The future of Chevelles is that they will end up decayed to atoms, in the crusher, or recycled into pots and pans. The next time you buy that bit of steel at the hardware store, remember it is probably someone's Packard or Deusenberg, or Model A.

It is wise not to gather us treasures on earth. They rot and corrode, or are stolen by thieves. My advice is to store up imperishable treasures.

As Robert Herrick reminds us...

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he 's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he 's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

 

I feel its up to the younger crowd to pick up the slack. Answer more posts. Help out the even younger people coming in.
Overall in the last few years I think muscle car interest has lessened as a whole. Perhaps it will pick back up. Who knows.

 

I don't think this is the case at all - take a look at what is happening with the big three manufacturers right now. I know that the point is our Chevelles, but I think the interest in "muscle cars" is at a high point right now. The only issue is most people my age (30) are looking at new Mustangs, Camaros and SRT Mopars. Hell, I would be too if I didn't have my Chevelle! You can get a brand new car with 400+ horsepower and easily run in the 11s with little to nothing. Think how many cars on this board with 400+ cu. in. motors run 13s..... Then factor in the cost to own one of these cars and the appeal just goes out the window. Mine will be with me until I am forced to part with it but I would also take my 70 over nearly any new (reasonably priced) car on the market today.

 

When/as the young gens get tried of the rice burners I am sure they will come over to the darkside

My youngest son (36) was never into the rice burners and has always liked the much older cars/trucks,
he has a 64 F100 / 80 F150 / daily driver is a old Cavilier and is working on getting my 67 car from me,
but not until I turn 80, which is not for almost 20 yrs !

 

Like everything else, time moves on. Nostalgia is what drives it. When guys hit a point that they have the money, they buy the cars of their youth for the memories. As they get older, different things become more important, finances and circumstances change. If you think about it, the era of the Model A and T is mostly over. More guys looking to sell than buy. my neighbor just passed away a couple of months ago. He used to have 2 cars, a Model A and a 40 Plymouth coupe. He drove the wheels off of the Model A and hardly drove the 40. Funny enough, he had decided to sell the 40 and it was waiting for a transporter to take it away when he died. There will always be SOME market for the cars, the wealthy will always covet the Bugatti's and Deusenberg's and Ferrari's and to some extent the 30 something to 50 somethings will always enjoy the muscle cars but in general the hobby will decline rapidly. Most of the generation that graduated high school from the mid 90's on don't have the same car memories that we did. They grew up with disposable Honda's and Toyota's. Their fond high school memories are of their video games! The decline of the middle class will play a part as well. Fewer people will have the disposable income to play with cars. It will be enough of a struggle to keep the daily driver going! Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

Like I said "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."

 

Eventually, we will not be able to drive them because we can't get fuel for them and they will either become a museum piece or they will be crushed and made into something else. :sad:

 

Especially when the US Dollar is only worth five cents. :sad:

 

I think that there will always be an interest in these cars, just on a much smaller scale. With that, once the 'generation' of guys that grew up with these cars passes, I think prices will suffer.

Again, I think there will still be an interest, but I just don't see my generation (I'm 24) paying $100k+ for some LS6 or Hemi or what have you. Plus, you have to realize more young kids than not have jobs (and ambition) that will more than likely never allow them to pay those prices, even if they wanted to. Seemingly the good paying career type jobs are few && far between and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I just can't wait for the day when it all happens...I'm say 50 && that fully restored LS6 is for sale for 15k...mine all mine!!

 

I am in the same boat (24 years old). People my age are into these cars, its just a matter of having the time, space and money to have one! I can see prices going down but that will only allow more people to get into the hobby.

 

I don't think interest in Chevelles and muscle cars is really waning. The bottom line is they are still one of the cheapest, coolest, no frills ways to go fast.

Maybe the younger generation will try to be stubborn and continue to "mod" rice burners, but the point of diminishing returns is reached much sooner. If they have half a brain they will come (back) to us.

 

We need to devise a group strategy by which it becomes the Yuppiest thing in town to own one of these old tech cars, then the fad will sustain the hobby for several generations going forward. The appeal would be for a D/D luxury ricer thru the week and an anti-establishment old tech car for the weekend club hopping! LOL

 

We need to devise a group strategy by which it becomes the Yuppiest thing in town to own one of these old tech cars

Why sell it all out like that. I know what you said was said in jest, but it brought a not so good thought of what has happened to motorcycle culture in the United States. Lots of the Harley folks tooling around in their Harley jackets, jeans, and socks probably can't do ONE thing mechanically on those bikes. I'll pray the kids who wrench on their Japanese cars get a taste for old US iron before selling the hobby out to Yuppies who can't and won't turn a wrench. Just IMHO..

 

you see a ot of younger guys at ls1.com and sites like it

 

nobody is going to want a muscle car when they are watching the "cool" kids fly by in their new flying car. Kids these days keep up with the joneses as a priority and when they can get a car that flys them around while they iPhone this and that and stop off to make a video of them knocking out older people for fun or having sex in public so they can be like their heros the kardashians ....while pointing and laughing at the schmucks that still drive a car that uses wheels to move around.

