken.
My brother also had one and it suffered from the dreaded timing chain cover gasket failure – a friggin gasket failure! – that required 12-14 hours of pro tech time to replace and costs $5,000. This has soured me on it ever so slightly.
I would have said the Lime Green 1971 FIAT 850 Spider I purchased new in spring of ’71 a month before my wife and I were married but when she announced in early 2000’s that she no longer felt safe driving it even on back roads, we sold it. Sad day.
Now I can’t say anything I’ve driven in the past 50 years wouldn’t be for sale if the price was right. That said, back in the early 90’s when my father passed, my brothers and I sat in a bar and agreed it was best that he had sold all the FABULOUS cars he had owned as we would be in a massive fight over any one of them.
Gonna be famous 5EVA…
My first car will never leave my possession. In the 17 years before I owned it there was 8 previous owners. Its been in accidents, been on fire, had transmissions, wiring harnesses, engine swaps. It has parts from over a dozen cars surviving out of a junkyard.
Ive had 17 cents in my pocket and closed the doors on a business with a house ready to fall and never considered selling that car.
In 2 years my 190E turns 40 and my aim is to have it all one color. This car was never born to be anything special. But there isnt another one I would trade for it.
My closest to a forever car is the ’97 Nissan D21 pickup I recently bought. Not just because it’s a low-miles example of the final year of the best generation of my favorite 1/4T truck, but because I bought it from a friend who had it from nearly new and I feel like selling it on would be a betrayal.
It might be the last gas-powered vehicle I buy.
Everything is fair game if the need is great enough. Just like everything is an emergency fund if the emergency is large enough.
That said, the car I’d try to sell last would be my C6 Z06. That was my “attainable dream car” and the one I love the most even after 15 years of ownership. I’ve used it as a daily driver so I know it can handle it and there’s enough practicality I could get by. It’s easy to work on and parts are not hard to find. Unfortunately, it’s also the most valuable one so it’s still locking up cash that could be useful.
we just got our 2011 CX-9 claimed as a totall loss buy the insurance. the other driver ran red and hit our car right in the wheel and everything there is shifted back about 4 inches… it has been 12 years, I have brought both my kids from the hospital in it….we made so many memories in it.
I unscrewed my plates and picked up some items left in it. then I look at it sitting in the collission yard already claimed total loss….and I got a little emotional with myself. I literally walked up to it, put my hand on it and with tears in my eyes I said: good bye, you have been a good friend and I am sorry I cannot fix you….
real story
my 1988 528e….being burgundy red just adds to the love
My 1979 El Camino.
I’ve owned it for over 26 years.
1968 Camaro. it has a 454 and a 4 speed manual. It has been in my possession for going on 3 decades now. I also very rarely drive it anymore and it really deserves to be in the hands of someone who will, or I need to restomod it so I will stop making excuses not to dust it off and drive it for a week straight or something,
None. I’ve had many “forever cars”, and I’ve sold each and every one of them. Needs and wants change, and my automotive fleet has always adapted as the requirements have changed.
There is not a single inanimate object I would refuse to sell. The rifle my granddad left me or the one my dad gave me would be at the bottom of the list, but I’d sell them if I were in dire straits or something.
My priorities are people, then pets, then utility, then sentimentality. I’m lucky. I have substantial savings and some stuff with little to no sentimental value, so I am not making these decisions these days.
Things I don’t need and can easily replace get sold first. Things I don’t need and can’t easily replace go next. Then the stuff I’m attached to, but isn’t of actual use. Then it gets to the point of deciding how much I need things and how necessary they are to ensure the survival of people and pets.
I would have to say my 89 Comanche. It’s been in the family ever since it was sold at my grandfather’s Jeep dealership. It’s been with me since I learned to drive in high shool and was my daily until about 6 years ago. The rust has really taken hold since then and it kinda kills me that I don’t have the money/space/ability to combat that issue.
While some have mentioned that if it came down to a situation such as a child needing an operation, anything and everything could be on the block. But I don’t read this question that way. I read it as the absolute last thing to go. For me, that would be my 64.5 Mustang coupe. Found it in 1989 for sale on the side of the highway during a road trip, one side in gray primer. But the motor and interior were perfect. Turns out, the seller was the recently deceased owner’s son. His Dad bought it new, making me the 2nd owner. Bought it for $2200 and drove it home. After a $250 Earl Scheib paint job, I had a couple of people offer me $5,000 for it. My wife’s car died a couple of months later, and it became her daily for about 5 years. Three years ago, our son and his wife drove it away for the first night of the honeymoon after getting married. Last thing on the list to sell.