Understanding Car Categories

What is the difference between a vintage and an antique automobile? I was curious and decided to take on my own question and seek answers to ease my mind and others who are as intrigued as I am.

My first Google search was for the words ‘vintage automobile’ – and my results took me to Wikipedia with the following explications: A vintage car is commonly defined as a Automobile built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930

My second Google search was for the words ‘antique automobile’ – and again I was directed to Wikipedia with the following explications: An antique car is generally defined as an Automobile over 25 years of age.

With these explanations, it will be much easier to distinguish the difference between the two, and I hope that this fast and easy search with the above results will also help you, the reader in clarrifying the myths between the two.

I also found that the term ‘classic car’ is often used as a synomym for antique car, however, also according to a Wikipedia find, the formal use of the term classic car usually applies only to certain specific high-quality amount of vehicles from the pre World-War II era.

So much to learn, and fully understand when discussing older vehicles that marked history in some way. Now just when I thought I was beginning to understand, I found yet another term, ‘collector car.’ So back to the internet to find out what that means…

According to some, I found that a ‘collector car’ is the term that refers to any of the antique cars, vintage, classic, special interest, muscle or pony cars… ok, here I go again, more terms….

Some information that I found explains that the collector car market is always expanding, so the definition does as well. According to another web search, I found that cars from the 1970’s that would have been abandoned are now being rescued and restored – so if you have the budget you can become the owner of a collector car. Depends on your prerequisits of the fascinating world of the automobile, the nostalgia related to the car, and the amount of money you want to spend, and time you want to dedicate to the restoration project.

Now onto the ‘special interest’ category… these cars were designed anywhere from 1920 to 1970 which generally include all eras of collector cars. Um, confused again, lets continue to search for information. Special interest automobiles are identified as automobiles either for their engineering or style appeal. So factory show cars fall into this category, as do celebrity automobiles.

And now comes the muscle and pony class. This class generally directs it’s members to 1964 or later. According to one group, the car has a high performance listing such as the AMC AMX, Buick GS, Chevrolet Camaro SS and Z-28 models and the list goes on. These are apparently a hot commodity in the collector car marketplace.

Pony class – sounds like something I would hear being called out at the county fair, however, the pony class in the automobile industry simply means, automobiles produced later than 1964 as in the muscle category, but fall into the Ford Mustang class. Some quick examples would be the Mercury Cougar, the Firebird, the Javelin, the Challenger. Pony cars are basically muscle cars with a top of the line performance package.

Who knew that automobile collectors had so many different categories available to them, and that each category is also very defined either by era, performance packages, celibrity status, restoration and value.

So when looking at an older car, remember the year is an important starting place in order to understand what kind of automobile it really is, either classic, antique, vintage, special interest, muscle or pony division. But all in all, the car’s value is always in the eye of the beholder.

Karen Eryou