[JSPONT]

I drive my daughter to school some mornings, I go by the high school, all the cars are new 4 dr sedans, old 4dr sedans. There is 1 2000 Mustang Gt and there is a 76 Nova(which is a teachers). No cool cars in the lot. It's sad. When I graduated in 1986 the lot was full of muscle cars and cool cars.
The teacher that owns the Nova tracked my daughter down and asked her what's in my car it sounds so mean! He even came to my house to check my car out. I told him it was sad that he had the only cool car in the lot.

I hate to sound like my father but seems like the good old days are gone!

[Chris65LeMans]

I live near a high school, and notice that the parking lot looks like the lot of any office building.

High school was a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure the majority of cars in our lot were of the "uncool hand-me-downs from mom" variety, too. (although my friends would chop the springs on mom's old Accord and turn it into a low rider). It's not like every high school parking lot used to be filled with 400 cuda's, GTOs, etc.

[RocktimusPryme]

Idk man, vintage cars are worth as much or more than they have ever been.

And we are currently in a market of performance cars the likes of which have never been seen. Look at the arms race between the big 3 right now. Or hell look at the power output of the base model V6 camaro. Its more than an LS1.

The one place I would say we have fallen off is affordability with new performance cars. The price tag to get a V6 camaro (or the new turbo 4) is reasonable. But the cost to jump to the V8 is in my opinion, outrageous.

[Hunter98TA]

I went by a HS here in South Jersey that is in a wealthy area. I saw more BMW's and Mercedes Benz then the Dealers lot had. Couple of Porches and an older Lambo. Only a few newer muscle cars (ie Camaros and Mustangs)

[Stuart]

This question gets asked here on a monthly basis, and people have been talking about it for 40 years at least.

However, people are still buying cars and going to car shows and swap meets (I just went to a swap on Sunday, there were tons of people there.)

[JSPONT]

Even if they can not afford a muscle car, 5.0 mustangs, 3rd and 4th gen Camaros and firebirds, Monte SS are cheap as hell. My daughters 1st car was 1 1991 Trans am, original paint, 305 auto original rims were all redone, I paid $2200.00 for it. She loved it and cryed when I sold it but it was useless in the snow and would posi track in the rain if you stepped down a little to hard.

There are plenty of cheap cool new hot rods kids could work on. Hell they closed the Auto shop in my High school a few years ago lack of enrollment.

[421-6speed]

So true but, what was the average age at the swap meet?

[Hunter98TA]

Originally Posted by Stuart

This question gets asked here on a monthly basis, and people have been talking about it for 40 years at least.

However, people are still buying cars and going to car shows and swap meets (I just went to a swap on Sunday, there were tons of people there.)

but were those people under 30? That's what this hobby needs is an influx of young people.

edit: I got treed by 421-6speed :lol:

[rohrt]

Is this hobby is dying?

Yes

There may not even be a next generation that will even want them.

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by JSPONT

Even if they can not afford a muscle car, 5.0 mustangs, 3rd and 4th gen Camaros and firebirds, Monte SS are cheap as hell. My daughters 1st car was 1 1991 Trans am, original paint, 305 auto original rims were all redone, I paid $2200.00 for it. She loved it and cryed when I sold it but it was useless in the snow and would posi track in the rain if you stepped down a little to hard.

There are plenty of cheap cool new hot rods kids could work on. Hell they closed the Auto shop in my High school a few years ago lack of enrollment.

That is sorta where I feel there is a market deficiency. For the most part the acceptably cool muscle has stayed the same (ending around 1972-73 with the possible exception of Bandit T/As) for as long as I can remember.

The movie hot rods are still 70 Chevelle type cars. I would love it if Keanu Reeves had rolled up in an 1987 IROC in John Wick, but like I said the cool factor just hasnt caught on. Which is a shame, because I really like 3rd gens. They have gone up in price for nice ones by a lot. But they still have a negative stigma about them. Both in terms of a poor performance era, and the all to easy "mullet" jokes.

I see it sort of the same as baseball. People for years have been saying baseball is dying......and MLB just keeps turning in revenue at record or near record levels. I would would bet the performance part industry is doing just fine as well. Probably better than ever.

And for what its worth I am 31, so not all that old.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Hunter98TA

but were those people under 30? That's what this hobby needs is an influx of young people.

edit: I got treed by 421-6speed :lol:

All ages. Young, old, I saw dads with their teenage sons, I saw mothers and dads pulling little kids around in coaster wagons.

It seems these days too many people spend all their time sitting at their computers, complaining about the world.

