Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[ukdave2002]

As probably most of you know, I'm the Chairman of the Morris Register, a club that supports pre-war designed Morris cars.

To be brutally honest, I expect that based on current trends, in the next 10 years our membership will half, partly our fault as our online stuff really requires an update, but mainly that to be honest our members are just getting older.

Halfling the membership presents a whole load of issues, mainly financial to the club, but more importantly, I question our relevance in the modern / current era?

Should we recognise that pre-war stuff is now a minority interest and maybe we simply merge with other pre- war clubs?
Clearly I want to promote pre war Morris stuff, But I need to be realistic.

All feedback welcome!

Dave

[Penman]

Wasn't there a lot of commonality with Wolseley pre-war?
Perhaps their owners club is also shrinking.
And then there was Morris Garages of course.
_________________
Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[Ray White]

I don't think you need worry about merging with another club. For many years I was Editor of Swallow Ramblings; the Austin Swallow Register newsletter. During my time our Register stood in proud isolation as more and more of our cars were discovered and restored. At that time the idea of diluting the purity of our group with other makes - regardless of having Swallow coachwork - was anathema to our Chairman, our Historian and me, the Editor.

There were of course other cars with Swallow coachwork but they were in small numbers with no club to offer support and advice. Eventually, some years after my time a 'new broom' came on the scene and they were involved with Wolseley bodied Swallows. Eventually, a decision was made to incorporate ANY Swallow bodied cars into the Register.

At first, the idea was hated by some. Our Historian threatened to resign.. and that could have been a disaster.! In the end however everyone saw the logic of the plan and now it is accepted as if it had always been like it.

[badhuis]

A known problem.
Our local AustinMorrisRileyWolseleyRegisters (40 years ago it was called the BMC & Rootes Register) now also accept any (!) UK made cars from before the year 2000.
In the last years you could see that the BMC cars were in the minority at club meetings, many late 80s and 90s cars appeared (Maesto and Montego, Rover 200/400 etc). Recently a local Riley club stopped, many members joined the AMRWregisters.
While I do not really appreciate much of the newer cars, the club flourishes. Mainly because it is a friendly bunch, no snobbery and a nice down to earth mentality.

With a friend I started a Dutch Imp Club 35 years ago. At the most popular moment we had probably 28 members. Through the years we discovered that there may be 20-30 more unknown cars whose owners were not members. A small number in total, too small to survive as a separate club so the decision was made to merge into a Rootes club. Half of the members did not like that and did not join (most joined the UK Imp Club).
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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[petelang]

Firstly, you are not on your own with this. As a member of the DLOC (Daimler Lanchester) and ASOC (Armstrong Siddeley) it is a regular annual fear that numbers will fall below critical level to sustain annual expenses. Most small niche marques must be plagued by it, and I know that club management have talked of collaboration. I think it would be a good thing and may help to regenerate interest in pre war stuff, especially if associating with lively clubs that have a range of more modern appeal as surely, it gets people involved and talking about our cherished cars. There are bound to be potential savings in typically insurance costs for events and in matters such as newsletters or magazines. Plus, it extends knowledge of those less known marques which may increase the audience when we do fall of of our perch, and custodians are sought.
So I'd say go for it. Spread your thoughts wide.
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Daimler Fifteen 1934 (now sold)
Armstrong Siddeley 15 Long 1933
Daimler V8 250 1969

[norustplease]

You are certainly not alone in this predicament.
I am a member of the (Citroen) Traction Owners Club. I have been in this for club some years now and see us slowly and inexorably shrinking in numbers over the last decade. Although we report a number of new members in each issue of the club magazine, in the background, numbers seem to shrink at a greater rate annually, largely due to issues associated with old age. It is proving increasingly difficult to find members interested in helping with the club's running, so a post on the Club Committee becomes something of a life sentence. We have recently had to outsource the spares operation, due to the (quite reasonable) desire of the Spares man to retire after twenty or so years in post, and the unwillingness of any other club members to take on the role.
So will this lead to a further diminution of numbers? Will members think what is the point of paying a an annual sub, when they can just as easily order stuff direct from various European suppliers. Time will tell.

What of the future? It is difficult to see what that may hold. Most of our members are well past retirement age and the bulk of those 'younger' individuals coming into the classic car movement currently, are focussed on the cars of their youth, which are now inevitably sixties, seventies and eighties cars.

So as clubs such as ours shrink, there must come a point whereby mergers become an inevitable alternative to extinction.

One wonders also who is buying the cars that are being relinquished by the disappearing memberships! Are they going back into barns and garages under dust sheets once more?
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[Ray White]

[Penman]

Ray; depending on how far ahead those years to come will be, there may be no, or at least very few, drivers with manual on their licences. Whenever the No New ICE rules finally come in there will be no instructors doing manual within a couple years, except people like I was when instructing who buy second hand and keep them for 5-6yrs.
_________________
Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[Ray White]

[Rootes75]

Interest in prewar cars is simply diminishing. The trends now have moved forwards, Fast Ford's, 80s hot hatches and the like.

There will always be an interest in prewar cars but IMHO they are just becoming more niche. I do see a few younger people taking on and driving cars from the 1930s but nothing like the numbers I did when we started going to rallies 30 years ago.

I am no longer a member of a club, I tend to spend more time on forums such as this, discussing issues and gaining advise.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Ray White]

I think we may be missing something. When I was a lot younger than I am now, life seemed full of promise. I had my own vehicle from the age of 16 and never gave a thought to car insurance as it was always affordable.

Also, I was able to get on the property ladder with only a modest income and left home as a teenager with ambitions to run my own business.

These days, life is a whole lot harder for young people with, it seems to me, a lot less in the way of the opportunities that we had.

[Keith D]

This post has been very interesting for me to read.

I have been a member of the Veteran Car Club of Western Australia since the 1970's. In that time I have held a number of management positions although now I am simply a back seat member in a country branch. In the seventies the club catered for all cars up until 1930. ie veteran and vintage. Then the cut-off date was lifted to include cars over 25 years old. That's when I joined, my 1950 Austin A40 was just old enough! I was often requested to NOT park my 25 year old Austin anywhere near the veterans.

This attitude has now changed. Everybody mixes together well. The Club has three sections, veteran, vintage and classic. The veteran and vintage sections remain fairly static in numbers, but very active in the use of their cars. The classic section has gone mad. Sixties and seventies Holdens, Falcons and Valiants abound. Although other cars are plentiful, vintage cars are now almost 100 years old and there are only so many genuine barn finds, and these are obviously getting rarer and rarer.

Our Club is flourishing, we have over three thousand members state wide, and receive around thirty new applications per month. not bad considering that the population of Western Australia is only three million. Because of the vast size of Western Australia, we have a dozen country branches that cover just about all of the populated bits of WA. The majority of club members own classic vehicles, but the veteran and vintage vehicles are invited and encouraged to join in with their newer brothers. And they do.

Electric vehicle sales have dropped off this year in Australia, largely because we do not have the electrical infrastructure to charge cars willy nilly in country areas. Consequently, desite all the ravings by uninformed politicians, I cannot see any threat to petrol supplies in my lifetime, and probably my kids either.

Just enjoy our vehicles. The hobby certainly isn't going to die out anytime soon.

Keith
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1926 Chrysler 60 tourer
1932 Austin Seven RN long wheelbase box sedan
1950 Austin A40 tourer
1999 BMW Z3
Its weird being the same age as old people.
You are either part of the problem or part of the solution