Daily driving an A-body

My '72 Challenger is my daily, and my "newest" car. At the time I bought it, the Challenger was not on the road or registered. It ran, but had not been driven regularly. It took me a few months to get it reliable enough to drive, and about a year before I felt like I was ahead of the curve on maintenance. It can be done, but here's my advice.

If you're going to get a car that isn't currently a daily driver, and use it as one, you're going to have some issues. That's all there is to it. If its been parked for a few years, you're going to have to go completely through the fuel system, the ignition system, and the brakes, at minimum. Plan on spending at least $500 just on this, even if you don't expect any problems. If you have known problems (carb, fuel pump in this case), add that on top of the $500. Figure that as the absolute minimum you'll have to spend to make this thing functional (not nice, I said functional). And know that you'll run into other issues along the way! It's amazing how many little issues can crop up, heaters, wipers, gauges, random bushings, strange leaks will all start showing up as they get more use.

Between my girlfriend and I, we've now put several cars on the road that were not being regularly used and that we now use as daily drivers (she drives a '71 Ford F100 4x4). In my experience, it takes about a year of driving as a daily to get caught up on all the little issues. My suggestion would be to keep your stratus for at least a few months after you buy the A-body if you can. That way you can go through the A-body, start using it, and still have a way to get to work in case something pops up. If after a few months the A-body is working well, you can sell the Stratus and keep your fingers crossed :-D. Even if you completely go through the entire car, things will surface as you drive it.