Age demographic

[Allrand]

Just curious, do we have any idea of the different age groups of forum members?
It seems to me that younger generations don't have much interest in classics, is it just us oldies who hanker after cars we couldn't afford when we were younger?
Perhaps a survey with anonymous responses would be a good idea.

[Durango2k]

Well, when you‘re 20something it is usually rather hard to be able to throw out like 100 grand for a toy… when you‘re 60 and had a life with a reasonable income, and it‘s your childhood dream, then why not, plus all your attorney and dentist friends at ghe golf club say it‘s an investment (to keep SWMBO happy) ?

Carsten, who bought his wreck at 37, with money that was accumulated to buy a kitchen interior… oh don‘t ask, only men can hear the tools and car voices…

[dxke38]

I think young people today like to look at old classics and do indeed appreciate them but I don't think they would want to look after them and maintain them. They seem to want shiny new cars they can just clean or old bangers that they can just trash. I bought my 3.8 when I was 21 in 1973, it was a wreck and I had to make it roadworthy. It cost £100 for third party fire and theft insurance which was a fortune for an apprentice, but hey, halcyon days. At least I still have the car.

[mgcjag]

Dont be to quick to judge......we have a young 23 year old E type owners here on the forum.....and "young" Simon not an owner yet...he,s still saving up but knows more about E types than a lot of members here......Steve

[Tom W]

The enthusiasm for older cars is alive and well in the younger generation. At many of the local car shows there are loads of youngsters who’ve invested a lot of time, effort and money in restoring, VWs, Honda Civics, fast Fords etc.

At 40, I’m probably one of the younger E-type owners.

The problem with E-types though is one of affordability. Given even the tattiest of road worthy E-type is around £45k, it’s not a very accessible purchase. Add onto that that you’ll also need a property with garaging and some more money to keep it road worthy and it becomes even more prohibitive. That’s a lot of money to find at the same time as trying to get onto the property ladder, settle uni debt, start a family etc.

I wonder how many of us who own E-types now would actually be in a position to buy one in today’s market if they didn’t already have one? I doubt I could.

[AussieEtype]

I bought my E-Type when I was 28 - now 67. I nearly bought a V12 when I was 22 but bought a new Lancia Beta Coupe (the same price at the time). At the time E-Types were the flavour of the month in Aust and a few of my "mates" had 6 cylinder e-types.

I have been in the same Jag Club since 1990 - my age then 34 and most members in the Club now were the same ones back in 1990 so the age of the Club members has aged substantially - we were all young in 1990 and old now but unfortunately newer younger members are in short supply. While financial ability might apply to e-type ownership there are lots of nice cheap Jags out there so so younger members could join but they dont.

I am also in a Land Rover club and we have the same issue of aging membership.

I think younger people as a general statement don't like clubs and respond to local unoffical meets organised through social media like Facebook.

Garry

[politeperson]

When I was in my teens and early twenties, all my friends had modern cars and had no interest in old cars unless it was all they could afford.

Peuguot 205s Escorts and Renault 5s everywhere in 1988. I was the only one who had an interest as far as I can remember.

I think it has always been a bit of a niche interest in that regard.

Same now!

Some old cars are just old cars. They have no redeeming features. Most old cars fall into that category in my opinion. No matter how appalling an old car is, they will always have fans somewhere (Hubnut). I have no interest in owning the cars my father used to own such as a Renault 14, Peugout 504 estate, Volvo 240 estate, Audi coupe etc. You can keep them as far as I am concerned. They all have redeeming features i am sure but these do not outweigh the agro of keeping them running. I do however quite like Renalt 4s, Minis, Minors Beetles and the other excellent "Cars of the People".

Other old cars have some thing special about them that appeals to all generations of drivers no matter how old they are. I would put the E type, XKs, 911s and 190/300sls, pre-war Bentleys some American muscle cars from the 60's and various other sports cars and super cars in the bracket. They transcend generations in their appeal for good reason. I would maybe add the "young timers" from the 80s and 90s such as GTis and GTRs in that list too now as they drive pretty well.

The final group is the group of cars that are too expensive to drive on the road, the investment cars with values over £500,000. They tend to have the attributes of the sportscars but were not mass produced or have an interesting/competition history.

I think it is the first group of cars that have their value propped up by nostalgia to some degree. Good sportscars will always have their fans, even if utimately they become ornaments.

