The term "Classic"

[Presence]

[mbhoag]

This is how I see the lifespan stages of a car...

• New
  Used (If I am the buyer) Pre-Owned (If I am the seller)
  Old
  Classic
  Antique

Note that any vehicle can also attain the status of "junk" at anytime due to accident, neglect, rust etc. Although many have taken "junk" and restored it to classic status!

[Deco]

Presence,

Thanks for the HUGE laugh!

Hmm... A Vlassic pickle might be nice right now...

[princessmaggie]

For me, a "classic" is defined as a vehicle that has emotional appeal. It has to appeal to a particular era and it has to have some artistic value. It also has to be old.

My father's old Dodge Dart was a classic to me. So was his old Fury III. And so was the '73 Buick Century, a car I wish I still had today and the first car I ever drove.

My old Aerostar, however trusty and dependable it may have been, and despite the fact that I brought one of my newborns home from the hospital in it, would never be a classic. It was as ugly as homemade sin.

Even though the 64 1/2 Mustang wasn't exactly original in all concepts, I tend to think of it as a classic. It was the first of a forty-year-long reign of a car that is still popular today, and that popularity shows no signs of waning.

[Deco]

Mark,

I think only two entites can declare a car "junk", insurance companies and loved-ones.

[Lugnut]

Although many have taken "junk" and restored it to classic status!

I suspect the most of us may own cars that fit this description considering when we bought it; it ran, but the seats were trashed out, the carpet (what carpet?) was faded or ripped, the paint was faded or even rusty in spots, the engine coughed and wheezed, and the exhaust system was so full of holes it looked like Swiss cheese. But by God it was the car we had a thing about and we have made it run and look like new at a cost of only four times what it sold for new. Damn, we're good!

[Vitas]

The bottom line is that when you see an older car, whatever make, in nice preserved condition, you appreciate it. Screw all the "definitions."

[Lugnut]

Screw all the "definitions."

Good advise! Doesn't make a bit of difference what label others hang on your vehicle as long as the vehicle makes you happy.

[TonyC]

Something Barry said, about the suicide Lincolns being mass-produced: What number of vehicles warrants the term "mass-produced"? The most ever built in any year was about 55,000, absolutely low compared to other makes--like Cadillac, which consistently cranked out about 180,000 cars every year through the '60s, at a minimum. The Continental had one of the lowset numbers in Ford, if not the lowest. It wasn't a vehicle for the masses, not yet.

I know he probably is thinking of like less than 5,000 total of a particular automobile. I can understand that, especially if the established cut-off is around that number.

[Barry Wolk]

Tony,

I would say that anything that is made on an assembly line is "mass-produced".

Anyone else want to chime in.

[TonyC]

...mmm....nah, I can't exactly accept that. I think quantity counts for something (isn't that Ford's old '80s slogan?)

[Joe Nemec]

I would venture to say that the 57 Chevy Convertible (that was mass-produced) is and was a classic from the day it was made...

[Barry Wolk]

Out of Webster's Dictionary:

mass production The manufacture of goods in large quantities, using standardized designs and often assembly line techniques" adj

[Lugnut]

Naaah! The '57 Chevy is a car that later on became the darling of car nuts because it had clean lines and could be acquired cheap (certainly not today though). The '57 Belaire convertible and 2dr hardtop will always remain sought after cars, but I don't know I would call them a classic any more than I would call a '57 Ford Fairlane 500 a classic, though it out sold Chevy in '57. One might be justified in calling the '57-59 Ford Fairlane 500 retractable hardtop a classic, just as one might consider a '58 Chevy Impala a classic.

[vancec]

Lugnut,

My $.02… I think you are right about the term "classic" designating a car that impacted later designs. In my mind there is no doubt as to why the 61 Continental is considered by many a "classic". It has nothing to do with mechanical innovation, it has only to do with style. The 61 doesn't look like it could have come from the same decade as the 60 and earlier Lincolns. It's as though the designer(s) used blank canvas when they sat down to sketch that car. That leap of design, in my mind, changed the look of American automobiles and established it as a classic.

My only question (and I don't know the answer) is whether the 62+ is also a classic. It has the same classic design as the 61 but it wasn't the first year of the design. (PLEASE don't flame my a** for this!)

I guess "classic" and "design milestone" are synonymous to me.