Editor’s Report - June 2023

I was recently discussing with a friend, who I used to Rally with, we were discussing the types of cars that people currently collect, this seems to be typically an age based phenomenon and what we thought were “cool” cars when we were typically in the 20-30 age group, unfortunately most of us were not in a position to afford these at the time, typically we had a young family, a mortgage and a career in the infancy. This discussion lead me to do some research and some interesting points emerged, the common thread was this age based phenomenon will produce an interesting demand and pricing of cars. Pre-War will lack demand going forward and prices will fall, Post war until 70’s will see a continued demand with good pricing, typically my generation. The 80’s onwards vehicles a younger group are
buying and typically modifying these, many are Japanese or European origin. Many of us frown and look at the end result and show disdain for these overly modified vehicles. Another group is buying the end of era Australian made “muscle” cars and we see pricing that is crazy in relation to the initial purchase price, will these prices last into the future? I somehow doubt it. The next generation may not
even be interested in cars as typically all SUV’s look the same.

Many manufacturers declared many cars End of Life (EOL) and ceased manufacturing parts, unfortunately we are now in this realm as well, at least we are lucky that many parts are being manufactured by companies such as Prestige Parts for our PMC’s. Another area to look at is on forums for compatible parts, whilst some of our members are adept at manufacturing their own components. Our last guest speaker David Rayner proved the validity of sourcing and manufacturing to OEM specifications.

There is a real worry with now with ECU’s and electronic modules in many cars from the 90’s onwards, these CAN Bus systems are unfortunately going to cause many issues going forward, unfortunately there are many of these components that are no longer available. There are examples already of cars that are pristine on the outside but they really are now just ornaments as there electronics are destroyed, the biggest culprit water intrusion or rodents.

The moral of the story is drive your car regularly, enjoy what you have and maintain it on time and keep it garaged well. As always… just my opinion! Interpret anything I write with your bias.

Happy Motoring.

Wayne Spittle