Your opinion matters:how are we going to get youngsters involved?

Like Jeff, I too let kids sit in my car. In fact, I let them climb all over my Model A Roadster. I've got a picture from last year with 15 kids sitting in and on my A.

Did it get scratched up? Perhaps. Does it matter? Not really. It is still a car - one that I love owning, driving, and fixing. But scratches and dings can be fixed. I have only one chance to make an impression on these young kids - and that is, when they are young. I hope those kids came away with a sense of excitement for old cars.

I do completely understand, though, if others are not as comfortable with having kids climb on their cars - especially if they have a particularly rare care or one in great shape. My car is a driver wearing a nearly 40 year old restoration.

I'm not that old. But when I was young, some neightbours had an old car in the garden. We used to play in the Beetles, Mini, Opel. Now they are gone. No more trying.
Many nowadays old car drivers got their technical knowledge from the people who knew these cars when they were new. At school these old engine were there to learn on. Nowadays these engines are replaced with newer ones. Put the computer on the console, ring to headquarters and they will tell. As history lessons are given, mechanical history lessons should be part of the lessons. Alternator they know but a dynamo, heard of but how did it work...
Cooling without electrical fan? Magneto ?
And at last, one needs to be natural interested. Stimulation of curiosity and interest will one time have result, when afforable.

I think you're working against a millennial mindset that doesn't care about personal transportation or making a statement with it. My experience with my children has led me to that conclusion. They enthuse over electronic gadgets and kusical instruments, but they don't spare a thought for what they drive. If that's the case universally, we're doomed.

The real problem in europe, as far as I can see, is there is nothing like the VSCC! I have to take my Calthorpe back to the UK to take part in LCES events as the " events" ( non-events more like) here in France are just a dull procession at a snails pace , in a long crocodile, shepherded by outriders, of over-restored "blingey" cars. Followed by a parking-up in a village square for the tyre-kickers to ogle at the cars and a big lunch.

Too bloody boring for me, and I'm an old fart, why anyone of 25 or so would want to take part is beyond me. I have had a look at the regs and I can see reason a non-timed tour cannot set off at one-minute intervals with a road book, as we do in the LCES. I have no interest in old car , shows but when I drive my Calthorpe to the village, to the boulangerie, market etc I continually get people, and invariably women, askng about it. You never see old cars here used as daily drivers, nor do men seem to take any interest in them, only in the latestpiece of gadget-infested "blingmobile"

My sentiments are exactly those of Roberts son, modern cars are just a means of transport enabling one to transport possessions and family across the land in order to do something more interesting, this is the 21C after all!!

I can see in five or ten years time you'll be glad to find someone to take your old car off your hands FOC, unless it's million dollar Bugatti, Bentley etc, there will be twenty times more cars than likely buyers. Most other pastimes that require committment, work and effort are going the same way, the old world is fading fast and like Brexit, trying to turn the clck back ain't going to work!

I have been playing with my old cars for over 50 years.In spite of a lot of resistance to my involvement in old car activities from a generation that knew these cars when new. I was fascinated by every nut, bolt and piece of fine formed sheet metal. My first car memory started at age 4. In my 30s I was meeting people like Darrin, Buehrig and Dietrich. Now I am retired and the proud grandfather of several little ones, I have never been able to find that spark of desire in my own children. I am now working on the next generation. I have the biggest fondness for prewar Packards. It wounds me to the core when one of them is made over into a 'street rod.' Yet this is the group, street rodders, who have spent the most time cultivating the next generation into the hobby. As a group they go out of their way to give more than rides in their cars to little kids. And yes, the prices are way too high today to catch the interest of the working generation. The sounds and style may catch some looks on a Saturday afternoon, but the prices have kept many of them from going beyond.

I am always the optimist, so I will be at Hershey in October for the High Holy Days. I will keep driving until the undertaker pries my driver's license from my cold dead hands. Mean time, I need to find another part for the Packard engine that I am rebuilding.

Do they clean the cars?

Maybe do what I did:
get a replica (or even better: build it yourself, which can teach them about the mechanical aspect), which has the period look, but some modern conveniences as well. If they enjoy it they might want to get into the real deal, and get a real antique. As a challenge to themselves or just because they've grown tired of their modern conveniences.

The single biggest problem is not the interest in old cars, it is the prices! The amount of special builders around now and their over-inflated pricing structure has brought about the end of a cheap pre-war car for youngsters.

I think Robert has a very good point. The "I want it now" attitude does not work with old cars and bikes.

The learning process is part of the enjoyment and takes a life time. If the young are really interested they should not need spoon feeding.

Hi,

As one of the 'younger' generation I can categorically say that it is the price of the cars that makes it difficult for youngsters to get involved. Contrary to Roberts opinion - which is just as valid as mine - I've always loved the historical and technical aspect of pre-war motoring. I saved as hard as I could since leaving university and after six years of going without, when all my friends went travelling etc., bought a project car (a Morris 8). Since then I've restored the chassis, engine, ash frame and half the bodywork myself. That's taken me another six years, and I'm a long way from finished. I don't have an i-phone, and I certainly don't have enough cash to buy and i-phone. I would love to participate in the Beforty rally, but the truth is I can't afford it.

