What is the difference between a Classic Car and a Youngtimer?

The current focus on Youngtimers has led us to examine in more detail what actually is a classic?

The answer to this hoary old Chestnut should be easier to reach due to the astonishingly fast and seismic change that we have seen in cars in the last decade. After all, we live in an era of unremittingly dull new cars many of which will simply stop when their batteries expire.

In my Father’s era of car enthusiasm ( 1939-92), old cars were Veteran or Vintage or Post-Vintage which corresponded to Pre-1919, 1919-1930 and 1930-1945. After that Classic really meant old / no longer made/ collectable/interesting.

In a world obsessed by classification this Post-Post Vintage era now causes much head scratching and angst which is a shame. In the village where I live there is a rather scruffy little Peradua Nippa which was in the late 1990s the cheapest new car on sale in the UK. This particular example is a rather fetching lilac colour and according to how many left is one of only 30 survivors still licensed. I walk past it regularly and to me it’s a classic on every level although I doubt that its owner thinks so.

The Government sort of acknowledge classics in a very governmental sort of a way : to be tax and MOT exempt a car must be 40 years old …end of. Even then you still have to tax or Sorn it or risk a substantial fine. Insurance companies are not much better : to keep their bureaucracies choked they adopt rules which they seem to dream up and amend at will.

In Europe they call Classics Youngtimers which applies to any car more than 20 years old ,but drawing a line based on age is fraught with problems. We have just bought a 2011 MG TF. It’s a long story but is this not a Classic just because it was built six years after volume production of the TF stopped abruptly in 2005? It very obviously is.

Now we get controversial : According to Top Gear Magazine the best selling cars in the UK so far this year are 1) Ford Puma,2) Kia Sportage 3)Nissan Qashqai. Will any of these ever be Classic? Well at least the Puma looks like a car. The front of the Kia makes me feel quite queasy : weird lights and a grill that seems intent on cooling some vast powerplant. The Qashqai offends me due to the lack of a U after the Q as if the rules of Scrabble have been jettisoned despite its obvious qalities (no U) as a best seller. But yes , if any of these are still running around in 2045 they will have earned some sort of status.

And there lies the rub: What I think is of no consequence and ultimately the great Sir William Lyons was right “the car is the closest thing we will ever create to something that is alive”. As such, cars inspire affection and if a car survives and is still cherished enough by an owner to keep it from the fate awaiting most mass produced items, it is obviously a classic.

Age plays a part but not much else matters. I am lucky to own both a 1.3 Mk 3 Cortina and a pristine 1989 Maestro Special. Both these cars have survived despite their very ordinary specs because their previous owners treated them with reverence and love.

So although all the cars in the current sales top ten leave me absolutely cold, for a yet unknown few their day in the Classic sun will almost certainly come unless like the Talbot Tagora they completely vanish. Actually according to How Many Left? There is one still being looked after somewhere… and I would love to see it!

As a result Great British Car Journey will be showing two absolutely Classic Youngtimers from two of the Uk’s most iconic car makers.

So please come and see us in Hall 5 in the Federation Village at this years NEC Classic Motor Show where we will also be revealing our new model for 18 Great British Car Shows powered by Wera Tools where Classic Owners will be given a very warm welcome in 2026.