Sitting amongst the sea of white crossovers in the parking lot, it stands out like a sore thumb. Honestly, a red 1992 FD Mazda RX-7 would be hard to miss anywhere.
You remember seeing that double bump roof in the car magazines and wondering when this thing might depreciate to a point where you could afford one once you get that first real job. This was almost a race car for the street, a far cry from the more restrained cut-rate 944 of the previous model.
In the rust belt, you go out of your way to ogle such machines that are thin on the ground today. Just the sight of something like this can honestly make you forget the fact that you just shipped six hundred of the wrong things out to the field at work.
Looking around the back to see if this example has the infamous Bose sound system that looks like a digestive system …
It’s in looking at this detail that something hits you in the face like a brick: a “collector plate.” Oh, shit. This thing is the requisite thirty-two years old now to qualify for something you would imagine could only be stuck onto Tri-Five Chevrolets or other popular-with-boomers rides.
Damn, I’m old. What the hell happened? As much as I might make fun of those guys with New Balance sneakers and tube socks sitting in folding camp chairs complete with the logo printed on of the pride and joy they’re sitting next to, I’m just a stone’s throw away from that.
There are plenty of cars just like this today, from a McClaren F1 to a Nissan Z32 300ZX; cars I still see as modern, unobtainable objects that only exist in glossy advertisements. Now they’re classic cars to the latest generation, and it’s hard to deal with that.
How about you? What cars do you love with all your heart but in some twisted way cause you pain by reminding you that you’re a day closer to death and already eligible for an AARP card?
Top graphic inset: starush/stock.adobe.com
I could’ve gotten classic plates for my ’97 Econoline, but PA has restrictions for using classics and antique cars, plus the classic plates don’t actually seem to carry any actual benefits.
I don’t think anything in car world makes me feel “old” yet, especially since I’ve only become car-conscious in the last decade or so. But I’ll probably revisit this topic in a few decades when the youngest (complete, not just chassis cab) E-series vans on the road are still 2014 models.
For me it’s a few things, though maybe not any specific car. One is seeing anything from the 90s on historic plates. Another is seeing cars that I distinctly remember launching as new models, driving around with rust and/or body damage. I saw a Mercedes SL the other day, can’t have been more than 15 years old, and it was absolutely trashed, and the clear coat was peeling. My mom had a 2008 Mercedes GL450 when I was a teenager, the nicest car anyone in my family had owned at the time. Now you see them on their third or fourth owners, filthy, missing pieces of trim with scrapes and dents.
Yeah, I worked as a tech and new car prep guy at a Ford dealer from 1998-2001, and it always pains me to see a beat up version of a car that I likely detailed and delivered to the first owner when it was new.
The Model S. I remember when it was so new nobody had one. Then I realize that it’s been out there for 12 years.
SN95 Mustang. I have a promotional poster celebrating the Mustang’s 30th anniversary, with the SN95 on top and a mirror reflection of a ’64 Mustang underneath. The ’94 SN95 is now as old as the ’64 was when it debuted. That makes me feel old.
Oof! That hits hard.
Just the other day I realized I was born closer to WW2 than today. *shudder*
Seriously, where do the years go…
While I give the folks that drive them a lot of well deserved grief, I’ve got to say Tooner/JDM favorites from the OG Fast and Furious era…particularly stuff like the Evo VIII-X, bug eye WRXs, blob eye STIs, MK4 Supras, even GTRs. Actually, particularly GTRs. I still see them as an aspirational car when they’re honestly pretty fat, dated, and overpriced at this point.
They also get a fair amount of hate from enthusiasts…some of it deserved, some of it less so. But back in the 2000s they were a bedroom poster car that EVERYONE wanted. Now when they get brought up a decent amount of people look at me like I’m crazy. The same goes for those classic rally cars. I always get a kick out of seeing a rare, unmolested Evo or STI in rally blue. My wife, friends, family, etc. just do not get it.
And on top of that they make me feel old because I just don’t think I could pull off rolling into the work parking lot or a cars and coffee in one at this stage. I’m 33, dad bod-ed, usually wear glasses, tend to dress more on the business casual side of things, etc. But I don’t know…you just had to be there, I guess. These cars were culturally significant back then and not just in the enthusiast community.
