People Need to Stop Buying New Cars…
October 7, 2023
We’ve peaked when it comes to cars, we really have. Sure, the technology could go further in terms of what a car could be or do, but the reality is that the infrastructure just isn’t there to support that. You can’t put self-driving cars in with cars that are being driven by us meat sacks. You can’t make new roads for them, either, or at least not without crippling the current road network with even more construction works to allow for it. But that’s already a non-starter, because the road network is perpetually, well, you’ve been outside haven’t you? Electric cars? Super. But again, there isn’t an infrastructure there to support mass-adoption. But that’s another article. The solution? Stop buying new cars.
I look forward, with Homer Simpson-esque levels of salivation, to the emails I’ll get about this. Bring them on I say. Sure, I’m writing here on a website devoted to classic cars, but this comes with no bias, I can assure you of that. I’m not saying we should all start daily driving cars from 1962. That would be silly, we’d all be dead in a week. I just don’t see why people buy new cars every nine minutes. And that’s not a statistic en masse, I’m talking about single households. A touch of hyperbole may have been employed. I see people often replacing the same car with… bafflingly, the same car. I used to sell cars for a major manufacturer, and at the time I would have people come in with a 57 plate car, looking at a 12 plate car that was the same thing, just a different colour and with slightly bigger wheels. And more monthly debt. Get that 57 car wrapped, and buy some new wheels. Problem solved.
People change them not for reasons of reliability, but for fashion. At least when it comes to brand new cars. Back when I was in my 20s, working at another big dealer, people would come in with a junker and trade up into something nice. That’s not the way it happens today, or at least not in my experience. This means the backlots of dealerships up and down the land are full of modern, serviceable vehicles. But they’re not being used because they’re not in favour. It’s infuriating. Though not as infuriating as walking around a scrap yard today and checking the reg of cars as you do. You’ll find more than one that still has an MOT, but it’s been zeroed on the books somewhere and disposed of.
From an environmental point of view, it makes no sense. The world currently has its eyes glaring evilly at the car. But at the same time, the powers that be need the car, because taxing you and I by the millions is far more straightforward than taxing singular, massive entities. Looking at you, cruise industry. So, could the powers that be maybe pick a lane instead of allowing cars to be pushed out by the thousand? I know we’ll never stop with new cars, but a five year break every now and then to calm the waters? Take the onus off new reg day and instead give the car makers time to breathe and develop properly? That could work, and maybe even stabilise the market a bit. I don’t know. I’m no economist.
It seems to me that by constantly pushing out new cars into a massively oversaturated market is an exercise in futility. But this is where we and our world come in. I know not everyone wants to drive a classic car, and that’s fine. But, those people can watch us and learn. We are champions of repair, restoration and automotive longevity. Many of us do in fact drive our classic cars daily, proving the point that if looked after, these machines can go on forever. And for the new car buyers who are doing it solely out of vanity, I maintain that a cool, modern classic on the drive will gain more admiration, more looks and more respect than a new modern whatever.
