Young people/old cars

[Bruce Bowker]

I was at a street show (cars parked along the main street of a town) and talked with 3 young men. In a few minutes of talking about cars I was overwhelmed by their knowledge of old cars including British but mainly 60's muscle cars. I asked their age and they were all about 22 years old. One drove a 1971 Mustang, the other two had similar cars.

I assumed anyone that age knew only about 1990's Honda Accords with 20,000 watts of stereo and twin turbo with $8000 worth of wheels.

I was really impressed and glad to see young people into old cars.

 

[Xracer]

It seems, as a general rule, that people that own older collectable cars, gravitate toward cars that they lusted over as teenagers, but were unable to afford then.

As far as our Mini Club is concerned, a few years ago, most of our members were the grey-hair set....now things have changed. With the advent of the new MINI, many younger MINI owners have joined, and once they've seen our classic Minis, have just gotta have one.

I suspect that this is more than just a local phenomenon. Since the new MINI has come on the market, prices of classic Minis has skyrocketed.

 

[Bugeye58]

I used to work with a female engineer, in her mid 20's, that could field strip a '48 Packard in nothing flat! She thought my cars were cute, but too small for her tastes.
At the time, she owned two '48's, and a '51 Packard land barge.
Jeff

 

[Sherlock]

Bruce,

I'm one of those young-uns, about ten years older than the guys you talked to though. I'm seriously into cars that were built years before I was even born, and particularly cars that many collectors of all ages tend to ignore, hooray for the "orphan" cars...

As for talk of the Mini earlier, I've seen lots of youths here in Canada into the classic Mini. Many of them who are in their 20's own examples and many more want them, it helps that 1970's Mini 1000's are still readily available up here as Canadian sales of the Mini continued until 1980, 13 years longer than in the States.

 

[Henri]

I was really impressed and glad to see young people into old cars.

Not surprising...those young guys driving Model-T's and '36 Fords...were not driving them when they were young...

The fellow that installed my interior for my BJ8 was in his 20's...he prefer's older cars...classics he calls them...easier to work on to...he also could field strip a Healey...it's great isn't it.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

 

[waltesefalcon]

Bruce,

I am hurt. I'm only 23 and I know nothing about honda's sound systems or $8000 wheels. I do know quit a bit about Internationals from the 30s to the 60s, am knowledgeable about duesy's, packards, studebakers, ferrari's, jag's, triumph's, and some maserati's. As for 60's cars I know a little about buick's and mopar's, as for ford's I know enough to never want a post war model.

 

[Bugeye58]

[ QUOTE ]
as for ford's I know enough to never want a post war model.

[/ QUOTE ]
Same here, but I'm referring to the Spanish-American War!
Jeff

 

[mongoose]

At 19, I bought a car that was 8 years older than me. I still own that car 17 years later.

You do the math.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif

 

[Steve_S]

At 16 I got a car 8 years older than me. Still have it 16 years later. More math fun!

 

[rloewy]

At 16 I got a Jeep 8 years older than me. 2 Days later it was stolen.

Now, this is math!

Ron.

 

[aeronca65t]

AT 18, I bought a two-year old '67 Sprite. Still have it (still more math fun).

rloewy: Nice fleet! Welcome!

 

[78Z]

Well I'd probably in the young category with cars 4 and 9 years younger than me. I'll admit I did own a Civic for a very short time but it had stock wheels and stereo.

 

[MGA Steve]

Gee, I've never owned a car older than I am and I have owned a 1951 Chevy. But then I'm really old--I got my driver's license in 1960. Now try to do the math!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif

 

[sunbeammadd]

Young people probably don't think I'm young, but I'm only one year younger than my Imp!

 

[Eric]

Most of the young people I know consider mid 80's cars to be antiques! As I'm much older than that, I must be a classic! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

 

[Steve_S]

That reminds me of a kid I spoke with a while back. He bought an "old" 80's Toyota MR2 and wanted to put Historical Vehicle Plates on it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[waltesefalcon]

Ok when I was 16 I bought a car that was 28 years older than me and now seven years later I still own it.

 

[64Spitfire]

At 16 got a car that was 4 years older. Still own it 28 years later. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif

 

[Patton]

When I was 13, I started aquiring pieces of a car that was 45 years older than me, I got a complete chassis, and still own it, but never assembled it, 23 years later.

When I was 15, I bought a car that was 1 year older than me, but 16 years later sold it and bought a car the same age, then sold it and bought a car that was 10 years older than that one.

This is beginging to feel like those old word problems in Math class.

 

[Kira]

I was brought up in an old 55 Wolseley 6/90, it was 5 years older than me, now I have two Wolseleys of my own, one a 48 the other a 62. And a 77 Mazda 808. Old cars, built tough. The one thing that does annoy me something about young people though is them wanting to get these lovely old cars and wanting to make them into hotrods. ARGH! For shame! I could go on and on, but I won't, you get the drift.