You'll be able to get it, but its going to be super expensive.

 

If the eco-nuts have their way... (BTW, not everyone that is eco conscious is an eco nut)

I am of the opinion that our cars have reached their max value. Supply will remain steady and demand will fall with the death of every boomer.

 

I think th

If the eco-nuts have their way... (BTW, not everyone that is eco conscious is an eco nut)

I am of the opinion that our cars have reached their max value. Supply will remain steady and demand will fall with the death of every boomer.

These cars will just keep going up in value. The older they get the harder they are to come by in good condition. Plus anything retro will stay popular. Boomers aren't the only ones driving the market.

 

Whether it’s gas powered or electric, Half the people on this forum will have no business driving in 20-25 years, including me .

Z

 

I don't think it's cool to use words like "Eco-Nuts". I grew up in Southern California where the air was so bad, we often couldn't have recess because there was a "Smog Alert". Sure, sometimes people get carried away, but the fact is the air in SoCal is MUCH better now due to environmental laws.

And yeah, we'll be able to get gasoline. I'm not sure how expensive it will be. You can still get hey and oats for horses and I don't think that's particularly expensive.

 

I don't think it's cool to use words like "Eco-Nuts". I grew up in Southern California where the air was so bad, we often couldn't have recess because there was a "Smog Alert". Sure, sometimes people get carried away, but the fact is the air in SoCal is MUCH better now due to environmental laws.

And yeah, we'll be able to get gasoline. I'm not sure how expensive it will be. You can still get hey and oats for horses and I don't think that's particularly expensive.

You are free to have your opinion as to what is cool or not. I am sick of the cancel culture BS. I have my opinion and it is as "cool" as anyone else's. If you do not like it, feel free to ignore.

 

There's a reason Ford stopped all car production (excluding the mustang) in favor of SUV's and Trucks.... The e cars only exist because government wants them to and is subsidizing them. They still have the same issues of range and charging as they did when the first came out over a 100 years ago.

 

I would politely disagree. I know and work with a lot of people who drive electric cars. They bought them because they wanted them and they really like them.

To say electric cars have the same range and charging issues they had 100 years ago is simply not true. My friend's Tesla Sport can go over 200 miles on one charge and she does it while blowing the doors off new Corvettes. If she drives easy, she can go a lot a farther on one charge.

New charging stations are going up all the time. Battery technology is slowly getting better. No, our world is not being strip-mined for lithium batteries. I have read about challenges with providing rare earth magnets, but I'm sure those will be overcome.

I would be perfectly happy with daily driving an electric vehicle and taking my '70 Mach 1 out for fun.

 

At my age, my kids will have taken my license from me before we run out of gas...LOL

 

It’s an old analogy, but it still applies: horses didn’t go away just because cars came along. It will be the same for our ponies. It’ll just shift completely from a common conveyance to a lifestyle accessory. Things like gas and whatever other consumables will still be around. Maybe not quite as convenient or affordable, but it won’t keep us off the road.

 

I agree with Klutch. My aunt died from the smog in LA during the late 1950’s. The photos of the air pollution in SoCal during the 1950’s and early 1960’s are unbelievable. I know I don’t want to breathing air thick enough to blot out the sun. The danger of continuing without change was real.

Like the government emission regulations or not, they are saving lives and making the air breathable.

Z

 

I agree with Klutch. My aunt died from the smog in LA during the late 1950’s. The photos of the air pollution in SoCal during the 1950’s and early 1960’s is unbelievable. I know I don’t want to breathing air thick enough to blot out the sun. The danger of continuing without change was real.

Like the government emission regulations or not, they are saving lives and making the air breathable.

Z

I remember returning from Catalina (small island off SoCal). It was like a brown freakin wall along the coast.

I moved in the early 80's to a small town east of San Bernardino at the base of the mountains. (10 minute bike ride and start peddling up the hill) Did not see the mountains from my place for a month the air was so bad. It happned to be a clear day. Most days you could not see them.

Air quality is so much better now.

 

It will be a very, very long time before gas-less vehicles will be capable of long distance travel like gas powered cars (including hybrids). Gasoline might get more expensive, but it will be readily available (except maybe in CA?).

 

guys/gals. pls dont turn this into a political argument.
i did not open the thread for that intention. I just wanted to discuss the availability of gas in the near future and what effect that will have on driving our beasts

 

I can't foresee a situation where gas isn't readily available, even if that means there's not a gas station on every corner. Heck, with less demand, maybe there becomes less need for ethanol blends, and the quality of gasoline even increases (just a theory).

