Iconic Cars

[mojobaby]

Driving around town yesterday (and getting another compliment on Genevieve), I wondered which modern car would be the next iconic automobile.

Certainly none that I saw yesterday! Nothing stood out. Toyota, Mercedes, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, Honda, Volvo etc......they all looked the same with no unique features to set them aside.

In 50 years time, which modern day car will survive to be the next collectable? Will any of them be as desirable as these beautiful old girls? I think not!

 

[Lobster]

Mk1 Twingo
Citroen C4 Cactus

 

[petak]

Believe (Hope) Renault Avantime will get to that status.
For me it was/is out of time when it came out.



This green is fantastic color.

 

[mojobaby]

in 50 years time, Renaults first 100% electric car might be a collectable. Here is Zoe........

 

[Eoynteenie]

something as common as anything and gets thrown away like its nothing.

The new Fiat 500 has my money

Odd little blips here gotta exist and we don't see it yet.

 

[mojobaby]

An excellent choice Eoynteenie, it has a very unique shape and is actually quite spacious inside for its size.

At least when you see one coming down the road you can identify it immediately. These days it seems that all the designers copy each other, so thats why the Fiat is like a breath of fresh air.

It was going to be my choice as well, but then I thought about Zoe being Renaults first electric car..........

 

[reidalpine]

feeling grim as no sleep....

problem with any newish car is the fact they are all stuffed to the brim with cheap(in quality) electronics and
componentry that in 10-20 yrs MAX.or whenever they want to sell us new shit
will be all impossible to get to work as management systems and/or programs will be obsolete (MADE obsolete that is)
soon as the industry pushes "new/improved" technology.
Remember Brother printers with inbuilt count-down chips ?

Car industry is notoriously greedy, false and a very expensive high-maintenance mistress!

They sell you their latest model crapola on false promises and pretence,then next year
when you have a problem and seek help/advice you get that Nobody home blanc look "What-That old crap??- Buy our
all new/improved model as "that old turkey" is All out and not longer supported by yours truly...Remember though
-a year or so ago it was sold to you as The bees-nees..

looking into the future(!) all I can advice is to locate and secure one of the last "mechanical" models of your own choice
(as opposed to those newish filled with cheap Ching-Chong electronics) as mechanics can always be fixed
-whilst electronics can't.
After China Shanghaied Motorola and killed off their equivalent -online listings we are f***** and at the mercy of same
China.............

I'm afraid collecting/owning older cars as we know it will be a thing of the past.


Ex:My bud in Dorset owns an earlier F1-car, All complete but good for absolutely nothing, as the outside computer needed
to prime,start and run it is all dead.

Any car that isn't working is just a 3-dimensional hologram of little or no interest -to me anyway..Museums in all honour,
but they Are much like wathing green paint dry.
Could just as well had a picture of the car and save the space and money in the process

Mojobaby
-In my opinion electric and hybrid is a dead-end and all hybris!

-Fuel-cells somewhat better but this tech.needs to run
wheels Direct -Not charge batteries that in turn drives the wheels.This is like having a diesel-engine charging a ton of
batteries that runs the wheels....What batteries and hybrids and fuel-cells IS good at is filling Nissans et als accounts!

What's this weeks whizzardry called agin?Nissan Seppuku and Nissan HaraKiri was it?? last weeks one was Nissan Puke

I feel better already now that's off my chest -whats the charge Doc? -Reid.

 

[mojobaby]

did you forget to take your pills again?

Thank you, you made me laugh on a very dull Friday

 

[reidalpine]

yep-my usual pills has been withdrawn-they had severe sideeffects like grumpyness ,moodswings etc
-like these new car-batteries they don't do it for me in the long run (both lithium-based)
Have a good'un there mojobaby! -Reid.

 

[angel]

In the '50s and '60s I don't think there was a single person that would think that any car will be "collectable" in the future. Let alone all of these cheap mass-produced cars like our R4s.
Nowadays companies try to persuade us that the soon-to be-announced clone of their glorious past is already a collector's item.
The truth must be somewhere in the middle...or maybe in the words of a 5-year old boy I heard today, at a local classic car "concours d'elegance". He was allowed to sit on the rearmost seats of a pristine Citroen ID21 Break, and vowed "wow...that's a real car!".

 

[malcolm]

That's the thing even now. I've just bought a very good Peugeot 406 coupe around 15 years old to replace my other one. It has a bunch of ECUs and French/Italian electrics that you need get used to. My laptop can talk to it and I reckon I can run it for at least another 5 years without much effort. You get to know what goes wrong and where to find bits for them and internet forum support is brilliant. They are very DIYable once the diagnostic software leaks out of the dealers and makes it's way to eBay. Peugeot are very good for leaking software so Peugeots may well be the only modern classics available in the future.

