When does Retro begin for you personally?

[Deleted]

This is NOT about what is or isn't retro. Gotta really emphasise that - it's not intended to be a negative thing at all, but I'm curious about people's perceptions of retro and not retro.

What made me think about it was the SLK. My SLK is 14 years old, and it really doesn't seem retro to me. It's nice, and it's clearly not a new car, but it's not 'retro' - it's something else to me. A nice car I can afford to have and couldn't when it was new (maybe for some people that is retro).

Yet my FE VX1800 was 14 years old when I started driving and was DEFINITELY, to my mind, retro. Hell, my Chevette, only 8 years old, was "retro" when those lucky enough to get new cars at 17 had things like Mk 3 Fiestas, in part because the Chevette's tech was a bit dated.

Oddly enough, my dad used to be astounded by how good the Chevette was, as when he started driving, an equivalent age of car would have been so crude by comparison it was unimaginable. So to him, the Chevette wasn't retro, but a Morris Minor would be despite the Minor only ending production 3 years before the Chevette.

The flipside is that whilst I think they're cool to see around, etc., I don't think of Mk 3 Cavaliers, Peugeot 405s, even Mk 2 Cavaliers as retro. Yet the Mk 2 Cavalier is 31 years old.

So I think my definition of retro is partly tech based, partly generational (i.e. a Mk 2 Golf is now, to me, retro and felt retro when I had a 1989 one in 2003/4, but a Mk 3 Golf, now respectively older, isn't on my retro radar) and very much tied into "I started driving in 1992, so K-reg feels NEW, G-reg feels respectably secondhand, and X-C reg and older are retroish depending on the car".

What's your age, driving age and respective perception of retro?

(Again. No wrong or right answers. I'm not saying Mk 3 Golfs aren't retro, I'm saying I still think they're 'modern' on a visceral, base level).



Undeniably retro, but a car that I remember in showrooms and being really unattainable for me.

[Clement]

For me retro cars are those that were built in the era of carbs and points, before the 1990's. Technical solutions were more mechanical than electronics, cars were a lot lighter and less powerful, top speed and rallying victories still counted.
I can totally understand why some see 90's cars as retro now because the electronics stuff is really getting out of hand these days, making slightly older cars feel a lot more like 'the real thing'.

[nisfan]

For me personally its cars that were around when i was growing up, my dad had numerous fords so this had an influence on me and i think they stick in your head.
The cut-off for me is around 1990. I realize its a lot older for many but i like boxier cars.
Started driving in 1999.

[AB car pix]

1992 K reg onwards always feels like the changeover to modern for me.
Compulsory cats and the 99% use of EFi being a big part.

Plenty of crossover mid 90s cars though with lots of influence from the 80s both stylistically and mechanically though.

[popuptoaster]

I see most things pre '60 as classic and stuff after that up until around the late 80s as retro, however a lot of it is to do with the feel of a car more than its age.

A mk3 Capri for instance was prehistoric compared to a mk3 escort but the sold alongside each other, the Mk3 escort feels retro now but at the time it felt very modern as it was very different from its predecessor.

A lot of vans and pickup trucks still felt "old" right up until the mid 90's I think, especially the smaller pickup trucks. While most of them had had facelifts, under the skin they were still running the same designs they came with back in the 70's other than more powerfull engines.

[Dez]

probably carbs and points for me, with a few exceptions. but everything i can think of with them is retro. the majority of stuff with EFI (not just 'injection' ) isnt. mechanical injection on stuff like 60s-70s bmws and mercs doesnt count, they're still firmly in carb territory the tech was so primitive!

i can think of a few that don't fit that rule, but its not many.

[luckyseven]

For me it's a rolling, generational thing. My personal definition of retro is the sorta cars I saw and aspired to as a kid and growing up, and clearly that range of vehicles would be different for someone ten years older or younger than me.

The interesting point from that definition is that back then (I'm 42) cars had a much longer model life, and changes tended to be minor cosmetically... except for, like, Yank cars when each model year could be almost a totally unique car for certain marques, of course. But in this country cars had a much longer lifespan than nowadays when a two year developement cycle seems to be becoming the norm. Think how long the MGB sold pretty much unchanged except the bumpers and wheels, for example. Now in our immediate gratification MTV-attention-span world of now-now-now things are outdated after a few months and positively old hat after a year.