Obviously with less demand (which is inevitable given the shift towards electric cars), prices will probably rise, but even if it costs me $100 to fill my Mustang's tank for the 2,000 miles a year I drive it, so what? It's a hobby car.

 

I think gasoline will be widely available in the US for many generations to come. Petroleum is used in the manufacturing of just about everything. I think in certain high density markets, it may be more difficult to come a cross a gas station than lets say in rural areas . Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if gasoline is even outlawed in places like San Francisco or New York around thirty years. I do think we are beginning to see prices beginning to level off for mid sixties muscle cars. If one takes a look at a historical price chart for a Model A roadster and cars like a 55 Chevy, you can see a pattern. However, Detroit does seem to giving our vintage cars an extended life by keeping iconic names such as the Mustang and Bronco alive into the electric frontier.

 

There's a lot more things than just cars that rely on gasoline and I'm sure they won't all be obsolete. Electric ski boats don't seem too popular yet.

 

As far as gasoline availability goes, the refiners produce huge amounts which makes it more cost effective when pricing "per gallon" at the pump. If there is a major shift away from gasoline powered cars, it makes sense that a lot of these refineries will go offline as it will no longer be economical to produce lower amounts of refined fuel. Maybe in the future we will have "micro-refineries" that produce fuel locally at smaller volumes. Of course the cost will me more than it is now, just on the basis of economics of supply & demand.

Look at what happened when the industry moved away from R-12 Freon. We can still get R-12, but it costs a lot more than it used to.

 

Once we learn that strip mining the ocean floor for minerals to make batteries is bad.....

 

I don’t care I’ll be 102,

 

The "green" thing has nothing to do with our environment. What may have been idealogically a good idea in the long term has been co-opted by GREEDY corporations. The only thing green about green is the additional money that will be siphoned from everybody's pockets to finance it.

True green, as in the elimination of petro chemicals would mean going back to living in caves and wearing animal skins until the animals run out because we don't have any potential alternatives that have even been dreamed about much less developed. Imagine a world with no petrochemicals. That means no paint products or other protective coatings, no plastics, no insulation including wiring insulation so no wiring and no insulated structures, no computer boards, no solar panels or wind generators too and no roads, no vehicles including electric ones. Directly or indirectly, virtually everything around us and everything we use is connected to the petro chemical industry. If we accelerate all the technology related to all of this we might be able to get free of hydrocarbon based materials in several hundred years or more,,,,,,maybe.

 

Why does it have to be all or none? Most of the discussion around 'green' has been with energy.

 

I suspect a more likely issue we could face would be requiring us to retro-fit our classics with cat converters...

 

We may not be recycling dinosaurs in 25 years but we'll adapt.

Ever heard of eFuel? I hadn't until a week or so ago Electrofuel

Or we'll all be converting our rides to chit like this GM announces electric conversion kit - electrive.com

 

When that day finally came, if I'm still around, I will convert my motor to electric drive with extra loud speaker for exhaust sound. Hope i can still keep my Toploader.

 

When that day finally came, if I'm still around, I will convert my motor to electric drive with extra loud speaker for exhaust sound. Hope i can still keep my Toploader.

 

Not long ago I read in a tech magazine about Porsche, Bosch and others had an big e-fuel project going. The fuel would be as environment friendly as electric cars. They had the finished product, the project was developing how to produce it cheaply in big scale. They where also working on it, because there always would be functions and places in the world were electric transportation would simply not be a usable solution.
Synth fuel has been known for decades. The germans used it in WW2 because the they didn't have big enough supplies of normal fuels to keep the army in action.

 

I think electrification, and gentrification, will continue to push the prices down on our cars. The high end cars may escape some of the downward pressure (think Boss429, 65 GT350, etc), but it's already arrived.

I was at B-J in January of 2019, COVID had yet to impact the economy. Boss 302s, z-28s were selling $25k off of pricing just a few years ago. I saw this beautifully restored 53 Chevy, obviously no expense spared, cross the block for $16k. You couldn't have painted the car for that. There were many, many others in similar boats. The generation that's into that 50s era car is on its way out.

