Every day classic
12/21/2025
What is this coat hanger doing on a classic car site? Follow my train of thought, please!
This morning I noticed this wooden coat hanger in the bathroom. The shape is not very spectacular, but the inscription took my mind far back in time. In the mid-sixties, the A. Böhler clothing store moved into a new property in Sarnen (Switzerland) and served its customers with men's clothing and tailor-made dresses. For the ladies, there were "Jaquettes" and coats, as the inscription shows.
I received a suit for my first communion at the end of the sixties and it was available in this store. The coat hanger must also date from around that time, so it is probably over 60, but certainly over 50 years old. A classic car, in other words.
But unlike many cars of the time, it has been in service without interruption to this day. It was neither spared nor was it particularly conspicuous. Its successors, mostly made of plastic, usually collapsed at a much younger age.
Applied to the world of the automobile, the question now arises as to which of my early cars are still on the road today. You can never know for sure, but I'm pretty sure that neither my blue Alfa Romeo Alfasud 1.5 ti nor the chocolate brown Sprint Veloce 1.5 that followed have survived. The Fiat Panda 45 I bought later was even certain to die, as I saw it at the next owner's with a body riddled with rust and destined for demolition. Only a few of the everyday cars I bought 30 or 40 years ago are likely to be more than 10 or 12 years old. Hardly any of them have ever made it to the status of classic car.
The sportier sports cars, which are typically more protected, and of which I also owned quite a few, had a better chance of survival. For example, I'm pretty sure that all the TVRs that have passed through my hands are still running today. But not in everyday life, neither then nor now.
Back to the coat hanger. The successor company to Kleiderhaus A. Böhler was liquidated in 2012 and has not survived to this day. Only the hanger (or hangers) still bear witness to the existence of this store.
I, for one, have decided to remain loyal to this hanger. After all, it takes up much less storage space and is much cheaper to maintain than an old car.
P.S. Incidentally, the topic of "utility classic cars" will be covered in the upcoming SwissClassics Revue , which will be published at the end of January 2026. The article, which is currently being prepared, had probably also given me the above ideas ...
