Same Family, Different Purpose

Drive Time

Here’s a little mind game.

Say you were offered two cars to own and keep.  These would be to take care of you and your family (ad arguendo, you were of that age, say mid-forties, with a wife and two preteen kids).

The only catch is that the cars must come from the same brand:  Chevy, BMW, VW and so on.  In other words, the badge on the hood or grille must be identical to the other one.

The cars can be older, or modern, and they’re in excellent running condition — showroom condition, so to speak.

Which would you pick?

And just so it’s a little more clear, here are a couple of pairings:

BMW M3 / BMW X3
(Yeah, I mixed up the model years so you can get an idea of the scope.)  Another:

Chevy Camaro and Suburban

Feel free to specify the model years and the reasons for your picks.

Here are mine:

1962 Chevy Biscayne and 1965 Biscayne Wagon

The latter was recently displayed on this website.

I swear, I must be becoming more American (finally, after over 30 years of citizenship), because these two land barges just get me where they shouldn’t.  And the reasons:

  • Simple cars, no frills, no electronic doodads to screw with your life, ergo easily and cheaply maintained
  • Steel frames and body panels;  none of that carbon-fiber / fiberglass eggshells nonsense
  • EMP shock?  What’s that?
  • Big, fat-ass engines whose exhaust note bellows:  “Screw The Environment!”
  • Large enough to hold the entire family (either one)
  • Few safety features such as airbags, and even the seatbelts are the token lap type.  Yeah, each might be deadly in a crash.  Don’t care, especially as any modern car crashing into them is going to come off wayyyy second-best
  • And I like the matchy-matchy paint jobs too.

Go ahead and snigger…

38 comments

  1. Restored and modified:
    1952 Chev 5 window truck with extended cab and topper, 350 V8, 4×4, 4sp, candy apple rootbeer metallic / black cloth .

    1957 Chev Nomad, 350 V8 4 sp, 2WD, candy apple royal blue metallic / black cloth.

    1. Just remembered, my dad bought my mother a brand new 1965 Chevy Bellaire station wagon, red/red, and in 1971 at age 16 I took the driving test in it.

      Here’s the thing, it was a beast. Out of the factory it had a 327 4bbl with 350 hp and a 4 sp with a bench seat and a tach built into the dash. It had PS, PB, and AC, and would get rubber in 3 gears.

  2. I had that 65 wagon only with the Impala badge, was identical other than not having the two decorative “fins” by the rear window. Should never have sold it off, was the best people (and all my possessions at the time) mover ever owned.

    Seeing as the sedan is exactly the same people wise, why not get the 65 corvette as the second car for funsies?

    1. Was that back when you could still actually fit a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood in the rear of the station wagon? That would be my only argument for the ’65 wagon, but otherwise I agree, a Corvette for funsies is the best combo. I would prefer the ’63 Corvette convertible, though (or whatever other years had that body style).

  3. The family car would be the pickle here, as my wife would never drive the suburban or the station wagon. Otherwise I’d be fine with either choices. Nope, she’s got her favorite, a 2015 Buick Lacrosse. So, uh, staying with your theme, and since Buick doesn’t make a truck, I guess I’d go with a mid-80’s Gran National GNX as the second Buick in the family.

    Of course, when we did have kids she drove an Oldsmobile minivan (obviously badge engineered from the Chevy/GMC family). In that case, a 1965 Olds 442 would be my pick.

    Also, when my parents were in their early 40’s with three kids, we got the entire family, all 5 of us, into a single cab pickup on a bench seat, no seat belts. Just saying, you don’t always need a station wagon for a big family. And any kid that complains can just ride in back. We did, often.

    1. Child car seat laws changed that calculation. There is actually a body of evidence that said laws have limited family size.

      1. If it saves the life of one child, but prevents millions more from being born?

        Also, one might be called a conspiracy theorist for suggesting that the said laws were passed with that exact outcome (smaller families) in mind.

          1. Well, there ARE a lot of 4-door behemoth pickup trucks on the road way out here on the Left Coast nowadays. And many are just too nice to be owned by contractor types with big families.

  4. Somebody has been restomodding that Biscayne wagon. Note the set of Crager Mags and wide tires tucked into the fender wells. You can’t just slap those on and have everything fit so nicely. If they went to all that trouble, there is most likely more work also done that isn’t so visible.

