I’ve noticed that I see fewer and fewer old cars on the the road these days. I’m talking about cars that were sold in the millions, but haven’t been made in a while - Pintos, most AMCs, etc. Is there a website that publishes data on the number of these cars still registered?
Just curious.
Well they wear out (particulary the economy ones mentioned) and then they go off to the junk yard to be scrapped for parts for the remaining ones. These kind of cars don’t usually inspire collectors. I’ve never seen a Pinto or Pacer in a car museum. (But I have seen Corvairs and Carmen Ghias).
The place to check would be state DMVs, some may have these kinds of statistics. You might also want to check google for car clubs for the particular vehicle you are looking for. I know Miata and RX-7 people have speciality clubs (as well as most foreign makes). They occasionally do car rallys and such.
A month or two ago, I heard some guy on the radio say that 2/3 of all cars on the road in the US are less than 5 years old. That would seem about right from what I’ve seen. If true, this is bad news for the auto industries, because it would mean that pretty much everyone in the US who wants a new car already has one, so car sales are probably going to remain slow for several years into the future. For companies that were already on shakey ground (like Chrysler, Mitsubishi, or Mazda), their doom could be nigh.
But, Diceman, whether a fleet with most of the cars 5 years old, or less, would adversely affect auto sales depends on a couple things. First, are most of the ‘less than 5 year old cars’ around 4 years old, or this year’s model? Second, how long do people keep cars these days? If they keep them 10 years, yes, its gonna be hard times for the new car industry. If its closer to 5 years, then sales should be steady. If the recent 0% promotions vastly increased sales, it may have an affect on near and long term car sales. BTW, I’m not in the “industry,” just an uninformed observer.
According to Studebaker’s Finest by John Bridges, the estimates are that 80-90% of cars are scrapped in ten years. By 16 years only 1% still exist and by the 25th year only one tenth of 1% are left. (His sources are the Ford Motor Car Company and Specialty Interest Autos.) Of course, a lot of it has to with the kind of car you’re talking about. Pintos are almost completely gone by now, I’m sure, while nearly every Tucker made is still in existence (something like 47 out of 51 ever made). There are companies out there that will tell you how many of a particular make and model are still out there (for a fee, of course), but I don’t believe that anyone’s got a solid number out there. Also, the kind of car that gets restored tends to change periodically. Some of it has to with current fashion as with the 58 Plymouth Furies and 59 Caddys. Both had their fans, but the popularity of the 58 Fury didn’t take off until the movie Christine, which instantly made the car popular. The 59 Caddys were considered something of a joke for a long time, then collector “fever” hit people and they decided that the cars were worth a lot of money.
Currently, four doors and stationwagons are starting to grow in value. Part of this has to do with the small number of “prime” cars (i.e. 57 Chevys and 55 T-Birds) being so expensive that many people can’t afford them, so they buy the four door version or a lesser known car equally as old. With stationwagons it has to do with the fact that you can’t buy a large, American made one anymore, so people are buying old ones and restoring them for nostalgia reasons (and they’re still pretty cheap, but this will change shortly, I’m sure).
What’s going to be interesting is to see how many people try to restore a 2001 model car 30 years from now. Unlike the cars made in the mid-80s or before, these are incredibly complex machines with miles of wiring, electronics, and plastic. One simply can’t hammer out a new fender panel for a 2001 Saturn using a piece of sheetmetal.
Go to London (UK) Hackney you will see lots of abandoned old cars on the streets (negative value of scrap) .A reason there are not as many old cars on the road is partly because emission controls which means cars can only go on the road if they are at least X clean.MOT tests every few years determine if you can drive your car on the road and they test emissions here . As an added thing cars before the 90s ran on leaded fourstar petrol which is no more (they have Lead replacement petrol that in tests kills your engine in no time at all)