Is having a 'scene' a good thing.

[Uncle Jimmy]

More and more motors seem to come with scene tax nowadays. First it was the whole dubber thing, then old skool Fordz, anything Arbath, Fiat 500s, even Ovlovs. Good or bad?

[dave21478]

good if you are selling, shit if you are buying.

 

I have now been priced out of the market for a few cars I would like to have owned.

[mercrocker]

I wonder who  creates these "scenes"?   Just a bit conspiracy theorist but odd that all the cars you mention (and certainly attract scene tax) are still in current production.  Apart from Abarth, obvs. but those little buggers were over-priced when new....I can't believe that Messrs Ford, Volvo, VW and Fiat do not in some way benefit from this.  

[dollywobbler]

I think it's probably a good thing. 2CVs have been walloped by scene tax but because of that, you can now get more bits for them than you ever could. People restore them rather than throw them away. The downside is that I can no longer afford to buy one. Which is a shame as the one I've got is quite rotten. 

[Uncle Jimmy]

^^^yes I thought that. I don't like the scene thing much. Shows are much better when there is variety, plus I like my cars original. As much as the cars themselves it's the prices for parts that go through the roof!

[Uncle Jimmy]

It's like the housing crap though. If you really love old cars and sell one for serious money you only have to pay out to replace it with something else.

I've abandoned my dreams of having a 60s/70s sports car as the prices are fast approaching daft level.

[Partridge]

It's good in that it keeps the cars desirable, and hopefully out of the crusher.

 

When was the last time you saw a Golf MK1 or 2 getting fragged?

[dollywobbler]

The main downside to rising 2CV values is that shows do now tend to be full of nice, shiny 2CVs in close-to-factory condition. Still some individualism, but far fewer hand-painted hippy wagons. If I manage to get my 2CV restored, I'm very tempted to get a tin of paint, a brush and some hippy ideals.

[chaseracer]

"The Dyane will not be repainted..." 

 

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

What Volvos have a flippin scene tax? Theyre cheap as fuck man.

[rml2345]

^ I was thinking that too. Volvos have an incredibly long value curve and even then it's not exactly massive prices.

You can still get a decent 240 for under a grand.

[dugong]

544, 1800 and Amazons defo have a scene. Prices have jumped quite a bit. A mint 222S will edge £13k if it's perfect. 123GTs are even pricier and 1800s are in orbit, even for horrid ones full of despair and wob.

[mercrocker]

There is still a hippy 2CV in the next street to me.  Vinyl flowers stuck all over it and various greenie/earthie slogans.  I will try and get a pic without appearing to admire it (which I secretly do...).  I keep thinking each winter will be its last but its hanging in there....

[AnthonyG]

For 1960s sports cars, MGBs, Midgets and Triumph Spitfires are still pretty affordable, particularly their less fashionable 1970s variants. Mainly because there are a lot still about.

 

It's a double edged sword, more cars get saved but they are more expensive to buy. I guess a Vauxhall scene would have saved that Royale in Scotland as an example of the good side of the coin.

 

I don't think Volvos have a scene unless you're talking Amazons and P1800s. 360s are rare but that's due to drifters more than anything else.

[catsinthewelder]

I wonder who  creates these "scenes"?   Just a bit conspiracy theorist but odd that all the cars you mention (and certainly attract scene tax) are still in current production.  Apart from Abarth, obvs. but those little buggers were over-priced when new....I can't believe that Messrs Ford, Volvo, VW and Fiat do not in some way benefit from this.  

 

 

Isn't it mostly just supply and demand that see's prices rising?  The aircooled VW and Citroen scenes have been going for years but the prices have only gone into orbit now that there are more people wanting to buy say a usable 2cv or beetle for £2000 than there are people prepared to sell one for that.

 

You can go to a VW show in a middle aged Golf or Polo* but there's plenty still about so they arn't noticably more expensive than other bangers,  yes the campers are rarely cheap but campers of any type are usually either expensive or knackered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*you could go in a Prius or an Allegro if you wanted to but you know what I mean

[HillmanImp]

Yeah, I was looking a P1800s a few years ago with a mint example at £5k. Now you will pay 3 times that. I bought a GT6 instead which seems to have remained pretty static pricewise (mine has also been quite static as I cant be arsed welding it). 

[Partridge]

I think it's probably a good thing. 2CVs have been walloped by scene tax but because of that, you can now get more bits for them than you ever could. People restore them rather than throw them away. The downside is that I can no longer afford to buy one. Which is a shame as the one I've got is quite rotten. 

Interesting, because more often than not, scene tax encourages people put their own personal stamp on a car. So personal everyone else at the rally does the same...

