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They Shoot Pintos, Don't They?
Mr_Shiftright
Member Posts: 64,481
in General
Mr. Keith Martin, editor of Sports Car Market
Magazine and a cheeky fellow, proposes in his Feb.
99 issue, under the title of this topic, a rather
touchy subject....that some cars, old or not,
aren't worth saving and should be junked and
recycled. In part he says:
"At every swap meet we are confronted by hordes of
near-derelict cars with no redeeming value,
including four-door sedans that should have died
and gone to the great recycling yard in the sky
long ago, rusty pigs whose value will never support
a restoration and wallet-sucking automotive
irrelevancies whose chief pull on our heartstrings
in that we first learned to drive or were
introduced to the mysteries of sex in a similar
car."
"Just having two doors and a top that goes down
isn't necessarily a deed to eternal restoration
either. There is no shortage of TR4s in the world,
nor is there ever likely to be (referring to Peter
Egan's recent column in Road and Track about seeing
a deplorably rusty Triumph and compulsively
offering $50 for it). We say let those TRs or Alfas
or Porsches that have become unrestorable hulks
go. Send them to that great universal scrapyard,
their molecules freed to be reborn in a new car.
Imagine, the steel from Mr. Egan's derelict TR4 may
end up as the fender for a Mercedes E-55, not a
bad fate. The world will thank you for helping
reduce its clutter, and surely the poor car you put
out of its misery will enjoy its new chance at
life as well."
So, what's your reaction to this? What about
Grandma's 74 Cadillac four door with the crunched
fender and 162K on it and an exhaust emission that
would knock birds out of the trees? Shall we take
her out back (the car, not Grandma..c'mon) and cut
her up for scrap? Why save cars that were nothing
much to begin with, or are, realistically, too far
gone to justify all the human effort and wealth
necessary to bring them back?
Magazine and a cheeky fellow, proposes in his Feb.
99 issue, under the title of this topic, a rather
touchy subject....that some cars, old or not,
aren't worth saving and should be junked and
recycled. In part he says:
"At every swap meet we are confronted by hordes of
near-derelict cars with no redeeming value,
including four-door sedans that should have died
and gone to the great recycling yard in the sky
long ago, rusty pigs whose value will never support
a restoration and wallet-sucking automotive
irrelevancies whose chief pull on our heartstrings
in that we first learned to drive or were
introduced to the mysteries of sex in a similar
car."
"Just having two doors and a top that goes down
isn't necessarily a deed to eternal restoration
either. There is no shortage of TR4s in the world,
nor is there ever likely to be (referring to Peter
Egan's recent column in Road and Track about seeing
a deplorably rusty Triumph and compulsively
offering $50 for it). We say let those TRs or Alfas
or Porsches that have become unrestorable hulks
go. Send them to that great universal scrapyard,
their molecules freed to be reborn in a new car.
Imagine, the steel from Mr. Egan's derelict TR4 may
end up as the fender for a Mercedes E-55, not a
bad fate. The world will thank you for helping
reduce its clutter, and surely the poor car you put
out of its misery will enjoy its new chance at
life as well."
So, what's your reaction to this? What about
Grandma's 74 Cadillac four door with the crunched
fender and 162K on it and an exhaust emission that
would knock birds out of the trees? Shall we take
her out back (the car, not Grandma..c'mon) and cut
her up for scrap? Why save cars that were nothing
much to begin with, or are, realistically, too far
gone to justify all the human effort and wealth
necessary to bring them back?
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Comments
Three cheers for Mr. Martin. I have owned some tired clunkers before that should have been put out to pasture but I could not bare to. Anyone fancy a 69 Coupe DeVille with a crumpled quarter panel and a sagging front end? It does not bother me to see clunkers get crushed, but I hope people are careful because some parts are worth more than the whole. I like 4dr sedans, even if they are historically or culturally insignificant. I buy the best original I can find, because it doesn't pay to restore. Later, Wes.
His reasoning was that it was his first car. I just traded in my first car, and I never looked back. Why look back at a 92 Olds Cutlass Supreme? Nice to know I'm not the only one who feels some cars are worth restoring, and some are just modes of transportation.
I remember when I was coming of driving age almost any old big V-8 was a total dog that was sold off to immigrants who didn't have the $'s up front to pay for a more economical car. I saw an awful lot of Cameros, GTO's, etc. etc. end up in this fate that cheap gas totally turned around just a decade later.
My first car was a 63 Nova wagon that I still own alabeit "in storage" in my father's barn. I saved this car because I really did love my experience with driving and owning this car. I never expected to see the market for this car to trend upward but I kept it when it probably "deserved" the scrap heap 15 years ago.
A car that has sentimental value should not be scraped but don't spend the $'s fixing it up for anything other than sentimental reasons. Saving a piece of your own personal history is its own reward. Lovingly maintain and restore those old "clunkers" because they are a very real part of you not because you think you'll get any $'s back from someone else for it!
You're absolutely right, there's a certain nobility in sentimental value and preserving your own personal history, but one has to keep in mind that it is personal and that few people may share your sense of value in the object and may even object to your calling it a "classic".
So the point is not that an old Chevy station wagon 'deserves' to be preserved...logic and history dictates that it doesn't...but that it doesn't need to deserve it...you don't need history's approval to make the preservation meaningful. If you DO want history's approval, then you have to pick a car that history deems "worthy", that the culture as a whole values, not just you.
I admit that I may have a rather sick interest in old American lead sleds but I know that I'm not the only one. I actually thought those Sevilles were very elegant autmobile back when it came out.
Shiftright- I haven't exactly figured out your demographics but I think you have goood decerment about automobile values. Please do not take my following comments as directed towards you specifically.
There is one thing that I resist in autophiles and that is the prevelance of a creeping class snobbery amoung collectors that permiates the entire auto restoration field. I understand the economics of this attitude but it discourages the less informed to get involved in this field.
Older collectors look down there noses at up and comers who are just trying to learn what it's all about. I say encourage and inform but don't thumb a nose at a younger autophile. Encourage them on their path to collecting and enjoying the cars they can afford. I think they'll learn and enjoy the experience more this way.
The first car dad bought was a beautiful Orange Pinto Wagon version with that wood grain contact paper down the sides and brown vinyl uphostery. Virtually as luxurious as a Ford LTD Country Squire Wagon at a fraction of the cost and twice the beauty!
I love to see old cars on the road, even ones that were nothing special in their day. There are plenty of them around here in California due to the forgiving climate and NO salt (I used to live in Rochester, N.Y., the salted road capitol). I've seen zillions of old cars.....old slat six Dodge Darts and old Ford Falcons and Plymouth Belevederes etc., and even though there were not interesting cars in their time, just basic transportation, they bring me back to an earlier and simpler time in my life. I think it's great if someone likes their plain old vanilla car and tries to keep it on the road. More power to them. Obviously it will be the sentimental value that keeps these cars alive, not the potential collector value. It is still the older sports and collector cars that get my juices flowing, but there is a soft spot in my heart for the old workhorses of the automotive world.
I kinda like 'em myself because they arent' too large, look different, and have decent performance, but you didn't walk away from a gold mine, so don't worry about that!
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