The Classics all the way
As a newbie here and a fan of old appliances, I also love old cars, and have owned a few myself.
Currently, I own a 64 Cadillac, a 94 Fleetwood Brougham and a 78 Lincoln Continental. Previously I owned a 61 Lincoln ( Suicide Doors) Continental, a 72 Cadillac, and a 68 Cadillac, all were wonderful cars.
As you can tell I prefer the smooth driving classic luxury cars over anything fast and loud.
This topic is a very hard choice for me, having a lot of experience in owning classic cars, and knowing the difficulties that come along with it, I have to say, if I could drive my 64 Cadillac every day as a daily driver, I would!
The 64 was the pinnacle of Cadillacs, it was the last of the "Fin" era and the 50's design and styling cues. It was one of the last Cads that was high quality and built extremely well. The car floats over everything, the interior is massive and the 429 pulls like a hot rod in disguise. For being so old, the Cad handles and drives well, when I can afford it, I am definitely going to install disc brakes all around because the braking is the worst aspect of the car. But for looks and comfort, it's my favorite of the bunch.
What is amazing to me is how automakers were able to build such works of art, with all that chrome, and heavy duty steel, yet turn around every year and build something completely different so fast without the help of computers, really is mind-blowing at times. The average cycle of a certain model of modern cars is like 4-5 years, while in the 50's-60's, it was more like 1-2.
I own a 2017 Impala with 30,000 miles on it, which I love, it has pretty much every feature you can think of besides for all the safety nanny tech, like blind spot warning, etc..
It rides smooth for the most part, is well constructed, has great power, and hasn't let me down, but compared to my 94 Fleetwood, 64 Cad and my 78 Linc, the Impala feels like a toy. My 94 Cad and my 78 Linc are the absolute best riding cars I have ever owned, you hardly feel any bumps inside, they are very quiet to drive and they dont jolt you or shake you around like the majority of modern cars do, including my Impala. Going over the roughest pavement where I live, doesn't faze my Cad or Linc, they just glide over the rough stuff, but because the Impala is FWD has a shorter wheelbase, has no separate frame, you feel more of the road imperfections compared to my older full-framed tanks on wheels.
Someone that doesn't know any better, and has never experience driver large luxury cars from the 60's-90's, will think that their Toyo Camry or Hyundai Sonata rides like dream, they honestly don't know what they are talking about.
All in all, modern cars are more reliable, will go further without major issues, are cleaner to the environment, get way better MPG's, generally have more power than the behemoths of the past, but they will never look as cool, feel as solid, or stand out like a 50's-70's luxury Classic, nor are they as comfortable to drive for long hours like a 70's Lincoln is.
Modern cars do feel like an appliance that is built for a short lifespan, one area I notice this is how all new cars door handles are plastic, those hinges will eventually break, and come off, the leathers are cheaper feeling, just an overload of plastic trim pieces that used to be all metal in the old cars.
Nothing feels substantial anymore, and this goes for modern appliances as well.
It's the age we live in today. That's why it's more important than ever to appreciate and fix up these old cars if you have the ability to do so.
