When I first started driving the best car I could afford was a 20 year old hatchback, it wasn’t a prestige marque, it didn’t have a big engine, it wasn’t impressive looking, but importantly it was mine. However once the novelty of ownership becamse a memory I began to search for some other positive aspect of the car.
Was it perhaps unique in some way? was it a limited edition? Unfortunately not? and indeed as Seinfeld says that label merely indicates a model is “limited to hte number they can sell”!
After much musing I concluded my car must at least be a “classic”.
Well I did some research, and found out that there was no agreed definition. In Ireland for Motor Tax it was 30 years, but for insurance 25 years.
So I looked to the car clubs to provide te answer, the anoraks had compiled a table
ANTIQUE Pre 1905
VETERAN 1905-1918
VINTAGE 1918-1930
POST VINTAGE 1931-1945
CLASSIC 1946-1981 (a moving wall of 25 years, I’ve updated the figure at the time of writing)
So my car was not a classic by any standard, but if I kept it long enought it would be, and there is a moral of story, age (or to use the broader term rarity) equals value.
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