[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by 63gpman

37 and feels like all of my friends are 50+ not many car guys my age. Maybe due to work life balance, maybe due to not growing up around these cars? Who knows?

It's a combination of complete unaffordability and not growing up around mechanical tasks like previous generations. This used to be an everyman hobby. You could buy a cool project car, cheap and scower junkyards for treasures. Those days are long gone and have been for 25 years. Cars are typically either complete trash or somewhat restored anymore. Restored cars command a crazy amount of money and we all know trashed cars cost more in the long haul. Most of these guys my age have piles of college debt, ridiculous day care bills and are just trying to make it all month to month. The only reason I have my GTO is because I got it when they were cheap. I love musclecars like no one else but there is 0 chance I go drop $30-40K for a GTO right now. The prices of these cars, that everyone loves to brag about right now, is what will kill the hobby.

[63gpman]

Originally Posted by Nicks67GTO

ridiculous day care bills

2016 I spent $16,400 on daycare, this year I will spend $22,900. We have 5 kids at home, 9,6,3 and 10 month old twins.

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by 63gpman

2016 I spent $16,400 on daycare, this year I will spend $22,900. We have 5 kids at home, 9,6,3 and 10 month old twins.

Ouch. I laid out $13k for daycare and preschool for 2 kids last year and I thought that was bad....until I talked to friends who are just getting hammered by it.

Anyhow to add to my previous statement...it used to be that these cars were considered "fast" in stock form. That was true up until about 5-7 years ago and all of the sudden for what you spend on buying and modding a 50 year old musclecar you can buy a killer Factory built hotrod (mustang, camaro, challenger, cts etc) for the same or less, they're faster, have the creature comforts, warranty etc. It's way easier, less maintenance etc. Anyhow I figure we have 20 good years of musclecar fever left.

[JLMounce]

Originally Posted by Nicks67GTO

It's a combination of complete unaffordability and not growing up around mechanical tasks like previous generations. This used to be an everyman hobby. You could buy a cool project car, cheap and scower junkyards for treasures. Those days are long gone and have been for 25 years. Cars are typically either complete trash or somewhat restored anymore. Restored cars command a crazy amount of money and we all know trashed cars cost more in the long haul. Most of these guys my age have piles of college debt, ridiculous day care bills and are just trying to make it all month to month. The only reason I have my GTO is because I got it when they were cheap. I love musclecars like no one else but there is 0 chance I go drop $30-40K for a GTO right now. The prices of these cars, that everyone loves to brag about right now, is what will kill the hobby.

3000% this. I still have my Firebird because I purchased it cheap many many years ago and was able to fix it up when parts and labor costs weren't astronomical. It still took me 16 years to do it though.

All of my friends that used to be in the car hobby, have long since sold off all their cars because life starts getting expensive when you have a family, have to pay off your education etc.