Is the hobby dead or just broke?

[Escon1995]

All the new muscles, people who buy, want to be somebody they dreamed of, no talent to build a fine restoration feel the aspiration and drive for the freedom, I have over 80 in my 65 coronet and drive the tires off it on the weekend, building a 64 polara to drive to Florida from saint louis to visit family, one exception people who buy new cars to compliment there real ones

 

[ws23jrt]

Not dead and not broke. ---This hobby is much bigger than is easy to condense into a line or two.
Look back at what you just posted.---You have put a large number of folks in a very small box.

Why is there an exception for buying a new car to "complement" a "real one"?

 

[MOPARENT]

"A" bodies are becoming the next "B" body in terms of pricing.....watch out Volare owners!! U r next!

 

[cudak888]

"A" bodies are becoming the next "B" body in terms of pricing.....watch out Volare owners!! U r next!

Hahahaha.

In all honesty, try picking up a surviving Diplomat these days with an S-vin (police-spec) and confirmed heritage. It's not going to be for $1,000, unless you're reeeealy lucky.

-Kurt

 

[Fran Blacker]

For young guys (25 to 40) Start looking at new era Chargers and Challengers if you want to get in on the future collector car market, MO. Pick the hottest car and buy wear parts and computers for them. Not sure about the need for the computer stuff but I'd think about it.

 

[Ron H]

Having caught the last couple years of the muscle car era I remember the quick cars my older brother and his friends had thinking how neat that was and waited impatiently to join in. Those were their daily drivers back when as mine were for me. I remember when our school principle bought his brand new 67 GTO. For all I know he might a taken off his tie off on weekends raced around like a teenager. We went through a long span of mostly dull-drum American cars robbed of HP for pollution control and safety. Now we have all sorts of hugely powerful cars again and safer handling, etc. Back then, as it is today, you can buy brand new muscle. Point is with this in mind, what's the difference between 1968 and 2018? For me it's just my memories of that era that is all the difference and why I have my old car as opposed to a new one though I could go buy one. It was a time of my youth, dating, still cute, and didn't have all the hassles or concerns you get making a living and raising a family yet. For those a generation or so younger they got their own fond era to look back on...I suppose even rice grinders with massive mufflers on them.

 

[Richard Cranium]

.....watch out Volare owners!!

That reminds me....

 

[sxarnold]

Kid's money going to trucks. I've sold three trucks to the younger kids building their own hot rods; a 64 Ford fleet side to a 16yo, a '56 Chevy to a guy for his grandson and most recently a '72 Chevy 454 to a 19yo who picked it up with his Dad. Mopar parts always command a premium. One date coded 426 hemi magnesium intake manifold and a pair of date code restored carbs cost more than each of these trucks with no body work needed.

 

[rlem1977]

Classic Mopars and Fords will always be expensive. Certain GM not as bad. The good stuff keeps going up because there are fewer project cars available. Those that are left are commanding higher and higher prices. Then there are the hoarders of unsavable cars that are merely scuttling them to sell expensive parts.

So what's next? The undesirables, the smoggers, the ugly. Because that's what's now affordable. The '75 Torino, the '77 Nova, or '80 Aspen. Those are what is affordable to hot rod. You want to know what turns those people off and potentially away from the hobby? Elitists telling a guy who bought a '75 Torino and fixed it up the way he wanted, that it's still just a malaise-era '75 Torino and he could have found something more interesting or with better bumpers, for the money. Interesting to who? The guy not funding it? That attitude is not surprising, we have Mopar people that eat their own, telling hobbiests you gotta keep it pure, the way it left the factory, and if you modify or change anything you're a heretic.

Good Guys has even recognized that the cost of the traditional classics has kept new people from getting into the hobby, so they raised the model year to enter an event up from 1972 to 1987. It took them a long time to realize they needed a change to help their organization continue to grow, but they did it.

Isn't that what we need to do, to continue the hobby by bringing new people in and welcome them, regardless of their selection of a project? Or is it only if their car/truck is deemed worthy by those who have appointed themselves as the oracles of acceptance?

 

[Escon1995]

Not dead and not broke. ---This hobby is much bigger than is easy to condense into a line or two.
Look back at what you just posted.---You have put a large number of folks in a very small box.

Why is there an exception for buying a new car to "complement" a "real one"?

They are examples of what cars where, without the work, research trial an error that made the cars great. As an old guy you bought the best factory fast car you could get, Then you went to work. I guess my feelings come from watching my brother at gateway saint louis in 1974, racing a 1970 cuda. 383 that he stroked and was feared when they where still $1500