Will a 01 auto be antique someday?

With all the plastic used on todays cars would a 01' civic ever be a priceless antique showed in the Peterson automuseum? Or would they be treated as disposable (inexpensive car, don't baby it) and they would all be lost torn up for recycle. Or am I just wasting my tie and it's a question that nobody can

An '01 may technically qualify as an antique someday, but I doubt anyone would consider them desirable or collectable.

Yeh but those were real cars.

LOL. Great point! Back in the fall of '64, my dad and I went to pick up the Mustang he'd ordered. I was only 10 years old, but already a 'car guy' in training. I remember discussing with him if someday people would be restoring Mustangs. (We were doing an early Ford pickup at the time.) I concluded that, what, with all the plastic I saw, it would be unlikely. How obviously off base I was with that thinking. I restored that very same Mustang a couple of years ago, just before my dad died. Glad I did it. Thanks Dad for getting me involved in the hobby, and thanks Ford for making all of those easy to repop plastic parts! Dave

I guess one of the definitions of a 'classic' or 'antique' car, and it's right to be in a museum, has something to do with special technical achievements, or exclusiveness. There are still cars being produced the have something new or daring, but most cars are now build in very large production numbers.

I still have more 'lookers' on my '65 NSU SportPrinz then somebody with an older VW Beetle.

My guess, if you want to buy something now, which might be a classic in a couple of years, look at cars like the Mazda RX8, or the new Bugatti (1001 HP !).

But a simple definition of 'antique' is: either something that's 25 years or older or something that people want to collect

Your '01 Civic might be either around '26 or later ...

All the newer cars are built to die after five years or so. I doubt in fifty years you will see any 2001 vehicles on the road, but I bet there will still be some '65 Darts chugging along.

Provided the EPA doesn't mandate they be crushed.

BTTB2- 'Robin Hood robbed the poor first, but they were broke.'

Most state motor vehicle departments and the AACA recognize antique as being 25 years or older. Therefore a 2001 model car will be an antique in 2026. One's perspective is relative. Back in the early 1960s, no one expected cars of the '50s to be collectible. Decades from now, someone may see a 2001 car at a show and say 'My grandfather/uncle/etc. had one just like it.' Who knows, future car shows may even have classes for minivans or SUVs.

In one of the local papers, the columnist says that any car over 25 will be an antique, but what makes a car collectable is if it's a classic - a unique or lasting design that people will admire for years to come. Since most modern cars are pretty nondescript, I don't see them being collectable in the future. The PT Cruiser, some of the new roadsters from Mazda, Honda, and BMW, I expect to become collectibles for GenX or Y or whatever about 20 years down the line. And, more personally, I think the Porsche 993-type will be considered the classic Porsche of the new generation, much the way the 1973 911S and 1989 Carreras are considered significant turning points by many today. Emanuel (will sell my '83 the second I find a black '73 911S 'Everybody wants a normal life and a cool car; most people settle for the car.' Chris Titus 1983 Porsche 911 1966 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow

You really have to look at it the way the words are commonly used in the English language. 'Classic' is a much more appropriate term for a car that is collectible and distinctive, as it relate so much to aesthetics. I l always thought that Antique was far older, as it's quite hard to think of my 1967 Renault Caravelle as an Antique, by any stretch of the imagination. Look at the the way they designate furniture- antique, if I remember correctly, has to be 100 years old.

True, but cars are different since not many were around that long ago If I remember it right, the standard for most antique auto clubs has been set at 50 years, though classic car clubs are more flexible, along the guidelines I stated before (rarity of model or significant design). So any 50 year-old car is an antique, but there are younger classics (the early Corvettes come to mind). I've been told my '66 Shadow isn't a classic, mostly because the body-style was around pretty much unchanged until 1980. Given that it was a dramatic change for Rolls-Royce at the time, and the fact that they're relatively rare, I expect it will be one day. Emanuel 'Everybody wants a normal life and a cool car; most people settle for the car.' Chris Titus 1983 Porsche 911 1966 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow

Rolls Royce wasn't exactly always on the cutting edge, because it tended to use older technology and stick with it for a long time -but I would tend to differ with the notion that a '66 is not a classic. Many Volkswagen beetles are certainly considered classics if you want to talk about unchanging body styles.