ovimor
North East
...It'll be ME!
Posts: 816
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Aug 19, 2020 17:50:36 GMT
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"..The common denominator on here is cars, keep the threads car based and most of them are happy little places.."
I'm here for the cars (OK, I lie.. For MrBounce <hows it going m8> )
I have RR in my forri-group button, on my mobby, and constantly run my thumb through.
No Politics/No Knobbers
Builds please (* and good humour, when admitting to folding up two panel inserts THE SAME HAND lol)
ATB.... everyone
OVIMOR
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Last Edit: Aug 19, 2020 18:07:16 GMT by ovimor
Knowledge is to know a Tomato is a 'fruit' - Wisdom, on the other hand, is knowing not to put it in a 'fruit salad'!
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Aug 19, 2020 18:37:24 GMT
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Cars are seen as more disposable nowadays That's what they said in the 1970s too, and what they'll probably say in the 2070s as well. It could just be that the disposability of cars has been steadily growing since their creation. Makes sense given that they've become more and more accessible over the years.
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 1,984
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Aug 19, 2020 19:04:21 GMT
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biturbo228: it's my impression that cars these days last much longer than they used to "back in the day", i.e., they've become less disposable. I have no figures to prove it, so I may well be wrong.
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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shin2chin
Part of things
Making curse word cars slightly better
Posts: 820
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Aug 19, 2020 19:27:30 GMT
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I've only ever been a member of a single model club and I lasted less than a year before I knocked it on the head. As the previous comments, I found it very cliquey, people telling me my car was "wrong" etc. It was a good source of spares but not really worth the subscription and hassle.
Attracting younger members surely depends on the type of vehicle the club caters for? Vw clubs seem pretty full of younger people where Jaguar and Porsche not so much.
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1977 PORSCHE 2.0na 924 1974 VW Beetle 1600
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Aug 19, 2020 20:05:36 GMT
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biturbo228: it's my impression that cars these days last much longer than they used to "back in the day", i.e., they've become less disposable. I have no figures to prove it, so I may well be wrong. Rust doesn't kill cars like it used to but the cheaper and older a car gets the less desirable it becomes. Trade in a perfectly fine mk1 focus and it'll go straight down the auction and sell for peanuts. It's not that it's a bad car it's that people just don't want them. The lack of desirability that kills cars off now. Until very recently I used to buy cars with over 100k on the clock. That milestone terrifies some people into parting with a perfectly good car for cheap. Bangernomics got me through some tough times.
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Aug 19, 2020 20:07:18 GMT
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When it comes to the older, less common (now) cars, club spares are still a life line.
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Aug 19, 2020 20:50:11 GMT
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vulgalour, you are not an idiot for not knowing what a capillary tube looks like, I know nothing about fuel injection or ECU’s & as for mapping, is that something that you do on a Satnav?
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Aug 19, 2020 20:55:41 GMT
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I know nothing about fuel injection or ECU’s & as for mapping, is that something that you do on a Satnav? I have stolen that and plan to use it at the earliest oppertunity
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Aug 19, 2020 20:59:30 GMT
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biturbo228: it's my impression that cars these days last much longer than they used to "back in the day", i.e., they've become less disposable. I have no figures to prove it, so I may well be wrong. Rust doesn't kill cars like it used to but the cheaper and older a car gets the less desirable it becomes. Trade in a perfectly fine mk1 focus and it'll go straight down the auction and sell for peanuts. It's not that it's a bad car it's that people just don't want them. The lack of desirability that kills cars off now. Until very recently I used to buy cars with over 100k on the clock. That milestone terrifies some people into parting with a perfectly good car for cheap. Bangernomics got me through some tough times. Not a great deal different to before that though. A sizeable proportion of Stags made are still running around because people valued them back then, whereas there's precious few Austin Maxis left compared to how many they made. Bet the majority were scrapped shortly after they were bought as no-one really wanted them.
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vulgalour, you are not an idiot for not knowing what a capillary tube looks like, I know nothing about fuel injection or ECU’s & as for mapping, is that something that you do on a Satnav? But that comes back to something else that a forum like this gives. Running the vehicle I do, it helps if I can, to some extent, understand what my little black box of tricks is telling me when I plug it in. I'm a child of the carb and, even now, have only owned few computer controlled injection motors (two of them, Range Rover P38 and one Subaru Legacy) so as I read the deeply technical bits of fitting and tuning Megasquirt, etc., stuff slots into place and I get a glimmer of what my Nanocom is trying to tell me and what I need to do. "Ah, so that's what fuel trims are." The fact that I can go back and re-read something I only partially understood first time around but, in the light of experience now makes sense, is great too. No, I'll never need the in-depth knowledge, but some of the pages and threads here have provided much education and, fortunately, entertainment.
