18 | GLASURIT – THE CLASSIC DILEMMA
THE CLASSIC DILEMMA Cars that have stood the test of time have a certain something. But how much efficiency should you sacrifice for ‘character’?
Who hasn’t thought, when they see a beautifully maintained piece of old machinery pass them on the road: why not buy a classic or collectible car as transport? Wouldn’t it be great to have something enjoyable to drive rather than a consumable item that owes more to a whitegoods factory. And surely, if we could put a man on the moon back in 1969, shouldn’t we be able to keep an old car running reliably in 2013?
the Used Car Safety Ratings (see racv.com.au/ mycar and follow the Car Safety link). Even so, the march of technology means modern small cars are now pretty safe ones.
Yet choosing a collectible car over a modern one for everyday use is somewhat complicated. Can a classic work as transport rather than simply something to tinker with on weekends?
Yet the further back you go into automotive history, the less safety you’re likely to see. There are some cars around that are old enough to have been built without even seatbelts. To drive such a car is to feel vulnerable in the extreme. However, seatbelts can be retro-fitted pretty easily to most, if not all, cars. But even then, you might still be dealing with drum brakes, lazy windscreen wipers, dim headlights and skinny tyres.
HUMAN INTEREST
THE DRIVING EXPERIENCE
A classic car has the feel-good factor. Whether it’s the look, feel, performance or even just the smell of an old car, these machines can take us back to the good old days. In style. Not that all modern cars lack that degree of involvement, but the majority these days – unless you’re spending a lot of money – lack that intrinsic sparkle.
As cars have become bigger and heavier, they generally don’t offer the pure driving experience of a good older car. Lighter cars are more rewarding to drive and there’s a certain purity and tactility in many old cars that the modern stuff can’t produce. But a newer car often has the old stuff over a barrel when it comes to convenience. We’re talking air-conditioning, automatic headlights, rain-sensing wipers, central locking and a fully adjustable steering column – all virtually unheard of in a classic car. And could you go back to a car without power steering?
SAFETY One area where newer is (generally) better is safety. Everything new now has stability control and multiples of airbags. But safety levels trickle down from the upmarket models to the more affordable ones, so an older prestige car might just be a pretty safe one. A good example is the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Even an E-Class built in 1996 has a five-star safety rating according to
PERFORMANCE Performance can come down to two things these days: the car’s abilities and the amount of fuel it uses performing them. While most new cars
have an acceptable level of performance, the same can’t always be said for classics. Some are underpowered at higher speeds, and handling falls into the same can of worms. What was considered decent roadholding 30 years ago might just horrify the current generation of drivers who grew up with all-wheel-drive and quality tyres. And the modern car has the fuel economy game shot to bits, too. Modern engines are clever engines, and while they offer better performance than ever before, they’re also vastly more frugal. A carburettor will never match a modern fuel-injected engine with a computer to control its emissions and consumption.