If you own a fleet of cars, some likely see more use than others, and making that decision can be tricky. When is a car too nice to daily drive? Sure, in an age of more prevalent hybrid and remote work, daily driving might look very different to one person than to another, but the principles of a daily driver are the same regardless — it’s a car you’re okay with using and parking in public, that sees frequent use and isn’t afraid of the odd potential rock chip or door ding.
Admittedly, the condition of my Boxster has limited its daily driving scope, but only slightly. Sure, it might only have one previous owner, excellent records, and look proper, but since I don’t have a commute, I don’t feel guilty using it often. If it’s not winter and it’s not properly raining, I drive it, preferably with the top down. After all, cars are made to be driven, and my favorite part of car ownership is driving the things. The sensation of feeling the front end load up on corner entry, the sound of an engine when it comes on cam, the dance between driver and controls, there’s just something so performance art about it all.
At the same time, Mercedes has a showroom-fresh third-generation Smart Fortwo that’s absolutely not a daily driver. It only has 7,000 miles on the clock, is likely one of the nicest specimens in North America, and Mercedes describes it as a “garage queen.”
However, everyone has different boundaries on what’s too nice to daily drive. I mean, I know someone who uses their McLaren 570S as a winter beater because carbon fiber doesn’t rust, and I also know someone who has a Toyota Camry that’s only used for special occasions. So, when is a car too nice for you to daily drive it? Let us know in the comments below.
(Photo credits: Mercedes Streeter)
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In general, the answer is “never”. Every car can and should be “daily” driven. If you own a vehicle that is deemed “too nice” to drive, it should be a 1 of 1, perfect condition museum quality piece that is trailered from show to show. If your car isn’t that- you simply can’t afford to drive it. If the odd rock chip or “what happens if…” scares you from driving, then you can’t afford that car.
Avoiding salt with something you’re proud of, or not driving in snow with your boxster is smart. But not driving the boxster because a shopping cart might hit it in the grocery store parking lot means you simply can’t afford to drive it.
A technician in the lab in college had restored a classic Jaguar, and was keeping it as his retirement plan- that is one car I’ve known about that would be too nice to daily drive. Pretty much anything else that isn’t a museum piece or similar is fair game.
On the flip side, daily driving my old Jeep on worn mud tires would be torture especially if it was on pavement, I think this question would be far better as to what cars would be not nice enough to daily drive.
A friend of mine bought a Ferrari 365 GTC as a retirement plan. He doesn’t DD it, but that may have a lot to do with trying to keep 6 Weber carbs in tune.
On the other hand, I’ve seen a Lamborghini Muira and Ferrari 365 GTB out in rush hour traffic. Not on a daily basis, but just the fact that the owners were willing to take them out at all in traffic is braver than I’d ever be.
So it really depends on your risk tolerance and long-term plans for a car. Personally, I’ve never owned a car I wouldn’t drive daily, but I’ve also never owned a truly valuable classic.
No such thing as too nice to daily drive. Give me any car and I’ll put 3000 miles a month on it. Cars are meant to be driven.
Do you own your car, or does your car own you? If you’re afraid to daily something because it’s “too nice”, I would argue that it owns you. If I had Bentley money, I’d daily my Bentley. The commute sucks, make it nicer. That’s not to say be stupid with things. If your car sucks in the winter, drive something else in the winter. But if your nice car is fine in the winter, why would you want to put yourself in something worse?
Hazards happen, but that’s what insurance is for. Nothing is “too nice” for its intended purpose.
Something can become too old and unreliable to daily drive, but never too nice (winter excepted).
If I owned a Bugatti you better believe I’d be driving it to Walmart.
To me, the interesting question is where your threshold is for parking in a “normal” spot, i.e. mixing it up with the normies and not in the far corner of the lot. I won’t park the Viper next to anyone else but maybe I’m weird.
I daily drive a $60k, but keep a $30k car in the garage because parts for the $30k car is mostly no longer available.
I wouldn’t say there is to nice of a car to drive daily but being from the Midwest I would say there is to nice of cars to drive in the winter due to the roads that are white not from the snow but from the salt. But if the rust doesn’t bother you more power to you driving what ever you want year round. For me though my firebird has been dedicated to nice weather and the FJ and D250 have been dedicated to crap weather more so the FJ.
A car can never too nice to daily drive. If you can afford to daily it and want to, well then knock yourself out. It can, however, be too shitty to daily drive. If it is miserable to drive or you can’t afford the upkeep, don’t daily it.
When you care about the monetary value of the car, and or the car is irreplaceable. Anything can happen on the road that severely degrades the monetary value of the car.
Something being low miles and rust free, along with a combination of hard to find and sentimental feelings for the model are what keep me from daily driving a couple of my cars. Even though they’re probably not special to everyone, they are to me, and to keep them as long as possible means they get stored when they aren’t being enjoyed mostly in good weather seasons.
For example I could never daily my 70k mile 92 Bonneville SSE Supercharged, because it meets those criteria, and it also has what may be the cleanest non-delaminated tail lamps out of any of those cars left, and still has soft in-tact leather seats and mint interior, so UV exposure is kept to a minimum.
It’s too nice when it’s irreplaceable.
Virtually everything is replaceable.
I have no idea. My car usability index is less about “too nice” and more about “too not running at the moment.”
That’s why we have lots of old cars – it improves the chance that one of them will run today.
