Late Model/Antique Cars not getting their due

[Guest Scott Roberts]

I think the best thing we can do to keep our hobby and interest in vehicles alive is to pass it to the younger generation. My 25 year old son know's nothing about 58 buicks but he likes working on it with me. I have even been able to get my 16 year old daughter involved. They will on occasion bring friends to "check out the old car" I seems to spark there interest. It will only continue if we promote the heritage and foster the interest in younger people. Let's face it craftsmanship is dying in this consumer driven society. We need to encourage it or watch it disapear. My 2 cents. Scott

[oldcarfudd]

I wonder whether we aren't more worried than we need to be. Suppose 99% of every year's car production has disappeared by the time the cars are 25 years old. Annual car sales in the US are about 12 million, or a bit more. In 25 years, 120,000 cars from this year's sales will still be around. What's that, two cars per AACA member? And two more next year, and two more the year after that, and on, and on - - - ? Where will we put them? Where will we drive them?

A high percentage of the survivors will be the relatively few exciting cars, and that's as it should be. But some of the Plain Janes will make it, too. I'm always impressed by the articles in AA about someone who has preserved, and sometimes restored at considerable effort and expense, an ordinary Ford or Chevy from the sixties, with six cylinders, a three-speed manual transmission on the steering column, plain upholstery, and steel wheels with dog-dish hubcaps. These aren't cars any enthusiast would have bought new, but someone showered a whole lotta love on them, and they now command a lot of attention at shows, in our magazine, and on the street. Why do we think the same retro-love won't happen for some of the mundane cars that we're sneering at now?

Yes, it will take a different sort of skill and interest to restore and maintain a car with a lot of electronic components. But young people grow up with those skills. When our hobby began in the 1930s, how many old-timers groused that youngsters weren't learning wooden body work, brass lamp spinning, and how to do diamond-pleated leather upholstery? Yet even now, people are learning those skills, that haven't been used for new cars in decades. And they've also learned modern body work. And they'll learn electronic fuel injection and emissions control. As for spare parts, someone will salvage the computerized components from enough cars that the handful of survivors can be maintained.

Who will have the first Senior Grand National Yugo?

[The Continental]

They're fine cars along with the FWD C bodies, but styling, fwd, performance, nostalgia, age, extra doors, badge engineering, and better available choices hold them back in the collector market. It'd be nice for some of the nicer examples to be saved though.

It's not up to AACA standards, but if you do a search, there's a guy doing a 1981 Oldsmobile Omega Sport, 1 of only about 600 into a stock looking restomod with a Impala LS motor and GOOLE AWD setup.

I'm sure there have been Gremlins at BJs, and I'm not sure how well it would qualify in comparison to a Metropolitan or Issetta, but it is one of those cars that might bring more than regular market for it's cute or odd factor for the guy spending $100k's on a full classic or well optioned muscle car.

[Bleach]

Those ordinary Fords or Chevies form the 60's have more character in one of their plain little hubcaps than a whole 80's Boremobile. There are some of us who had one of those plain Janes as their first car. You could still fix those with a screwdriver and an adjustable wrench. Many of those Boremobiles were made to be thrown away as their components were sealed and could never be serviced when needed.

[trimacar]

There will be a day, and it's year's away but not far, that the majority of the cars on the show field at Hershey (50.1% or more) will be cars from the 1970's and up...for example, January 1st 2014, all cars from 1989 and back will be allowed....now remember, I'm not criticizing you personally if you love a 1986 Boxomobile, but at some point....

One of the reasons the AACA has stayed so strong is this floating "antique car" definition.

Now, that's not a bad thing, at least we have new blood and such, but at some point it does become a little silly.

Go sit in your 2013 Gogomobile MiniVan, and envision that, 25 years from now, that vehicle will be eligible to drive up to the entrance of the show field and enter...or, if you're like some of us driving an older car, hmmmm....my 2001 Suburban, well maintained and only 53,000 miles...wow, in only 13 years, it's a show vehicle!! Oh, 12 years, from January 1st 2014.

I'm 90 miles from Carlisle, yet it's hard for me to make the effort, when I walk the car corral and there are newer Suburbans than mine for sale on the field.....sheesh...

OK, off my soapbox...

[Rusty_OToole]

I restored a 1967 Camaro RS when it was 9 years old. Nice one owner, 25000 mile car that needed bodywork, paint, vinyl top, tires, and a few other things.

Today I don't think you would bother with a car that bad. If you wanted a 2004 Camaro in good shape you would just go buy one.

Cars don't deteriorate and wear out as fast as they used to.

[The Continental]

There are less 2004 Camaros than 1984 Corvettes. I will agree that newer cars last longer....initially, but difficulty and lack of interest in restoration will ultimately cause them to have a shorter life in general.

