Why Did You Buy a Classic Car?

long story short i thought good question can’t think of a good answer read a comment or so first of all purchased for $550~ easy to work on unlike newer cars actually their’s good character in preserving & maintaining idk for what the dmv now consideres a classic car isn’t outdone beh most brand new cars this baby benz i could go on & on

fed up of throwing good money away on new cars,
memories of my first 2 cars. a 2cv and a mgb kept returning,
build quality and materials used are not what they used to be,
driver aides divorced me from the experiece and joy of the road
so i turned the clock back 2 years ago… bought a 1958 porsche speedster and then last year a 1973 porsche 911S, spent a fortune, but know that these are cars i can leave my children
my daily driver is a modern classic, a g-wagen, the porsches are kept for weekends and country lane driving.. all 3 are silver with black, all are wonderful in very different ways

Why?
Because I bought an Alfa Romeo. Then I bought another. Then I bought yet another.
Because every old classic envokes the feelings which Top Gear try to avoid but fail to avoid when talking about Alfas: soul, passion and charm.
It’s about the beauty, form, hope and dreams that were somehow assembled into the very metal of old cars before the reign of plastic took over.
Will modern cars be looked at as classic in the future? I suspect some but few. 😉

For me it was the joy of driving something thats so different from a modern car, and having to work at something to get the results. Getting stopped at the gas station for someone to tell me a story about a TR6 they had or a friend had never gets old either. The Noise it makes. being able to drive with the radio off and actually have an engine worth listening too. my every day car doesn’t thrill me in the same way. taking it out of the garage the process involved, it all adds up to something special and who doesn’t want to have their own little slice of something special. I will never know the joy of owning a Ferrari 250 California, or a Austin-Martin DB4 or anything of the elk, but my TR6 does something my Hyundai will never do. it makes me smile and while i probably could have bought a new car for all the money and work I have put into the Triumph it wouldn’t be special

The smell of a classic car interior

There’s nothing that can be compared to this
Everything else can be reproduced.

The art of motion and the pursuit of quantify ability. We measure distances, depths, heights and widths, we measure time! Everything is given its own unit. If not applicable for certain conditions we change and modify the rules and laws to suit. Faster, deeper, higher and more exact, yet our minds are not solely captured by these parameters. I have a digital watch that exchanges ones an zeros with its celestial partner telling me the exact time at any given place. It measures all sorts of things. It is after all just a thing. I could follow the smoothly moving second on my automatic watch for hours though. They both measure the same, better or worse, but I do find it hard to appreciate the work of the brilliant mind that designed the circuit board in my digital companion. It never puts a smile onto my face. On a lazy day when the cogs and gears that create the beautiful ticking sound can’t keep up with time or “feel” eager and run ahead… they do, they make me smile and have me wondering just how they keep doing what they do! It is not close to perfect and not far off, and it is this gap that is hard to quantify.
That gap that makes me talk to my Porsche when it doesn’t turn over first try and not make me feel like an idiot for doing so. The pleasure I get looking at it, following its lines all seen before. The smells and sounds. The warm feeling I get thinking about it while I am writing this. When we go for a spin in the Hinterland mastering every corner together as a unit. A relationship only an old machine, an old love can give! It upsets, but gives and takes. It is like the automatic watch, not better in any quantity, but in all qualities not quantified by units!

Drive tastefully,

Michael

Why you ask, well, because my elbow meets the top of the door sill so much more comfortably in my ’71 sedan than in my 2012 sedan, horizontal, maybe slight declination, so I like the ’71 and the good-wife likes the aircon. of the Tojo wind-tunnel product. ’71 is a manual 3spd, Tojo 6spd manual – nutz isn’t it.

