There's a great car restoration business near us. The sole proprietor is in his late 70s and refuses to take on any apprentice. Says he refuses to train his competition. Sad that all those years of experience and skill will go to waste.
"the $77 billion classic car industry"? That's from here.[1] For $4699 you can buy a copy of the full report.
The market size estimate may come from defining a rather large range of cars as "classic". The average auction price of a "classic car" is $45,000.[2] Not sure what definition they're using, but we're not talking about what goes to Pebble Beach.
Ironically, if it's a mid-century domestic, there is probably better parts availability, especially aftermarket, than anything made within the last decade or so.
I've just about got my 1981 Mini I bought in highschool for $600 NZD back in one piece. Wasn't going to touch the engine originally but thought why not, so almost 20 years later with almost everything aside from the shell refurbed or replaced here we are. It's been expensive and slow and I'd have been better off now having put the money into a house deposit instead. But now I know a fair amount about rebuilding a 45 year old car and I have about 10k in specialty tools I will probably barely use again, so I guess there's that.
Sorry to burst bubbles, but I've been in a few: The new cars really do drive better. Smoother shifts, better engines, effective climate control, better seats, just more comfy, more driveable, more responsive, even feel better. This isn't like vintage pens I'm afraid, where old meant high quality materials. Old cars are mostly just crappy (barring a very small set of outliers).
I think it boils down to the fact that cars represent the pinnacle of engineering for that time period. Engineering only gets better with time.
I enjoy watching Kinding It Design, Wheeler Dealer and similar shows. I suspect that some people might be inspired to consider those careers after watching the gleeful professionalism of the people featured on such shows.
I've seen firsthand the attrition in restoration work. It's in a pretty sad state. My dad runs the garage his dad started in Kansas City decades ago, and his business partner is in the back half of his 80s. They're rushing to get work done and knowledge transferred before it's gone forever, but he's always telling me about people who have had to stop working, or died. I can never believe what people are paying to get work like chrome plating or upholstery done or the wait times. I wonder if there will be anyone left by the time we get around to restoring one of our own.
> “Younger kids do not have the same work ethic,” says RM’s Morreau. The immediate satisfaction normalized by cell phones and social media is antithetical to the know-how required for fabricating, say, the burled walnut dashboard of a pre-war Rolls-Royce.
Oooooor, the pay is crap and the work environment is abusive.
Any time someone trots out the "kids don't have the same work ethic" argument, they can immediately be ignored. People have been literally saying that continuously since people have been around to write the complaint down, and it's been exactly as true then as it is now.
My parents bought an old Renault and kept another one with the idea of restoring them. Never happened.
But... I know someone else who did actually restore one of those.
And... I worked with a guy who restored a Porsche including rebuilding the engine, it used to sit in his office! (he was a mechanical engineer) and another guy (another engineer) who restored some old American car (forget the brand, maybe a Ford Crown Victoria?). Both these engineers had access to a fully equipped workshop and spent looong hours every day after work building and fixing parts.
I used to do some work on my own car and motorcycles. It's hard work.
There are a lot of enthusiasts who do this... I see them in old car shows. Not sure how many hire others to work on them...
I'm not certain why folks are talking about cars they've restored to working order, the kind that get taken out on weekends when the weather is just so, as if that's the same class of vehicles the article is discussing. I used to know someone who owned a bunch like the article describes. To him it was an investment. Some had undergone expensive restorations like the article describes, they were meticulously stored, people were paid to maintain these not-driven vehicles, etc. Well, this guy wasn't young, but he died kind of unexpectedly. In a few weeks he went from not feeling well to gone.
So the family sold the cars in one auction at one of the big events like the Concours d’Elegance. This was not a sale timed to maximize the return but rather a sale to free the family from the obligations of ownership. Even so, it was 30 or so vehicles and they went for about $70 million.
The cars in this article are more like artwork investments. These may get three miles added to the odometer in the course of a year with multiple event showings or loans to museums. The cars are absolutely drivable but they are not driven.
I have a 1963 Mini, which for a while I used as a daily driver. It's a very fun car for city driving, though it lacks some modern niceties. But every couple of months I'd have to spend a fortune to get various parts of it fixed with refurbished parts. Eventually I got a new cheap hatchback which I drive instead. Now the mini sits there with flat tires and cobwebs under a rain cover, and it looks quite sad.
I've thought that if I ever took a sabbatical, maybe I could try retrofit it with an electric system, but I just know it's going to take me down another money hole.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 34.4 ms ] threadThe market size estimate may come from defining a rather large range of cars as "classic". The average auction price of a "classic car" is $45,000.[2] Not sure what definition they're using, but we're not talking about what goes to Pebble Beach.
[1] https://www.credenceresearch.com/report/classic-cars-market
[2] https://www.classic.com/insights/hagerty-2025-market-in-4-ch...
me: "that sounds really wonderful and interesting!"
him: "bunch of rusty cars"
Ive restored a couple and I cannot imagine the cost of outsourcing all that work.
I think it boils down to the fact that cars represent the pinnacle of engineering for that time period. Engineering only gets better with time.
Oooooor, the pay is crap and the work environment is abusive.
Any time someone trots out the "kids don't have the same work ethic" argument, they can immediately be ignored. People have been literally saying that continuously since people have been around to write the complaint down, and it's been exactly as true then as it is now.
But... I know someone else who did actually restore one of those.
And... I worked with a guy who restored a Porsche including rebuilding the engine, it used to sit in his office! (he was a mechanical engineer) and another guy (another engineer) who restored some old American car (forget the brand, maybe a Ford Crown Victoria?). Both these engineers had access to a fully equipped workshop and spent looong hours every day after work building and fixing parts.
I used to do some work on my own car and motorcycles. It's hard work.
There are a lot of enthusiasts who do this... I see them in old car shows. Not sure how many hire others to work on them...
So the family sold the cars in one auction at one of the big events like the Concours d’Elegance. This was not a sale timed to maximize the return but rather a sale to free the family from the obligations of ownership. Even so, it was 30 or so vehicles and they went for about $70 million.
The cars in this article are more like artwork investments. These may get three miles added to the odometer in the course of a year with multiple event showings or loans to museums. The cars are absolutely drivable but they are not driven.
but Japanese a standard metric kit is about 99% of what you’d need
I've thought that if I ever took a sabbatical, maybe I could try retrofit it with an electric system, but I just know it's going to take me down another money hole.
Classic cars are an expensive interest.