    As for your matched set of cars, sitting in my garage is a 2003 Porsche GT3 and my Daily Driver, a 2023 Porche Cayanne Turbo S Hybrid ( with more than double the HP of the GT3…… and about double the weight )

  5. 2026 Paramedic, with shell shocked stare: “Witnesses say they hit the tree doing 5 mph. How can the whole family be decapitated AND disemboweled? ”

    1962 ambulance driver: “This is why early 60s ambulances and hearses were the same car with different paint jobs”

  7. 2002 Subaru WRX – fast, lightweight, 2.0l turbo, 225HP, 5-spd, trackable/rallyable, no frills, minimal electronics, easy to work on, sad I let mine go (for its milquetoast cousin the 2.5l Outback sport).
    2014 Subaru Outback 3.6R – near bulletproof 6 cyl, 275HP boxer, room for cargo/roof carry, towing capability, minimal electronics (for the time), real transmission with actual gears, real 4WD with transfer case. I’d buy a spare, if I could find someone willing to give theirs up.

  8. 1980s Jeep Grand Wagoneer, or the modified one they call the HellWagon, Grand Wagoneer with a Hellcat power plant.

  9. Jeremy: What we have here is a 1980 BMW, hanging upside down, eight feet from the ground. And what we’re going to do, is drop it.
    [Car drops]
    Hammond: You wouldn’t want to be in that–
    Jeremy: If you were Richard Hammond you’d be all right.

    “No electronic doodads” would seem to rule out glass cockpits, but Kim your own suggested pairings include an X3 and a Camaro.

    No exotics would be another good rule, but I like GT3Ted’s Porsche pairing.

  10. ’59 Chevy Apache Fleetside ¾-ton 4WD pickup for heavy hauling and towing on a ’73 or later ¾-ton Suburban frame for ease of modding running-gear components, 427 or 454 C.I.D. big block Bowtie mill pushing the show, 5-speed manual transmission and push-button 4WD system, white paint with black and chrome highlights, and:

    ’64 Chevy Impala SS 2-door hardtop, white with grey guts.

    Both were/are sentimental choices.

  11. Hard choices. You’re kind of a bad man.
    1. 99 4Runner + 2016 Sienna
    Or
    2. Square body Suburban with 3rd row + 72 Blazer

  12. Lots of good choices.

    I think maybe a mid sixties bronco for me and maybe a galaxy 500 for the wife and kids. Just to be different.

  13. I’ll take a Bentley Flying Spur as the family car and a 1930 Bentley GK706 8 litre roadster as the fun car.

    1. Is one of those what Ian Fleming referred to, in I forget which Bond novel as, “the last of the big-bore Bentleys”?

      My only question now is a cheeky, “And who would be your choice for an adopted mechanic?”

  15. Last year Volvo 740 TD Wagon and 2026 Volvo XC40 Hybrid. Both bullet proof engines from the factory with regular service plus extra transmission attention.

  16. I am going to break myself on this and move away from my solid favoritism for American vehicles. I’m going to take a pair of Porsche vehicles.

    I’ll take a 2026 Porsche Cayenne with all the bells and doodads.

    And for my second Porsche, I think I shall take a 1944 VK 45.01, the Porsche Tiger.

    2. What flavor Cayanne? in 2026 they come 3 different ways – straight ICE or Hybrid or Pure Electric. ( and 4 versions of each powertrain ) … and you do understand that Porsche is famous for a very long list of available options Checking ALL the boxes ( or as many as possible since some cancel others ) can add $ 75,000 to the MSRP – right?

      And as Kim says, you will need at least one full time Mechanic for the Tiger which featured dual V-10 engines mated to electric generators that ran the hydraulic systems that did all the work. I’m pretty sure any of the guys with experience working on those tanks are long dead. Come to think of it , you are going to need a couple of Machinists as well because the parts are somewhat scarce for the 10 examples built .

      1. I’m not really worried about the Cayenne. It could have whatever on it and it would be fine.

        As for the tiger, I know I would require fabrications, and a mechanic, and loads more work. But I am pretty sure that my friends and I who tinker and repair things would all love to get our chance to work on it. Heck, theres likely enough of us to have a full crew for it and some support staff. And besides, who wouldn’t have fun tinkering inside an operational tiger?

  17. My choices would be an Opel GT from when they came to America, and an Opel Omega from the early 00’s

  19. 2008 Toyota Camry and 2008 Toyota Sienna. Both with V6 and 5 speed auto. Won’t need another vehicle until the heat death of the universe. BTW, I actually own the 2008 Sienna.

  20. 2022 Toyota Avalon (have it), 2015 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road (had it, wish I’d kept it).
    Honorable mention: 2001 Toyota Camry with the 3.0L 1MZ-FE V6 engine and a 5-speed.

  21. 100 Series Toyota Land Cruiser with the 1HD-FTE engine (don’t care about the specific year)
    2020 Toyota Camry with the AWD.

  22. I’m a Ford guy so it would be a late 60’s/early 70’s Mustang for my commute and a late 60’s Bronco for the family.

    There are some ewwTube videos out there showing the crash results from a modern car and an older car in a crash. The older cars don’t fare nearly as well as one might think. Those heavy fenders crumple up very easily…….

Comments are closed.