Hooniverse Asks: What’s the oldest new car on sale right now?

Jeff Glucker

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Comments

The price tag is just under $100,000. This is a truck that can go a lot of places. The interior is comfortable. And the off-road tech is solid. Yet the 2020 Lexus LX 570 is almost laughably dated at this point.

I was in Arizona this weekend. My wife and I took our daughter away for the weekend. We were joined by my wife’s parents, and the LX 570 kept us all cozy and warm.

Still, it’s remarkable to find a brand new machine without top-flight interior tech. Especially one that costs just a few ticks under the $100k mark. There’s no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, the nav map graphics are a joke, and the infotainment control mouse is bad.

Now add in the fact that the LX 570 still utilizes that old 5.7-liter V8, and you won’t be surprised to hear that the vehicles heft is quite noticeable. Oh, and fuel economy will fall in the low teens.

There’s no question it’s a Land Cruiser legend in a fancy suit. But that suit was purchased well over a decade ago, and needs to be tailored or tossed for a new one.

What’s another example of something new… that’s actually pretty old?

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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36 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What’s the oldest new car on sale right now?”

  1. eric rood Avatar
    eric rood

    The 370Z has been around a minute.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/2010_Nissan_370Z_NISMO.jpg/1024px-2010_Nissan_370Z_NISMO.jpg

    Reply
  2. eric rood Avatar
    eric rood

    The 370Z has been around a minute.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/2010_Nissan_370Z_NISMO.jpg/1024px-2010_Nissan_370Z_NISMO.jpg

    Reply
  3. P161911 Avatar
    P161911

    Does the Caterham 7 count? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3eaae2bd1dbcfd1421d5068329dd634e1b9f88018531d0db8b3868b8ecaa3dc.jpg

    Reply
    1. 0A5599 Avatar
      0A5599

      Excellent pick, though the Morgan three wheel has a wider span between technology date and production date.
      https://www.morgan-motor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/3wheel110v3op-1024×576.jpg

      Reply
      1. P161911 Avatar
        P161911

        The Morgan Plus 4 may or may not still be available new. Those haven’t changed much besides the engine since the 1930s. The three wheeler is at least listed as a new design, even if closely based on the 1911 versions.

        Reply
        1. SlowJoeCrow Avatar
          SlowJoeCrow

          According to https://www.morgan-motor.com/ the 4/4 and Plus 4 are still available but I think Morgans are disqualified under the living fossil rule.

          Other than that, the venerable UAZ-469 introduced in 1971 is still available

          https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/ParkPatriot2015part4-12.jpg/1024px-ParkPatriot2015part4-12.jpg

          Reply
          1. P161911 Avatar
            P161911

            Looked at that link and Morgan considers the 1936 4/4 to be the same model as the 2019 version and the longest production run.

          2. P161911 Avatar
            P161911

            Looked at that link and Morgan considers the 1936 4/4 to be the same model as the 2019 version and the longest production run.

          3. SlowJoeCrow Avatar
            SlowJoeCrow

            Hence my living fossil exemption as the only pre-wwii design in more or less continuous production.

      2. crank_case Avatar
        crank_case

        The old F-Series 3 wheelers stopped production in the 50s, the new 3 wheeler doesn’t really count. By contrast, a standard non-CSR Caterham is an evolution of an S3 Lotus 7 (Lotus made an S4, but it was ugly, so Caterham actually went backward to go forward), that dates it back to 1968, or if you regard S1/S2/S3 as the same car, and in fairness they have more in common with each other than modern Caterhams, then it’s a continuous line back to 1957.

        Reply
  4. Damasconian Avatar
    Damasconian

    My 2018 Toyota 4Runner was new in 2010 but I’m pretty sure it’s cousin the Sequoia was new in 2007.

    Reply
  5. Austin Nunn Avatar
    Austin Nunn

    Nissan Frontier was new in 2004.

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      Only in the US? It has been replaced years ago in other markets

      Reply
  6. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    http://gmauthority.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2016-Chevrolet-Express-Cargo-exterior-001.jpg

    As of next year, the Express and Savana will have been in production for 25 years. I believe there were pretty major chassis revisions when they did the 2003 refresh, but still, at the same time, during that period, there have been five distinct generations of Silverado/Sierra. The Econoline is even older (1992), but at this point, only carries on as a cutaway/chassis-cab zombie.

    Reply
    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Pretty iconic design by now, but I think I read somewhere that these are losing out to more modern fare now? Does Ford have a proper successor coming up?

      Reply
      1. caltemus Avatar
        caltemus

        The transit is the replacement for the econoline style van. The european van has largely overtaken the north american van, as they actually innovated in european vans past 1975

        Reply
      2. Maymar Avatar
        Maymar

        Looking at them as a pair, the Express/Savana are selling in second place to the Transit (about 82k units through Q3 2019 vs 117k units for the Transit). Which, honestly, against the Ram ProMaster (Fiat Ducato), Sprinter, and Nissan NV2500/3500, I get. The ProMaster is a big reliability question mark, the Sprinter has higher running costs, and the Nissan is huge, thirsty, and doesn’t offer much over the GM’s except for the high roof. The GM’s are dated, but a known quantity, and cheap to run (I don’t even think the Transit is really better on gas despite running a V6 compared to the V8’s most of the GM’s use).