[Chris65LeMans]

As I say every time this topic comes up, I think the hobby will be fine.

We have a weekly cruise, and I always see 1910-1942 cars; even though those original owners are likely long dead. Pre- 1910 cars even show up on occasion.

[necdb3]

My wife is a High School Teacher, there are not any cool cars in the parking lot. However, if she drives one of our cars to school and parks it there, she gets comments from many students and teachers.

I think people are still interested in old cars but they are just unaffordable. Figure, that's a lot of money to be sitting in your garage for something to drive on the weekend.

[Mr Twister]

The prices of the cars alone will kill the hobby. Most of the younger hobbyists do not have the disposable income to buy a nice older car. I'm 52 and would never spend 50K on a desireable average condition 2nd gen T/A or whatever. (If it was a boat then we could talk haha). I run ads on CL for all my 2nd gen stuff and get ZERO calls regardless of price. People want cars that they drove or wanted in High School. The younger people want Civics

[59safaricat]

Originally Posted by necdb3

I think people are still interested in old cars but they are just unaffordable. Figure, that's a lot of money to be sitting in your garage for something to drive on the weekend.

This right here. Once factoring in the price for the car (getting astronomical), high insurance premiums (muscle cars), cost of gas, cost of parts, and it gets out of reach for most financially. This doesn't include time and money spent on fixing, repairing, restoring, and making ones own personal touches. It's officially becoming a rich mans/retired mans hobby.

[Stuart]

Nice older cars have always been expensive for younger people so I don't know if that's a valid excuse.

I was in high school in the early 70s, and even if something like a used GTO only was only worth a couple thousand dollars then, it was still a lot of money - equivalent to around $10,000 today. Insurance was expensive as well, if they would even write a policy for a teenager on a car like that. There were very few kids in my town that had legitimate muscle cars, those who could afford a car at all were generally driving around in old rusty sedans.

[Simple Man]

What do you consider cool cars?

In high school, we drove muscle cars, because they were 10 years old at the time, somewhat plentiful, and could be had reasonably. But there were still a lot of 4 door Impala's, Delta 88's, Fury's, LTD's, etc. in the lot. Were they cool? No, but they were the first cars of many. Just like the 10 year old Accords, and Camry's you see in the school parking lot's today. Somewhat plentiful, and can be had reasonably.

[RocktimusPryme]

The price per drive-ability is an interesting angle as well. Im a little young for it, but lots of you guys probably drove cars like ours daily as late as the early 90s. Where there probably was not a huge jump in reliability between an 80s car and a 70 GTO. I can tell you first hand the 86 IROC I had in high school in 2000 was not to be trusted any more than what a 20 year older V8 would be.

But now.....big big difference in reliability and safety. I dont think I would even consider not owning a modern vehicle for daily reliable transportation. So yeah for someone even with a decent 40k a year job. Its a tough sell to spend say 12-16k on a decent enough driver hot rod when they pretty much still need to keep up the payments on their 2014 Sonata up too.

That being said Im playing devils advocate there. I still dont think Hot Rod magazine is going to go out of business tomorrow due to lack of interest.

[goatless]

Have you raised your kids to appreciate the hobby? My kids have been involved from the time they were very little, and they still enjoy it. My son is 16 and just got his license. Does he have a cool GTO or Trans Am? No, but he does have a 38 year old Pontiac- complete with real Pontiac power… and he thinks it's damn cool! He bought it with his own money and has tackled several projects on it, himself.

Are the young kids into 60s muscle the way we were as kids? No, but there are plenty who are into them. We always run into at least a few of my son's friends at the local shows. I have a lot of other kids come up to me to talk about cars- you've got to encourage them instead of being a grumpy old guy bitching about kids these days!

[JSPONT]

My High school lot was filled with cool cars. Not just muscle cars, but 2nd gen Camaros, a few birds, even the hot air T types. A maverick grabber. There were at least 25% cool cars. Now the lot has 1% Like I said, there is no 3rd gens, grand nats, 5.0's, Impala ss, Monte SS. You know the 80's cars that were performance of the 80's. They are so cheap where I live.
I coach kids for soccer, helped with track, there are very few motorheads.
The body business right now is almost impossible to get good help where I live because there is not many young kids interested.
I would even like to see a turbo charged civic, not stock something that was hand bolted on. It is rare nowadays.
My kids know old stuff and go to the shows with me but so far they are not into working on them. They do play many sports though.
It was just an observation in my NY metro area.
We do have a boatload of wicked fast street cars that street race on a regular basis, but those guys are older too.