Joined: Dec 2017 Posts: 189 Threads: 8
Reputation:
1
Location: East Yorkshire
Car type: Ruby sports trial special .
Just been thinking are the classic car we have now
The last one,s , I just cannot see a modern car in fifty years
Time being restored due to all the electronic and plastics
Used in there manufacturing ?
What do you think ?
My problem I ask questions that other people don't like?
Like have you got that for an investment or for fun?
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 691 Threads: 37
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Location: The Scottish Border
Just as well we all have Austin 7’s though I for one
won’t be here in 50 years to find out, as well as most of the Forum
Our grandchildren will find out in due course....
Will there still be a Tony Betts to keep these cars going?
Will there be any petrol ?
Will Brexit still be dragging on ?
I must get back to the garage...
Bill G
Based near the Scottish Border,
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 725 Threads: 38
Reputation:
12
Location: Herefordshire
I've wondered about this, too.
Personally, I wouldn't want to attempt serious work on anything built after about 1980, but a younger enthusiast probably wouldn't be half as daunted by the electronics as I am.
The biggest challenge would be the near-impossibility of "make do and mend", using raw materials and generic parts when the original equipment is not available.
As a slight aside, I well remember an article in Practical Classics from about forty years ago bemoaning the fact that then-current cars like Allegros, Hunters and Cortinas would NEVER be classics!
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 66 Threads: 1
Reputation:
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Location: Herefordshire
This is one of "Those" conversations. It's hard to imagine modern cars becoming classics, but stranger things have happened. I mean, I still consider my 1998 Honda Civic a modern car. It's just the sort of car that was the norm when I was growing up. unremarkable and bland. But if I compare it to my mother's Astra which is only a couple of years old I begin to realise how old fashioned the Honda is. The fact is there are certainly people out there who consider my Civic to be a modern classic, and would go to some effort to restore it to an as new condition. It's worth remembering that to a 17 year-old passing their driving test this year, it would seem positively ancient, simple (despite being far more complex than a car 20-30 years older) and probably interesting and different as a result. I know that's what got me interested in classic cars when I started driving. Everything's relative, really. Ultimately the main preventative factor will likely be availability of fuel.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,011 Threads: 168
Reputation:
37
Location: Sherwood Forest
Car type: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
I can remember back in the 'sixties we were saying cars like the A30 and A35 would never be collectable because of the complexities of construction, especially the use of curved glass!
Assuming there is still an interest in cars, I am sure that enthusiasts will find a way to cope with elderly electronics and disintegrating plastics.
Joined: Aug 2018 Posts: 190 Threads: 5
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Location: Dorset seaside
I think cars before 1970 will still be classics, look at the prices for Mk1 Lotus Cortinas and Escort Mexicos, wish I had never sold my Escort Twin Cam.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 882 Threads: 48
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4
Location: North Wiltshire
Car type: 1927 Chummy, 1938 Big Seven 1/2 a Trials Chummy
My "other" classic car is an MGF. They're like Marmite, some people love them, some people hate them. All the complexity of an EFI, twin OHC, 4 valves per cylinder, wet (damp) liner engine and it's twenty two years old! Someone asked me why I didn't buy an MX5 instead - but what would be the challenge in that?
Currently worth nothing at all, maybe this will be an appreciating classic?
In the meantime, it's a really nice drive to work on a sunny day between April and September.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 2,401 Threads: 33
Reputation:
36
Location: Deepest Frogland 30960
Car type: 1933 RP Standard Saloon
Like Parazine, I also have an MGF. Mine is a 1996 built Mark 1 registered early 97 in pretty clean and decent order, and rumour has it that early ones are starting to appreciate. Later MGFs and TFs suffered from corner cutting by MG Rover as it headed towards its crash, but even so, the MGF with it's hydragas suspension is a nice car to drive despite its 22 years. I've had the spheres regassed and have just recently replaced the soft top with a new cover. It has a glass rear screen with HRW to replace the perspex original but apart from that it's pretty original. Not the easiest of things to work on, but apart from the head gasket problem (mine has been sorted) they are pretty well nigh bomb proof. The vagaries of the UK winters has seen off a lot of them to the great garage in the sky so well kept ones are becoming rarer by the day.
Nice to have something that came from the same factory as the Austin 7, albeit some 63 years later!
.