How to go about searching for a specific car...

[joe_padavano]

4 hours ago, thej63 said:

 

I wouldn't say that's entirely true. A lot of my peers and those younger than me are interested in cars....just not the cars that typically frequent aaca events. Take radwood for example, that show has absolutely EXPLODED since it's debut. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug and there's a lot of people wanting to buy and collect and drive the cars of their childhood. I have a few friends who like the old muscle cars but most people I know are into cars of the 80s/90s and predominately imports.

 

To be honest, when I was first getting into classics I was drawn to the muscle car era and liked some of the cars of the 50s as well. I wasn't a fan of the 40s as they were too rounded and I saw cars of the early teens as incredibly boring / uninteresting. Since spending more time in the hobby however, my appreciation has grown to include everything. I own a '51 but the next car on my list is a 39. I'd love to own something from the late 20s as well. I've actually shifted away from muscle cars and find them to be boxy and boring now.

 

As much as I hate seeing cars of my childhood at shows (cars of the 80s/90s were largely terrible, boxy and under powered) there's still a place for them because of who they bring with them to the show. A lot of people that I've worked with over the years have never heard of a dusenburg or a cord or a kaiser, auburn, graham, etc. However, spending time around these cars can lead to appreciation of them. When a honda CRX shows up at a show because it's of age how about not publicly announcing that it's junk (you can think it all you want). That person that you're turning off to the hobby because of their interest in cars now could be interested in the cars that you appreciate later.

 

I have no problem with the types of cars people want to collect - Power Tour had a full spectrum from restored pre-war to musclecars to modifieds to street rods to 80s to brand new. So long as people are having fun with them, that's great. The fact remains that the number of people interested in cars, period, is declining, and even at an event like Power Tour, the typical participant was between 50 and dead. I didn't say that NO younger people are interested, but you can't deny that the attraction is not there to the extent it was in the 60s and 70s. Sorry, but while there was a lot of foot traffic at Carlisle, few were buying, and far fewer were buying parts for projects - and this is from a spectrum of vendors, not just my personal experience.

Edited August 6, 2019 by joe_padavano (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

50 minutes ago, joe_padavano said:

 

I have no problem with the types of cars people want to collect - Power Tour had a full spectrum from restored pre-war to musclecars to modifieds to street rods to 80s to brand new. So long as people are having fun with them, that's great. The fact remains that the number of people interested in cars, period, is declining, and even at an event like Power Tour, the typical participant was between 50 and dead. I didn't say that NO younger people are interested, but you can't deny that the attraction is not there to the extent it was in the 60s and 70s. Sorry, but while there was a lot of foot traffic at Carlisle, few were buying, and far fewer were buying parts for projects - and this is from a spectrum of vendors, not just my personal experience.

 

I agree. So many events anymore, swap meets, car shows, whatever, are just old dudes looking for something to do to kill some time. They wander into my showroom every day. They're certainly welcome, but they're just marking time. Not many guys left hunting specific parts for a project at swap meets or looking for another car to enjoy (they're definitely looking for investments, though). A great many guys at car events either didn't bring a car or drove a late-model and parked it on the show field anyway because, hey, why not? Who's stopping them? Here's a show I went to recently that was hosted by the fantastic Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum here in Cleveland. See anything you'd get out of your chair to look at? Our all-original 1932 Packard had people three deep around it all day. It was the only pre-war car without a modern V8 in it. People ignored everything else, but they liked that Packard a whole lot.

 

 

 

Here's the CCCA Full Classic section from the annual Arthritis Foundation show in Columbus each year (usually a pretty nice show):

 

 

Sad. My Limited was there, but it was parked with the Buicks in the background. On the other hand, there were more PT Cruisers, Mazda Miatas, C4 and newer Corvettes, Mustang/Camaro/Challenger/Chargers than I could count, all manned by white-haired people. The handful of young people were driving late-model Japanese cars with big tires, ridiculous negative camber, and huge stereos. That's all OK but it sure gets boring.

 

Boring. That's our hobby's problem. We've totally driven ourselves to boring by insisting on "trouble-free" and "reliable" and "comfortable." I want an old car but I want to actually drive it, so in goes the Chevy V8/automatic transmission (which they then don't drive anyway). Bo-ring! I want a Corvette but I want A/C and a good stereo and my wife needs power steering and an automatic, so we bought this garden-variety C4. Bo-ring! I need creature comforts because we're driving a long distance so I have this '90s Oldsmobuick. Bo-ring!

 

Cadillac V16 shows up at our show this year, which is full of high-quality yet Bo-ring! cars and promptly gets People's Choice. My '41 Limited goes to the Buick-Olds-Pontiac show populated with '70s and '80s leftovers and gets People's Choice. 1932 Pierce-Arrow shows up at a cruise night and gets two awards because the judges handing them out had already seen everyone else's cars and were bored with them.

 

We've defaulted to boring because it's safe and comfortable and easy. That's why events suck, why tours suck, and why young people couldn't care less about the crap that's out there. If you want people to be interested, give them something interesting to see and aspire to. Not a 1987 Ford Taurus just because it's technically over the age limit. I'm sick of hearing that the interesting stuff is just too dang hard to drive and doesn't have A/C--it seems that we as a people have become so soft that even walking has become a chore. What's next?

 

 

Feh.

Edited August 6, 2019 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[John348]

On 8/3/2019 at 6:40 PM, mrcvs said:

I should add one of the vendors was complaining about the low foot traffic because of the too high admission fee.  Lower the cost by at least 50% and triple the amount of foot traffic.  So it's not just me...

 

 If people don't want to spend $9 admission does the vendor really think they are going to buy anything from him when they get in?

 

Did you actually see people turn around and not pay to enter?

 

If you were fine paying $5 admission then the actual complaint is that it is $4 to much, and that is not a lot of money especially in this hobby. 

Edited August 7, 2019 by John348 (see edit history)

[lump]

21 minutes ago, John348 said:

 

 If people don't want to spend $9 admission does the vendor really think they are going to buy anything from him when they get in?

 

Did you actually see people turn around and not pay to enter?

 

If you were fine paying $5 admission then the actual complaint is that it is $4 to much, and that is not a lot of money especially in this hobby. 

Well said, John 348. And as someone who has produced swap meets for over 40 years (both as a volunteer club member and as a professional), I can assure you that there are always vendors at swap meets griping that their sales are poor due to: A- Poor attendance, or B- high admission prices,  C- weather, D- too much competition, E- the "wrong" kind of shoppers, who don't buy the "right" kind of merchandise, or F- shoppers who are all cheapskates, G- no shoppers who want the brand of car parts I sell, or....well, you get the idea. Yet I have stood shaking my head at auto parts auctions as certain bidders paid WAY too much money for low-demand items, and then seen those same guys show up at our swap meets trying to sell those goods at even higher prices. When sales are poor they launch into the type complaints I listed above. Often those type vendors only last a few years. Yet, during those same years, I have also watched some very small vendor operations grow and prosper...eventually becoming thriving full-time businesses. 

 

At our events we hear complaints about every kind of cost on the fairgrounds. We have even had otherwise intelligent people insist that we should start monitoring the prices that vendors have placed on their items, and force them to lower the costs or get out!! Yet, we offer a free parts-hauling operation at our events, using golf carts and mini trucks to haul customers' purchases out into the parking lots to their vehicles. And they keep us busy all day long, every day. SOMEONE is able to sell lots of parts, and SOMEONE is buying their stuff.