[MarkS]

Etype ownership in rich old men is inversely proportional to how long your back will allow you to stoop under the clamshell bonnet

[max-it-out]

It`s the more modern stuff that seems to interest the kids now - Fords , Beetles , various GTIs etc. The last show I went to , the original Capri that I parked next to attracted a lot more interest than my car . Most people didn`t seem to know what an E-Type was , having probably never seen one before .
This throws up another question - what will happen to values when the older generation is no longer around , and there are fewer buyers ?

[dxke38]

Mark your question has already been answered. Prewar cars values have dropped as interest has fallen due to the older enthusiast moving on. Hope it doesn't happen to us with E Types just yet.

[Allrand]

Food for thought Mark & Derek!

[SEJohnson95]

Whilst not all of the younger generation hanker after classic cars, there are plenty of people interested in them. Don't forget the more social media-savvy generations have access to more classic car content than perhaps others.

You could argue that we aspire to own cars that relate to our own experiences of nostalgia - the cars we saw growing up, the cars we could hope to afford one day, etc.

I suspect that there will still be a market for classic cars, particularly those which transcend generations and captivate those of all ages - The E-type is still seen in lots of places and could be viewed as a "British institution" as such. The reasons for ownership will change as those who saw them in the 60s or grew up in the 60s will no longer be around and don't necessarily want to be immersed in the whole 60s culture (as is often the case at the E-type Club events). However, the car's appeal will still be there. I'm a bit biased, but hey!

Not so sure about what will happen to values. Consider how values over the past decade have shot up as people are buying E-types for investment (apropos sod all else to invest in!), just to be hoped that eventually the true enthusiasts are still able to afford them - oh, and we are still able to actually drive them!

I suspect you could also tie in how desirable a car is by how practical and/or reliable they are in everday life. The E-type is more than capable of keeping up with modern traffic and can be made to be very reliable. Plenty of mechanics are capable of working on them still, or the home enthusiast takes over. Pre-war cars are a different beast and I suspect the knowledge base for them is dying off to an extent.

I second the enthusiasm for the "fast Fords" - my Dad had Capris, Escorts etc when he was first driving and transferred that love to me. Similarly, we have a 2015 MX-5 which we treat as a classic car / will keep in the family and we use it as such. The thrill of owning a fast and fun car is there, with a bit more reliability and sitll with the opportunity to do all the "Classic car club" stuff.

I do hope to own an E-type one day. The ambition is still there, even if plenty of other things need to happen before then!

[dxke38]

Good luck Simon, I hope you get your E Type one day. You are right about people aspiring for the cars they saw when young. I saw my first E in 1964 when I was 12 and bought that car in 1973 when 21. Couldn't have afforded it years later. I don't think pre war cars are that different, just from a different era, but the people who grew up with them are nearly all gone now so not much aspiration for them. As for E values, during my 48 years of ownership there have been many ups and downs in values do to economics at the time.

[JerryL770]

I also read The Automobile magazine and it is quite clear from that that there is still a lot of interest in all cars going back to the beginning of automotive history. There is huge industry and capability available for restoring and rebuilding the most decomposed pile of bits. Even, the older it is the more likely it is to be restored by someone. An illustrative point is the 1922 cycle car featured inside and on the front cover of the current edition. I happened to see it at a local meet and it left with a full family of 4 riding. So I do not think that the enthusiasm for old cars is necessarily a rolling age group (with respect to the cars).

[Marcus2571]

I'm 40 and bought mine when I was 33. Few of us "younger" owners about. I learnt more about imperial measurements in my first year of ownership than I did at 14 years of school!

[rossbraithwaite]

my guess, and judgement from E60, would be that 80% are 60+, 20% are 40-60 and that almost no one of less than 40 would go out and buy an E Type today with their own money. As already stated this is due to both accessibility and desirability. Certainly none of my peers are hankering after cars from the 60's; 10-15 years before they were born, even if they did have £100k cash to drop. Cars from the 90's and noughties are 20-30 years old now and you can easily spend big money for them.
One reason younger cars are more accessible to younger people is the availability of credit through dealers; much harder on older classics.
In your opinion what will happen to E Type values over the next 10 years as the current owner demographic changes? Will you still own your car in 10 years' time?