I don't advocate giving away cars to youngsters at a discount, people have worked hard to buy their cars and if the capital value of the asset has risen, so be it. However, lets not kid ourselves that the route cause here is a lack of interest, idleness, or other priorities issue. It's the fact that prices have risen faster than I can save money. Even a restored Austin 7 is beyond my finances at present.

Jeff is right about how to kindle interest - it was my old headmaster that did the same for me with a Riley 12/4 in the 1980s.

Being an under 40 prewar car driver, there are 2 main problems for young people to drive a prewar car : the first is letting young people drive their beloved prewar car, the second is the price. For the latest problem is mentionned by Onno but prewarcar prices are stabilizing or decreasing (in France) for popular prewar cars. But the first and biggest problem is letting young drive prewar cars. among my friends whose dad is/was a prewar car afficionado, only those who drove with their father still drive prewar cars.
My dad was not a good mechanic, he was not able to recognize a model from a vintage picture but he was the first to teach 5 people how to drive a prewar car. Those 5 people (including) still drive prewar cars (of their own or lent by their father as me).
So, prewar owners, if you want the future generation to drive and preserve prewar cars, show and lent them your cars.

Oh yes Onno let's give them a price reduction. Again the elderly that worked hard to buy what they wanted should give it to the youngsters...For a nickle and a dime??? I bought my first classic in the 70ies, a 1956 MGA for 10.000 guilders, I Pxed my nearly new Datsun Cherry ( new price 7999 guilders) just because I fell in love with that little MG when I was 20. That was nearly a years salary. Mather of priorities. It is not the price that makes it difficult for the younger generation. It is the lack of technical and historical interest and knowledge. It is the "I want it all and now" attitude. One has to give up some other things for having a classic or vintage car. That's the problem.There always will be a few that are interested, but the whole vintage car movement has always been a "happy few" thing. The prices are difficult for everyone in the market. But they will come down when the interest rate goes up again. Bubbles have exploded before (remember the ferrari prices in the 80ies?) Now vintage cars are loved by vintage men and women. We just have to accept that. 70ies/80ies and even 90ies are "in" because there is a generation that remembers those cars from their youth. Nothing wrong with that. It shifts through time. My son grew up with a petrolhead father with a nice collection of vintage,classic and modern supercars, he really doesn't care, he loves them, drives them but probably never will buy one. A car is a thing to bring you from a to b according to him. Maybe when he is in his 40ies he will suddenly get that passion. Forget about youngsters they look at consumables and our cars are just not that. The passion lies mainly in the heads and hands of people over 40 and has allways been there as far as I can remember. Have a nice day, I'm going back to my garage, there is an old lady needing my attention.

Join the VSCC !! - there are a large number of young competing and using vintage (and pre-war) cars in the UK.

I had the luck of growing up around special old cars and get the chance to drive them a lot. This got me enthousiast even so much that i made selling classics into my profession. First of all I do agree to onno that the high prices are not helping, though giving dicounts to younsters i dont think would be the long term solution. The solution i think is found way closer to the "beforty rally" then that.
The point i really wanted my own pre war car in life was not whenni first drove a bugatti GP car but when i had a full day of fun trailing an austin sevin special in england. Get up early, drive on the road to the scruteneering and then play in the mud and rain with some road sections in between, on the way only smiling people and police men with thumbs up.
In holland events like this do not exists, authorities refuse every competion based event people are sniffing when you pass or covering their ears because of an open exhaust.
There are plenty of afordable pre war classics still there indead austin sevens, citroen 5cv some mg's. The point is that it is not exiting or. Cool enough for people to save up to buy a car. The rallies that are there are mostly crowded with porsches and or old people, not the place to hang out for a fashionable young man or woman.
As soon as there will be cool events, with a modern coverage on social media, i think a lot of young people would like to join this crazy world.
Every boy or girl that is capable of buyinh an 750€ iphone when 16 van buy himself a 7500€ project car when 18, it is just priorities

I am under 40 and almost have a driving pre-war.
But that cost me dearly in time and money

In my opinion the biggest problem is the price of classic cars (even 60's and 70's)
When you are under 40 and building a life you have other priorities than spending enormous amounts of money on hobbies.

So if all the people who bought their cars for a nickel and a dime before the 90's would not cash in but offer their cars for a reasonable amount that might help.
Let's agree to reduce the price by €5000,- for every 5 years the buyer is under 40?

I let the young people look at, touch, and sit in my old cars. The same was done for me when I was a wee lad of 10 and that made an impression and sparked an interest in me that has lasted my lifetime. Thank You Mr. Perez for letting me play in your old cars way back in 1963. I will do the same with my cars as long as I have them!