We love our classic cars. There’s no two ways about it.
Today’s vehicles may be so many things that yesterday’s are not, faster, cleaner, more economical, more reliable, safer and quite often, cheaper to buy, why wouldn’t cars of the 21st century be the favourite? They’re pretty much the better in every way that counts.
And yet, and yet ….
There’s no one single thing that can be held directly responsible for the hold a car from yesterday has over us.
For some it’s the way they look, created in a time when the designer’s pencil and paper held sway, with humans creating sweeping curved lines and elegant shapes that are no longer in the modern inventory of looks.Others sigh over the character of a model, something seen sadly lacking in today’s soulless computer designed and robot built efforts that have been pushed out from the interminable production line.
What was once the norm, panels created by hand and eye and a manual construction process undertaken by expert craftsmen using simple tools, is no longer the case.
Then there’s the nostalgic look back to an age where the designers’ creative process was unrestrained by aerodynamic drag coefficients and the necessity of crash testing and guided simply by the fashions and trends of the time.Even though many classic car models were not actually very good, for one reason or another - and after all there was usually a reason their manufacture ultimately ceased - it hasn’t stopped enthusiasts of all ages and around the world hankering after the opportunity to possess the car of their dreams or lavishing vast amounts of money on bringing a rusting abandoned hulk back to gleaming, purring life.
And now there’s a new set of statistics that underlines just how strong the love affair with the classic vehicle is.
They were issued recently by the Federation of British Historic Vehicles Club (FBHVC) which published the result of its national survey, carried out every five years. It shows that the sector is in a pretty healthy position, generating more than £5.5bn in revenue every year - a 27.9% increase since the previous survey – and classic car usage has quadrupled.
The level of interest and support is high too. While there are 1,039,950 historic vehicles, with a combined value of £17.8b registered, 16 million of us think that it’s important that they are used and not left sitting in a museum. Just as well, then that more than half of that registered figure applies to machines on the road and not languishing abandoned in a barn somewhere or taking pride of place in a museum.
Furthermore, classic car usage is also on the rise, having gone through a slight lean patch. In 1997 the average mileage per annum was 516. It dropped to 350 in 2006 and went down again to 288 in 2011. This year’s survey has found that average to have rocketed to 1,124 miles. All these big and bigger numbers are good news for the industry supporting such passion too. It employs 34,900 people directly, a rise from 28,000 within the last five years, and 54% of historic vehicle business employers are confident that their organisation will grow still further.
On the national economic front, an estimated £662 million is spent perannum in Britain by foreign enthusiasts. About 25% of that comes from the exports of parts and services and is viewed as a developing trend as more and more UK businesses invest in people and facilities and are recognised worldwide for their expertise.
All in all things are looking pretty good - no surprise if you’re part of the historic vehicle community, maintains FBHVC chairman David Whale.
“One only has to look at developments over the period,” he says. “We now have much wider historic vehicle ownership and based on the number of events and publications, a much more active body of enthusiasts.
“The survey clearly demonstrates the whole movement is evolving and is in extremely good health with individual segments increasing generally in line with the overall outcome.
“Rest assured the future of the historic vehicle movement looks very positive, let us get out onto tomorrow’s roads to enjoy yesterday’s vehicles!”