So You Bought a Fancy Vintage Car. Now Who's Going to Restore It?
24 comments
·August 10, 2025glitchc
Sorry to burst bubbles, but I've been in a few: The new cars really do drive better. Smoother shifts, better engines, effective climate control, better seats, just more comfy, more driveable, more responsive, even feel better. This isn't like vintage pens I'm afraid, where old meant high quality materials. Old cars are mostly just crappy (barring a very small set of outliers).
I think it boils down to the fact that cars represent the pinnacle of engineering for that time period. Engineering only gets better with time.
wizee
In general, I agree. However, many older cars were small, light, simple, and raw - characteristics that have largely disappeared from modern cars. Automatic transmissions from the mid-90s and earlier generally sucked, though good old manual transmissions are not much different from modern ones.
As an example, I owned a W126 S class from the late 80s, and it was fun in its unique way and no modern cars replicate its experience. It had somewhat heavy and very feedback rich steering feel, and Porsche-like firm and tactile pedal feel, while having a super supple ride over the most awful roads with SUV-like ground clearance and tremendous suspension travel. The car was also super simple and reliable; my 300SE had nearly 400k km with all original powertrain when I sold it, it never let me down, and it weighed less than a modern A class or CLA. While not as safe as modern cars, it was exceptionally safe for its era and comparable to normal cars of the early 2000s for crash structure safety.
The W140 (I used to own one too) had a much better powertrain, but it lost the raw tactile scrappy nature of its predecessor, and nor could it handle super awful potholed roads as well as the W126. There are no modern cars that combine the rich raw tactile control feel and super supple ride the W126 had.
Look at cars like the BMW E30, or Mercedes-Benz 190E (W201), or the superbly engineered workhorses that the W123 and W124 were. There are no modern cars that replicate the genuinely delightful driving experience of those.
thrown-0825
I love classics, but they are not safe to drive at all and a 65 v8 mustang performs worse than a 90’s civic in just about every way.
grapesodaaaaa
I don’t think people are buying vintage cars for the ride quality. The owners I’ve seen with them see it as a passion.
Much like the McLaren F1 has a cult following, yet no traction control or turbo.
glitchc
So great that you picked one of those rare outliers. There's nothing quite like the McLaren F1, not then, not now.
grapesodaaaaa
How about an older Porsche or Mercedes? I stand by my original statement.
I had a friend who collected and restored very old BMWs. He certainly wasn’t doing it for the ride quality or features vs a modern car. I just picked the F1, because it’s a shining example of a car people love that is impractical compared to modern cars of equivalent specs.
zjp
I've seen firsthand the attrition in restoration work. It's in a pretty sad state. My dad runs the garage his dad started in Kansas City decades ago, and his business partner is in the back half of his 80s. They're rushing to get work done and knowledge transferred before it's gone forever, but he's always telling me about people who have had to stop working, or died. I can never believe what people are paying to get work like chrome plating or upholstery done or the wait times. I wonder if there will be anyone left by the time we get around to restoring one of our own.
Animats
"the $77 billion classic car industry"? That's from here.[1] For $4699 you can buy a copy of the full report.
The market size estimate may come from defining a rather large range of cars as "classic". The average auction price of a "classic car" is $45,000.[2] Not sure what definition they're using, but we're not talking about what goes to Pebble Beach.
[1] https://www.credenceresearch.com/report/classic-cars-market
[2] https://www.classic.com/insights/hagerty-2025-market-in-4-ch...
sparrish
There's a great car restoration business near us. The sole proprietor is in his late 70s and refuses to take on any apprentice. Says he refuses to train his competition. Sad that all those years of experience and skill will go to waste.
GianFabien
For somebody in their 70s, a more productive viewpoint would be to be passing on a legacy. Even with a long healthy life, competition should no longer be a big concern.
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martinky24
“Go to waste” is such a weird way to think about a 5 decade career.
sparrish
He has so much skill he could pass on but refuses. That's a waste for the car restoration community.
MangoToupe
Five decades is either trivial or enough time to contribute back to society.
GianFabien
I enjoy watching Kinding It Design, Wheeler Dealer and similar shows. I suspect that some people might be inspired to consider those careers after watching the gleeful professionalism of the people featured on such shows.
thrown-0825
Why would you buy a classic without the ability to restore and maintain it yourself?
Ive restored a couple and I cannot imagine the cost of outsourcing all that work.
zjp
Yeah but was your work concours grade?
thrown-0825
I typically do frame off restorations back to factor using authentic parts wherever possible.
Im definitely slower, and I do outsource the paint and any particularly dusty bodywork.
userbinator
Ironically, if it's a mid-century domestic, there is probably better parts availability, especially aftermarket, than anything made within the last decade or so.
thrown-0825
Definitely. I had to have a few parts machined but for the most part i was able to get parts online without any hassle.
m463
I knew a guy who did this sort of thing.
me: "that sounds really wonderful and interesting!"
him: "bunch of rusty cars"
fake-name
> “Younger kids do not have the same work ethic,” says RM’s Morreau. The immediate satisfaction normalized by cell phones and social media is antithetical to the know-how required for fabricating, say, the burled walnut dashboard of a pre-war Rolls-Royce.
Oooooor, the pay is crap and the work environment is abusive.
Any time someone trots out the "kids don't have the same work ethic" argument, they can immediately be ignored. People have been literally saying that continuously since people have been around to write the complaint down, and it's been exactly as true then as it is now.
I've just about got my 1981 Mini I bought in highschool for $600 NZD back in one piece. Wasn't going to touch the engine originally but thought why not, so almost 20 years later with almost everything aside from the shell refurbed or replaced here we are. It's been expensive and slow and I'd have been better off now having put the money into a house deposit instead. But now I know a fair amount about rebuilding a 45 year old car and I have about 10k in specialty tools I will probably barely use again, so I guess there's that.