[kingbuzzo]

My daughter who is graduating high school this year keeps mentioning what would be happening to my T/A after I'm gone and it is making me suspicious altho somewhat pleased...lol

Take a kid to a car show they say!

[kingbuzzo]

https://youtu.be/L774jUH1cq4

[Jay S]

I bought a newer Ram 4x4 half ton pickup last winter with a V6. After driving it a while I thought this might be a good vehicle for my son to drive when he gets his license.

He is going to be 12 this summer, so not there yet. But for kicks I asked him if he thought it would be a good school ride. He seemed to like the truck quite a bit. But his answer was NOPE…I want to drive something like the 77 Trans Am or the 69 Charger.

I know that came from him riding with me, not looking at them in the garage.

[OG68]

My 26 year old daughter and her husband sat in my incomplete 68 the other day. It will be her car when the time comes. She has helped me with it from time to time and almost knows how to drive a stick lol. She and her husband were talking about how roomy it was and lots of room for their kids (when they have them). They appreciate that I'm installing rear shoulder belts for the car seats to come and the added under dash A/C unit. They thought the 3/8" whitewalls were "Super Cool".
I let her drive my 70 El Camino SS to high school when she wanted so she knows how an old A body drives and pins you to the back of the seat when asked to.

[1965gp]

You guys are all doom and gloom!

As long as they keep putting these cars in movies we will be fine.

The EV commitment has slowed dramatically and kids are aware of the downfalls. Somehow Elon became uncool so there goes that.

There will of course be a slow down.

GTO’s, Trans Am’s, Super Sports, Chargers, Mustang Fastbacks, etc will continue to rise. #’s matching or not I feel these cars will always be desirable. Like the 57 Chevy they will continue to rise with inflation but probably not outperform inflation after the next 10 years.

B bodies, 4 doors, base models will see a steady decline but again I do not think they will be worthless. Convertibles will hold value because of the driving experience.

80’s -00’s are the next ones on the rise. We have seen Iroc-Z’s for $50-60k but in 10 years that will probably be the norm.

Every time my daughters have groups over (16 and 19) the kids are in the shop amazed by the sound, the look and especially the simplicity. They want to sit in them, ride in them and take videos of them.

My daughter drove my 87 Formula to school one day and was amazed by the experience- no screens, no messages….. just driving. Perhaps that why I enjoy the older cars so much- you are just driving and enjoying the car.

There was a time we thought records were done too!

Gen X’rs are going to be around for another 40 years which helps.

Of course I could be completely wrong, never been accused of being smart

[Skidmark]

Young people still like new fast cars that they can finance i.e. mustangs, challengers, chargers, and a few others. We'll have to see what happens when they stop making new cars with combustion engines.

I think the demand for classics is going to continue to decrease in coming years so less demand = more supply = lower prices.

I used to think the 2000 and up Pontiac firebird/TA would continue to be strong, but there are so many if them out there, I don't know.

On the up side maybe I'll be able to afford a car I might never have been able to afford if demand stayed high. It'll have to get pretty bad if I'm ever going to have a SD 455.

[59safaricat]

The hobby will continue but values will probably fall back down to reasonable prices. Everything is over the top expensive and out of reach for the younger crowd at the moment.

No worries, there will be market for them, especially as they continue to dry up and become more rare. Time has a way of weeding them out.

[MidnightAuto]

One of the key drivers in kids apathy to cars in general is two fold: (1) mobile phones and social media. Cars were a source of freedom to get out of your parents house and explore with friends. They do that on their phones now. It’s why kids have an anxiety attack if their phone is not on their person at all times. (2) Uber. If a kid actually needs to go somewhere it’s a couple app clicks away.

Unfortunate outcome. I don’t care about car value, I’ll continue to spend on my car with no expectation of return other than a smile on my face. But I do hope I can get one of my kids to enjoy these cars

[242177P]

Originally Posted by 1965gp

As long as they keep putting these cars in movies we will be fine.

[1965gp]

Point taken on that XXX GTO!

[locomotivebreath]

There’s a lot of us here in their 30 & 40s . My nephews love my GTO . A young lady mayb early 20’s came up to get a picture of it when I was getting gas and just ask what it was ! Young people are interested but as pointed out , they are priced out . When I got my license around 1994 , it was already a tough hobby to get into . The days of finding a GTO or a SD on a lot were already long gone . We didn’t have access to cool parts over the counter . The older crowd that did in the 70s wasn’t a very receptive bunch and many still aren’t . They didn’t share info , answer questions and shared 0 interest in whatever little project you had managed to get your hands on because they all had the cool stuff . Our local track , Edgewater in Cincinnati was full of perfectly good shoebox , SS cars , real Z’s etc. that older guys had for what ever reason , CUT UP and turned into bracket cars . WHY lol when the Japanese cars showed up on the scene , the older wrenchers really made themselves look bad with their attitudes . It was like “ our cars , our music , our hobby “ attitude . Lots of younger guys avoided the track and cruise ins in turn . Even playing some newer music at these events helps ! Lol

[KS circutguy]

Originally Posted by kingbuzzo

https://youtu.be/L774jUH1cq4

HELL NO

[Jay S]

The prices have to stay high or go up, because that same money buys less and less. If the price on car has went down the last few years, it didn’t go down in price a little, it went down a lot. Inflation

The car scene generally looks a little different for the younger generations. For drag racing it is No prep, small tire, street car take over type stuff. That group is into older cars too.

My son and I went to the Import Face Off in Topeka last year, drifting, car show, drag racing, car limbo, stereo contest. Never seen so many LS engines in foreign cars. They have what is called the ice cream cruise at my local track, which draws a similar crowd. They had over 2000 show cars, they had to stop letting people in because there was to many people at the facility. The line to get in was insane, took over 2 hrs to get in to spectate. I don’t ever remember smaller venue car events drawing people like that in the past.