 

People have been predicting the end of the hobby since it began...

from the Model T forum I visit:

By Tom Rootlieb on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - 06:47 pm:
[Mfg. of replacement Ford T sheet metal parts]

We have never kept track of numbers. Our company is 40 yrs. old this year and we can somewhat guess by recollection. The number of employees has varied from 3 to 18. My guess is that we have sold 3 to 4 thousand dropped- axles and sold 4 to 5 thousand Model T speedster kits. Some years ago we were looking at similar data and we realized that we had put a new hood and 4 new fenders on a minimum of 40,000 cars. At the same time we put our best guess on how many cars survived, intact and in pieces at 200,000. While that number may seem big, it's only a 1.3% survival rate. So we have at least another 100 yrs. of work to do. Back in 1973, when I was 24 and we were just starting out, my father and I were talking one day and he told me not to count too much on this business, because in 10 years there wouldn't be any old cars left out there and we would both be looking for a job. I'll be 65 on my next birthday.

 

My 14 and 16 yr old daughters are already fighting over who will get my chevelle. I guess I'll have to get them one of their own:thumbsup:. Unfortunately, this "hobby" requires a lot more time and money than it used to. Bought my first, stock, DRIVABLE California chevelle in 1990 for $900. Then, it was an 18 yr old car. Parts were plentiful and cheap. I dropped about 2 grand into that car which included new interior, wheels and tires, heads, cam and lifters, carb AND PAINT. NONE of that applies today. IMHO much of the next generation of muscle car owners/restorers will be our kids and they will need all the help we can give em.

I forgot to say, my oldest daughters boyfriend and his friend were amazed that 1) I completely rebuilt an engine. That tells me that a lot of kids don't know or even think that old can be made new again. Sure you can work on new cars but they didn't even think you could save anything old. Just shows how far the "throw away" mentality has gone. And 2) that a full car can be restored, that you can even by parts for them. I may have found some new laborers to convert:beers:

 

I think we ( muscle car guys ) will wind up in the same boat as the previously mentioned model A group. Interest will slowly wane, there will be less & less new blood in the hobby and the cars will have run their course.

I look at it this way. When I started in the hobby in 1991, I would go to cruises and talk with owners, admire their cars. Most of the guys that had the cars were in their early 40's or 50's. The same guys are now in their 60's & 70's. Time marches on. Other priorities take center stage, guys retire and aren't able to/don't want to work on them anymore. They sell and don't ever come back.

Look at how the prices of 55-57 Chevys leveled off and dropped. Less people want them, the prices drop. This may sound mean, but most guys that would have wanted a model A or model T, they're dead. Still some market for them, but very small & only dwindling.

60s/70s muscle is in the same situation. Interest in other eras falls off and we won't be exempt. I would think we'll see that decline in the next 20-25 years.

I'm not trying to preach doom & gloom, I just see it as the natural course of things. Enjoy them while we can is all we can do.

 

After buying a 2008 Pontiac G8 GT with a 6.0L V8, I get why some people are leaving the "old" musclecar hobby for the "new" musclecars.

What they lack in style and character is made up for with comfort, convenience, reliability, and performance.

 

What they lack in style and character is made up for with comfort, convenience, reliability, and performance.

And you still have a car that you see on every street corner now. Comfort,convenience, reliability are attrabutes of a NEW car that can never be replaced by mystic and desirability of a 60's muscle car.

I have yet to see someone give a guy driving a new Camaro, Charger Mustang, ect a thumbs up at a stop light :noway: There is something about driving a car that the majority of people who don't have one, want one!


Rocky

 

The muscle era will fade just as the T's and A's have. I'm sure there were sons of the fathers in that era of the 20's and 30's who were into their fathers rides just as ours our today. Just as the cars of the 30's and 40's don't really interest me all that much, I'm sure that will be true of the following generations about our rides of the 60's and 70's. It's a natural progression. Obviously, we lived in the best times -EVER- and we all have these fantastic memories we would like to relive. Our muscle cars allow us to do this--just a little bit longer and that makes us feel just a little bit younger and that is what it is all about in my book.
I'm sure the guys who collected the cars of the 20's and 30's -really wanted to relive their youth too. Time marches on. Today the hydrogen cars are just coming out. Hard to believe that these will some day be collected and coveted like 60's muscle-but I'm sure they will.
Let's enjoy it while we can :thumbsup:!

 

Muscle cars will fade, just like all other cars. But they will never go away. The streets used to be filled with Model A hotrods, and when I was in HS they were filled with V8 muscle cars, now they are filled with rice.

 

I think they and other '60's/early 70's muscle cars will always be popular to some extent. Not necessarily as much in restored original form as now though. Many will be repowered with modern engines (LS and now LT), receive modern suspension and brakes, etc., to make them safer, more comfortable, handle and stop better, and more economical without sacrificing power. Of course there will still be plenty of restored museum pieces around but probably fewer than now, with more being modernized to be better cars under the skin. There are so many being "saved" now and that have been previously restored/rescued due to their popularity and such an extensive availability of restoration parts, I don't see them being abandoned or shunned in the future as long as there are hot rodders around.