Not to say to say there weren't similar stigmas prior, but the 70s and 80s brought a much more old man car image to luxury cars and mulletmobile to performance cars.

[oldcarfudd]

A plain black Ford from the '20s was a Boremobile to the people of the '20s. It was slow, obsolete, and plain as a mud hole. People didn't buy them because they coveted them - they coveted Packards - but because that's all the money they had. A plain black Ford these days is an icon and in high demand, even though the Packard is still more valuable. If the people of the '20s had been able to imagine owning a plain vanilla Chevy from the '60s, they would have quit aspiring to the Packard.

A stripped six-cylinder three-speed '60s Chevy was a Boremobile when it was new. People coveted Cadillacs, but they bought stripped Chevies because that's all the money they had. A plain Chevy these days is an icon and in high demand, even though the Cad is still more valuable. If the people of the '60s had been able to imagine owning almost any basic 2013 car, they would have quit aspiring to the Cadillac.

The survivors of the cars we think are Boremobiles will have a market in 40 years. We won't be the people who covet them, any more than the people who covet Model Ts or plain '60s Chevies are the people who had them new. Our dull new cars will be interesting to the people who will be around in 40 years, who will be bored by as-yet-uninvented stuff that would thrill us, if only we could imagine it.

[ply33]

A plain black Ford from the '20s was a Boremobile to the people of the '20s. It was slow, obsolete, and plain as a mud hole. People didn't buy them because they coveted them - they coveted Packards - but because that's all the money they had. A plain black Ford these days is an icon and in high demand, even though the Packard is still more valuable. If the people of the '20s had been able to imagine owning a plain vanilla Chevy from the '60s, they would have quit aspiring to the Packard.

A stripped six-cylinder three-speed '60s Chevy was a Boremobile when it was new. People coveted Cadillacs, but they bought stripped Chevies because that's all the money they had. A plain Chevy these days is an icon and in high demand, even though the Cad is still more valuable. If the people of the '60s had been able to imagine owning almost any basic 2013 car, they would have quit aspiring to the Cadillac.

The survivors of the cars we think are Boremobiles will have a market in 40 years. We won't be the people who covet them, any more than the people who covet Model Ts or plain '60s Chevies are the people who had them new. Our dull new cars will be interesting to the people who will be around in 40 years, who will be bored by as-yet-uninvented stuff that would thrill us, if only we could imagine it.

We really do need to get the "like" button working again so I can use it on posts like this one.

[Guest my3buicks]

+1

[John_Maine]

My son bought the first 2005 Mustang our local Ford dealer had in stock in April 2005. He still has it and cherishes it, just turned 81K and has not been used winters. He has a 2004 Ranger for that. Sitting in the show field at Hershey with my '72 LTD, I got to thinking that if he kept the Mustang, in 2030 he could put it in the show as an original owner HPOF. I would be 80, he would be 51. That would be pretty cool.

[The Continental]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Buick-Century-Limited-1985-buick-century-ltd-23-k-orig-miles-tx-creampuff-one-owner-immac-all-orig-/271313887905?forcerrptr=true&hash=item3f2b9162a1&item=271313887905&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

I wish it went to auction with no reserve and low start. I know a few years back a family member sold a 1987 Lesabre one owner 36k mile car for around $3600, but I think it just became a driver.

[TerryB]

Just got the latest (January 2014) issue of Hemmings Classic car and they are featuring a 1983 Olds 98 Regency in this issue. Nice write up about the car. I bought a new Z-28 Camaro in 1983 and I still can't think of a car from this time frame as an antique.

Terry

[John_Maine]

Well, Terry, I still have a hard time thinking that my '72 LTD and '71 Buick are antiques, I guess because I bought my first new car in 1972. And just think, next April, the first Mustangs will be 50. My son bought the first new 2005 Mustang our local dealer had. He loves the car and doesn't want to part with it. Sitting in the show field at Hershey, I was thinking if he kept it until it was old enough to enter in HPOF, it would be a one owner, original car. He would be 51 and I'd be 80. I hope he, the car and I all make it!

[TerryB]

I bought my first new car in 1973, a Chevelle SS w/ 350ci, 2bbl, auto trans. Memorable for all the wrong reasons like rust out and poor fuel economy. So I was taken back by seeing a 1973 Laguna featured in Hemming Classic Car. That '73 is one car I would never want back again. Classics, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder.

Terry

[oldcarfudd]

I have a friend who, after many years of living in New York City, moved back to the suburbs and bought the first and only car she ever had. It's a white '85 Oldsmobile named Snowball, bought new. She has it gone over every year. It has (I think) less than 60,000 miles on it. At my suggestion, she took it to a Cars and Croissants gathering last Sunday. This is mostly new Ferraris and similar high-end exotica, but anything interesting is welcome (I drove my 1912 Buick). Her Oldsmobile was very well received.