Are Youngtimers only available in German-speaking Europe?
It is sometimes surprising how naturally people use terms. A good example is "youngtimer". This refers to young classic cars that are 20 to 30 years old.
In the USA (and most non-German-speaking countries) this term does not exist, even though it sounds so clearly English. Americans and Brits have little idea of what a "youngtimer" is; after all, they also call an oldtimer a "classic car" or "vintage car".
And they wouldn't even agree with us on the definition, because according to a recent blog post on Hemmings, only cars that were "high end" or "special interest" when new, i.e. something special, would qualify as a classic car. A VW Golf GTI from 1990 would hardly qualify, a Jaguar XK8 probably only just. A Chevrolet Corvette C4 would fit into the American definition of a youngtimer just as little as a Camaro from the 1990s.
From a European perspective, this seems strange, because for us, any car that fulfills the age criterion is actually a youngtimer.
Whether a separate term for 20 to 30-year-old young classics will ever be introduced in the USA is written in the stars. At least RM/Sotheby's, which is offering a youngtimer collection from Switzerland at various auctions this year with much fanfare, has given them a foretaste.
