This story first appeared in the US in the November/December 2024 issue of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Learn more about Hagerty Drivers Club in the UK to receive your own magazine and enjoy insider access to automotive events, discounts, and more.
It has always been hard to describe our shared affection (or perhaps “affliction”) for cool, older cars. For instance, I’ve never referred to myself as a car “hobbyist” because the term seems insubstantial. Car guy? Petrolhead? Gearhead? Jeez!
Are we “car collectors,” then? I don’t think that’s the right term, either. Many people have just one special car, not several, and if you only own one of something, are you really collecting it? Imagine a stamp collection with one stamp or a coin collection with one nickel. But that one car really stands for something!
How about the term “car enthusiasts”? That one gets used a lot. But is that what we are? Being an enthusiast means to be “filled with spirit.” Nothing wrong with being filled with spirit, right? But again, it’s not strong enough. It suggests a casual relationship to cars and driving, which doesn’t accurately describe most car people I know. They’re positively nuts about cars and have been that way their whole lives. We need a term that captures that passion, but one has escaped me so far. Maybe it doesn’t exist.
And how about the cars themselves? Are they antique cars, classic cars, vintage cars, collector cars, or just plain old fun cars? When I joined the family business full time in the 1990s, insurance regulators used the term “antique” for any car older than 25 years and “classic” for any car newer than 25 years. Now those words make me shiver. Some of the cars I own are, in fact, old – antique, even. The oldest, for instance, is a 1903 Knox with actual oil lamps for headlights that I drive annually – very slowly – in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. It has a top speed of about 25mph with a good tailwind. As cars go, it’s definitely antique, but I don’t let it sit on a shelf and gather dust. In my view, even very old or expensive cars are meant to be driven. It’s their purpose in life. We all need a purpose. And sometimes, 25mph is plenty fast.
Semantics aside, all this matters in the context of how dramatically our car world has grown and changed in recent decades. To paraphrase the Oldsmobile commercial: “It’s not your father’s hobby anymore.” Not even close. Back in the 1970s and ’80s, according to my friend Dave Kinney, publisher of the Hagerty Price Guide, 85 to 90 per cent of the collectable cars out there were American brands from the early 1960s and older.
Contrast that with today’s market. American cars, muscle cars in particular, are still and always will be a significant slice of the classic car pie. The rest consists of cars, trucks, and motorcycles of all makes, nationalities, and prices. Cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks from the 1980s and ’90s are hugely popular now, as are Japanese makes, supercars, restomods, and more. Car preferences are staggeringly diverse compared with the past. That’s a great thing.
The demographics of the car world have changed dramatically as well. Earlier this year, Hagerty commissioned a survey of 2000 American adults to gauge their feelings about cars. Nearly half were interested in owning a special car, but interest from Gen Z respondents was significantly greater at 60 per cent, compared with 31 per cent for baby boomers. That’s an amazing generational change. Do you know how young members of Gen Z are? They were born between 1997 and 2012!
The car world is a big-tent activity now, with wide and varied tastes. And to keep the momentum going, we need a better shared vocabulary to help us talk about the hobby now and into the future with younger and diverse audiences. Younger generations, in particular, aren’t going to be energised by fusty terms like “collector cars” or “enthusiast vehicles.”
So what words should we use? I would love to hear your thoughts on that.
Until next time, keep on driving.