 

X2 on what Von said..these cars or the interest in them isn't going away anytime soon.
Go to a dragstrip or a car show/cruise night..no shortage at either..

 

don't blame it on retired guys Aaron....

 

LOL...I'll try not to Davey.

This is the last time I tackle this current chevelle though. LOL

 

The same future us older guys had and have with our Chevelles a lot of fun. Only now it's a bit more costly. I was lucky enough to live through both the Old & New Musclecar Era. I owned a 05 Mustang GT and 09 Challenger R/T both nice cars but now I'm back in a 71 Malibu. I found with the new cars I just couldn't achieve the personalization appearance wise that you could get out of the older cars.

 

This hobby will always do well. Yeah, prices and values roll with the economy, some of us will always have enough play money to have fun with what we love. I for one was born well after the muscle car era ended with a oil embargo in '73. The car I remember the most my dad drove was a 76 Ford POS station wagon. He had pictures of his 67 Hemi Satellite, but my uncle still has his 69 Camaro.

But we like what we like. I never got into low riding mini trucks, monster 4x4s, Samuris,Donks, or any of the other fad type cars. I am 42 and I have disposable income. For whatever reason I choose to dump it quite a few A bodies.

 

If I park my car at a store and come back out, the group of guys gathered around looking are more likely than not to be younger guys. When we go to one of the numerous Ralley's held throughout the Houston Area on a Saturday Night, you see more young people stopping and looking, and wishing, than older guys.

But one thing you do notice, and it is a product of where I live. The majority of younger guys wanting a real "muscle car" are predominantly Hispanic. The go crazy over Chevelles, GTO's and the like. To them, an A Body or similar car with a big brutal Rat under the hood is the ultimate ride.

One of the brutal realities of being a car enthusiast is, this stuff is expensive. The realization of what top quality body work, engine work, and parts hits home pretty quick when many find out that their dream is simply out of their reach financially. There is no easy solution to that, and this very fact is what keeps many would be enthusiast on the permanent "I wish" list.

 

Hi str8piperoar,
I hear you bro, I'm 53 therefore I was around during the end of the last true muscle cars, I actually owned a numbers matching 69 Camaro SS/RS which was 100% OEM down to the hubcaps & console gauges w/hurst shifter & retractable headlights!! That car rocked then & would rock now.. I ended up as a ASE auto tech and witnessed the whole new era of OB1 to present day and I can say with confidence that finally american muscle is back!!! Look at the retro-look new chargers,camaros & tell me you dont see some of the timeless lines that defined those beautiful muscle cars back in the day!! But they are far more technically advanced and outperform any of the old school cars. My fantasy (and its been done many times) is to take a resto-body or even an original shell, & outfit it w/all modern inner goodies, fuel injected computer controlled small blocks that produce more power and torque than its predecessors, but it feels smooth and silky, not that vibration and neck breaking gear shifts @ 6000rpm! Plus 4 wheel disc, w/all computerized on the go suspension that grips 10 times better than the 1st generation & a modern cockpit w/all the luxuries, including navigation, killer tunes & of course more cup holders than a bar full of Irish lads could ever need! But keep the outside 100% bone stock identical to the original timeless design!! So I beleive the future looks bright. There will always be a following for these cars, and if you new youngsters feel the same way, then the car market will supply the demand! I mean just take any 68-72 Chevelle and drop a LS6 w/forced induction, big brakes & air tech ride suspension & you already got a classic car that can out perform most other modern day imports!! Imagination has no limits friend, its all up to the new generation. There are plenty of aftermarket repro. parts to build a complete brand new 70 Chevelle SS396 starting with the skeleton shell for around 10K, when its all said and done, you'll have a 100.000$ car that can run circles around any German or European latest supercar. Even a kit car shelby, can out accelerate an Italian super car that costs over a cool million or more! How about a dodge viper V10 stuffed in a 67 Camaro or a 69 Nova SS??? Throw on a supercharger and you got yourself bragging rights to just about anything around that can be bought off a showroom!
The sky is the limit. There are enough of us old timers that realized long ago these cars are worth preserving forever, there are enough out there to garauntee they will never go extinct. And if you got the bucks, go to a concours d'elegance show for the super wealthy and you can find just about any muscle car ever made that has been restored to 100% stock OEM but even better, tighter specs than the factory could ever match!!
Happy motoring friend, now and forever.....
regards, Alan 68 Chevelle SS396 clone/built 383 stroker 600+ horspwr. normal induction, 200R 4spd. Auto, 12 bolt .411 posi, ladder bars, HD rear cntl.arms, pwr. frt. slotted brakes, air-tech suspension that can drop it 1/2" above the ground w/out scrapping if good black top..etc...etc

 

Other than new products coming out there is only so much new info to be added to the forums. Half of it is people asking questions about cams or brake conversions over and over and the other half is random stuff. It might not be that young people don't care, it's that at this point it's all been done before.