Are cars from the late eighties the better classic cars?
In the current issue of Auto Bild klassik 3/2015 , there is an article which explains that the vehicles built at the end of the 1980s were actually among the best in terms of quality and were closer to the long-term car than earlier or later generations.
On reflection, there are actually many good reasons why this could be true. The rust problems of the seventies were largely overcome thanks to galvanizing, better painting processes, etc. At the same time, the cost-cutting measures taken by many manufacturers in the nineties to increase their returns had not yet come to fruition.
What is also interesting from the point of view of classic cars and their maintenance is the fact that the proportion of electronics in these cars was still relatively modest and that the networking of individual components in particular was not yet very advanced.
After all, many manufacturers were selling mature model series at that time that had been able to improve in quality for years, if not decades, such as the Porsche 944 (pictured above), the saloons of the Mercedes W201 series, BMW E28 models or the late Ford Capri.
Incidentally, the Honda NSX is often completely forgotten in this context, as its aluminum construction and careful design probably came particularly close to the long-term car.
If these considerations are correct, then the cars of the late 1980s should be ideal collectors' vehicles. However, there are one or two drawbacks. On the one hand, there are still a great many of these cars in circulation, which has a negative impact on their value, and on the other hand, many rally and meeting organizers will probably continue to raise the age limit, so that a 30-year-old 944 can "only" compete at classic car meetings, but not at a concours or a worthy Alpine rally. What's more, some of today's classic car drivers regard the younger classics more as used cars than as collectors' vehicles. But we already had that 30 or so years ago, when real hardcore classic car fans only considered cars built before the war to be real classics.
So we can look forward to seeing how this situation develops this time ...