[dhcarguy]

I think our cars will always be of value, but they WILL slow in appreciation. As long as parts keep being available, there will always be guys around that want a toy. They are easy to work on and keep them running without being a mechanic by trade.
Ca n you imagine the nightmare and expense it would take to restore modern day cars with all the technology and electronics in our daily drivers when they become 20 years old or more. I can take my car completely apart and put it back together yet I have no clue how to fix our newer cars.

[John Milner]

I'm not sure if I'm considered a "young guy" at 36 but have been into Pontiacs since I was 13 years old. I bought my 74 GTO for $500 in 2001 when I was 13 and still have it. Then I ended up buying and fixing up quite a few other Pontiacs, muscle cars and hot rods and am still heavily involved in it today. I don't know what will happen in the future, but I do know I will always have my Pontiacs.

[ta6point6]

That is probably what the T-bucket guys were saying about 70's people. I heard the same thing when leaded gas was gone and the same when fuel injection came along. I guess I am in the opposite crowd like many things around here. Cars have only gotten faster, more fuel efficient, better braking and handling. The younger generations are doing what most of us had to do when we were younger buy cars they could afford. In my day (80's) it was 75 and up Novas, Malibus, Chevelles, Torinos and Dusters. The younger generation had to go with Civics and Camrys that were cheap in their time. If you dont think the younger crowds know about cars then you havent been watching and seeing these FWD imports running some insane numbers on the street and on the track. Also guys our age are swapping newer motors in older cars and that is going to appeal to the younger crowd as well. I will say most people who get into the car hobby thinking they are going to be making huge profit after selling their completed vehicles are in for a rude awaking. The average car enthusiast has put more money into their vehicle then it will ever be worth. If you look at videos (youtube) or like someone else mentioned a Cars and Coffee event the car culture is going to be fine. In fact the days of tuning your carburetor by ear are over with the availability of O2 sensors. Heck these young kids could probably teach most older guys a thing or two about tuning their modern vehicles with a laptop.

[kingbuzzo]

Originally Posted by Skidmark

Young people still like new fast cars that they can finance i.e. mustangs, challengers, chargers, and a few others. We'll have to see what happens when they stop making new cars with combustion engines.

These cars are a dime a dozen. Maybe as they drop in value it will trigger a renaissance of sorts.

[Ben M.]

Anyone complaining about "kids these days" and "social media" and "devices" is missing the biggest point for the decline of interest in our cars:

They don't make them anymore and haven't for literal decades now. Pontiac ceased as a brand in 2011 and stopped making their own engines in 1981. The further we get from those dates the further people's general knowledge of it becomes. It becomes history you read about in a book vs something that you actually experienced and saw in person.

As time marches on the cars that were plentiful when used and easily able to be bought become rarer and rarer. Most cars reach the trough of their value between 10 and 15 years old, with some continuing to be worth less into their 20s when they aren't in very good shape. Once they start getting in their 30s and beyond, nice ones start to command more of a premium simply due to the supply. Once we started getting into the "old cars are an investment" aspect of the hobby starting in the mid-1980s, the ceiling on car values and selling prices seems to have nearly no limit. Who is spending $100k+ on a '70-72 F-body? I know it ain't me. Prices for the remaining cars keep going up as a result.


Also, as has also been alluded to here, money is hard to come by for most people who didn't buy a house 20+ years ago. Rents and food prices keep going up, wages aren't really going up as fast and jobs keep expecting you to change or find another every few years. If you don't have an extra grand or so a month, how are you going to be able to afford to buy a spare "fun" car much less maintain it when things break? Sure, a good chunk of parts are still available but their prices are going up and up. When you factor in the time passed aspect, finding a competent shop to work on your car when it needs something beyond simple hand tools is becoming harder and harder to do as well.

I know plenty of kids in the late teens to mid 20s who very much like cars and want an older one for fun, but none of them have any way of being able to buy a decent project much less a nice driver for anything that's more than 15-20 years old. Stripped '68-72 A-body and '70-81 F-body shells and projects are being put in the classifieds for $8-10k. Where's a kid just out of high school or in college going to get that, then put it some place they can put it back together and drive it again? A car they may never have even seen driving on the road fully assembled that only is a box of parts? Especially with us old fogies sitting on these boards talking about how stupid and selfish young kids are and that they need to get off their phones and their tiktoks and learn to be real men? And if they do manage to get it built and make it fast, the first time a cop sees them do a burnout or accidentally chirp the tires pulling out of a gas station they get slapped with a reckless driving charge and the car is seized and sold at auction.

The hobby is changing. That's just how it is. Kids like what they saw and lived in growing up, just like we did. And they are buying what they can afford - which is whatever "fun" car that wasn't gobbled up by the investors with deep pockets (like imports and trucks).

[jww]

My neighbor talking about his collector cars told me one day, “ when I die someone’s gonna weld my cars doors shut and put ‘em in the local demo derby at the county fair”
I sure hope not, but then he does have FERDS!!

[1965gp]

Getting ready to drive 7 hours to pick up some SLP parts from the 90’s. Guy has a prototype Firehawk, some low mile Irocs and some Callaway Corvettes. These are the next cars that will shoot up-the 13 second cars we read about in magazines (remember them?) and raced in the 90’s.

An interesting comparison with today’s youth is to look at the older Japanese cars. Hondas, Toyotas and Subaru’s from the 70’s are on fire compared to what they were worth 10 years ago. It’s kids buying them- not guys our age.