[linden_gto]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

If your car has wing vents and ash trays in the rear.....it's old enuff

this!

[31 B'ville]

When I bought our 1959 Bonneville, it was an old car at 17 years. Now my son-in -laws 2000 Trans Am WS6 is 17 years old and I have a hard time thinking of it as anything other than a late model car.

[Bill Holm]

I look at it differently.

Prewar / Postwar

Simple, really.

[PONTIAC-ONE]

If it's daily driven then 10 years is old for any late model.

In winter climates daily drivers really don't do well, paint starts peeling, rust etc.., seems allot of parts just give up no matter what brand....10 years.

[Formulajones]

LOL, you gotta get out of the great white Nort

[428RA4]

An old car is something that no one knows what it is. Granted that there are badges and name plates on the car.

[Formulajones]

Ha, drove my 70 Formula up to Goodwill the other day to drop some stuff off. Guy comes out to help, he's young. Says "Is that a GTO?" No it's an old Firebird. Gotta give him some credit though, at least he had the brand right. Usually I get told "Nice Camaro" LOL

[Jack Gifford]

1965gp- Thanks for causing me to reflect on the differing perceptions of "old car". At least in my case, it's apparently related primarily to a person's age. For instance- when I got my license at age 16, my dad bought me a '48 Ford which to me was an "old car". But today an eight year old car (an '09) would seem quite 'new' to me. A similar example is the 1940 Harley I bought in '59 which, again, seemed like a very 'old bike' (hey- it was even pre-war!). Today I wouldn't call a 19 year old bike (a '98) an old bike.

[lemansboy70]

I always get tickled when a customer asks if we have parts for "old cars" then proceeds to ask for something for a 2005 Chevy. I tell them we have parts back to the 30's and that I think we can still get a part for your "fossil".

[Greg Reid]

Old cars are a lot older than they used to be.
When I was in HS, my first car was a '63 Impala. The car was considered old and looked old stylewise even though it was only 11 years old. Nowadays, a 10-12 year old car looks pretty much like every other car on the road.
Now, a car has to be from the early '80s or so to standout as an older design to me.
In other words, a 10 year old car was old in 1970. It has to be a 30 year old car now.

[MUSLCAH]

I saw an original 1974 Chevy Chevette going down the hi-way last year....that got my attention...boy ..was it small ..lol

[1965gp]

It really is interesting- when I graduated (1994) muscle cars were in- that and 5.0's. We liked cars rom 64-72 and a few other random ones.

Now I think about what old cars today's kids like and I think the 64-72 cars are there, as well as late 70's F bodies and a few 80's cars. It really feels like it's the same cars. You don't see them in the school parking lot because they are too expensive, unreliable and not as safe,

What's interesting to me is the gap- for me it was 30 years. I don't know if that's what I grew up liking because that's what my dad liked, what was in magazines or because of the dukes of hazzard and smokey and the bandit. Probably because it's what was accessible.

If you take that same gap today you have 87-95. I will agree I see kids around here in nice G bodies, 3rd gens 4th gens and SN95's. To them these are old cars with old technology. To me they have airbags, abs, overdrives, modern lighting, etc.. I have a really hard time considering these older cars. They like them probably for the same reason- they are accessible.

Now- for someone to say a car in the 2000's is old is just crazy to me. I guess I am the old one!

To quote a friend: "if you go to the mall and can't find anything you like.....your the one that's out is style".

Sometimes I'm just okay with that.

[geeteeohguy]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Old cars are a lot older than they used to be.
When I was in HS, my first car was a '63 Impala. The car was considered old and looked old stylewise even though it was only 11 years old. Nowadays, a 10-12 year old car looks pretty much like every other car on the road.
Now, a car has to be from the early '80s or so to standout as an older design to me.
In other words, a 10 year old car was old in 1970. It has to be a 30 year old car now.

Exactly. My first car was a 13 year old '66 GTO. It was an old car even then. I went on a road trip in an ancient car of mine in 1990....a 43 year old 1947 Chrysler. THAT car got some looks out in the middle of nowhere, loaded up with travel gear. Fast forward to 2017, and I drive my 52 and 50 year old GTO's around without a thought, and a lot of people don't even notice them. They don't SEEM that old. When I was in high school in the '70's, new cars sucked and were slow, and all the kids bought $500 ten-year old Chevelle SS's, GTO's, Chargers, Mustangs, etc. Cheap, easy to repair, and fast and stylish, too. I simply never grew out of it and have the GTO's all these years later. I have to respectfully disagree with the comment that old cars are not reliable...they certainly are. If your's isn't, it needs to be repaired and brought back into shape, period.

[1965gp]

I wasn't saying they can't be- my point was that the $3000 72 Malibu a high school kid is going to buy is not going to be as reliable as the $3000 98 Mustang GT.

Can it be? Absolutely- I have several old cars I can jump in and drive anytime - by today's standards they are simple machines. Still, there are parts and pieces of these cars that have been simplified over the years to make them more reliable.

Also buy today's standards to a 16 yr old kid they are fickle. They've never seen anyone let a car warm up, had to adjust points, deal with leaking wheel cylinders, grease the front end, etc.. all things that make these cars cool and historic but clearly no service engine soon light telling you what to look for. You actually have to watch the gauges or keep an eye out for the idiot lights.

[north]

I don't know if its just me getting older or that cars last longer and change less now but when I started driving in 1980 a late 60's car was really old in my mind because there were few left, mostly rusty crap cans and they were so different than the boxy little new cars and the Big bumpered Cordoba type barges of then recent vintage. Today an 11 year old car even up here in the rust belt looks like every car on the road so even a 20 year old car isn't really an "old" car, just a second hand runner.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by Bill Holm

I look at it differently.

Prewar / Postwar

Simple, really.

Yeah, I'd say that's different. Hard for me to think of a '46 Ford at 71 years of age as 'not an old car'.
Anyway, in the last two days I've seen two 1979-ish Toyota Corollas on the street. Both were very clean and functional. Got my attention because you just don't see that kind of stuff every day any more. One was a sedan and the other a wagon which i really would love to have.

[justincampbell]

Originally Posted by Judge-1969

I think it's not so much the car is "old"....It's the age of the person commenting on it. All about perspective. In my mind anything from the late 80's back is old. Ask a younger person, and I'm sure it will be totally different! Kinda like music. I look at classic rock music as being from the late 60's thru the 70's. Now, a lot of folks think late 80's even some 90's music is classic rock and stuff from the 60's and 70's are oldies! I'm in my 40's and I have to tell ya, I'm not ready for that!!!!

I'm just a few years younger than you and I can relate. I quit listening to the local 'oldies' station the day I heard "...coming up next Fleetwood Mac on Oldies 93.3". It has also become normal to hear a few songs from my high school days(mid '90s) on the classic rock station.

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

Itsa old if you can't find the parts in the junkyad.

That is an eloquent way to put it.

Even in our Pull-a-Parts the 80's stuff is rapidly vanishing.

[Bob Hall]

Whatever my 70 year old neighbor across the street who drives a 64 Impala and a 69 Chevy truck calls an old car is an old car. He likes to kid me about my ford which is the same age as him being in worse shape then he is.


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[Jeff Hamlin]

When you go to shows and no longer winning Muscle car / Intermediate classes and now place/win in the Antique classes