Like seemingly all movie franchises, late stage capitalism quickly turned the Fast series into a shambling, bloated, corporatized mess…but the first 3 or so of them really did a lot to put cars on the map for us folks that were young at the time. *pulls socks up to knee* You just had to BE THERE, man.
Not any specific car but a way of thinking.
My first car was an ’88 Accord, which I got in 2000. It was 12 years old at that point and it seemed like hammered garbage.
My current DD is an ’06. Its freaking 18 years old now. But it seems like a much nicer car overall, even being 50% older. So every time it occurs to me that my current car is aged well past my first car, it reminds just how much time has passed since that first car.
Anytime I see a not-uncommon-for-the-era wagon version of the top-selling sedans of the 80’s and 90’s. . i.e. Accord, Camry, Taurus. Also Saabs. Seeing Saabs makes me feel old. And sad.
Where exactly did all those Neons go?
Cash for clunkers ate them.
Thanks, Obama.
I believe they are mostly all gone from YouTube now, but did any of you ever watch any of the videos of mechanics “decommissioning” C4C turn-ins? I called them “automotive snuff films.” The procedure, as I remember it, was to drain all the oil, fill the crankcase with stop leak instead, crank it up, and run it until it locked up and died. Some immediately locked up, others took a few seconds, and a few fought the good fight for several minutes or even an hour or longer.
The one that hurt the most to watch? A perfectly serviceable-looking Dodge 15-passenger van. It absolutely refused to die. The mechanics in the video tried running it at high revs, and it kept going. They tried driving it around the back lot, and it kept going. They even subjected it to ridiculous amounts of hooning, like burnouts and (IIRC) at least one “Rockford J-turn” attempt, but that van wasn’t going out like that. I think it took the engine something like 90 minutes to finally sputter to a stop and lock up.
And the whole time, I’m sitting there disgusted, thinking to myself, “You mean to tell me there’s not a poor church or adult foster home or daycare that couldn’t have used this more?” I turned 52 a month ago, and I have never, not even once, seen a more misguided, stupidly and needlessly destructive federal program than that one.
Wasn’t C4C a W idea?
I don’t know who originally had the idea, but Obama put it into action.
Bad head gaskets (probably among other things) made them effectively a disposable car. My spouse received one new as a college graduation present from her folks (so she could drive to see them more). We drove it and drove it and drove it and then one day it started drinking oil and the next week we sold it to our mechanic as a parts car for $125 or something like that. It was a ’97 or ’98 Neon, and it broke down in 2004.
2nd Gen Integra. I had a 92 & a 90. Those were both made more than 30 years ago. . . I loved those cars.
My project ’83 BMW 533i (e28) is one year older than me and has collector plates 😀
VW Beetle.
Dad had many of them, and they were already old when I was a kid.
Many good memories.
I’ve had a Beetle since I was 11, and it was “only” 32 years old then…the same as buying a car from 1992 today. Now it’s 52 and idk, something about it hitting the 50+ year mark makes me feel old.
Anything 80s/90s that used to litter the roads that today you can’t remember the last one you saw, rising values of such animals also makes me feel old. A few of the cars I own qualify, 88 Cutlass Ciera, 92 Bonneville SSE, 92 Lumina Z34. And as an extra jab from the universe at my age, third gen F bodies are still gaining value it seems, which is handily keeping me away from having another. Who ever thought people would be paying over original MSRP again for a TBI 305? Haha
LMAO for real, I had an ’88 TransAm GTA (350 TPI motor) I bought close to max depreciation in 2002. It resisted any increase in price and I finally sold it around 2009 for less than what I paid for it. Seeing the prices they’re finally starting to sell for both makes me happy they’re finally getting their due, but also shake my head.
I read about some seventies star that traded his two-year-old 365GTB/4 Daytona for a 365GTC/4, even though his dad told him to consider keeping it. He probably got $12,000 or so in trade. He bought a restored, identical replacement a few years ago; it did not cost $12,000.
Oh wow, that’s next level
The nostalgia bug bites hard, in 08 I paid 1200 bucks for my 85 TA (rust free Georgia car but it was neglected), sold it in 2013 with many an amount of money in it by then, for $3800 and the guy made me feel like I was hitting him over the head with it. I’m dead certain my next one won’t cost that little, but that fact still isn’t going to stop me from doing it anyway. I do agree it’s good to see people appreciating the things I appreciate, which explains the value increase.
not bad, I think I got $1600 for mine. Of course the clear coat was going bad and in bright red the chalky flaking clear coat on the roof and hood really looked rough. Plus the paint cracked on the rubber rear spoiler (what bean counter thought that was a good idea) and it was the victim of a minor hit and run that left a decent scratch in the rear quarter panel by the taillight so $1600 was sadly probably fair.
