(opinion) Can Millenials Save The (Studebaker) Hobby?

[DEEPNHOCK]

According to this NYT writer, maybe.... (I think he's full of it <lol>)

https://journal.classiccars.com/2017/12/02/millennials-will-save-classic-car-industry/

(Snippet copy - See link for entire article)

Larry Edall, editor...wrote:
Between traveling and work and other responsibilities, including an eight-day babysit of three grandchildren, it sometimes takes me a few days — OK, sometimes a couple of weeks — to get around to working my way through the Sunday edition of The New York Times (yes, I’m an old codger who actually likes to get printer’s ink on his hands as he reads his news).
But I’ve finally read David Sax’s mid-November essay, “Our Love Affair With Digital Is Over.” The subhead on the article is “Many of us are yearning for records, real books, and hardware stores,” to which I suggest we can add cars that you not only drive yourself but that need some tender-loving care from time to time, perhaps even some carburetor adjustment or re-setting of the ignition points (remember those?).

[bezhawk]

Perhaps if they had the opportunities that their parents had, then yes they might be able to save, and invest in a hobby. It will slowly die out with the boomers save for a few.

[studegary]

I don't worry about the future of my hobby. Of course, I have a attachment to Studebakers, but in the end it is all just stuff. This same question comes up on model builders forums. What will happen to my finely built models when I am gone? The real answer is that you won't care. They will go the way of an earlier person's carriage collection.

I agree. I sometimes think about my "stuff". If I need the money, I could sell some of it. Of course, I could spend the money, the key word is "need".
I have sold off almost all of my hard parts. I have mostly paper (literature, books, manuals, magazines, etc.). I have three rooms full. It is most heavy in Studebaker with Chrysler products second and about everything else third. I don't have the amount of Studebaker stuff that Richard Quinn and perhaps a couple of others have, but I have a lot of Brand X that I am pretty sure that they do not have.

[wittsend]

Dateline: Scottsdale, AZ - January, 2030.

"A '71 Hemi Barracuda crossed the auction block today... but received no bids despite having no reserve. Meanwhile..., an early edition Prius (build #2) sold for a record 67 Bit Coin."


How many of us have a garage full of Buggies because our grandfather's encouraged us to keep the hobby going?

[Guido]

Dateline: Scottsdale, AZ - January, 2030.

"A '71 Hemi Barracuda crossed the auction block today... but received no bids despite having no reserve. Meanwhile..., an early edition Prius (build #2) sold for a record 67 Bit Coin."


How many of us have a garage full of Buggies because our grandfather's encouraged us to keep the hobby going?

My last grandfather died in 1966, despite being a medical doctor and obtaining the rank of Colonel for his service in WWI and WWII he never learned to drive. Having been born in 1880 I presume he navigated a buggy at some point in his life. He never spoke to me about collecting anything...

[avanti-hawk]

I have met very few millenials who are interested in any old car, let alone a Studebaker. There's for sure some interest, but not the level we boomers are accustomed too. Old cars are expensive to maintain and store for young people that never grew up involved with them. Also, the sheer number of cars available to an ever shrinking audience vieing for them will be the final arbitor. Supply and demand has always been the key!

[jts359]

I hope at least the collector cars of today end up in a dry climate storage , Similar to how they store old aircraft , You could take a tour bus to view them for 1/4 bitcoin , Ed

[Gunslinger]

If it doesn't drive itself and be equipped with Bluetooth or it can't be operated by their smartphone, I can't see too many millennials being interested in old cars. Of course, that's the spoiled, self-absorbed millennials we hear about in the media. There's plenty of hard-working, unselfish young people we simply don't hear about because they're too busy getting ahead in life...they'll have hobbies and cars will be one of them. After all...vinyl LP's are making a comeback as are instant cameras similar to Polaroids. I think old cars will ok.

