Commitment is a big deal at MyStarCollectorCar.
There are varying degrees of commitment in the car hobby, and most of them have some merit–so here’s a breakdown for educational purposes.
These observations are based on decades of exposure to (and interviews with) car guys.
Jerry Sutherland
The most obvious and deepest commitment comes with family legacy cars. These are the exact vehicles your dad/mom, uncle/aunt, grandfather/grandmother, great-grandfather/great-grandmother drove.
Somehow these old cars or trucks survived the years and stayed in the family. You’d be surprised at how many of them are still in great shape thanks to years of pride in ownership.
You’d also be surprised at how many were basket cases rescued from years of neglect and horrific storage. Many of them would never be saved without superhuman efforts.
That’s my favorite story because anyone willing to save dad or grandpa’s rusty old sedan is a hero in my books. There is no logical case for spending 50-100,000 dollars on a car that would sell for 10K. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps your accountant and banker awake at night.
But it’s also the best part of the car hobby, because nostalgia drives it—not rational thoughts. Anyone who saves a family legacy car is a superhero in my world.
There’s another form of commitment that’s also a big player in the car culture. It’s the one where a car guy tries to find–or recreate his first car.
Some guys had a VW Beetle as a first car, while others were lucky enough to buy a GTO for their first car. In both cases, the odds are against finding that exact car, so they settle for a car with the same options and color.
This commitment is like the family legacy car commitment because once a guy finds the car that takes him back in time, the car becomes a life partner. The exception is when the new version of his old car turns out to be junk. That’s when the old memory gets punted to the closest auction house.
There’s one more exception to this level of commitment and it comes when a guy drives his rolling memory for the first time and hates the old tech driving experience. He’s used to the new- tech feel of his Cadillac Escalade, so his 60s-vibe car heads straight to ‘For Sale’ Land.
Another commitment comes from what car guys build. You’ll see this in street rods, rat rods, and resto-mods where the car or truck is built to personal standards.
In most cases, a guy who builds a car like that is committed to it simply because of the time and expense involved. He built his own vision of the car, so the odds are good that he’s committed to the it.
But the odds aren’t 100% that he’ll keep it. Some guys who build cars do it because they like the process more than the car, so they’ll flip it right after the paint dries.
The last form of commitment in the car hobby are the speculators. They have no commitment to an old car or truck because they’re just a commodity to sell.
They know the car hobby like a day trader knows how wheat futures are doing in the stock market. I understand why speculators exist because I’m 100% in favor of free enterprise—but that doesn’t mean I have to like guys who flip old iron like a day trader.
Commitment in the car hobby is like commitment in life—it has wild swings in how much or how little of it is shown.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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