My generation (Gen X), seems to like 60/70s muscle, likely because they filled the parking lots at High School back when you could buy a Boss 302 for $3000. And the cars are cool. Boomer likes the same because it takes many of them back to their first new car, and the excitement that surrounding automobiles produced in that era. Like my dad who still owns the '67 Mustang he bought new in '67. As the Boomer generation departs, more cars are left on the market. Gen X will scoop up some interesting cars at bargain (for today) pricing in the future. Millennial, has much less interest in the 60/70s cars because they aren't touchstones for their generation.

What it tells me to do, is drive my 69 GT350 now. I already know its past its peak value, and I aint ever gonna sell it. Friend of mine with a '68CJ car he's owned since the late 80s is doing the same. Hell, he's putting the throttle down and just built a 470 cube FE with a Tunnel Wedge and dual quads, and is converting to a 4sp. He's looking for fun driving time ahead.

Enjoy them now, while we can. If your car is an "investment" to you, then you might re-evaluate your position. If its for the love of the hobby, you're in luck. Fun times await. Some of my friends spend more on golf/booze/? what have you, and they don't care about the depreciation of the liquor or golf clubs. Just a point of view.

 

I think electrification, and gentrification, will continue to push the prices down on our cars. The high end cars may escape some of the downward pressure (think Boss429, 65 GT350, etc), but it's already arrived.

I was at B-J in January of 2019, COVID had yet to impact the economy. Boss 302s, z-28s were selling $25k off of pricing just a few years ago. I saw this beautifully restored 53 Chevy, obviously no expense spared, cross the block for $16k. You couldn't have painted the car for that. There were many, many others in similar boats. The generation that's into that 50s era car is on its way out.

My generation (Gen X), seems to like 60/70s muscle, likely because they filled the parking lots at High School back when you could buy a Boss 302 for $3000. And the cars are cool. Boomer likes the same because it takes many of them back to their first new car, and the excitement that surrounding automobiles produced in that era. Like my dad who still owns the '67 Mustang he bought new in '67. As the Boomer generation departs, more cars are left on the market. Gen X will scoop up some interesting cars at bargain (for today) pricing in the future. Millennial, has much less interest in the 60/70s cars because they aren't touchstones for their generation.

What it tells me to do, is drive my 69 GT350 now. I already know its past its peak value, and I aint ever gonna sell it. Friend of mine with a '68CJ car he's owned since the late 80s is doing the same. Hell, he's putting the throttle down and just built a 470 cube FE with a Tunnel Wedge and dual quads, and is converting to a 4sp. He's looking for fun driving time ahead.

Enjoy them now, while we can. If your car is an "investment" to you, then you might re-evaluate your position. If its for the love of the hobby, you're in luck. Fun times await. Some of my friends spend more on golf/booze/? what have you, and they don't care about the depreciation of the liquor or golf clubs. Just a point of view.

I think there are several things that will drive down the price of older cars although in my opinion they've recently began to tick back up. The first cause of the price dropping is that the old guys that lust after this era of cars are getting to the point of retirement or death and its time to cash out. My dad just turned 70 and was able to buy his dream car (66 Fairlane 390GT) which he did but most guys his age are thinking about an exit strategy.

The second reason for a decline in demand is a 60-70s muscle car isn't muscle anymore. Clear up into the early to mid 2000's a 60-70's muscle car was still muscle and a 12 second time slip was something to brag about. Now today a 4 cylinder ecoboost stands a chance at taking you at the line, and doing so with bluetooth, AC, cruise control, etc. In the modern muscle car world you need 6-700rwhp not to be laughed at, and if you really want to be a big dog you need a few more hundred horsepower on top of that.

 

Remember, in 1985, we thought that cars would be flying by now and running on garbage too (and that you could time travel), technology changes fast, but often not as fast as we think it will. In 2040 when I retire, I fully plan on being able to drive my Stang around and get fuel, maybe my grandkids will come visit me in their flying car...

 

I feel like the narrative that only old guys want these cars and are driving demand and price is not completely accurate. Yes "boomers" are a large segment, but plenty of other enthusiast of all ages appreciate these cars.

 

I feel like narrative that only old guys want these cars and are driving demand and price is not completely accurate. Yes "boomers" are a large segment, but plenty of other enthusiast of all ages who appreciate these cars.

Agreed, my 24yo son loves my car and its amazing how many high schoolers and that general age bracket comment on my car and give me thumbs up. Its not dead.

Chris