The Morris Mini is a famous little British car. In the 1980s it was still a very recognizable, characterful design, and it’s become a classic partly because of how iconic it is.
TikTok is a social media app where people watch short videos. The speaker is saying that if classic cars show up on TikTok, younger people are more likely to notice them.
Instagram is a social media app where people share pictures and videos. The speaker is saying classic cars need to show up in apps like this to reach younger people.
Here, “exposure” just means getting classic cars in front of people. The speaker’s idea is that if young people see classics online, they’re more likely to get interested in them in real life.
“660cc” is a way of describing how big the engine is. A smaller number usually means the engine is smaller and often costs less to run and insure. It doesn’t automatically mean it’s slow, but it’s usually easier on your budget.
A Ford Fiesta is a small, everyday car that a lot of people buy as their first car. Here, the speaker is basically saying they didn’t want something that would be constantly breaking down.
The Toyota MR2 is a small sports car made to be fun to drive. It’s popular with car fans because it’s light and sporty, and many people talk about it online. In a classic-car discussion, it’s mentioned as a model that still gets attention today.
LIVE
Well, it's an uncomfortable fact, but let's admit it, these days young people aren't really
into cars. And even when they are, they're really into classics. But why is that? And
what can be done to turn that around? Hello, my name is Matt, and for this bonus tire kickers
episode, I'm here in Birmingham to ask young classic car drivers what can be done to turn
things around.
Well, it's a really nice sunny morning here at this location on the outskirts of Birmingham
for this meet. I'm looking about 20, 30 different cars, a lot of modern classics, a few chrome
bumper ones, a Mini there, a Beetle there, some more modern classics, Rovers, Honda's,
MX-5's, and then some American stuff as well, a mix, but the different thing about this
meet is there's a lot of younger drivers here. As I said, it's a bit of a sad fact that young
people aren't necessarily attracted to the classic car scene, mainly because the scene
is getting quite frankly old. It's classic car meets, it's static events, it's magazines,
all that stuff doesn't really play into a digital world. So the thinking behind this
is to try and bring those two worlds together.
So my name's Will, I'm 25 years old and my car is a 1985 Morris Mini. The Mini bug especially,
I've watched the Italian job really young as a kid, and ever since then it was kind of
a niche I had to scratch. It's funny, actually the first car show I took this was a Caffeine
machine. This car got more attention than a full horizon spec Lamborghini, which I thought
I couldn't quite believe really, but it's honestly, I think it's just classic cars and
their story is kind of ingrained in our shared history really.
You get it, you understand it, you get pleasure out of it. In an online world, in a TikTok,
Instagram world, how do we get more people under the age of maybe 30 hooked on classics?
What do we do?
I think it's just exposure really. Today I didn't notice what's going on until I saw it come up
on my feed, so if it wasn't for TikTok I wouldn't be here today. So there's pros and cons, you've
got to balance it, but again it's just about exposure, getting in front of the people,
and currently that's where it is, it's digital, but if you can take from the digital world to the
real world like we are today, I don't see why they won't come back.
It also gets you away from a screen because you ain't got much going on in there.
I've got two dials and the best of times, only one of them works. So yeah, it's all about just
listening to the car, understanding it, and then once you have an understanding of it,
it has an understanding of you, and then it kind of comes as symbiosis in terms of partnership where
you and the car become one and the same thing.
Talking of which, it wouldn't start a minute ago, should we give it another go?
See if you're in symbiosis with it now.
Let's try, let's try. It's probably got a little bit of a stage fright.
Right, let's give it a go.
Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.
Nope, nope. Drive's now on a half down here, the camera's come out and it doesn't want to start,
typical.
We're trying to get people into this, not out of it.
No, no, well that's the fun of it, because now it gets to go on the engine,
and find out why it ain't starting.
Well this meat has been put together by Classic Car Weekly Magazine to try to get young drivers
together and to try to grow the scene. Jesse Billington from the magazine says the aim is
simply that.
I've been to a lot of the Classic Car Weekly Meets we hold here, sort of regular monthly
meets, done a lot of car shows and I thought it's nice, but what if there was one for younger
people? So just trying to get as many people together, younger, my generation or around
thereabouts, with Classic Cars, modern classics, just to sort of see what the scene's doing.
There has been a shift though, you know, my generation grew up around cars, you know,
parents under bonnets of cars fixing them, you saw old cars by the roadside, that sort of thing.
In a world now where people are a digital, everything's sealed, even your car, your car is
sealed now, and you take it as somebody else, how do you get people into Classic Cars who are
under the age of maybe 30?
