Just what is a classic car? Hours of blazing discussion in the CCfS office have only really served to show how different our opinons are on the subject. It’s a question that has the power to turn neighbour against neighbour, father against son, and Editor against lowly Staff Writer.

Everyone I speak to at shows seems to have a different opinion, but by far the most popular answer seems to be ‘anything built before 1973’, therefore anything that qualifies for historic tax. Many of the old guard seem blinkered to anything more recent, even having issue with rubber-bumpered MGs and later model classic Minis. I find myself increasingly frustrated with this view, with so many people acting as if time stopped in 1997 and that no notable designs could possibly emerge from the eighties and nineties.

But what about Audi Quattros and Mk I Golf GTis, which already enjoy classic status in most people’s eyes? Or even the Ford Escort Mk III, or fourth generation Toyota Celica? All would comfortably meet the old 25 year exemption rule for free tax, had it been continued.

Every year that passes makes it increasingly unlikely that the rolling exemption will return in any form, so I believe its time we started to open our eyes to new criteria of what we consider a classic. Office banter has recently turned up some rather odd modern classic wildcard selections, like the Nissan Primera GT and Subaru Vivio, but is it so far a stretch to see these cars as classic? The Primera GT isn’t a world ending design, but it is many things to many men. Affordable, economical and reliable, it is a hugely practical design. The Vivio is the opposite; rare, quirky, and with bone fide rally bred history. But both will soon be deserving of their place at shows up and down the country.

The next time you’re out in your classic take another look at the cars around you. Which do you think are already deserving of classic status?

GREG MACLEMAN

Staff Writer