[Cavcraft]

It's a good thing is if stops cars being scrapped and more interest shown in them.

[New POD]

As billy might attest to, I used to be a member of the mk2 cavalier owners net work.  I wanted an SRi 130 or Calibre when you could get a decent one for £600, and over 2 or 3 years I managed to obtain a Cdi Auto for £6.64, a 1.8e Sri  (115bhp) for £40 and a Calibre for £1400.  Now guess which was most reliable and fun ? Not the calibre that threw it's engine into bits on the Runcorn Bridge.

I was only interested in the SRi 130 because it was a fast family car for buttons, and got sucked in, hence the Calibre - which was a mental looking car, and apparently very embarrassing to my family.  I walked away from the scene because people were throwing £0000's at them, to either restore them or modify them (or both), and as far as cars go it's a great car, but for what some people were spending, you could buy something  very "interesting" - more so now than ever before. Plus "they" kept telling me I was wrecking my £40 car by using it daily, and that I needed to take it off the road and restore it.  Given that I had no money and no time, I was made to feel like I was letting the side down.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Why get rid of something you like because of what others are doing to theirs? It doesnt make any sense.

[Cavcraft]

I didn't know you had a Calibre too, POD.

 

Was it you that turned up to mine in a Commander, by the way? One of the gang did and I was seriously impressed as I seem to recall it had some working electrics.

[purplebargeken]

I have an Amazon. I am impressed that I have a 'scene' car without actually realising. I iz kool!

[rml2345]

I think the other thing that's artificially inflating the price of popular classics* is folk investing in them instead of leaving their savings in Bank of Shitehawks or whatever at half a percent.

[HillmanImp]

Why get rid of something you like because of what others are doing to theirs? It doesnt make any sense.

 

Aye, most people are burning their Jimmy Savile memorabilia but I still use mine.

 

IMAG1197 by Afalseicon, on Flickr

[forddeliveryboy]

I think it's probably a good thing. 2CVs have been walloped by scene tax but because of that, you can now get more bits for them than you ever could. People restore them rather than throw them away. The downside is that I can no longer afford to buy one. Which is a shame as the one I've got is quite rotten. 

 

 

It seems that rather than people appreciating old cars for their real virtues, they have increasingly come to appreciate them for their virtual ones - which is to say, image. Those who buy into an image can usually be relied to supply only one thing - money. Parts prices double or treble and there is a stampede for shiny-looking repainted cars, many of which are just as knackered as when they had a rodent living under the bonnet or rear seat and rust creating a fascinating patina. Ok, so there are a few - very expensive - new parts made but there's little which couldn't be done without them, for those with a brain and or practical skills.

 

Then said people grow tired of this expensive accessory, and sell on often at a massive loss. More pile in, continuing to pay the now-accepted parts prices. The noisy ones take over the club, magazines go from superb reads which were typed and photocopied to OMGAMZNGPCHMPBLSHNG full of very pretty pictures, loads of styles and very little substance. Sometimes. Those who appreciated the cars for their real qualities either hang on, divorce themselves from the club scene and look after their machine, learning to do stuff themselves if funds - or they - are tight and continue to enjoy the real thing...

 

Or, think - "fuck this, a load of tossers, cars which need more and more work as time goes by..." and move on, keeping the memories. They're the ones who discover something previously fairly un-appreciated. I'd like to think that this forum is a bit like this - avoiding the scene tossers.

[Alexg]

The negatives, beyond racking up of prices, are the dumb automotive-elitist jerks that seem to thrive within these scenes on social media. The narrow minded mongs who can only express themselves by trolling on differing automotive interests/scenes with negativity and bewildering grammar - Like it's some rubbish footballing rivalry or something. But I should probably stop getting a bee in my bonnet about these pricks... I can't imagine ever being part of a 'scene' in the way VW or Ford have. If I rock up at a car show I want to be in something the bloke in front of me isn't driving, that's unique and far more interesting, and that's considered so wank by haters that it actually annoys them when I dump my heap along side.

[AlabamaShrimp]

Some people have said it far more eloquently than me that scene stuff really is shit. I get it all the time with the fiesta that I should change this or that or they nearly wet themselves when they find out I got an mk1 or XR.

 

They forget I bought all these cars when they were worth fuck all and looked down upon but now they're scene they're the dogs bollocks.

 

I forgotten the point I was going to make now. Will sum up with scene wankers are wankers

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Great insight there

[AlabamaShrimp]

Why thank you sir

[oman5]

Well the mini scene does at least mean no shortage of engine bits for A series Allegros.

The VW scene, frankly, baffles me. Not the pineapple thing, the whole deal with anything air cooled being worth a ton of money. They're shit!