What Is Car Collecting?

1935 Duesenberg SJ

When many people think of the term “car collecting,” they might conjure up an image of celebrities such as Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Ralph Lauren, or Reggie Jackson. Or perhaps they think of the palatial garages of wealthy owners, where dozens of super-valuable cars—each one more perfect than the next—have been subjected to restorations costing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.

While that is certainly a part of the car collecting scene, it is of course far from the mainstream. Thousands of people across the country and indeed around the world are a part of the car collecting hobby in much more modest ways, proof that it’s not necessary to own a fleet of cars to be “a collector.” You can regard yourself as a collector even if you only have one collectible car, and even if that car doesn’t happen to be running at the time. What all car collectors have in common is a passion for the automobiles that interest them and a desire to own, use, and enjoy those cars, and to share that deep feeling with other like-minded souls.

But what is collecting all about? Research, research, and more research. Asking and answering questions is how it begins:

• •What is it?
• •When was it made?
• •How many were made?
• •What is the correct equipment for the year and model?
• •How much is it worth?
• •What are the clubs or groups for my type of car?

Research is a key part of collecting. Finding out all the details about the car in which you have an interest is for some even more of a pleasure than the actual purchase or use of the car.

Whether it consists of a single car, a few, or a hundred, a collection should have a reason for being. Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer, poet, philosopher, and rare book collector, expressed it well, writing “I believe that collecting books, but, for that matter, collecting anything, begins as an act of love. We collect what we love, but more precisely we collect what we believe represents us. As we collect, we make a statement about ourselves.”

This is why it’s important to understand what differentiates a “collection” of cars from an “accumulation” of cars, which could just as easily be found in a dealer’s showroom or auction tent. Collections can be made up of cars from a single marque, of a specific body style, from a particular country. They can be comprised of cars that competed with each other when new, of cars of distinctive design, of cars that made engineering breakthroughs, of cars that were complete market failures, or perhaps of cars made the year the collector was born.

Once you’ve decided on the car or cars of your dreams, done the research to find out more about it, and met and chatted with the folks who already own one, you can begin the process of acquiring the object of your affection. It doesn’t matter if you find your car at a leading international auction, an online auction web site, in the small ads in your local paper, or sitting in a driveway around the corner with a sign in the window. What is important is that you buy what you love and what you know about.

For some collectors, the hunt for a car is as thrilling as owning it—perhaps it’s looking for the exact make, model, and color you owned when you were 16. Or the car your father or grandfather used for your first driving lesson. Or maybe it’s the car the coolest guy or the prettiest girl drove when you were in high school. It could be the last missing piece to complete a list of cars you made 20 years ago. Finding the right car can be the work of a lifetime.

As mentioned earlier, a collection doesn’t have to be of many cars. There are plenty of people who are best described as “serial” collectors. Those are people who might make a “wish list” of the cars they want to own eventually and who work their way through that list one car at a time, buying and enjoying a car for a few years then selling it to buy the next. This is also a good way to proceed if you’re new to the hobby. Start with a car you know a lot about, which has a good availability of repair and replacement parts, is easily maintained either by yourself or by a good local mechanic, has a strong and active club for support, and of course which fits your budget comfortably. Every one of the big collectors started small. Though it might be tempting to buy a bunch of “restorable” cars to jumpstart a collection, nothing will be more frustrating than to look out at a beautiful day imagining what it would be like to drive an old car while your pile of old cars remains just that, rusting heap of parts in your garage or storage room.

Even if you do want to own every Porsche ever made, but only have a one-car garage and a limited budget, there’s another part of car collecting that can help you fulfill your dream. There’s no reason why you can’t find a single affordable example, and instead of filling a warehouse with the rest, collect scale models instead. It can be just as challenging to find rare and unusual miniatures of the cars you love. But in doing so, you’ll be able to assemble a collection that can be housed on shelves in your den or on the walls of your single garage for a fraction of what it would cost to own even two of the real thing.

Another final important part of car collecting is participating in shows, cruise-ins, tours, rallies, and vintage racing. Using your old car rather than locking it away in a garage has become more important than ever to collectors. It also helps to drive the market and determines why many people buy the cars they do. It’s useful once again to turn to the words of J.L. Borges to sum it all up: “Finally, I realize that my collection, and really all collections, are time machines. The books we have are the surest way to travel across time, and to give us a direct image of what the past looked like.”

Every time we sit in our old cars, we share a bit of the lives they’ve already led and give them another chapter for their future.