Living in the Ontario salt belt, whenever I want the vehicle to still look nice in 10 years.
The headline is a little, well, off. My 1999 Miata with 105k miles is definitely not “too nice”, and my 2022 Outback XT is objectively “nicer” in about every way (except having a roof). Yet the Outback is the DD. Weather, etc. The Outback, while nice, is an appliance; the Miata is a toy.
Completely agree.
I’ll DD my Tesla Model 3 since it’s great at that.
The 2001 Miata is for fun!
I’ve made the mistake of daily driving the fun car in the past (C6 vette), and the magic gets lost. Daily the boring car instead.
This exactly. If you have multiple cars, and DD the “fun” car, it just becomes a thing that gets you to work in traffic.
Saving a fun car for fun moments and fun roads makes it so much more special.
When it becomes a collector’s item and no longer a car. Cars are meant to be used, at least a little.
My 50 years old Beetle is too nice of a condition just to use it for a daily driver (30k original miles, everything looks pristine), I don’t see myself driving it and trusting other drives behaviors, using their phones while I can die in a car accident and they will be fine.
I will drive the car to activities and hobbies that I enjoy, like getting ice cream with the kids, taking my dogs to the park, errands here and there, cars and coffee. I have other cars that get the daily abuse but not this one, driving to work is not fun lol
It hurts my head to think that a 1974 Beetle is now 50 years old.
Less of a car question and more of a budget question. nothing is too nice to daily if you have the money.
Username checks out.
my user image is more representative of my wealth than my name.
Squirrel stocks are doing well I see
Need to store more nuts for the winter?
I’d like to hear the flip side of this. When is a car too crappy to daily drive?
When there is more rust than metal.
So David’s entire former fleet?
Or one you’re too ashamed of. Like an 80s van with David Hasselhoff painted on it.
How much do you want for the van?
Sorry, but this imaginary example van is not for sale.
Why be ashamed of that? I would rock that van! Figurative and literally!
You’re going to need a better example than that. At least 3/4 of the commentariat here would pay good money to drive that in public.
I realized that after I posted it it. Great now I want a Knight Rider van.
When the electronics are labeled “Lucas”.
When the floor mat is sucked out of the car via what used to be the floor, whist on the interstate, and the transmission shift points are best described as “arbitrary and sloppy”.
When you have to look for a hill to park it on to get it started, because it eats starters like kids eat M&Ms.
When the cooling system gives up (heater core, hoses, and radiator all within two weeks), the CV joints pack up, the instrumentation electronics get weird, and the repairs cost more than the rolling pile of misery is worth.
When the engine grenades at 65 mph because the distributor driven oil pump seized (3.8L Buick V6).
Aside from the first one, I’ve lived all of these at some point in my younger days.
I think Tom Magliozzi had the best take on this – trade-in/give-up on your car (daily driver) when you no longer have faith that it will get you where you are going (every time). Nothing worse than getting stranded.
That said, having owned cars that are reliable but require training for the casual driver due to local factors unique, if your car has devolved to this point it is likely another good time to give up the car. As is the significant other who will no longer drive your car (having this trouble now and I think almost everything on the car is currently working as intended).
The only time it’s too nice to daily is if I can’t afford insurance for it.
Most of what I own gets basic coverage, the nicer stuff gets better coverage. If I can’t afford what feels like appropriate insurance for it, I don’t buy it in the first place.
I once had a car that I babied and bought another car just so I wouldn’t have to daily drive it and subject it to the possibility of getting damaged. That just sucked so much. Never again. My wife keeps telling me I need to paint my GT6. But I won’t. Otherwise I’d be back in that same scenario. As it stands, it runs great but looks like hell and that’s the way I want it.
Drive more, worry less.
I’d paint it. Just make sure you get a good clear coat or one of those protection films.
Protective films aren’t gonna save that expensive paint job when I accidentally whack it with a shovel. She lives in a very small garage which also doubles as a gardening shed.
Depends on the miles you drive. My 4Runner is my DD, I bought it envisioning all these adventures we’d go on. We do, but just a few X a year. The other 20k-ish miles a year are commuting 60 miles a day back and forth to work.
I’m thinking I want to build it a little more and pick up something comfier and more economical for a DD.
Years ago I used to DD my ’00 Firebird Formula, a somewhat rare (though not really valuable) car, on the same 60 mile commute.
Obviously a classic or something you’ve worked hard to restore would be different, but personally I would not want to own a car I was afraid of driving. I much prefer the beater or driver status cars to the resto’d ones.
“After all, cars are made to be driven…”
That’s pretty much my answer. I’ll never buy a car that I’m afraid to drive. It’s not like I borrowed it or am watching it for a friend, and life is too short to not enjoy something that you worked hard to afford. Historically significant cars can go to museums for preservation. For everything else, put your cheeks in the seat and hit the road.
Just daily an irreplaceable one-off and hope nothing goes wrong. I’m sure it will be fine.
Seriously, though, my rule of thumb is that your personal garage is not a museum, so there’s nothing too nice to drive. I won’t own anything I’m afraid to use as intended. I actually sold a couple guns specifically because I felt I was babying them and they needed to either be display pieces or used, not stored carefully and handled too gently.
Just after its been washed and waxed.
LOL, I have so been guilty of that. Wash, detail, polish my Jaguar and then later that day actively have the following mental conversation as I decide which keyring to grab.
If you want to drive it every day, do it! No such thing as too nice to enjoy.