Hands off! Or not? (Upd. White Gloves!)

Well, I might sound like a tree-hugging, pinko, whale-saving liberal, but if I could find a younger person or a group of them, a school or college maybe, who would take one of my cars on, learn about it, hopefully with my help and encouragement and look after it from then on, I'd happily give it to them FOC.

Why the hell do I need top dollar for an old car at my time of life? Better someone else gets the benefit of it. But then I'm not a neo-liberal capitalist and it's not about money with me.

Mr scott I couldn´t agree more about hyping prices up,,, but that again is just human nature.
If a young man were to come around as keen as mustard but only had 1k in his pocket would u accept that as opposed to the 10 k from a 40 plus year old for your old motor. if you would where were u when i was 17...
Then what happens is forty years down the line that young man is now an old boy but with a few more notes in his pockets and sees that car that he has lusted after all his life up for sale at an auction,,, what do u think is gonna happen,,, his dream is sitting not ten yards away,, there are professionals that know how humans work and it is there job to take as much money from u as possible ,,, everything has been planned even down to the order in which the items are sold... hopefully there isnt another fool with his hand in the air ,,, cos this u think is your last chance ,,, my god u have waited 40 years.. the numbers are matching (who really cares) but at this point it means everything.. it has an extra cigar lighter (though u gave up smoking 8 years ago) and it has twin carbs and an alloy head,, which equates to sexyness and performance, u somehow forget that your mini van would eat this old piece of crap for breakfast....
Now another old fool has just parted with some serious wedge for an antiquated motor,,, but hey at least the old man also at last has a garage... which is where the car will now sit till he dies.....
i am afraid that classic cars lovers are just like classic music concert goers ,, they are 90 % old dodders and every generation wonders what is gona happen when they die,, yep u guessed it just replaced by more old farts i am afraid .....
oh the kids on the bonnet thing ,,, too funny ,, drives me nuts too but it is just what people do,,,

We need to stop regarding these as assets or investments, and stop hyping the prices up, 90% of old cars are just that, old cars, that's all, pure and simple. For an investment you need to have investors, maybe with the multi-million pound Ferraris, Bentley, Maserati, Voisin, Delahaye, Bugatti etc, of great rarity and of great engineering interest, unrestored and original and of impeccable provenance there will still be an investment market and a demand, but for the mundane and pretty undistinguished average pre-war car, it's just an old car, someone who likes and appreciates old cars will enjoy driving it and tinkering with it, but it's no more an "investment" than the local amateur painters daubings are great art!!

And when this vastly overhyped "investment" market crashes, because there will be ten times more cars than people wanting to own them, there will be tears all round, far better to regard it as an old car that pleases you and that you enjoy driving, who cares if it's "worth" £2k or £200k? I can see it going full circle in a few years time with cars going into the crusher again, just like they did in the 50's, because no-one wants them.

It's already happening with sailboats, perfectly good boats that would take you pretty much anywhere you have the ability to take it, far from being the"investments" people are used to thinking, are getting cut up, and people having to pay for the privilege, as there are no buyers and it's the only way to get rid of it.

Only good thing is cars, unlike boats and horse, don't eat so at least you aren't bleeding cash month by month, but the problem won't go away!

I think we should start a competition with a cash prize for anyone that can come up with a "dissuader" that will put people off using our cars as free for all amusements.

I propose 450 volts!

This has actually raised a more fundamental problem, who is going to carry on after we have hung up our driving gloves? There are very few people under 50 coming through, and certainly in 10 or so years time, very few of the cars we drive will find buyers, maybe 5-10% of them as the laws of supply and demand suggest with only 10% of the current purchasing "pool" prices will collapse. It won't be a question of how much your pampered car is worth, unless it's a Bugatti or Ferrari, but will you even be able to give it away?

Same is happening with old boats, old bikes, old planes, stationary engines, old houses to a lesser degree, there is a whole seismic shift coming, the comfortable things we have taken for granted since the 50's are disappearing as the i-pod generation take over. We need to wake up to this before it's too late.

