What does 'Survivor Car' Mean?
Below is a link to Mel Major's criteria for cars displayed under the Survivor Tent's during Chrysler's @ Carlisle & Mopar National's. As you can see there is little room for stretching the word "Survivor". Click on the link at the very bottom of my post for a GOOD example.
Mel Major's Mopar Survivor Rules
My 1981 Imperial with 15,300 miles, original Paint, original interior, ORIGINAL TIRES still has factory air in them so that is original too, was invited to Carlisle to be in the survivor tent in 2007, a true survivor.
A car that has made it thru the years and is still a decent car. Mainly original
When I need to repair the brake calipers on the Imperial I got a kit to rebuild the original ones instead of going the cheap route and replacing them, yes it was cheaper to get rebuilt at auto zone than the rebuild kit. When the one AC hose had a leak went to Chrysler to buy the replacement.
Car looks like new
At the Mecum auction a few years back had a 67 Vette coupe 427/435. HP that needed a paint job, but was concidered a survivor and bidding went way up but not to the reserve. Some people like the patina of a good used survivor.
The only original once.
My 1967 Coronet convertible was nice. Needed a paint job but in 1996 when I bought it it still had the original interior and paint, when I sold it was the same way. Many ask why I didn't paint it, well if I painted it then the next guy wouldn't know just how nice it was. Had I planned on keeping it I would have painted it. It was just the car I drove while the dart was down and before my Prowler came in.
And yes, The corvette community copyrighted the term SURVIVOR and I have heard were they went after people for using their term
BULLSHIT