One 1990 born respondent needed for my dissertation

I'm working with a finance broker that focus on funding classic car purchases £25k+. They are worried that there is a lack of interest in the sector from millennials (born 1980 - 1996) which will impact the business in the next 15 years. I'm working to look at motoring trends of millennials, understand the reasons for a lack of interest and look at how the hobby can be marketed to the group.

I would not say its lack  of interest that faces that age group , more priorities such as affordable housing and disposable income .  Being born in 1980 is just afew years into the time when housing became quite unaffordable or a struggle for people . 

 Classic cars are a luxury so will fall buy the wayside . Or people just save rather than use finance .

Yes i understand there are many many factors . I suppose things like childhood memories come into it a lot . Fathers repairing cars , cars being special , having more involvement rather than just jumping in them and getting out . And the fact i think a lot more men do white collar jobs and always have done , and are alienated to anything practical .

Anyway good luck with it .

Strangely, even though a good percentage of people assume I'm from a farming family, my dad has always had 'white collar' jobs and isn't in any way mechnically minded, nor really into cars.
My Uncles -who I saw fairly infrequently- Land Rovers caught my interest, and I think did a lot to spark the interest in cars and engineering in general, as I do remember engineering being something I wanted to get into from an early age.
I'd also say I'm fairly uncommon in my generation and younger (I'm 31 b1985 to.save working it out) to have learned to be a 'proper' mechanic and have the skills and knowledge to work with points, distributors, carbs etc as the place I served my time dealt with quite a few classics, whilst I have a few other older mates who have taught me a lot about old school engineering.
It's an interest/passion I've had for a lot of years, but you're right, the inspiration isn't anywhere near as prevalent now.



I have a neighbour like that. An accountant of some description, both he and wife have a new car -On drip- every four years, goes out running/cycling/the gym etc, polishes the grass perhaps twice a week between march/November and hovers round behind the dog with a shovel ready to catch it's ablutions before they hit the ground.

I'm quite certain I'm thought less of because I go to work in overalls, and whilst I don't really care it is quite amusing to think that he has previously come asking for opinions on wether the garage has done a proper job on his car when they had it in for work and it came out making a funny noise.

Back to the point being made, some encouragement in schools to make jobs on the tools an attractive and viable prospect in life would also help.

I recall high school being very much a case of everyone being encouraged to do well in their exams, go to University and get a degree so you could get a fancy high paid job.
Practical subjects (woodwork etc) were pretty neutered, and once you got into what would have been '6th form' they were pretty much all theory/paperwork.

Those who didn't have that prospect weren't exactly sidelined, but there did seem that bit less drive to encourage them do anything useful with their lives, and quite a few who dropped out at 16 never really bothered to do anything with their lives.

I realise it's heading off on a bit of a tangent, but maybe helps highlight where the trend is coming from?

I think the practical side is being pushed now that they have realised what skill shortages we have . I am 37 and everyone at school was being pushed for university . Yo wee written off if you did not want to do that , teachers effectively ignoring you . By the time i was 20 people i know building were earning a fortune as they were just no young lads around to fill the jobs , as well as all the others trades .

I'm glad now that apprenticeships have been recognised as a great way into a career - not just tradional trades but for white coller jobs as well . I know plenty of people that left school at 18 and have got great jobs by working at the bottom . A good few being on enough money to buy a decent first house by 23-25 whilst they univeristy opposites are just getting there first job .

We need all sorts of employment and I'm glad itsbeing seen as such now if we want our country to be successful .

I was born in 1987 so a bit older than required, but here are my thoughts anyway.

Obviously I am into cars, but in the last 3-4 years I have decided to stick to entirely practical vehicles due to financial reasons.

Firstly my partner and I are pretty outdoorsy so need a car that'll handle trips to the Highlands or over to Wales most weekends. My mk1 Focus was a good compromise between purchase price and running costs, and it is faultlessly reliable. In fact if you are willing to do a bit of DIY it's probably about as cheap as motoring can get. For me it's simply cheaper and more practical than most classics. For reference I do about 15k a year in it.

Of course practicality is not a problem if you have a daily modern and a classic for the weekends. But again it ultimately comes down to finances. But not running costs - classic car insurance on a second vehicle is peanuts, tax is often free, and repairs should be DIY of course). The financial burden is due to space. We intentionally live in a very walkable city and bought a house about 10 minutes out of the centre. Our work, shops, entertainment, and future schools are all within 15 minutes walk, or less on a bicycle. We've chosen to live here because driving, parking, traffic etc in British towns and cities is such a chore (ironically because our towns and cities are not well set up to cater for pedestrians and cyclists and our public transport is a bit pants). So our financial objection is not the cost of running a classic car itself, but the cost of storing it - the cost of a house with a driveway or a garage in a city centre location is astronomical. I can accept the £80/yr parking permit for our first car, but the cost for a second car absolutely skyrockets.

For balance we lived in NZ for four years, in a town of about 100,000 people on the rather rural South Island. Youths there are much more into their cars than in the UK, partly I think because it's a car-dependent country ('no public transport' really does mean no public transport), but mainly because property is cheap and nearly every house has off-road parking for at least one vehicle, and usually 2-3. The flip side of this is that the city centre is set up for motorists at the detriment of anything else. This might sound great but once you've lived in a town bisected by a 4-lane highway, or had to drive across town just for a pint of milk, you'll come to appreciate how great pedestrianisation and cycle lanes actually are.

I do also think the decline in industry has something to do with it. The 80s aspiration to city-slicking yuppie is still very much alive, even if a trade gives a well-paid and secure career. In fact this is now an intergenerational aspiration - your dad won't be teaching you how to DIY because he doesn't know himself! Again NZ is more rural and hands-on, so people can pass their knowledge and passion down the generations.

Maybe the shift towards sharing and 'experiences' rather than private ownership (zipcar, airbnb, co-working spaces) will mean young people will turn to speciality car hire rather than actually owning a car themselves. I have rented a few classics to scratch my itch - a weekend trip in convertible 60s Mustang is my 30th birthday present to myself in the autumn.

That was a long post!