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
My ’02 Ranger 4×4. First vehicle I bought myself 20 years ago, so it’s taken me from single, just out of college life, to married with kids. It’s not the most practical, so I don’t drive it much outside of doing truck things, and we have other cars. But it was the one I most wanted when I was younger: black over black SuperCab, FX4 package, manual transmission. And now my kids like it, so I really don’t see myself ever getting rid of it.
Told the story in a different post last week, but we sold the one car I really didn’t want to sell last April. It was a 2008 grand cherokee laredo-x with 265k. It was noisy, inefficient, and lacked power (3.7), but it was reliable as hell. We got it with 50k and put the rest on ourselves. It went through my wife, both kids (as a college car!) and our 3rd car/beater for the past 4 years. Honestly, we found ourselves driving it more than any other car because the miles were “free”, and it kept miles off the others. It was also the car that went out in the worst weather conditions and got parked in places we didn’t want to park the others. Ultimately, the PA state inspection put an end to the run – 4 tires and ball joints would have been considered, but adding the frame rail repair was a bridge too far. RIP GC, I miss you.
My 65′ Mustang I have owned since 1983
All of them! I only sold my Turbo PT Cruiser because I needed money for my condo and I couldn’t have two cars.
The rest were sold for good and proper reasons, but I still hated to part with them 🙁
Our 800k+ mile 81 Volvo Wagon had been in the family since 86, but we donated it in 2024 because I simply could not keep it going. That was my ‘never sell’ car and I still “sold” it.
Had my GT500 for a full decade> sold it
Have had my GT350 for a couple years> My favorite car I’ve ever owned, but I’d still sell it if need be.
But I do understand the sentiment here. A few years, I had an opportunity to buy back my old C5 Race Car for nostalgia reasons. The only reason I didn’t was because my Corvette shop owning friend talked me out of it (the car was barely running).
I would live in my BMW 328! wagon before I ever sold it.
Driving it 1900 miles last week from Maine to Florida by way of a two-day work gig in Alabama reinforced that *considerably*.
Haha that was exactly what crossed my mind when I saw the title of the article – and for me that means living out of a Renault 4. In any case, it’ll never be worth so much that it could really make a difference in a moment of need. If I’m ever at the point where its value would make any difference, I’m super fucked anyway. Might as well go off the grid in the Renault and try my shot at surviving off of hunting/gathering – I know a guy who buys wild boar.
There is that – unless you happen to have inherited a 300SL or something, most of the cars we mere mortals own aren’t worth much. My wagon might bring $20K on BaT, but at this stage of my life I have far more valuable things I could sell, not to mention three other cars.
Anyone want a decent ’95 Land Rover Disco I with a stick? It really does need a new home.
My 2001 Ford F-250 Diesel Crew Cab 4×4 is the vehicle I can’t get rid of. In fact I regularly tell my wife if the shit hits the fan I’m selling every other car and driving that daily. That’s the first reason why I’ll never get rid of it: it’s surprisingly usable for everything. I’ll admit it’s not particularly excellent at anything really (and it’s bad at a lot of things), but it can do everything I could need out of a daily driver and a weekend truck.
The second and most important reason I’m not getting rid of it is because my dad bought it new when I was 5. I remember him bringing it home. It was the family trip ride for my entire childhood. It was the first vehicle I drove to school when I got my license. And my dad gave it to me when I graduated college. I picked up my now wife for our first date in it, and it even got a picture at our wedding. It’s kind of like an old friend. There are too many memories to get rid of.
I still miss my Jensen Healey
I hope that eventually you will remember where you parked it.
I think I’ll starve before I ever part ways with the Renault 4. Can’t imagine what sort of horrendous life events would ever force me to sell it. Even if I somehow end up becoming so wealthy that I can purchase nicer, rarer R4s and other old Renaults later in life, I have no intention of parting ways with my first one. This car has got some history and I’m very much attached to it from a sentimental standpoint. I intend to keep fixing it and use it as my daily driver for as long as I can drive.
I really hated parting ways with my 1989 Renault Espace Quadra, but I mistreated it beyond any possibility of repair, and sunk way too much money in it during those 5 years in my hands. At least I found someone who bought it whole for just the wheels (and for the price of the set of wheels), and took care of disposing of it, because it would have killed me to have to send that one to the crusher myself.
I bought my new Smart in Dec.2004 in Canada . A diesel.
I still have it because there is no substitute for driving in a dense city. I have the same performance as a McLaren F1 in the city traffic-about 15mph and I do not worry about parking. Big enough for one person to do the weekend groceries ..
The usual nonsense I hear is:”don’t want to collide with a Kenworth in that thing” or “there were biggest cars for the money” all of which miss the point. It was originally called the City Coupe by Swatch,a much better name. I still have the original Swatch watch produced for the opening of the factory.
I wish there were superb small cars here like the Renault 5 or the like but I doubt it will ever happen. I will just have to hang onto my 22 year old Smart.
I’ve never owned any vehicle worth enough to form a significant portion of my balance sheet, and I’ve never had a fleet large enough to add up to a significant portion, and never owned anything deeply sentimental. The handful of cars I’ve owned that have actually appreciated (Land Cruisers) would probably be the first to go, but selling any vehicle actually required for daily living is probably penny-wise, pound-foolish. So the answer is: “the one I need to get around.”
My cars have been transportation more than projects for years. The one vehicle I’d want to keep is my motorcycle, a 1978 BMW R100S I’ve owned since 1990. Even that is negotiable since I barely ride it and that feels wrong. So I guess the answer is if we need the money it’s for sale
As I only have one car, by default it would be my ’17 Accord V6. But I would hate to have to sell it as it’s the last year of that engine being available in something smaller than a Passport, Pilot, Odyssey or Ridgeline.
I was given a 2002 BMW 1150gs from a good friend of mine. He could no longer ride and needed to get rid of it. As long as that man is alive I will not sell it or junk it. The Bike has gone to Dawson twice in its life time my goal in ten years is to ride it to Dawson city, hopefully the Dust to Dawson event is still going on
The Big Green Machine, obviously. I’ll only sell that if my hip gives out and I can’t drive a stick anymore.
My grandfathers c10 I’ve had the longest and has alot of sentimental value is high on the list. As is my gen 2 ram cumins. I knew the guy I got it off well he used it about 20 years from new. Its good ole guys good ole truck. Both were used as tools as trucks should be. Just like old tools you can feel that connection. That’s not replaceable.
I don’t reckon I’ll ever sell the truck. I might just wind up leaving it to one of my kids – or the grandkid, she’s due any day now – and then they’ll have to figure out where to find gas for it.
My mom has owned a 1971 Opel GT since the mid-80s; my dad and I tore that engine entirely to bits and rebuilt it from the ground up. It’s an interesting car and I have a fair amount of both seat and wrench time in it. I’d rather not sell it if I don’t have to, but I’d let it go before I ever sold the truck.
I wish I would have had the space and time to fix up my mom’s 70 Karmann Ghia. It had very little rust, and it was mostly original except for the dual port engine. But in 2005, my parents got $1500 for it as a nonrunner, and I dread not having more money at the time. Now that I think of it, with the way I tinker with things, my mom would’ve not recognized it by the time I changed the engine, interior, suspension, and pretty much everything else. Maybe it was better I didn’t buy it because it allowed me to get several other cool VW products instead like GTIs, a GLI, a Golf R, and two Audi S6s.