Simple question Sunday. When does a car become vintage ?

According to an article I read in Sports Car Market, in the collector car world, "vintage" means pre-war, i.e. prior to WW II. Cars post-war are referred to as "classic".

 

For me it starts with the f40 which is the last Enzo saw


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Most states will give vintage license plates to 25+ year old cars.

 

I don't know what you mean by "when does that change?" It doesn't change. Vintage = pre-war = up to 1945. Classic = post-war = 1945 and later. It's that simple. Don't blame me, blame the collector hobby. They're the ones who defined the terms.

 

the definition of vintage changes depending on who you ask.

if you follow some of the articles in SCM, vintage now means 25 years or older.
will it always mean that?
maybe.

personally, i think right now, a vintage car is any car that does not need a computer to function.....which more/less matches 25 years ago....

 

I chafe at the word "vintage" just on the technicality that the word really means "of a specific date". A Roma is of 2021 vintage.

As for "classic" I get bothered by that too because it just means "recognized as special." A Roma may be a classic. Time will tell.

The last one, "antique" means something. It means "old". The threshold vintage when classic cars are considered antique, is either subjective or legally defined. For me, antique cars are ones used by the prior generation. My daughter's boyfriend just bought an antique (1987) Fiero. Its much older than him.

 

"Vintage" is in the dictionary as "old" or "classic" (Merriam Webster). I tend to agree that prewar cars are "vintage", because car design, use and manufacture changed to the point where the prewar stuff is practically unusable now.

"Classic" is subjective, based on our age, but it also connotes something of lasting importance or merit. A Dino 246 was the start of a significant lineage of Ferraris; A 1965 Porsche 911 is as recognized today as it was during the LBJ years. Those are easily called classic. A 1968 Mustang... definitely.

A Pontiac Fiero or Plymouth Laser is just an old car, although I remember thinking the Fiero was exciting back in 1984 -- when I was driving an X1/9 and imagining it was a 308 Quattrovalvole...

 

I would say it DOES change, and for me, it's carbs......

Injection in '80-'81 kind of dampened things down until engine management caught up, leading to ross' post above..
Just my thoughts...

Before Ferrari I ran Pontiacs, from 1967 thru 1994....that was a lot of eras!!

 

30 years.

When a car changes generations, it becomes "classic" or "vintage" or whatever designation you want. A 20 year old car is just old. But when you change generations, so that the people born when the car was made are no longer in their 20s, you're talking about something that will conjure up intense nostalgia.

Right now 80s nostalgia is waning in favor of 90s nostalgia because the 90s are now 30 years past. When I was a kid in the 80s, the 50s nostalgia was incredible. 50s cars, 50s music, it was everywhere. Guess what happened in the 90s? Suddenly 60s hippie culture was everywhere. From Nirvana to Alanis Morrissette.

 

In speaking of Ferraris I believe chrome bumpers are the line.

 

Yes, and you could argue the same for pre-safety bumpers on MG, Porsche, Mercedes, etc. 1974-1975 was a big change in the U.S.

If you take the technology/feature view, I'd say the analog versus digital divide separates future classics from future recyclables. To take an example that won't step on too many toes here, a simple car like a 1989 Mercedes 560 SL is emerging as a classic, while the later SLs seem dated (and getting cheap) due to all the circa 2000 technology. There's not much in a 560 SL to become obsolete, because ... there's just not much in a 560 SL. Ditto a 930 Turbo. I think I could maintain those forever without going bankrupt or hitting the unobtainium wall.

I wrote a few years back that 328 prices would eclipse the 360, not out of '80s nostalgia (definitely affects me...) but because the 328 is low tech enough and an admired design that could be a forever car for the right owner. Slow, but simple and iconic. I see evidence this has happened.

 

I think just liking a particular car without owning one can mean that you have taste. But I don't think that owning any car automatically means you have wealth/money, in fact many of the wealthy people I personally know drive cars that are barely road worthy.