As a kid, I loved the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4. Now, I love them from afar, but I realize now that I would not want to have to repair one at all.
My Brother in law was a Mitsubishi service manager during the late 90’s. He loved those things coming in. Said he could smell the huge bill any repair was going to be.
I saw an absolutely mint Dodge Intrepid on historic plates last weekend. I remember when that was just a normal car you couldn’t turn around without seeing at least one or two.
When I see a real live Chevette going down the road under its own power and not that rusty, I feel old.
Toyota MR2 Spider. How did these get to be two decades old already?
Question for The Bishop: are you the same The Bishop who wrote about people swapping Ford VTEC engines into Lotus Europas on the LotusTalk forum in 2008? Just curious.
Nah, I wish. I’ve never had more than two cars to share between me and my wife so sadly a Lotus isn’t really an option.
Just wondered; hadn’t run across another The Bishop before, so it caught my eye.
I bought mine as a lightly used car in the fall of 2003. Hard to believe that was more than 20 years ago 🙂
They still look fresh.
I understand the question, but I choose not to think about it. Instead, I choose to drive cars that make my 51 year old self feel young.
First had this dilemma several years back on morning commute: 80s VW GTI with antique tags. I was like, WTH??? Damn math was correct.
Any Buick. But in the nicest way possible.
The list is endless to me, but probably the most stark i realized recently is my SN95 is (almost) closer in age to the first mustang than to a new one. Given it came out after I started driving, I think I’m safely in the old catagory.
The C5 Corvette still feels like “the new one” to me despite being 27(!!!) years old now.
The perception is helped by the fact that the median C5 usually has 12,000 easy driven miles from its elderly owner. So they still look new now. Seemingly no such thing as a clapped out one.
Honorable mention to any luxury car whose model designation accurately reflects its engine displacement.
It’s also helped by the fact that the C4 stayed around for 23 years, so when a “new” one appeared it was a big deal.
13 years, but the point remains good.
See? I’m so old my math is that bad. Ah, but the C3 supposedly shared the Mid-Year Sting Ray’s basic suspension, so that ran from 1963 to 1982.
Non-car people regularly ask me if my C5 is new, which is pretty much all the counter-argument I need for the haters who say it didn’t age well.
I still feel that way about the C4. Those, however, did not lead easy lives, and seeing one all scruffy now feels like looking at a movie prop from some sci-fi future-shock movie from the 80s. Like it’s been aged-up artificially.
The Bugatti Veyron. It was such a watershed moment, such a spectacle that even non-car enthusiasts knew about it and its insane numbers. I remember it vividly!
It was almost 20 years ago that the first one was delivered.
They aren’t that old, but something like a 2010-2015 era pick up that has rust on the rear wheel arches. I’m always like, “How does a three year old truck already have rust!?!?!” Most other cars manage to make it a bit longer here in the salt belt before succumbing to rust.
I mentioned this on another article recently, but a big problem is that for some reason pickups don’t come with fender liners standard. When you let stones chip away at the paint in the wheel wells for 10 years, it’s no surprise that they start to rust pretty badly.
My 2015 only has a few tiny rust spots on leading edges of panels. Thanks to plastic fender liners the rear wheel arches are pristine.
Pretty much everything I like.
I no longer lust for anything not built 20-25 years ago.
Cars I used to own make me feel this way. For instance, I had a 2006 Accord (V6, 6MT, 4 door). It was a fantastic car and I regret trading it in, but it had 200K miles. Now it’s old enough to vote. It felt new & cutting edge when I had it!
Lots of em. A few years ago, I was commuting in my lil tracker, and the thought hit me, “Oh shit, this car can legally drink!” My pickup, which is one year newer than I am, will be eligible for collector plates in WA next year 🙁
On that note, my ’77 Cherokee, is eligible for HORSELESS CARRIAGE plates in Washington. How funny would that be?
Do it.
My RX8 is 5 months away from being able to drink. Unfortunately for the past 5 years it’s been getting harder and harder for me to find it ethanol free fuel…