I ran into  guy a couple winters ago who was driving a clean Arizona mid 60's 4 door  Buick as his winter beater here in Minnesota. He figured it would be good for 5 years or so and then be totally rusted out, then he'd get another one. 

I'd love to drive a nice old car in the winter, but I just can't bring myself to destroy an old survivor. It's weird, I won't sacrifice a $6000 50 year old car, but I will my $50,000 late model pickup.  



How bout you other rust belters?

Have relatives in Minnesota who also buy winter beaters, usually imports, and use them up. Nice stuff stays in the garage, or in the driveway under a car cover.

No significant road salt here, but they now use some sort of chemical de-icer stuff that is not very nice. Attacks raw aluminum pretty good, and makes lugnuts grow rust all over them.

Years ago I would run across a lady in traffic who had a pretty decent looking red 56 Chevy that she drove all year around apparently. I saw it even when it was raining and snowing. Not crazy deep snow, but still snow.

Maybe 10-12 years ago or so I was sitting in the snow waiting for traffic to move one morning and saw a white Barracuda/Cuda way up a side street slowly crossing the road in a neighborhood. It had the 71 style billboard on it so assume it was a 71, but people put those decals on any 70-74 car. It was too far away to get an accurate assessment.

Winter beaters are fairly common around here. But usually cars 10-25 years old that have fully depreciated out, but still have some life left in them. Not normally a nice car that has reached "collectible" status.

With good oil spraying it'll last, but that wouldnt be my main worry, my main worry would be breaking down in sub zero temps. Your truck has remote start, heated seats and heated wheel. You gonna give that up? Get the truck oil sprayed each fall instead.

Salt belt member here. I used a few vintage vehicles as winter beaters. Usually as drivable parts donors. They weren't nice to begin with and when the rust got too bad I'd yank drivetrain and interior etc..

I did have a Waggoner that I put together as a winter driver, fairly solid and well rustproofed. Lasted about 1o years. But the heater sucked bigly.

I've got an 80 Ramcharger that I think I'll put together for the same, but better rustproofing and rear heater.

I'm actually fixing the heater in my Roadrunner to use as a backup vehicle this winter but hoping not to need it. Car needs all new metal anyway.

With a budget of $6K, what about a Crown Vic? Hundreds of thousands of them built, parts shouldn't be a problem. If you crash it, so what? Down here, even police spec ones go pretty cheap.

I moved here from New England almost 30 yrs ago. I always had a winter beater or two around, but back then was before prices got stupid. All my beaters were free to a couple hundred dollars.

I have a 2009 Crown Vic PI that I drive as a winter beater...and spring beater...and a summer beater...and a fall beater...

Its a good car, easy to work, usually a few of them in the U-Pull It yard, and they are still pretty cheap if you are looking to buy one.

Older Buick LeSabre's and Park Avenues used to be our car of choice for this. 3800 Buick was bulletproof. We counted up we have owned 7 over the years.

I recently bought a Lucerne from an Elderly neighbor for $4k. It's the last year of the 3800 and has all the comfort of leather, heated seats, heated steering wheel, air ride and had brand new Michelins on it when I bought it.

It's a great daily and cheap to own and drive!

Best A to B daily for someone looking to get the best car for their $$ is the late 90s /early 2000s Crown Vics, Lesabres, Park Avenues. Anything elderly owned and maintained. Even more selection when willing to own a used Japanese car. But Ill mention only the domestics by name to avoid the criticisms.

THis guys perspective, and why I brought it up for discussion, goes beyond just having a standard old winter beater. It is his passion for driving and enjoying a nice collectible car, something you might see at a car show in the summer, even though he knows he is destroying it. A car collectors care about. That's different than a disposable normal winter beater.

since the price for plates title registration tax in Illinois went up winter beaters may be a thing of the past for some?? I bought a nice 500-dollar 02 jeep from taxes (had an engine knock) put a good engine in I had laying around. after it was all said and done it cost maybe 600 for the vehicle 450 for the plates. title. reg. tax. it's actually a nice jeep so worth it I guess? but at the price of plating a vehicle how much of a beater is worth it especially if only for a few months? ;(

I used to do it years ago ....now I drive a 2016 Honda HRV AWD not really an old beater .. even though my 21 Ram 1500 is " Zeibart " rust proofed I still don't want to drive it in the salt and snow.. I don't use it much anyhow mainly just for towing having only 10,000 miles on it in 2 1/2 years . I operate a front end loader plowing snow and I have to be at the plow site regardless , its only about 5 miles from my house and the HRV has always gotten me there even in 10 inches of snow .

around here, they use a salt brine on the roads - super rust producer !
my 99 caravan came from arazona, and had zero rust, so for the last 9 years since i bought it, my buddy has oiled the pi$$ out of it every fall.
i drilled several 3/4" holes in the doors and the hatch, plus several above the foam in the dog legs.
i take out the tail lights and all the rubber body plugs, as well as pull up the plastic carpet sill plates so he can slather those areas as well.
by removing the tail lights, he can blast the quarters and get a bunch into the area where the wheel house and quarter lips come together.
he also gets the front fender area at the bottom where the foam used to be, then does the underside.
that thing marks it's territory like an old harley all the time !
but to this day, it still isn't rusty !

A nice vintage car? No way. A beater vintage car? Not my cup of tea for winter driving, but I would if I had to.

Since I know y'all are waiting for my input here ya go:
Using up a nice, let alone collectible, vehicle for salty winter abuse is IMO criminal.
Get a sacrificial beater, do whatever preventative (like oiling it up) measures so it has some lifespan & repairability, and use that.
Like Neil says, even the de-icer in areas where salt isn't used is hard on stuff.
Some undercarriage fasteners on my old Breeze were essentially welded on from corrosion after 18 Idaho winters.
The FWD was great with winter tires, up until the front bumper would become a snow plow @ 5" of snow.
Agree, the GM 3800 is good. And there are plenty of older non-collectible Japanese cars & SUVs, too.
Another factor is who's gonna slide into you.
I used a 2000 Taurus one winter - cheap, relatively common a few years back, and anonymous & disposal enough to never worry about it.
That said, in freezing temps, the door latches would freeze up...

Last vintage daily for me was the '72 Polara AZ car, had about 75k miles at the time.

At the time, mid 2000s, I asked the same question here.
nobody cared. Drive it until it's rotted out and then junk it was the general advice provided.


I didn't take that advice and near 20 years later it still survives.

About 20 years back, a guy that I was selling machine services to did what I thought was the unconscionable. He picked up a very, very nice 57 Chevy 210 wagon down in Washington state. It was that copper color, with a white roof and white fin insert. Even had the stock deluxe wheel covers. 283 4 bbl, with a glide. Absolutely rust free. Used it as a daily driver for several winters, until it got wrinkled in a typical low-speed winter traffics collision. Just dumb. Not that the guy wasn't a dumb-ass anyways. I think he winter drove that car just to spite some people, to be honest.

Years ago I drove my coronets as daily drivers.

Yep. Best winters I've ever enjoyed was 2014-2016. I drove a '73 Challenger Rallye with a couple pounds of bondo in the quarters year round. Sold it in the spring of 2016 and actually made money on it. It's funny you bring this up, I've been hunting the last couple weeks for another classic to abuse this winter since hunting for "normal" daily drivers has been so frustrating.

Ya know, that is a thing. The cost of anything that runs and drives now is just about the price of buying an average condition classic.