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Last Edit: Aug 20, 2020 1:36:19 GMT by georgeb
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slater
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,390
Club RR Member Number: 78
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I just think its more about people finding a club that suits them (or even starting a new one) than changing an existing club to try and make it appeal to everyone. Nothing appeals to everyone without being so overly generic it has no appeal at all. Why not just start 'the car club' that's for all cars ever made.. Very inclusive but wholly unappealing. The solution wouldnt be to open it up to bikes too I may add.
The very nature of a single make owners club means it's not going to appeal to people who like diverse modified cars it appeals to people whole like that one make and want to be sticklers about things. Each to thier own.
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I just think its more about people finding a club that suits them (or even starting a new one) than changing an existing club to try and make it appeal to everyone. Nothing appeals to everyone without being so overly generic it has no appeal at all. Why not just start 'the car club' that's for all cars ever made.. Very inclusive but wholly unappealing. The solution wouldnt be to open it up to bikes too I may add. This is definitely something I've noticed over the years, sometimes you've got to be what your are and damn those that don't appreciate it because they clearly are not what you set out to be about, trying to please everyone is a fools errand. This is often why you see clubs split (although that is also often politics within the club, because people are people), I was sort of part of a local VW club when I had a camper van, it had already had one split as there were people that wanted to be part of a club that was only pre-66 (I think) VWs. I floated around the edge of that club for four or five years, by the time I moved away there were five VW clubs in the local area that had grown out of it. People with kids wanted to go to a different pub, and meet on different days and do different weekend activities. There was a group of people that had got very in to drag racing so had formed a local club for that. There was a different in personalities and that split off with a few people and then worked at forming its own club too. At the root of it these were all VW fans, but they all wanted something more specific. To be honest they could have all really been chapters within the one club, but that is not how the people doing these things were wired, and actually it is a real headache.
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I feel the whole 'club' scenario can be divided into pre-internet, and where we are now.
Pre-internet they were great for info and gatherings, now with internet and social media they have become irrelevant to young people, some of which have only known a life with the internet.
I'm not too sure younger people like the constraints of clubs - they like to drift in and out as it suits them?
Places like RR are a car club, just online, which imho suits a lot of people just fine. Can't say I'd be overly keen to meet up with people from here, but quite like the odd chat now and again about old bangers!
Would this place work as a club with a membership and a newsletter? No, I don't think it'd last long.
There's a lot of interests out there to take up peoples time, and I don't think car clubs are probably high up on a lot of peoples agendas now?
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Aug 20, 2020 10:59:19 GMT
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Surely that adds up to being a positive influence in RR terms..!! Just wanted to acknowledge this post properly. The Simca owners club makes me want to own a Simca (or Matra), which surely is the sign of a good club. Getting interesting cars in front of younger folk is clearly a thing we should be doing. My niece who just learned to drive has friends who have minis and she was rather taken with the Hillman Imps at Weekender last year. Finding those entry level cars for a 17-18 year old to drive something a bit different, that they can insure is the key I think to getting younger folk in general involved with cars. For clubs it would be good to be armed with that info, if there is a particular model that you know is going to be ideal for a first car then having that to hand and pushing that to the right groups is a good way to ensure a future.
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scmick
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,494
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Aug 20, 2020 11:24:25 GMT
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Thanks Hotwire, I'm sure we could find you a suitable SIMCA or MATRA..!!! Here's the guy I used to teach arriving at Chesterfield Motorfest last year in my 1200S Bertone coupe which I'd lent him for the day as his SIMCA 1000 is still work in progress. I lent him my SIMCA 1000 Rallye 2 for the return journey... he's now further inspired to get his on the road.
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Aug 20, 2020 11:29:56 GMT
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I've been a member of several car clubs including a very well known national club that caters for vintage and moderns of the same marque who run their own trackdays, however I found the folks that run the trackdays to be very clicky (sic?) and not very approachable, very much a sniffy attitude, also including themselves as a participant at the trackday where numbers are quite limited, so for the 20 spaces available, 4-5 would be filled by the 'commitee'!, not exactly encouraging, suffice to say I have not renewed my membership, not sure what I was getting anyway? A few magazines and not much else!
