This might be a sociology question, but I think it’s valid. Has the lack of originality in today’s car market reduced the possibility that there might be classic car shows with today’s vehicles as the “classic” objects?
I’m sure some might say “look at the Prowler, the PT Cruiser, etc.” but that seems much weaker than the legacy of past masterworks.
There will certainly be car shows in the future featuring current vehicles. But will today’s automotive market produce as many “future classics” as it did 30, 40, 60 years ago?
Not A Chance In Hell.
Why? One of the reasons is that the upper-middle-car-value-class has shifted from speed-and-style oriented vehicles to SUVs (more and more of which are uninspired “crossovers” in the vein of the Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Highlander, Nissan Murano, Ford Escape, etc etc etc and the list goes on.)
Today, for reasons completely beyond me, the people with $35,000 to spare on a new vehicle would rather purchase lame-ass SUVs than mid-cost sports cars. Therefore the mid-cost sports car is DISSAPEARING! The Mitsubishi 3000GT, gone! The Nissan Z’s, gone! The GM F-body, soon to be a dinosaur. We’re left with luxury-brand speedsters way out of the cost range of the average joe.
Sad, but true.
My theory is that all old cars will tend toward “classic” status over time. The “cool” cars are classic right away, and the prices skyrocket because of that. So the enthusiasts with less money, who aren’t really collectors, adapt to the situation and buy a less classic car that they can afford. Repeat and eventually everything that isn’t a pile of rust is a popular classic.
I’m surprised Yugos haven’t made a comeback yet.
Obviously, you’ve never known anyone who’s owned a Yugo. Calling the Yugo a “classic” is like calling the Ford Pinto (aka the Explodomatic) a “classic.”
The big problem with modern cars is the materials they’re made out of. Restoring anything prior to the introduction to plastic body panels and computer chips is “easy.” Modern cars are loaded with plastics, computer chips, and wiring harnesses that rival the national powergrid. So whatever aesthetic value a modern car might have, it’s outweighed by the Herculean tasks necessary to keep the thing running.
Certainly, you’ll see modern cars being restored and collected as time goes by, but those cars will command a far higher price than older cars because of the amount of effort and skill which has gone into restoring them.
I wonder if Typhoons and Cyclones will be collectors items?
I thought they were called “Chariots of Fire”.
Not even restoring.
One bad wreck and a Mitsubishi Eclipse, Honda Accord, or Dodge Stratus is gone.
Not like a Lincoln Landyacht that would need a new quarterpanel or grille…I’m talking smashed to bits.
“Crumple Zones” are safer for the passengers in the event of a crash, but the body is headed to meet the saints.
Not completely true. There’s an industry of people who take those smashed cars, and combine the parts from other cars and then resell them. Of course, those “repaired” cars are often not safe to drive.
Let us not forget the '75 AMC Gremlin X, the model with the Levi’s denim interior. Nothing says “classic” like a car with a denim interior.
I’d trust my life to a '65 Pontiac or Dodge today. As for reliability, a Toyota is far more likely to be consistently starting and running 30 years down the road. But in a crash I’d rather be in the yacht.
Actually, AMC owners tend to be fanatical in their loyalty, and lots of folks restore Gremlins (wouldn’t mind having one myself).
PaulFitzroy, I quite agree, though I will say that I’ve heard stories of some older model cars with the same level of reliability as a modern car. (One Tucker owner claimed to put nearly 200,000 miles on his car, with no mechanical problems whatsoever, and mind you, all Tuckers that were built were prototypes!)
Toyotas are the vehicle of choice for guerillas fighters around the world because of their ability to last a long time with very little maintenance. Look at the news; most gunmen in Africa and the Middle East seem to be riding around in Toyota pickups or Land Cruisers from the mid-80s.
Most of the classics I can think of, have been in production from 15 to 30 years.
Today, cars don’t stay in production for more than 5 years. They will get a ‘facelift’ 2-3 years from the start of production and they will be replaced a couple of years later.
So people cannot ‘remember’ a specific car. They come and go very fast.
What about the 57 Chevy? In production for only one year in it’s form. '59 Cadillac, again, only in production for one year. Both cars are now highly collectable.
The Edsel, IIRC correctly got a facelift nearly every year it was produced.
I had in mind cars like the Citroen DS (I have one!) or the VW Beetle, not limited production ones.
IMHO?
Extremely unattractive niche vehicles might find some interest in the camp/kitch market. A 2004 Pontiac Aztek 30 years from now may be seen in the same way as a 1976 AMC Gremlin or Pacer now.
The bling-bling street cred of some vehicles may continue far into the future. “Box Chevys” – late 1970s-era Chevrolet Impalas and similar angular sedans from other GM divisions during that time – are extremely popular in predominantly minority inner-city neighborhoods.
Vehicles with distinctive design themes – Chrysler PT Cruisers, Volkswagen New Beetles, Dodge Vipers, Chrysler Crossfires and the like – will probably have some fans a few decades from now.
I’ll bet the Oldsmobile Aurora will be considered collectible years from now. It’s a dead brand, and the Aurora was considered the top-of-the-line model for the marquee. Thing is, they’re notoriously unreliable.
There will be less of them around for at least one reason - parts. On cars built up until the 1970’s, if something broke, a person with modest mechanical ability could fix it, or a new piece can be fabricated from raw materials. From the 80’s on up, there are more and more “black boxes” in cars that cannot be repaired, only replaced. Things like ignition modules, engine computers, body computers, ABS computers, emissions sensors, electronic dashboard controllers… the list goes on and on.
The supply of these parts is not infinite, and eventually there will just not be enough parts to keeps these cars running. Sure, some engineering-minded types may put a modern engine into an older body, but you will not have the large fleet of easy-to-maintain classics that you do today.
That being said… I just can’t imagine a 2004 Sonata being considered a classic. Ever.
How about the Nissan 350Z? that’s a mid-cost sports car. So is my own car, the Mazda RX-8. I’m not saying it’s destined to be a classic, but it’s unusual enough to be remembered, IMO.
Whether the rotary engine will last long enough to become “classic” is another matter, but hey - it’s fun while it lasts 
People collect cars for a variety of reasons - in my neighborhood, there is someone with a 62 Pontiac Tempest with “flex-drive,” and a 60 Rambler station wagon. Neither one could be considered a classic of design or functionality, but both were probably the cars the owners grew up in or had their first date in or whatever - making them collectable to the owner. There is no reason to think that would change in the future.
As several posters have noted, parts will be a major problem. Plastic parts can be refinished, maybe not as easily as metal but the technology is evolving. The real question is whether or not manufacturers will start to make inexpensive replacement computers and electronic components. My old Isuzu Impulse was an attractive car - it was on the cover of Road and Track - and the price has started to rise to the point where it could now be considered a collectable - but the dash was computerized, was unique to the Impulse, and the replacement cost was about $2K - ten years ago. And that was not the only computer on the car. The British government supports manufacturers who make components for classic
British cars - which is one of the reasons parts for old MG’s and Jaguars are relatively easy to get, compared to say a 1950’s DeSoto. Short of government tax breaks, it will take an electronics firm with some imagination to start building replacement components for collectors. Given the state of technology, I don’t think it would be difficult to build a generic computer to replace those in Fords or Chevy’s today, but I wonder what the software license restrictions would be like.
The thing with the classic cars is that if it doesn’t start, it’s often an extremely easy fix. My husband’s '73 Mustang convertible has the same number of miles as my '98 Ford Contour, but I’m willing to go on roadtrips in the Mustang but not in the Contour. There are simply too many things that can go wrong on the Contour–things that cost hundreds of dollars to fix.