What's "vintage"?

[Nanonevol]

I just got one of those family holiday letters and the writer mentioned his son was flying out to Arizona to pickup and drive back a vintage car his grandmother was passing on to him. My curiosity piqued, I shot off an e-mail to find out what it was. A 1996 Nissan Altima. Oh. The car is older than the boy but if it was me I'd have a hard time getting at all excited about it. I do like the idea of keeping any mechanical thing working as long as possible though. I wonder how a car like that will look when the boy hits middle age, say 2040 (if he still has it).

[stuartrubin]

That's pretty funny.

When I was a teenager, in about 1990, I bought a 1972 VW Super Beetle (which I loved) so it was just shy of 20 years old. Everyone would have thought of that car as vintage, but was younger than this kid's new (old) ride.

I think a car (or any other thing) qualifies as "vintage" if it's valued because of its age or nostalgia. Perhaps the holiday letter has somewhat of an ironic or tongue-in-cheek message about the car!

Regardless, nice to hear that he's excited about getting his own car and not spoiled with some fancy new one. I'm sure he'll use it well.

[CajunMike]

Most anything pre 1980s I would consider vintage. A lot of the mechanical stuff was replaced with more modern technology starting early 80s, particularly with the rapid advancements in computer technology. Definitely not mid 90s. That's just old.

[DUCeditor]

It'as funny how life and the passage of time affects our view of this subject.

When I was preparing to get my driver's license, back in 1964, my mom had borrowed a 1949 Studebaker to drive while her car was in getting serviced. She let me drive it and I remember thinking what fun an "old" car can be.

"Old"? Yes, it was to me. Really old!

All of 15 years!!!

Now my Spider -- a 1977 -- is near approaching its 40th year. Yet I am surprised when a teenager calls out "Wow! Cool old car mister!"

My `77 Spider is now, to that kid, as old as a 1920s car was to me at his age.

And the design is a full ten years older than that.

Nah! Can't be!

-don

[DieselSpider]

Here you will get a classic/vintage plate on cars over 20 years old. Antique here in Florida is considered any vehicle built after 1945 that is at least 30 years old so my 1978 Spider in Florida is considered an Antique as is any car made prior to 1986. A Dodge Omni, Aries K, AMC Pacer, Pontiac Fiero and such are all Antiques.

Time passes and we find ourselves at an age where what was current when we were kids is now considered vintage or classic and then we pass the next milestone where items from our middle age are now considered vintage or classic while new cars from when we were kids are all Antiques. In a few weeks a 1996 vehicle could be considered a classic/vintage car via the 20 year rule and qualify for registration plates for that class of vehicle.

[131]

One definition in Oz is:

"The generally accepted rule is that a Veteran car was manufactured before 1905, Edwardian up to and including December 1918 while a Vintage car was made between 1919 and 1930, although the term is often used to describe any car made before World War Two."

[azruss]

As others have said, i think this is all age related. When I was old enough to drive (1962), my dad was into packards so i learned to drive on mid 50s boats. Eventho Packard had been out of business since 1956 (post 1956 Packards are really Studebakers), I just considered them "older" cars. I still consider cars of that vintage to be Classic, not vintage. Had a college roomy who had a 27 air-cooled Franklin and a 25 Pierce-Arrow. Now those babies were vintage. I still look at my Spider as being a modern car and think of it only as a classic with my tongue firmly in my cheek. Afterall, it is 34 years younger than i am. Maybe this means that I am vintage.