Legal Bill

For years I've been predicting that the oh-so-hot market for classic cars built from 1955 through 1970 would largely die out with the baby boom generation. I based this on my observation of the market for classic cars from earlier periods and noted that cars from the 1900 to 1942 period first seemed to "freeze" in value as the greatest generation became senior citizens and then began to drop as they left us. Even those vehicles that stayed frozen in price have devalued due to inflation. To me, it only stood to reason that the same would happen to the cars from the baby boom generation. It certainly seemed that we were on the same track. It is not news that the younger generations have little interest in the cars from my youth. And as we have discussed several times in the past, the younger generations have a much smaller percentage of people who really love cars. And indeed, with the passage of time, the cars from the 1980's to the 2000's have started to find favor among collectors. Finally, the sheer volume of baby boomer vehicles in the collector market place is staggering. As "we" get older, it will certainly become a buyer's market for all that inventory. All of this added up to a pretty easy-to-read future for the classic car market. As a generation ages and passes away, so does the market for the cars that were made during the youth of that generation. Oh, there will always be examples of cars that stand the test of time and maintain their value beyond the lives of those who were here to witness their manufacture. But those few "special" cars are truly the exception, just as they were when they were produced.

But recently, there has been a development in the classic car market that I did not foresee. More and more women are becoming car collectors. This pool of potential new collectors is over 50% of our total population and could easily have a huge impact on the market. Early signs indicate that women are a bit more likely to buy based on nostalgia versus investment. At first, this may seem similar to what male collectors have done for years. But the word "nostalgia" is pretty broad in scope. Is it nostalgia for the great cars of our youth, or nostalgia for the cars your parents owned when you were a child? Many of the women who buy are purchasing the vehicles of their parents' generation rather than their own. Here is an article with some discussion of the phenomenon in England.

https://justbritish.com/the-rise-in-...ic-car-owners/

So what do you think? Will women become a major force in the collector car market, and how will they influence it in the future?

Lainey

Send me some money and I'll spend it on a car!

I do enjoy a trip to a car museum, and/or a car show. I like the fact that I can often identify the cars from the 50's and 60's sometimes by a tail light or other small part on the vehicle. It makes me feel smart (or maybe I just have useless trivia in my head) . I often ask Rick how many women could do this. IF we had lots of money to spend, and a big garage, Rick would have cars, and I'm sure I would have a favorite or two among the collection as well. I love the early Corvettes.

dlq04

Women are a major force in the 'horse' world but I don't see them as a major force in the 'collector car' world. I don't know how accurate my personal sample is but out of the 100 families involved in the MGA club I can only think of 3 that were truly car people who enjoyed polishing and driving them as much as their spouse.

Emil St-Hilaire

Lainey

Wait a minute...polishing??? Don't they have people who can do that for me??

Emil St-Hilaire

S2KRAY

Wow, very nice polishing job. Wanna work for me in my detailing business. I like your rim protectors. Are they alloygators? I have them in black.

Emil St-Hilaire

cosmomiller

The number of women collectors is the same. The percentage is changing because the men are dying before the women do.