I would suggest that presenting old cars as some kind of pampered and pimped-up toy, to be kept firmly behind barriers in case someone might touch them, or get a mark on them, isn't going to attract younger people who already labour under the delusion that old cars are expensive, time-consuming, money-eating "Rich-Mans-Toys, for the Baby-Boomers, an indulgence that can't be justified in daily life. In fact, old cars are eminently practical, they are pretty reliable once some basic work has been done, simple and easy to fix. "Oily Rag" cars don't need to be labour-intensive to keep running and are tolerant of the mistakes and errors everyone makes when starting off. When we got into old cars in the 50's and 60's it was only Old Bangers, either you had an old car, and fixed it yourself with the aid of a mentor, and rode in relative style, or suffered the ignominy of catching the bus!

We had mostly no garage, we worked in the street laying underneath in the gutter, with no proper tools and getting our parts from the car breakers, no gleaming socket sets, compressors, pits, or even 240v power, off-the-shelf new parts and certainly no garage bills, we just couldn't afford them. Most younger people haven't a clue where to start but a cheap, disreputable-looking car with a source of s/h parts like an A7, (or something less popular like a Standard or Morris might be more sensible), would be a lot less daunting than some overblown "Trailer Queen" to cut their teeth on and make their mistakes on? We need to encourage people, not put them off.

Last weekend I took the Calthorpe to the village Bastille Day lunch, two young lads, grandson of our neighbours and his cousin, were very interested, asked lots of valid questions, clambered around it,sat in it, tried the lights and switches and when I left I allowed them to start it. Next time I see them I'll give them a ride, maybe even let them drive it in the field ( they already can drive a tractor at 9 or 10!). So they might scuff it or scratch it, better that than be afraid to go near it in case some ogre chases them off.

The cars need to be accessible to the younger generation, somehow we let the dads, the 30-40 year-olds, slip through our fingers, we need to show young teens and twenties that old cars don't need to be onerous, nor expensive ( "investment" prices are actually working against us!), are practical and can be lots of fun, the VSCC does a good job with it's younger members, but we need to put the cars in kids hands, to touch, smell, play with. If we don't there'll be a lot of over-priced cars sitting in garages that no-one wants.

I am a believer that we should be allowing kids and young adults to explore our cars - under supervision- after all these are the people who will inherit from us and the earlier they get used to it the better. My local car club recently took a load of classic cars to the local junior school to enable the children (aged 6 - 12) to touch, sit in and explore our cars - under supervision! They may show more respect to them when they see them at shows or on the road later in life.

And you classic car buffs think you've got problems...
The bonnet (hood) of my wife's Mercedes-Benz B model is made of thin aluminium (aluminum), part of some concept that allows you to scoop up pedestrians without injury (to them). She once parked it under a chestnut tree in autumn, after which the bonnet looked like washboard....

I'm afraid I have never been to an old car/old bike show in my life, I'm Imbecile-Intolerant so I avoid them like the plague, I just drive it normally, to the cafe, the boulangerie, shop,m VSCC event etc. Stay away from shows I suggest?

Once in Old Montreal, an old man and his grandkids were looking at my 54 Traction. He started to put the kid on the hood, I yelled at him. He got mad and said "Are you afraid?" I said, "Afraid I'll punch you in the mouth? Yes!" He backed off. What the hell is wrong with people that they think your car is a plaything for them? Here's something amusing for a moment! An old car!
A friend of mine's 2CV still has dents from where the hood collapsed after some teenage girl sat on it.

Robert,

That is what we call civilisation in in the western world......

@ David,
Wait until you see that idiot that puts his 3 year old on your bonnet to make that lovely picture, or that overweight microbrainer that pulls himself out of your car by the fragile steeringwheel, or that lovely summerday when you find that melted icecream on your seat. It has nothing to do with "prissy" it's just that to many people haven't got any sense of prudence or intelligence left.

I remember some time ago BMW Museum had a "Night of the White Gloves" when the visitors were provided linen gloves and allowed to touch the cars. Touch is paria when it comes to patrimony, yet the BMW Museum let their cars being sensed in that way.

Comment by Editor Rutger Booy: I had forgotten we did an article on that one: http://www.prewarcar.com/magazine/previous-features/please-touch-003314.html

Those prissy people are quite safe, I wouldn't touch one of their pimped-up, over-restored, tart's cars with a bargepole thanks!!

human nature,,, anything that looks like gold has value or is shinny or or even more worth such as beauty and youth,,, we long to touch .... anything that looks like shit or decay somehow we are not so keen,, odd that ...