        Now, the Transit drives infinitely better than the wandering, prehistoric GM’s, and the greater availability of body styles is a big advantage, but I think it’d be in the long run, if a healthy supply of Transits starts driving down Express residuals that we’d see reason for GM to modernize (or government regulations killing them off). I have to assume they have a replacement plan, but see no reason to change as long as development and tooling are paid for, and they keep selling.

        Reply
        1. E34less Avatar
          E34less

          The bleeding edge of GM development is that you can get them with the small 4-cylinder diesel also used in the Colorado. But I don’t see them making any other big changes until the heat death of the universe.

          Reply
          1. P161911 Avatar
            P161911

            They might eventually wear out the tooling and have to change something.

          2. P161911 Avatar
            P161911

            They might eventually wear out the tooling and have to change something.

    2. Professor BanancyHot Avatar
      Professor BanancyHot

      And yet, I still kinda want one. For overlanding purposes, sure.

      Reply
      1. Maymar Avatar
        Maymar

        You could do worse than a big cheap simple box with a fantastic engine. Every now and then I’ll find myself looking at used ones for homebrew RV’s.

        Reply
  7. JayP Avatar
    JayP

    I’m gonna do it different… I met a guy who bought a 3 year old new diesel VW.
    Autotrader, click new and there’s 4 2014 cars out there. May just be leftovers but that was a fun exercise.

    Reply
  8. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    Can I interest you in a brand new Lada Niva? Okay, technically they changed the name to “4 x 4”, but that just makes no sense.

    https://www.lada.ru/en/cars/4×4/3dv/about.html

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/577dd3765552636ab1c35f7898caf552a4da499b392536364593b36e74f788e9.jpg

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      Introduced 1977 apparently. It’s shown as being sold in Australia from 1983-1998, however I suspect very few were sold in the first and last 4-5 years. Bonus points for the 200 copies of the ute version, which was built in the main factory in Russia as a normal Niva then sent to Czechoslovakia (as it was then) for conversion.

      Reply
      1. Batshitbox Avatar
        Batshitbox

        I have a macabre fascination with the Chevrolet Niva, which puts GM engineering in the capable hands of AvtoVAZ for production, all under the guiding hand of Renault. “In 2003 the car was awarded zero stars out of a possible four by the Russian safety assessment program.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Niva
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f20a72e6a5de1901a9ffabacf2d7fccdd91951b6d64d816846c262e765693ffc.jpg

        Reply
  9. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    I was holding back so hard when you asked about our guilty pleasure car, but come on…this answer always fits:

    https://www.kaichitravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/UAZ-in-the-trip.jpg

    Reply
  10. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    GNX?

    Reply
  11. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    A car not a truck, but the International ACCO has been the ‘same’ since 1972, which would have to be a long time even by truck standards. I say the same because there have been 8 or 9 distinct upgrades (not all shown below), and per an article on another new version coming next year, 4300 specification changes over the years. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3090125b219311a76411f3248ed98b0e00e0fbf5a336f81dd41ec957435db7aa.jpg

    Reply
  12. JayP Avatar
    JayP

    I’m gonna do it different… I met a guy who bought a 3 year old new diesel VW.
    Autotrader, click new and there’s 4 2014 cars out there. May just be leftovers but that was a fun exercise.

    Reply
    1. P161911 Avatar
      P161911

      Probably were unsold when the recall happened. Took the about 4 years to fix all the emissions recalled cars. They probably got it really cheap. 3 months ago a bunch of low mileage TDI cars hit the used market because they had been sitting for 3 or 4 years.

      Reply
  13. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    A car not a truck, but the International ACCO has been the ‘same’ since 1972, which would have to be a long time even by truck standards. I say the same because there have been 8 or 9 distinct upgrades (not all shown below), and per an article on another new version coming next year, 4300 specification changes over the years. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3090125b219311a76411f3248ed98b0e00e0fbf5a336f81dd41ec957435db7aa.jpg

    Reply
  14. Scubie Avatar
    Scubie

    Similar to the OP, the Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun (not the new Sport) is still available new, and was launched in 2006… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fdb4a25312b7e9c906a089ee85cae6a255caec2106542e9b34ba272538d8c1b8.png

    Reply
  15. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    Nissan Frontier, since 2005.

    https://www.nissanusa.com/content/dam/Nissan/global/vehicles/navara_frontier/d40/1_carryover/design/frontier-exterior-19tdiuslhdpace201.jpg.ximg.l_full_m.smart.jpg

    Reply
  16. ptschett Avatar
    ptschett

    From another angle of old yet new car, there’s a Buick dealer in California who still has the GNX they were allocated. (Warranty went bye-bye with Old Car Company or whatever they called it in the bailout, though.)

    Reply
  17. Troggy Avatar
    Troggy

    It’s not so uncommon with motorbikes. The GS500 is one that comes to mind – virtually unchanged since its introduction in 1988, and the model lineage of the GS series can be traced back to 1979.
    The VFR800 was introduced in 1998 and was the successor to the VFR750 that can be traced back to 1986.

    Reply