Another factor, I guess, is rarity. Does becoming uncommon alter the perception of how classic or retro a car may be? For another example, back when you couldn't go twenty yards without passing a Sierra. They were ubiquitous, there was one on every street corner or every other driveway. Now you almost never see one on the road, they've all returned to the earth. Does this mean they are more desirable, those that are left? Should by some miracle a basic poverty-spec example have survived, is it still just a crappy old Sierra of no great interest to anyone, or is it a rarity of great importance that needs saving? And how many years before a car slides from the former state of being to the latter?


(No insult intended to Sierras or their owners per se, it was just the first example of a car that used to be everywhere and now is nowhere that I could think of)

[edwell]

I think "retro" can be applied to anything that was desirable, became undesirable, and then for whatever reason has become desirable again. The reason can be anything either personal or cultural etc. Such as nostalgia, fashion, rarity or economics. any car can become retro, but not all will, at least not to the same extent and perhaps not over the same time frame.

To summarise it is the return to desirability that makes a car retro, otherwise it's just an old car.

[waveman1500]

For me it's basically cars built before I was born! The reason is more or less technological though. As others have said, things with carburettors and distributors are definitely 'retro'. I was born in 1988 and my parents bought a new Nissan in 1990 and we kept it until I sold it this year. I grew up with that car and I've always viewed it as a modern car. So, to me, anything with painted plastic bumpers is 'modern', and anything pre-1990 with chrome bumpers and/or carbs is 'retro'.

[PandaSelecta]

For me classic is pre 1975, and retro starts after 1975 and ends with any car designed in the 1980s (panda, mk1 mx5, mk2 golf, citroen zx, etc)

Think thats all because i am a child of the 80s, and the cars i grew up with don't feel like classics, but feel more special then just being 'old'

[Lawsy]

I see mine based on a car really

for example, my bug, I see it more as a classic, where a mk1 golf is retro, mk3 golf is borderline modern etc

or say escorts, mk1/mk2 - classic, mk3/4 retro, mk5 on modern

but a lot is down to the style of the car I guess.. but somewhere around mid/late 70's up to about 1992 is my minds eye of retro - or old X reg up to J reg ish


edit - as above post really..

A lot i guess is an age thing too - I'm in my mid 30's and thats my perception

[Spud_133]

I'm only 18, and I feel that each car is different and there isn't a definative line from what is retro and what isn't. For example, I still a mk1 mx-5/eunos modern, and a mk1/2 golf is retro.

[jasonj]

I'm 40 and for me retro means mid 70's to 1990.. its odd that I still view something like a Mk3 astra as a modern car.

[ToolsnTrack]

Its a rolling thing for me, and also totally car-subjective. I view a 90's mk3 supra as retro, but yet a same age mk2 MR2 i do not...

[Deleted]

Maybe the age of the car design is important, too - a 2CV could be registered in 1990, as could a Citroën XM... two G-platers. Yet even in 1990, a 2CV was a bit retro.

[ellwood]

For me, it's around late eighties/early 90s. I started driving in 93, but didn't really think of cars of that era as retro until I realised the things that I've owned/am buying (TVR S3, 325 E30 and Audi Coupe) are all from that time. I love some of the seventies stuff (sucker for a Dolomite) but haven't bought any of it yet. To me that (and all of the much much older stuff I like) becomes "classic".

I think in closest agreement with Panda....75 on for retro, up to early 90s. Anything post early 90s that's accessible, cheap and bloody good fun to drive just goes into the category of highly entertaining.

Oddly though, I don't think of my beach buggy as either classic or retro (although at the moment thats because it's a pile of rust held together by fibreglass). I just think of that as fun....

[niwid]

Retro for me is a very vague term. Realistically its anything up to the early 90's as most people also seem to be saying. However, a lot of 'modern' cars have very retro styling. I've always liked the Rover 75 estate, because something about its lines, and chrome styling, reminds me of much older british cars from the 60's and 70's. The same applies to the jaguar s type.

[MK2VR6]

[Copey]

for me its anythin that quite old (very vague) and has a bit of a following/fanbase say a 1990 Sierra, retro, but a 1990 Rover 200, not retro (just my opinion) also, just because something is old doesnt make it a classic or retro

[justanotherhigh]

Don't shoot me down here, but I'm a bit iffy with the term 'retro' because it implies something new made to look old or reflect a particular fashion.. Much prefer my motors to be called 'old' or 'interesting' haha.

I'd say anything described as 'old' or interesting' is from when cars were first made, through to anything produced in the 80's, even if it ran into the nineties (ie, Mk3 Cavalier, Sierra etc.)
Obviously there's been interesting cars made and modified that are newer than that, but I haven't found anything post-1990 that really floats my boat.

Just my twopenceworth anyway:)