Is the car hobby/enthusiast a dying breed?

[Redright9]

Hello,

I'm starting this thread after a conversation a friend of mine and I had about this topic. He firmly believes the car hobby is slowly dying. He thinks people are moving into the direction of self driving cars and them being a toy like a phone rather than a hobby. We both agree that old cars will always hold some value and have some following, but do you think the hobby is shrinking or growing?

 

[Lolvoguy]

yes

 

[spavel6]

My sense is that working on cars out of necessity is falling partially due to the increased reliability of modern cars. However, hobby/tinkering is staying strong. There are still plenty of folks that turn out for car meets, etc.

The notion that Millennials ALL want to be driven around by self driving cars while watching cartoons in the back seat is not true.

Interestingly, 80s and 90s cars are now becoming cool or collectible. It makes sense - cool old cars are usually the ones that are 30 years old, which is what these cars are becoming.

 

[Pelican]

Cars are being viewed more & more like appliances!
Long are gone the days when you had to know HOW to drive.
Car Enthusiasts R.I.P.

 

[bbhero]

Originally Posted by Pelican
Cars are being viewed more & more like appliances!
Long are gone the days when you had to know HOW to drive.
Car Enthusiasts R.I.P.



Rather true ^^^^^^^

 

[Cujet]

I certainly don't see the level of enthusiasm for cars that I saw 50 years ago. We can put the blame in many places, including economic reasons.

But the bottom line is that many modern cars are no fun to drive.

I recently drove a well constructed resto-rod 67 mustang with a well built and tuned 347 cubic inch engine. I think the engine made just over 425HP on the dyno, shy of it's promised 450, but not too shabby.

It was hyper responsive, and an absolute blast to drive. Maybe if more cars were incredibly fun, people would embrace the sport. But what do I know.

 

[Red91]

This thread will be locked before long, lol.

 

[maxdustington]

They said the same thing when ECMs were introduced, and the same thing when hybrids/EVs debuted.

There are already aspects of self driving cars (lane departure assist, adaptive cruise control, whatever system detects an imminent rear end collision and applies the brakes) that are pretty standard on new cars. Meanwhile, there are still new manual transmission cars being sold with these features.

 

[Fawteen]

Originally Posted by Pelican
Cars are being viewed more & more like appliances!
Long are gone the days when you had to know HOW to drive.
Car Enthusiasts R.I.P.


And that same sentiment has been uttered by every generation since automobiles were first invented.

My guess is that you don't get out to many car shows where the crowds are far larger than they were just 10 years ago. Not the boy racer crowd, but serious younger enthusiasts who enjoy real cars. And you don't follow the appreciating values of real classic cars-not the ricer or german stuff, but real serious enthusiast cars.

 

[Donald]

Young people view a car as a necessity to get from point A to point B. Unless Uber is better. My wife's daughters did not get a license until after 25 yr old.

When I was young I knew what all of the popular cars looked like so I could say what a car was without seeing any markings of the make/model. I knew what most of the popular V8 engines were is displacement in cu in.

 

[Eddie]

In my circle of friends YES. Ed

 

[Skippy722]

I wouldn't say dying, but it's definitely shifting. Less old school and more new school. The local Mopar groups I'm a part of are mostly newer cars and trucks, but it's mostly younger people as well. Cars and Coffee's are all over, and my county has a couple of HUGE cruise ins during the summer and fall months where you'll see everything from awesome old school classics to modern stuff.

 

[skyactiv]

Young people suck as usual response.

What is happening is that those who were into the hobby are dying off and not being replaced.
The same thing is happening to coin collectors.

When I was growing up, my dad was into restoring old 1960's Pontiacs. We went to car shows, swap meets and it was fun.

There is a big difference in the older cars from from the 50's and 60's and a few models before 1975 compared to the older cars from the 80's and 90's. The simplicity of the older cars makes them a lot easier to provide a fuller market of restoration parts. Too many unique parts on vehicles from the 80's and onward's unlike a 65 Mustang.