Would have to agree with a number of the points above, in order for clubs to survive as we get older new blood is required, however a sea change in attitude by the those running them is required. My eldest son is a confirmed petrol head but wont join a club with a wide demographic. 'cos they are all boring t(*&*(ers, only interesed in talking about themselves, the good old days and that they know best!' - hardly a positive endorsement, he gets by with a local meet of like minded kids who spend all their spare time and money on their cars and if you look at the cars you can see the pride and effort spent.
I like RR as I can get my fix virtually without having subject myself to some know it all who probably knows squat!
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Aug 20, 2020 11:34:07 GMT
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he gets by with a local meet of like minded kids who spend all their spare time and money on their cars and if you look at the cars you can see the pride and effort spent. A bunch of the "clubs" that turn up to the RR shows are of this nature too. No committee, none of that stuff. I guess with modern communication it is easier to create this kind of loose affiliation than it once was.
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Aug 20, 2020 12:27:41 GMT
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he gets by with a local meet of like minded kids who spend all their spare time and money on their cars and if you look at the cars you can see the pride and effort spent. A bunch of the "clubs" that turn up to the RR shows are of this nature too. No committee, none of that stuff. I guess with modern communication it is easier to create this kind of loose affiliation than it once was. So, going back to the OP. Given the above along with previous comments, I'd say young people want something fundamentally different to what older 'club' models offer and appear to be doing this already for themselves via the net. In which case, there is no need for existing clubs to adapt or be more diverse to attract a clientele that aren't interested and are already doing their own thing. All it will do is alienate the existing older user base/membership in an effort to attract a group that wouldn't want to join the club without fundamentally changing it, so either the club would end up with no members at all and die off anyway, or become a club without older members doing what younger members are already doing for themselves. Best to leave the youngsters to work out their own thing, let the oldies have their thing, accept that things come and go and stop trying to cram diametrically opposed groups into one horrible mess that would be unsatisfying for all concerned.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,087
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Aug 20, 2020 13:38:28 GMT
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The replies in this thread suggests that there's no one answer to how to attract new people to an existing club. In some cases, it's not even sensible to do it.
Fundamentally, it does seem the traditional club is no longer seen as particularly relevant to the modern age, a relic of a bygone era much like the cars they tend to cater to. Some will survive using the old model adapted slightly, but it seems likely that many will fizzle out just as we've been seeing in recent years with printed media.
On reflection, there's a misunderstanding of that question "how do we attract new members?". The question isn't really about getting new, younger people on board, the question is really "how do we make sure our club survives?" and the answer in some cases is going to be that you can't without significant change.
Then there's the issue of putting the bell on the cat, as it were. Everyone wants to see it done and nobody wants to do it. Being an organiser is, generally, a thankless task. I've done it inside and outside of car stuff and every time I do it I want to do it a little less. Making changes in a club, bringing new people in, and ensuring the survival of your club is going to mean someone is going to be doing a lot of the work and their reward is going to be complaints when it's not exactly what X group wants. An onerous task.
The experiences in this thread, and opinions, highlight probably the main reason car clubs can't attract new people which is that the change is too great, and responsibility too thankless, that nobody in their right mind would ever want to do it.
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Shortcut
Posted a lot
I won't be there when you cross the road, so always use the Green Cross Code.
Posts: 3,037
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Aug 20, 2020 14:02:26 GMT
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I have pretty much always on and off been a member of Club Peugeot UK (the "official" club for the marque). At various times I have also been on the committee, the webmaster and the magazine editor. I originally joined in the 80s as younger member when the club very much seemed to be run by much older men with interests in only a few examples of the marque. As time went on and I became older myself I became more involved. Initially the join factor was really about the knowledge that was then, pre internet, hidden away in other peoples heads. Over the years the club has struggled with membership, especially given the other clubs that cater for younger models, more track focussed models and generally other parts of the Peugeot "scene". I helped build the website in order to widen the membership and also produced the magazine in a deliberately more contemporary format. What really pulled in the members though was free membership when you insured a Peugeot with Adrain Flux. Those members do seem to rotate out though.
Longer term membership seems to be built around a core group and core events however the club itself has always been a very friendly place. I'm not sure however that without the factory support (they pay for the magazine and the website) and the Adrian Flux members the club would still be a going concern. As it is it's really a bit like a quiet backwater. Always there, peaceful and relaxing. The only real USP seems to be some gentle conviviality a few times a year. I'm not sure how that will go when the current crop of older members "retire"
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Last Edit: Aug 20, 2020 14:03:25 GMT by Shortcut
This space available to rent. Reach literally dozens of people. Cheap rates!
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