Different generations of car guys are defined by what kind of classic iron they like.
This is reality in its purest form because Baby Boomers may embrace The Beatles–but their grandkids or great grandkids are probably Taylor Swift fans.
That’s a chilling thought—but it also depends on whether you were born in 1955 or 2015.
Jerry Sutherland
The Baby Boom era began in 1946 thanks to the repopulation efforts of veterans coming back from World War II. The vets did a great job because people called it a boom for a reason–the population exploded.
The boom extended until 1964, so this was a club with a huge membership—but the individual members had different cues over that nearly twenty-year period. That’s why the Baby Boomer car guys have such a wide array of vintage iron.
The early Boomer car guys were big fans of classic street rods.
They grew up at a time when street rods were the ultimate expression of rebellion, so a 1920s or 30s vintage hot rod gave you instant dangerous hoodlum status. Women flocked to guys like that, so you saw a lot of stripped-down Fords driven by dudes with slick hair and a female co-pilot riding shotgun.
Custom cars also exploded in the mid-late 50s.
A wannabe car guy could buy a brand-new car, add pinstripes, lake-side exhausts, a Continental kit, scallops in the paint, and suddenly…you had the next James Dean.
Baby Boomers migrated to muscle cars in the early 1960s when Detroit started pumping out track cars dialed down for street use. That’s when you saw 409 Chevys, 421 Pontiacs, 427 Fords and 413 Mopars.
The muscle car era never up until 1972 when they were basically legislated out of existence by smog laws. Boomers love the muscle car years because they summed up an era when a kid could buy a brand-new ’68 Road Runner and roll the dice on whether he’d live long enough for the next payment.
The muscle car is the number one choice of Baby Boomers because the older guys who loved street rods are now casualties of time. You’ll still see street rods at car shows, but classic muscle cars are far more attractive to the Baby Boomer car guys.
Generation X (1965-1980) grew up in a different era. They were less likely to come from a two-parent home and more likely to embrace new technology.
That’s why younger Gen X members are big fans of cars like the Fox-body Mustangs and various Japanese and German cars. They don’t care about cubic inches—turbocharging, overhead cams, and fuel injection mean far more to Gen X.
Older Gen Xers may still see the magic in a classic muscle car, but younger Xers are far more impressed with a vintage Honda or a BMW.
Millennials (1981-1996) are least likely to be car guys. They’ve grown up with new technology, so an old muscle car is interesting—in the same way a Model T or black-and-white TV is interesting.
There are exceptions to these rules, but if you want to see the future of the car hobby watch how many kids flock to a new Corvette or Aston Martin Valhalla at a car show. That’s not surprising because that’s their future dream car—not a Boss 302 Mustang.
In my opinion, none of these generations have it wrong—it’s the evolution of the car hobby in action.
That’s why you don’t see rows of Model A Fords at car shows anymore.
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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