Reatta's Next Owner

My daughter will get the Reatta if I drop dead tomorrow, she liked the other 2 that she was in line for but loves this one. Here she is on her first drive in it. Be great for her to have this pic someday down the road, hopefully later than sooner.

Very nice! I have considered gifting one of mine to my nephew when he gets old enough to drive responsibly (i.e. not on his 16th birthday). He's 3 now, so a long way to go. He really seems to like them - and always gets excited about any of my cars, but particularly the roadster. Of course, I guess almost any 3 year old would like sitting in the drivers seat and messing around with all the buttons, and it will be interesting to see if he retains an interest in them. I have two nieces as well (both 1 year old) and suppose if I could get another couple of nice ones and keep them that way long term, I could have one for each of them when the time comes. That is a very long way off though, and much will change before they ever get old enough to drive. These cars would be pushing 50 years old by that point, which is almost unthinkable to me presently.

The real challenge will be keeping 4 of them decent for the next [n] years as I intend to continue driving Reattae myself for as long as possible. I think we are only beginning to encounter serious challenges in keeping these on the road due to lack of some parts (various bushings, mounts and insulators come to mind most notably). That will only get worse in the years ahead. Since I drive my cars, rubber and chassis parts will continue to deteriorate, and I will have to get inventive to keep the cars roadworthy.

KDirk

It amazes me they are 25ish years old already. I am seriously considering a coupe to use as my fun car, I can tell already I am not going to drive this one anywhere near as much as I did the other 2. I have put a little over 300 miles on this one including the trip home from Columbus and that averages out to more than the average yearly miles on this car.

Yeah, I struggled with that on my first 88. It had 36,500 on it when I purchased it. I tried to resist running it up so much, but it is meant to be used and I really enjoy it. So, it is closing in on 50,000 now. I drive it more than any of the others the past couple of years. That is partly due to not needing/wanting to drive the monster Cadillac all the time [gas prices], and wanting to keep my restored 91 coupe reasonably low use (it now has over 106,000). The scrubby 88 coupe I bought cheap has almost 65,000 and I drove it a lot last winter as the paint is rough so I didn't feel as bad about subjecting it to the abuse. It also needed a fair amount of interior work (still working on that) and was generally neglected. It is starting to come around now, and I realize that I will probably make it an A1 car again as I am well on the way to that objective. At least it is still very low miles for an 88.

Then there is the 'vert. I have driven it a fair amount since I bought it in March; nice days/top down only. It has nearly 180,000 so I am trying not to run it into the ground. Would like to get a few years of light use before the powertrain is used up. Then will have to decide whether to drop in a lower mileage engine and trans, or make it a parts donor for a nicer 'vert. Of course, by then I will have taken care of all the aesthetic problems so it will look like a really nice car, just have high mileage.

Kind of a dilemma, since it is a 91 and I loathe the idea of ever junking it even if the engine and transmission need replacement. At that mileage though, how much more [good] use can I get out of the body? It is rust free but I worry about whether it is sensible to keep it going or try to trade up to a lower mileage car. Time will tell, and I imagine when the time comes I will decide to fix it as that is just how I operate. Besides, there is a certain amount of pride in keeping a high mile old car looking and running well.

KDirk

My Red has over 225,000 miles on it and I still try to keep it as nice as I can. I did make a decision though to do no more repaints. Same goes for my convertible [which still has original paint and 112k]. I have found that the nicer the car looks the more protective I am and these cars are made to be driven so driven they will be. [coupe mostly the 'vert I am stingy with miles].

We rarely drive the '91 vert with 22K, but the '89 coupe with 117K is my daily driver during good weather months. I even take it out in the winter as long as the roads are dry.

My '90 Maui blue coupe has 223,000 miles on it. It is my daily driver. I love driving this car! I've had the car for ten years now and have put on just under 60,000 miles. We rarely get snow here in Portland but we do get much winter rain. I have a separate set of really good rain tires, on wheels, heavy duty wiper blades, and C5 snap on rain gutters; I'm good to go.

I also visit friends in the San Francisco Bay area once a year. The car is so comfortable the long trip is quite a pleasure.

As I get older I want to drive the car more and more. I figure I have twenty more driving years in me: I want to enjoy them as much as possible.