[Commander Eddie]

I think the answer to the question is difficult to answer. I will tell you this, however. There is a young man here in my town who I met at a local car show a number of years ago when he was 14 years old. He came over to talk to me because he saw I brought a Studebaker. He asked lots of good questions and then let me know that his grandfather was leaving him a 1922 Studebaker in his will. He showed me some photos of the car and I was surprised to see a car in such good condition.
He finally got the car a little over a year ago and drove it to the same show where we had met years before. His car was extremely nice and in original condition. He took home an award that day. He was beaming!
A few months later I went over to his parents house to see the car and discovered it had come with lots of spare parts including a spare engine.
As it turns out he is going to college at McPherson in Kansas with a business major and auto restoration minor and plans to come back here and open a restoration shop. He is an excited Studebaker owner and has joined the club. So, there is one little ray of hope for our marque's future.

[Dick Steinkamp]

How many of us have a garage full of Buggies because our grandfather's encouraged us to keep the hobby going?

That's it in a nutshell.

Most of us don't want the same cars our parents lusted after...in fact we have few (if any) of the same hobbies or leisure time activities. Why do we want, or expect (or insist) that young people today do as we didn't do?

[DougHolverson]

Now I'm feeling sad thinking about all those old Studebakers going to the boneyard.

OTOH, is this all this new? I'm a late Boomer, child of the '70s, Class of '79, and I swear that I was the lonely only one inthralled with Studebakers. A forgotten company that closed shop right before kindergarten. Most of the rest of my age didn't care because it wasn't some new Trans Am, Camaro, or something like that.

Stipulate only sell to a good home in your wills....

[TWChamp]

OK, I give up..........so what's a "bitcoin"?

[DougHolverson]

It's a made up currency for doing business across the Internet. It's worth whatever the investors and speculators think it's worth at the given time.

[JRoberts]

Maybe I am just not too smart, but why oh why must we constantly go through this discussion about what is going to happen to Studebakerdom (or any other given "dom") when the baby boomers die out? Are we any better than the generations that follow us. No. Are we less lazy than the generations that follow us? Certainly not. The generations maybe different from one another, approach life differently than each other and even be interested in different things than each other. Why the negativity concerning any generation that follows the Baby Boomer generation? I just cannot figure it out. I have two kids, both adults with kids of their own. I think they are pretty typical of their generation and I don't see the doomsday situation that many seem to have when it comes to the the two generations that follow ours. I just don't understand......... But I do know one thing, this negativity toward the generations that follow ours is what is threatening those generations' interested in our beloved Studebakers and other classic cars as well.

[lumpy]

I started out very young hanging out at a two bay shop down the street from my parent's house . At that time it was known as Gene's auto body .. He specialized in corvettes but there was always lots of really cool hot rods and gassers coming and going , this would be 1971 - 74 . His name is Gene Townsend he is well known for corvette restoration and painted many hot rods around So Cal in the day. He was always nice to me and showed me what he and his guys were doing. After Gene moved on to a bigger shop in El Cajon the little two bay shop was occupied by an elderly gentleman by the name of Harry Dort.. Harry opened his first shop in San Diego in 1918 after moving west and quitting his job as a firestone tires traveling salesman. He was happy to let me hang around the shop and clean up etc. In return he taught me a good work ethic And small things like how to hold a wrench . He would show me pictures of the model T speedster he built and raced in the late teens -early twenties . I remember helping to swap a 430 lincoln in to the 57 ranchero shop truck that at 13 years old he would let me drive locally to help customers with tires batteries etc. Without these people in my life I would not have the skillset I do today! This morning I loaned my 56 chevy daily driver rat rod pick up to my high school buddies 27 year old son for his wedding. I told him he could take my 37 coupe or my wife's really nice 66 C10 but he said He's always loved the patina'd truck. Tomorrow I'm takin the lark to a big toy run and car show in town , and the 23 year old up the street , who is restoring a 63 impala wagon and daily drives a 64 c10 is riding along. ITS UP TO US TO INVOLVE THE YOUNGER FOLKS. I OWE EVERYTHING I HAVE NOW TO THE OLDER FOLKS WHO TOOK THE TIME TO TEACH ME!!