Good luck trying to find the odd parts to restore something like a Dodge Shadow turbo, a 1990 Ford Taurus SHO or even an 87 Old Cutlass Supreme.
The F body, Fox body and Corvette will/has some parts availability.

BTW, my oldest brother was lucky to be brought home from the hospital as a new born in a 69' GTO Judge.

 

[spavel6]

Originally Posted by skyactiv
When I was growing up, my dad was into restoring old 1960's Pontiacs.


If we assume you were born in the 70s, then these would have been 10-15 year old cars at the time.

A 10-year-old car now is a 2010. Those are seen as modern, new cars that rarely break down.

My point is, 1960s cars were crappy out of the factory. Therefore more people needed to know how to fix them.

Nowdays, 2000s cars are not much different in both reliability and performance as a new 2020.

 

[nascarnation]

The factories have made it pretty easy.
You can buy a Ford/Chev/Dodge with the same horsepower as the Indy 500 cars down at your local dealer.
Back when I was a kid, it was darn near miraculous to make 700 hp on gasoline.

 

[SZR48207]

Millennials are the worst

 

[Leo99]

Originally Posted by spavel6
Originally Posted by skyactiv
When I was growing up, my dad was into restoring old 1960's Pontiacs.


If we assume you were born in the 70s, then these would have been 10-15 year old cars at the time.

A 10-year-old car now is a 2010. Those are seen as modern, new cars that rarely break down.

My point is, 1960s cars were crappy out of the factory. Therefore more people needed to know how to fix them.

Nowdays, 2000s cars are not much different in both reliability and performance as a new 2020.


And a lot of 1960s cars were poorly engineered and it was fun to improve the engineering. Nowadays, cars are engineered much better. It's hard to squeeze out more HP from a modern engine. Back in the day, it was replace the intake manifold, carb, add dual exhaust. The more adventurous changed out the cam.

 

[fdcg27]

You could easily make a hobby out of earlier cars while a phone is no more than a distraction.
You could easily do things to older cars. When you opened the hood, the engine was right there and there was plenty of space around it for any work you wanted to do.
Open the hood of a new car and you're confronted with an expanse of dark grey plastic covers. If you remove them, you'll see an engine tightly nestled in a bay that leaves little room for any sort of work.
With older cars, you could easily swap out carburetors, intake manifolds and distributors. Not these days, since these parts are either gone or are integrated with others. You could replace the cast iron exhaust manifold with headers. Good luck with that now.
The nature of cars has changed and they are no longer DIY mod friendly.
You wanna see pristine old stock cars?
You can find them at any local car show, along with a few that should have been left in the yard from whence they came.
The number of people interested in owning, driving and preserving ordinary old cars remains huge, so the hobby remains alive.
You do need both the dry storage space and the discretionary income to indulge this hobby, though.
Both are becoming more scarce for most in our modern world.

 

[Chris142]

Still plenty of hot rods,lowriders,ricers and lifted trucks/ jeeps around here. I have had several older cars in my shop this week. Here are some pics.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted by spavel6
Originally Posted by skyactiv
When I was growing up, my dad was into restoring old 1960's Pontiacs.


If we assume you were born in the 70s, then these would have been 10-15 year old cars at the time.

A 10-year-old car now is a 2010. Those are seen as modern, new cars that rarely break down.

My point is, 1960s cars were crappy out of the factory. Therefore more people needed to know how to fix them.

Nowdays, 2000s cars are not much different in both reliability and performance as a new 2020.


Yeah, it's a little odd that cars can make it to 25 years old on their original powertrains, and start banging around on antique plates without really being restored.

I thought this was weird when I saw a 1980-ish Fox Body Mustang on them. Fun when you have a model body style that was the start of a decade-long run. XJ Cherokees. Wranglers. Boxy F150s and chevys. Now the "Walker Texas Ranger" Dodge Ram from 1993 qualifies. Of course we can tell kids that, yes, they used to call it a Dodge Ram.