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I've owned a 55' Mercury for over a decade. Its nothing special, just a large 4 door family car. But the thing is that whenever I go to a show, its almost always the only one of its kind at the show period. Meanwhile there's no shortage of Mustangs, Cameros, Chargers, Bel-airs, and various hot rods made out of kits and whatnot. Actually, I rarely go to shows anymore simply because I feel like I see the same cars over and over again. After awhile they blend in together. I've seen my share of Bel-airs with chromed-up small block engines, chrome headers and fat chrome wheels to last a lifetime.
The thing is why? Just like now, there are 100's of models from many different manufactures. Yet you seldom see anything unusual or more "pedestrian" at these shows. Wanna' know what got the most attention at the last show I was at? It wasn't any of the cherry-red Cameros or Ford GT fastbacks. It was a pair of these tiny Crossley cars sold as a kit in the 40's. They were tiny, weird looking, and had a go-cart sized engine. People were lining up to see these things.
I'm not trying to put down people for buying what they truly want. If you love Mustangs, then if you get one and truly love it, then that's all that matters. But even so, why do collectors seem to stick with a somewhat limited number of models and makes versus branching out? I'd almost much rather see something like say- a mid 70's Chevy Capprice station wagon or maybe even a few old AMC Ramblers.
I agree, and I don't know why most people concentrate on the same cars. It is a shame because that means that a lot of other vintage cars are not preserved or restored.
understand that like anything, people tend to like what is popular. mustangs were popular from the very beginning, same with camaros, bel airs, and others. cars like the 55 merc were not that popular back in the day, and tend not to be popular today. too bad too because i like the 55-56 mercs and fords.
I also wonder if it comes from the fact that many of the popular cars are in some cases it is very, very easy to get parts for, and on top of that, you can get totally new body and drivetrain parts for them. I believe you can just about make an entire "New" Belair now from new parts. Doesn't Ford even offer a totally new mustang body? If that's the case, then it makes things easier. My car was missing a piece of chrome trim. for years. It took me at least 5-6 years to finally track one down. So if it ever gets scrunched in an accident, I'm sort of out of luck. On the other hand, you can get whatever parts you want for a Mustang.
There are a lot of factors. Availability is one. Chevy sold 1.7 million units in 1955 (all models) compared to Mercury's 329,818 (again, all models). Commons sense tells us that the vehicles that were most commonly found on the road when they were new are going to be the ones most commonly found to fix up 10 years or so down the road.
Another issue is the appeal off the showroom floor. 99% of people who bought Mustangs brand new were people who wanted them because they were cool; so while plenty of them have been wrecked or left to rot in a fence row, the vast majority were kept in decent condition over the years. As opposed to a Rambler of the same year that in most cases would have been used up and sold for scrap.
Tying in to the first issues is the fact that more vehicles on the road means more parts availability in the aftermarket, so it's easier to fix one of these up than, say, a 1962 Studebaker Lark.
But the others are correct in that some people don't have the vision to fix up something out of the ordinary. Guy sees a cool '57 Chevy and he decides he needs to fix up a '57 Chevy, can't imagine doing a Buick or a Plymouth instead.
Cost is another factor. It makes financial sense to restore a car that will give them the best return on their investment, and that means it has to be a popular car. Otherwise, you're spending tens of thousands perhaps to restore a car that no one would ever consider buying if whoever restored it decided to sell it someday.
If you've got disposable income and can restore/work on whatever you want, with no care as to the cost or ROI, then great. But most people don't have that luxury, if they restore or buy a restored car, they want to know that it'll still be worth something to someone else.
The more obsure and unusual the car, the harder(and more expenisve) it is to get parts and to restore. If you have a mustang, there are dozens of suppliers that you can get brand new parts from.
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