I’m a pretty simple person, mostly I just choose cars that I like for whatever reason, and I just happen to like classic or old cars more than new ones 😉

I call it ‘entertainment value’. I’d always wanted a 911 and finally had the chance to get rid of my wonderful (mostly modern Miata) in favor of an older / tougher to drive fast, 911. People ask me if I miss the Miata and I say yes, of course but, as far as pure entertainment value goes, there’s not much of a comparison & in that sense, I don’t think you can beat an old air cooled 911.
Chris

I’m 23 and currently drive a 1985 Mercedes-Benz 230E. I didn’t buy a thirty year old Mercedes, I inherited it from my dad who somehow gave up on it in favour of his 1993 300SE. While it is true that”new cars are pound-for-pound better in every quantifiable way”, the reason we own and drive older cars is anything but quantifiable, Yes, I could save more fuel, go faster, brake later, turn harder, get more radio stations, go through fewer tyres and quarts of oil in my sisters’ 2L Golf 5, I wouldn’t be happier with it or myself. I love the character of the car (a very cliched but ultimately very true sentiment), I love oddities, quirks, niggles and faults of older cars, I love how I can work on it with a good set of spanners and a hammer, I even love the Mercs ratty, chipped and faded paint, I especially driving it. So the answer to the (slightly adjusted) question of why do we buy, own and drive classic cars when new ones are faster, more fuel efficient, ergonomic, reliable, get more radio stations (sort of a big issue with me) and somehow, despite all that 70’s chrome, shinier is because [i]they’re[/i] better.

Driving my ’75 TR6 is a lot like listening to a Rolling Stones album of the same vintage, everything seems like it might fall apart at any minute, but never really does. Hence the charm of driving the car. Modern cars have too many computers, are stupidly fast, require little effort drive and insulate the driver from the world outside. There is simply no modern sport cars that has the same feel as a classic car, and that’s what is comes down to for me. My Honda is for transportation, my TR is for the pure enjoyment of driving.

For many reasons. One is more important than other, you see when you put many hours in to a car in form of restoration or just polishing and detailing, you get attached to it in a way you won`t with a new car. The older classic cars are mendable and easier to fix in your own garage without any computer, so they are more intuitive and require just basic tools. The older classic are usually in more direct contact with the surface and is more evolving and during the ride in form of sound, suspension, handling, and comfort. Most of the older classics are an investment and during your time of ownership ( borrow period ), you will brake even or make money on it when selling… So it is “cheap” and fun as well!

Regards
Bjorn

Because new cars are boring oatmeal! It’s how they make you feel driving them, plus the question mark of whether you will complete your journey 😀

A friend said it very well.. My modern car is for driving to a destination. My classics I choose a destination for an excuse to drive.

An older car is much more appealing to me than any new model on the market today as I have found that the former provides a driving experience like no other. The raw feeling, unrefined cabin noise and distinctive smells that an older car emits combined with the history of the car is what makes classic motoring so much fun!

When you buy a new car, one of the most important factors to consider is the kilometres that it’s travelled. With retro rides, you shouldn’t care because the body, engine and trim will usually indicate how a car has been maintained irrespective of the kilometres it’s travelled. Restoration is about reviving a relic and should never be an easy process.
The hunt for replacement parts both online and at wreckers or buying a donor car is what makes classic cars both unique and enjoyable.

Many will contest that this is the painful part of owning an older car, but the rewards of building an automobile that was ready to retire is a fulfilling feeling that can only be truly appreciated when experienced. It would be nice to see some more vintage vehicles chugging along in traffic.

Lolwut.

Oops, that should read:

I bought a 600HP made in the last 5 years. Classic motorcycles are another story as the breed has improved so much in the last 20 years. Riding a classic is still a special experience but I’m happy to no longer rely on my ’70 Triumph for daily transport, much less track days!

[b]Soul[/b]. That’s the simple answer to this question.

I’ve owned a number of classic cars, including a 1977 Datsun 280Z, 1974 Datsun 260Z, 1972 Fiat 128, 1968 Volvo 122S and a 1978 Mercedes Benz 280CE. I bought them all for the same reason—they have soul. They feel like a car is supposed to feel.

I currently drive a 1997 Porsche Boxster, which I bought because it was the closest thing I could get to a classic car that has somewhat modern power and reliability. The Boxster is devoid of things like glove boxes, cup holders, cruise control, navigation, self-parking, traction control, lane-drift warnings, etc. Less things to go wrong than with modern cars… and when something does break, I have a much better chance at fixing it myself.

I’ll soon be in the market for another car, and a classic is the only thing I’m really considering. I enjoy driving too much to buy anything modern.

I wrote a long answer this question back in August. If you’d like to read it, you can find it here: [url=”http://dyerhaus.kinja.com/are-these-lost-souls-forever-gone-1627809265″]Are These Lost Souls Forever Gone?[/url]