Future classics!
 

What will become of future classic cars in this day & age with the end of ICE cars by the end of the decade? Will the new world BEV's cut the mustard for car enthusiasts in the same way petrol/diesel cars do or are we going to make do with the cars we have today.:shrug:


I was reading about the Mini last night & BMW have just announced that Mini will make it's last combustion engine in 2025 five years ahead of the ICE ban date :eek:

https://www.electrive.com/2021/11/03...ngine-in-2025/ This picture of the original Mini & the BMW Mini parked side by side still amazes me as to how bloated it became.



https://i.imgur.com/u95EEz5l.jpg

It must have swallowed the same pill the Italian one did.:getmecoat:

LOL :D:p::D

In fairness, that's a MINI Countryman not just the hatch ;)

There are people who do not consider ICE cars with fuel injection and plastic bumpers as classics, but as the cars age and the scene evolves, what is accepted as a classic also changes. This will apply to BEVs in time. How this will present itself remains to be seen. I suspect enthusiastic interest for BEVs will be driven by aftermarket performance enhancement, given the potential there. It's something I will struggle with personally as BEVs are appliances that serve a purpose (perhaps with the exception of something like a Taycan) but I'm prepared to be converted.

Yeah I know what you mean, I was talking with a few of my mates in another classic car forum I used to belong to & everyone to a man said they wouldn't consider any future classic that had a plug at all :eek:
It had to be a pure ICE car or nowt. The problem is in 2025 the next iteration of the Euro Cat 7 emission standards come into force which will be 15% stricter than they are today :eek:
The vast majority of pure ICE cars would really struggle to meet those stricter limits unless it has a plug & an electric axle.

ICE car manufacturers can barely meet today's emission standards as it is hence the multi hundreds of €millions in fines for failing to meet their average fleet emission limits in recent years. Strange times ahead.

I think with regards to future classics we are limited now even with ICE variants. There will be some stand out cars like the 595 Abarth, Yaris GR, John Cooper works etc that will evolve into classics but the majority won’t in my opinion. One EV that might become a classic is the Honda e with its quirky but cool look.

It will be the 40year birthday that will decide if they will ever be a classic. My guess a lot less EV's will get to that milestone with all the electronic complexity, a lot of stuff made in the last decade struggles to survive more than 7 years past the warranty period. So much stuff these days is made of tissue paper and/or chocolate. You only have to go to a car breakers to see how much modern stuff is being scrapped because of expensive electrical faults and that will be even worse when the drive train is also electric.

I know we are not going to stop this electric revolution but hopefully I will be long gone when it is the only way we can legally travel.

Hopefully some common sense comes into play and Hydrogen is another option.

Can you imagine the future barn finds youtube videos like Hagerty's channel where they come across a Tesla model S that's been parked in a barn for decades.
They'll get a 12volt supply to the battery in the frunk to see if it will power on & open the doors. :eek:
Then the car will report back OTA to the mother ship at Tesla HQ to be told Nah mate the hardware & software have expired & are obsolete. :eek:

Yes exactly, I have a friend with on of the last Saab 9 5's. It has not been to a dealer for many years and it reckons it needs a software update. The handbook says it can be done at the main dealer at the next service. No independents have any way of doing it so he now has a warning triangle on all the time.

To answer the OP one really has to answer the question what is a classic. To me, it is something that has rarity value and people with funds to invest see it as a way of appreciating their net worth.

If a Ford Escort, that was considered a very basic car in its day, can achieve classic status then so can modern cars. One could argue that there will be fewer such modern cars remaining on the road, and therefore they may have elevated classic status.

Personally, I have no interest in cars that many think are classics - to me they are nothing more than horrible boxes on wheels with little comfort, refinement or driveability compared to modern cars. I prefer modern classics!