In the time ... or afterwards
03/29/2023
In the case of automobiles, this refers in particular to changes/modifications made during or after the active period of their existence. The technical term for this is "in period". Typically, an active period of around 10 years or perhaps 12 or 15 is assumed. Everything that follows after that takes place outside the active period, so to speak, i.e. after the car has already become a "young classic", a youngtimer or classic car. Of course, in principle there are cars that are still really active after 50 years, but this is probably the exception.
If you think about your own car career, i.e. the cars you have owned, driven or admired in the course of your life, then you can in principle make a similar observation. I drove cars such as the Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint, the Peugeot 205 GTI, the BMW E30, the Mazda MX-5 or the Lotus Elise as new or used cars, i.e. "in period".
However, I only drove other vehicles such as the MG TC, the Ferrari 250 GTE or the Mercedes-Benz 500 E when these cars were already classics. And I drove a few cars both when they were new/almost new and later as classic cars or youngtimers. This raises the question of whether you judge cars that you drive during their active period, so to speak, and many years later as classics, differently to cars that you only knew from literature and discovered for the first time as old cars. In my case, I'm stricter with cars that I've already driven as new or young used cars when I'm allowed to drive them again as old cars. Somehow you remember how they were a bit smoother when they were new and, of course, there was a different standard of comparison back then.
For example, I drove a Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 from 1987 to 1988 (the white car) and from 2015 to 2017 (silver version above). The second time, I was almost a little disappointed and couldn't quite understand what had excited me so much almost 30 years earlier. Of course, the 205 is still an agile and fun car today, but with over 120,000 km on the clock, it just didn't feel as good as I remembered it as a new car. Something similar has happened to me with other cars that I have driven twice in two periods of time far apart. I seem to be more lenient when it comes to cars that I only drive for the first time when I'm older.
Is it similar for you? Why don't you comment on your own experiences, this could be an interesting discussion ...