The coupe is a very pretty car and fairly comfortable - above all it is a classic for me and that's the important thing. I prefer to run cars that I like when they are not classics yet - like the R4 was until a couple of years ago. You can enjoy what you like and it tends to be a lot cheaper before other people get in to them and push all the prices up. If you are not planning to sell cheap prices are better.

The classic status is good though when they get there. Like the Renault 4 it keeps the last few preserved and can get people enthusiastic about making parts available. I think parts supply is the reason cars get to be classics - we get on OK until the parts run out.

Volkswagen Beetles are classics and they are rubbish, so it's not anything about the car that makes it a classic. It's more about us and what we like. Have we got a Renault 4 lifestyle or are the cars so good that we don't need one?

Photo: Gathering of real classics. Old Renaults moved for the day to make space.

 

[Eoynteenie]

Volkswagen Beetles are classics and they are rubbish,

them fighting words Malcolm?

Those of you at the little meet up in Kent at the little railway place may remember I turned up in an old Saab 900, this car is prob a bit of an arguement about its place in the autoworld of classic cars

Yes its old, the last production model is pushing 22 years old now but you get the reply 'Its just too modern to be a classic'

Maybe this what will stop classic cars? The fact there is nothing much making todays models stand out on the spec sheet from the models of yesturyear?

 

[malcolm]

The Saabs are already classics. A lot of people like them, and you can't buy new ones unless you wait for NEVS electric cars which will hopefully be the next thing to come out of Trollhattan. (Also a lot of Saab guys went to Volvo in 2010 and are doing their stuff to make Volvos a little more Saab like). We've got a lot of enthusiastic Saab guys on the mig welding forum and I'm sure there will be Saab forums. You'll not get a cloth hat Triumph or MG owner to accept anything made past 1966 that doesn't leak oil will ever attain classic status but that is their problem not ours. Who makes the rules on this stuff other than us? Or more specifically me and if I can have my Peugeot coupe then proper Saabs are definitely in!

It has never been the case that run of the mill stuff has become classic with the exception of the early Ford Escort for some reason. It normally takes something a bit more special. Sports, cute, or decent and rare seems to do the trick. I'm no expert in all this - theoretically all VW Beetles should have been crushed by now (I don't know if anyone has read a book "Still life with Volkswagens" by Geoff Nicholson which has a blowing up VW Beetles using explosives theme and is very good). Got any spare pills Reidar?

What else do you guys like in the way of more modern or less expensive classics? It's really cheap to mess around with the fun stuff before it gets too old and unreliable and expensive.

 

[André4Renaults]

"Cute, decent and rare".... may I tentavely suggest a Daf 33? Defintitely cute: those healights loking out from under the wings that look almost like eye lashes. Decent: Massivley over-engineered, with truck-like engineering and a very clever transmission that was 20 years ahead of its time. Rare? Sadly so! I've owned about a dozen, from my first ever car at the age of 17 and am about to buy another now I'm retiring-love them!

Volkswagens.... As "a well-known German leader" was oft (mis) quoted as saying: "I guess you can't fool all of ze beetles all of ze time"

 

[snailshed]

So for my two penneth, I'd say it is not so much about the car as the generation that grow up with it. Having owned and therefore sold a sizeable number of 2cv's the common thread is that they sell to people who bought them new / grew up in their parents car / had one as a first car / went to Uni in one etc and it is the sense of nostalgia that makes people want one in their life thirty years later. Hence, most 2cv buyers in my recent experience tend to be in their 50's and 60's reminiscing (and I always wonder if on the drive home they are shocked at just how far car design has moved on when compared to their three year old Golf...). I can't remember the last time I sold one to someone under 40, despite being under 35 myself.

For that reason, I think remembered cars have to be something where it was common for people to have a first or special experience in them (get your minds out of the gutter). For this reason, I'd put the Mazda Mx5 in as a solid classic buy. For many people it will have been their first experience of owning or travelling in a convertible, and for many more their first sports and rear wheel drive car. This may mean for many it is also be the first car they therefore span or properly crashed... They have also been building them for 25 years so there has been massive love for them for decades already and a still vibrant tuning scene.

For many same reasons I expect that the Porsche Boxster may stay the course as the first recent accessible model from the Porsche brand that sold in droves. Great to drive and with a brand prestige that meant many people will have bought them after getting that promotion / new job or step change in status moving them from that student mentality to proper adult for the first time.

Obviously looking at History, any and all Fast Fords will be worth epic cash in 50 years time. Oddly, fast Vauxhalls never seem to generate quite the same following? M BMW's tend to remain firm favourites too.

 

[boby tompson]

something as common as anything and gets thrown away like its nothing.

The new Fiat 500 has my money

Odd little blips here gotta exist and we don't see it yet.

you should check the abarth version...i felt in love when i saw it for first time ...)))