Recent post by @CZAUTO about the Classic car show in George made me think. I suspect there will always be older classic cars that would never move to EVs and I would not want them to change.
I friend and I were talking while walking between te cars about how old a car needs to be to be a classic and then ultimately collectable, when I mentioned that from my perspective most classics are not so much about age desirable.
There are 2 things I see that make cars desirable:
Limited availability
Manufacturing quality or special process
With these in mind I see that most cars that have a lot of plastics in them are not that desirable. Either plastic does not age well, or the use of plastic coincides with more mass produced volumes (either one of the 2 desirable categories).
I think it is similar to collecting coins, or “Numismatics”. What makes a coin valuable is 1) how rare it is, 2) being in perfect condition, which usually means it was never in circulation.
Therefore an old Land Rover may be a classic, but it is neither rare, nor are the vast majority of examples perfect in the sense that matters, “numbers matching”. Even the vast majority of first gen VW “kombis” aren’t rare enough or in good enough shape to be protected. If you have a rare example of a splittie (two-piece front window) with the original engine, and no rust… then MAAAAYBE that is worth preserving.
There was over a 1000 cars this year. Everything from Ferrari’s, Maybach’s, rockclimbers, motorbikes, classics, exotics, vintage…the show is definitely growing. There was a new Maybach S680 that sells for R4.7m and I’m sure that Gullwing S300 will be worth much more. There was also a beautifull 1999 R34 Skyline on auction for R1.8m. Ratrods galore, new Mustangs, old Mustangs, Rouche Mustangs, Wyllis jeeps… I think if you walked through all the cars (I had a step count of 16,000+, 9.7km for the day) and something didn’t catch your eye…you don’t belong in a car
There was also quite a few EV’s for example the BMW Ix. Beautifull car but I didn’t even look at the pricetag. I think we’ve still got a long way to go before EV’s will completely replace internal combustion engines. And by that time we probably would’ve already run out of Lithium
I only have 6 pictures (learned from previous years). Those 2 of the SL300, 2 pics from hotrods, and then 2 of that Beetle Bumber scooter you also have
You can have one for about 1.2 million, if you don’t mind it being a year or two old. New they are about 1.4 million. Expensive, for sure, but when you consider that an Audi eTron, Jaguar iPace and any of the Mercedes EQ cars are 1.7 and then up to 3 million or more (which is literally more than any house I’ve ever bought)… it almost seems affordable
Thought so. Very rare and true collectables. I wouldn’t mind having the money equal to the value of all the vehicles there this past weekend. There we’re Dinky toy model carts going for R15k+…and there were rooms full of model cars… But it was quite an experience. Biggest one yet. Next is the Simola hillclimb
Here in the platteland you buy sommer a big 4 bedroom house with borehole and swimming pool for that kind of money. It must be lekker to have that kind of cash to spend on toys. My 12 year old 3.2DID trekker must carry me into my grave
Speaking of house prices, it just occured to me that the most expensive vehicle I’ve bought in my life (so far) was only about two thirds of the least expensive house I’ve ever bought (way back in 2005 when I just started out). But I expect that in the near future… that might change, not by choice, just because that’s where prices are going.
I always talk about “Hilux money”. My first house, a little two bedroom duplex… was about as much as a Double cab Hilux is now.
I bought my current house in 2011 for R320k, The house needed TLC but it’s got a big erf with access from the front and back streets. I immediately had longterm ideas when they showed me the house. I needed a workshop and seeing that rent skyrocketed and that wokshop rental option in Beaufort West wasn’t so great I decided to buy the house and run my buisness from there. I first worked out of a 2 car garage until I built a 160m2 5 bay workshop in 2016. Never looked back. Since Covid lockdown i’ve also been working alone so overhead costs are minimal and stress even less…
Anyhow, here’s a quick Youtube video covering the George motorshow.
