The abandoned ones - What's next?

All of them.

LOL I love that argument, same as when fuel injection came along and it was going to kill home repairs and tuning, and look what happened there, people can now make their own fuel injection systems at home.

Yeah, because of course, electronics are only found in those horrible modern cars. [rolleyes]

ALL cars become classics. If you'd have told me back in the mid-80's that Skoda, Lada and FSO would become even remotely desirable and that Mk1/Mk2 Escorts and VW campers would be commanding stupendous money, you'd have either been sent to the funny farm, or had your teeth kicked in. The same thing applies today, with all cars. There will always be ways that people find to keep cars running.

Legislation and bureaucracy is what will kill most cars (new or old) *not* electronics or 'because modern'.

I count 15 electronic gizmos in my '88 W124

The rest of this debate I'm tired off. I've said anything about it allready, I'm not repeating Talking about futur "ifs" and "whens" and "maybes" is reading a crystall ball. I don't own one, sadly. Anything can happen. we don't know. We'll see. Just wait and be patient.

Anything with the following;
RS badge (Audi or ford)
CUP badge

Basically anything that 20 something's couldn't afford over the last 10 years that they wanted, but will be able to afford in 20 years time.

Plus the quirky stuff that nobody committed hard earned cash to 1st time around.............. Renault avantime etc.....

simple any car you see as new now will be a classic one day I remember when I was younger marinas and allegros were highly undesirable and unwanted now they're classics along with many others from the period

Saxo, 206, Ka, Getz, these are cars that in ten years time will be dishing out nostalgia and turning their corner.

I think (or hope) that there are some ironic or at the very least, deliberately obtuse answers in here? "All cars will become classics"? Seriously? I think it's important to differentiate between a classic car and one that's simply survived a long time. Just because a few enthusiasts hanker after something they remember fondly from their youth likewise does not bestow classic, or even aspirational status upon it in the eyes of the rest of society.

And as for the electronics argument; can no-one hand on heart envisage a time when the home mechanic attempting to restore a "modern classic" will be defeated by the miles of wiring harness, sensors for everything and obsolescence of componentry? We're already in a time when many people balk at having their own code reader and will have to take a car to a diagnostic service to read faults and reset ECU problems. What about when that stumbling block extends to every powered aspect of the vehicle? Is that actually being a home mechanic and having "classic" cars as a hobby or just paying someone else to make it possible to drive? Or are we all going to invest in diagnostics at some miracle tipping point in the future? How many people will ever be able, willing or adventurous enough to learn how to wire up their own ECU at home? How long will you put up with the constant bonging from the failed seatbelt sensor before you accept you have to tear the entire saloon loom out and make a bespoke one because it's all incorporated into one unit? How long will you trust your stop/start system to work on your new hybrid before you get fed up of the cacophony of horns every time the lights change and you sit there stranded desperately willing it to fire up? Seriously, anyone who can't envisage electronic degradation becoming so intrusive that most older cars simply cease to exist through sheer frustration and intractability probably either isn't thinking hard enough about it or puts rather too much bind faith in human nature

Most people, like 99% of them, don't have any interest in cars whatsoever. They want the cheapest transport they can find, and if it goes wrong they throw them away. This is why people buy Kias, not thinking that they'll be worth £2.50 by the time their glorious long warranty expires. This is also why they buy Renaults despite that such mundane items like coil packs and ECUS are so fragile they might as well be service items. It's because they couldn't care less about the longevity of the car... bear witness how there was a Sierra on every single street corner not that long ago and now scrappage has murdered the handful that hadn't already gone back to the soil. When it goes wrong, people throw them away. Think the manufacturers are going to support an industry where eight enthusiasts worldwide want electronic control boxes for 2o-year old Hyundai electric windows? Oooooo-kay

I see eliteism coming out there which I really do not like ANY car over 25 years old in my opinion is a classic whether its a rolls Royce or a reliant robin some I like some I don't they are all still classics back in the 70,s and 80,s mk1 and 2 escorts and mk3/4 and 5 cortinas were throw away cars that a lot of people weren't bothered about but look at the prices of them now skodas were a laughing stock in the 80,s but people are interested in them now so the same will go for a lot of todays cars in the future and as for ecus they will no doubt be available for years to come or ways around it as for example I can still get an ecu for the injection system I fitted in my Cortina which came from an 88 Granada