It's a tricky thing to try and sell, it's a tricky thing to try and sell sort of a concept
and a place of being in a way of being in, certainly in a print format, it's very interesting
thing to try and sort of transfer and but doing it digitally as we try and sort of
reach out to do sort of more online stuff, it's a bit easier, you can convey that a lot easier
with a podcast, with a video, doing a piece to camera. But in writing, simply just showing
the exciting cars that show up to meet the fantastic pictures that we get from things
like the Goodwood Revival from our own meet, where we get some brilliant cars with interesting
story shot. Young people who are interested in it will find it and you've only got to look at
how they find things on the internet, find their own subcultures and groups.
People will find things if they're interested and I think it's very fortunate in the fact
that the internet has democratised the ability to find your sort of your group of people.
I'm Keira and I'm just about to turn 21.
So this is your first car, Keira, and it's not your average Fiesta sort of 17 year old
driver car is it? What is it? Tell us what it is and why you got it?
It's a Diat 2 Copent, it's the 660cc model, so it's only a little tiny engine in there,
but it's my first car so it's nice, nice to drive and it means that it's nice reliable
and it's also really good in the insurance, it's just basically the ideal, it's something that I
can get in and have loads of fun in, but it's not going to absolutely rinse my pockets out.
So to describe it, it's a red convertible, two-seater convertible, it's 2004, so it's
over 20 years old. Why did you want a car that was over 20 years old?
Because the older they get, the more character you get, I think. I've really always liked the
classics. This was my middle ground, this was my parents won't kill me having a first car,
which is going to break down every two minutes, but it's not a Fiesta, so it was my nice,
my nice in between, no one's going to get annoyed, I'm not going to have to fix it too often,
but I just wanted some ink, which was my gateway car basically, where I could
enjoy, start working on it a little bit more and then eventually I will go into the proper classics.
Not many people your age are into old cars these days though, why do you think that is?
I just think it's exposure. There are a lot of car shows that go on, but like for example here,
you don't get a lot of classics, younger people show up to these car meets in the fiestas and
all those sort of cars, and there isn't any classics there to look at.
What about with, you know, thinking about Instagram, TikTok and that sort of stuff?
I think TikTok's a really big thing, this is how I found this car, so I was looking for first cars,
didn't know what I wanted, and then this came up and it was someone saying,
this is the ideal first car for a 19 year old and I was like, wow, that's a really nice car,
I absolutely loved it, I started researching it and I was like, that's what I want.
So TikTok's a really, really big thing at the moment, and there are a lot of young people
who do have the Copans, they have the MR2, MR3s, the MR2s, especially who are on social media,
and I do see a lot of them, but I think that's a really, really good outlet,
because anyone can just be scrolling and it will just come up, and then you know what TikTok's like
with the algorithm, as soon as you see one, they're everywhere, but I think that's definitely the
place to start with. It's just not only just video showing the car, but I like the fact that it was
an informative video, it showed me the car, told me about the engine size, it showed me the interior,
told me the little quirky things about it, didn't just say it's a nice car, it's a smart car,
it said, this is this really silly thing, I like this silly thing about this car,
and I went, I quite like that, but I think it's getting people to have a look at things a little
bit less seriously.
So it's really interesting, I think what we've learned from that then is that there is an
appeal, there is a future for classic cars, but it's got to be sold in a slightly different way,
it's got to be sold to the digital world, it's got to be sold by reels on TikTok,
by a desire to sell the analogue experience, the real mindfulness of driving classic cars,
the disconnection from the stressful modern world, and that is the future. Not really static
meets and traditional classic car events, it's all stuff we're trying to do on the tire kickers,
keep following our socials at the tire kickers, kickers UK and also on Facebook,
the tire kickers, three separate words, and plenty more to come and let us know what you think
needs to be done to sell this to a younger crowd. My name is Matt, this has been a bonus
episode for the tire kickers, thank you for listening, see you on the next one.
About this episode
Younger drivers aren’t turning toward classics because they’re not seeing them often enough—so the conversation keeps coming back to exposure. The guests credit TikTok for discovering cars, learning details like engine size and interior, and then getting pulled into the scene. Hosts also point to event organizers trying to grow the “scene” for younger people, and argue classics can thrive if marketed through short-form digital content. They balance that with the appeal of a mindful, low-stress analogue drive.
It seems young people aren't really into classic cars. But is that because they don't like them - or they just don't see them enough? People under 30 don't read magazines or watch TV, so how can the scene cut through?
For this bonus episode, Matt's been to Birmingham to talk to young drivers at a special Classic Car Weekly meet-up.
See photos of the drivers and their cars on our socials and read the full write-up in Classic Car Weekly in their 8th July issue.
