What Makes A Car An Antique?

11 Jun 2013: There is a lot of debate over what makes a car an antique and what just happens to be an old car. There are few hard and fast rules as to what makes the difference, but there are certainly various groupings who will swear blind that a car cannot qualify as an antique unless it meets certain requirements. This leads to accusations of elitism – some of which are perfectly justified to be entirely honest – and also of specious reasoning, with some people feeling that there are many people to whom an antique car’s definition is any definition that describes their own car. Being able to define your car as an antique is seen as something of a claim to fame, and therefore there are many people who may seek to describe their car in such terms with little justification.

However, the main body for recognition and appreciation of antique cars, the Antique Automobile Club of America define an antique car as any car over 25 years of age. The reason for this is that the average design age of a modern automobile is roughly half of that – about twelve and a half years – and at such an age, any car that is still operational is quite a rarity. If a car reaches the age of 25, the likelihood is that it will be uneconomical to run and will find it hard to stand up to every day use. The main use of an antique car is in car shows which demonstrate the quality of the design and build of the vehicle. Among these car shows you will often find that the most popular are the Concours d’Elegance that take place throughout the USA.

There is another school of thought that terms antique cars as any developed between the years of 1880 and 1916. Motorized travel began as a realistic concept in 1880 and by the latter of the two dates much of the world’s car production had all but stopped, allowing for the production of military vehicles such as jeeps and tanks in the same factories. As with many other industries, the attentions of the automotive industry were directed towards winning a war, and frivolity was discouraged at most levels. Cars from between 1880 and 1916, therefore, will be markedly different from those which were developed post-war. As we all know, despite the horrors of war, it still teaches us a great deal beyond the subject of diplomacy – chances are we still wouldn’t have been to the Moon without what we learned from the World Wars.

In the end, as there is no overall body to prevent you from calling your car an antique, your own definition will really suffice for a final definition of what makes an antique car. If you have a car from 25 years back or older, then you may very well have an antique. But if it is held together with string and has an old clothes-hanger in place of a radio antenna, don’t expect it to win any contests.