RetroRides - Where did it go wrong and what are the lessons?

[BorniteIdentity]

With far too much time on my hands this afternoon, I pondered on where it all went wrong for RR.

It used to be essential reading for me.  It's now very, very quiet.  There are a couple of excellent threads but otherwise very little.  Over THIRTY of the front page adverts are from KGF Classics showing that very few of the members left think to sell their cars there either.

It's a real shame.  Let's hope AS doesn't end up the same eh?

Where did it go wrong?

[The Vicar]

I’ll preface by saying I don’t know anything about RetroRides. I used to follow a build thread for a Thames camper with a Lexus V8 about ten years ago, but otherwise I’ve never used it read it at all  

With that said, I don’t buy the excuse that forums are dying because people are shifting to FB. It might be true in part, but a well run forum with a good community base behind it can still be successful. 

[DavieW]

On 25/12/2025 at 20:05, The Vicar said:

 

With that said, I don’t buy the excuse that forums are dying because people are shifting to FB. It might be true in part, but a well run forum with a good community base behind it can still be successful. 

And so much easier to find what you're looking for - threads, sub forums etc. 

[M'coli]

It didn't move with the times, it's stuck in 2010 especially the for sale section - there aren't a lot of late 90s stuff around, so that goes on Gumtree or Faceache Marketplace.

[Lankytim]

I think it got too big and started to attract too many bellends, it got too big and”scene”. I was on it multiple times a day but I’ve barely been on it for years. 

[hairnet]

far too scene and although have friends met through it - theyre contacted in different ways now

also inclusivity - it was cars or nothing mostly

shoulda been everything retro surely

[Heidel_Kakao]

I personally stopped visiting after I grew out of the whole modified car thing. I will admit that I cut the springs on a Triumph Acclaim and while it did kinda look cool it also rode like shit.

I find it interesting that while the forum is virtually dead the events they put on appear to be successful and well attended, I don't know if that is fueled by Facebook or something else.

[HMC]

I Didnt know the forum was dead-  ironically because its years (a decade?) since ive had a proper look.

Maybe also the tyranny of cool became too much to bear? IIRC i read that phrase in a Biography of Mick Jagger and in a sense wishing to conform to the perception of himself, it was argued, became an obstacle to self expression.

^ EDIT my whole post reads like bollocks

[warren t claim]

Do they still have their annual 'Gathering?'

[Mr Livered]

I'm too much of a potty mouthed curse word to post there, and besides I curse word object on principle to getting curse word censored like that.

[grogee]

I don't know, I never went on there, but there are no lessons to learn and we must never change. 

[Rust Collector]

I used to just use it as a place to find cheap old motors. Kind of hated the for sale section though, was a fucker to find stuff local.

As for the forum, I was never really cool or knowledgeable enough to post on it with my own cars.

As @Heidel_Kakao mentions, now I’m older I don’t have any interest in modified cars and so the appeal of RR has completely dropped off for me.

I much prefer the threads here, they seem to more aligned with my values of running old cars as sort-of daily drivers whilst not spending too much money.

[lesapandre]

To quote the 11th century poet Omar Khayyam:

"The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it."

In other words...it's time is done. Bit like a lot of the internet. Remember 'Blogspot'? Etc...

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Probably been at least a year since I last visited, for me its because only cars up to a Y plate are allowed to be offered for sale, which in my oppinion are classics, not retro.

[Out Run]

Pennance threads with pictures of cars required as an apology made me laugh. I never complied with that rubbish.

[grogee]

15 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

"Oh, Baudelaire!" 

[brownnova]

11 hours ago, The Vicar said:

a well run forum … can still be successful. 

Ah shit… we’re in trouble… 

 

I think the Retro rides/modifying ‘scene’ is younger… younger people exist in different spheres than forums (like SnippyChatChit and Instagramble). Hence RR dying off. The events seem to exist independently of the forum now. 

[grizz]

I celebrate its fucking demise. 

[lesapandre]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

"Oh, Baudelaire!" 

I shall never play The Dane.

[Zelandeth]

I've not really been on there in a long while. 

For my part it was down to the refusal to allow for threads covering more than one vehicle or anything even slightly off topic.

I've honestly always found that a lot of the most interesting content on any thread on any forum tends to be the tangential stuff which happens or "this made me think of..." things which technically might be off topic.  Removal of that loses a lot of knowledge and strips a lot of fun out of things.

Having to carefully rework any blog posts to erase any mention of other vehicles or other aspects got very tedious very quickly, and these days I honestly just don't have the time or mental energy for that.  I write my blog because I enjoy it and for me it's part of the hobby, it's up to readers if they're interested and want to follow it.  If it has become a chore in itself that erases the reason I do it - so I just stopped bothering.

[dollywobbler]

I was prolific on there 20 years ago. Then I discovered Autoshite which just suited my thoughts on cars better and drifted over. 

Have been to many Gatherings and Weekenders and have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Great mix of cars and people and not restricted to modified, even though that's their main ethos.

But I haven't visited the forum itself for years. Times change I guess and a lot of friends I made there had also made the move over here. Forums generally have died on their arse. Autoshite, as ever, seems to ignore trends.

[sutty2006]

Like many others, I used to lurk in the darkness of RR. Occasionally posting cars up for sale or threads on whatever banger I was driving at the time. But alas, with the way people started to go online folk could criticise from the comfort of a computer screen and no one on RR wanted to see rusting old bangers or boring unloved Carltons being used. My good friend @fordperv took me by the hand and guided me into the light that is autoshite! I did hover between the two for a couple of weeks but ditched RR because this beige forum was much more welcoming and helpful. Long love autoshite! 

[BorniteIdentity]

3 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Like many others, I used to lurk in the darkness of RR. Occasionally posting cars up for sale or threads on whatever banger I was driving at the time. But alas, with the way people started to go online folk could criticise from the comfort of a computer screen and no one on RR wanted to see rusting old bangers or boring unloved Carltons being used. My good friend @fordperv took me by the hand and guided me into the light that is autoshite! I did hover between the two for a couple of weeks but ditched RR because this beige forum was much more welcoming and helpful. Long love autoshite! 

Interestingly - I’d possibly point at the saccharine, relentless positivity of latter-day RR as being a reason the forum declined. The fact nobody could actually interact in a human, natural way with another contributor made it feel fake and artificial to me. It was nonsense. 

[sutty2006]

1 minute ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Interestingly - I’d possibly point at the saccharine, relentless positivity of latter-day RR as being a reason the forum declined. The fact nobody could actually interact in a human, natural way with another contributor made it feel fake and artificial to me. It was nonsense. 

See, I’ve not been on there for a very long time so I’m guessing things have changed in small doses over the years and all contributed to its failures. I don’t even think I want to know what they are 😅

[captain_cal]

2 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Interestingly - I’d possibly point at the saccharine, relentless positivity of latter-day RR as being a reason the forum declined. The fact nobody could actually interact in a human, natural way with another contributor made it feel fake and artificial to me. It was nonsense. 

Exactly this. Enforced positivity akin to North Korea. I seem to remember the swear filter changing words to "wibble" which is just childish fucking nonsense, why bother making a car forum "family-friendly" if you have to be 17 to drive a car, by which point you've spent all of secondary school learning every swear under the sun?

Plus I think as you get older you mostly grow out of modifying cars, or at least to their strict idea of "modded" so it reflects a certain "scene". Also realistically as you grow up your budget will stretch a little further - you don't have to mod old shit into something interesting, you can just buy something interesting and keep it nice, maybe with some small quality of life mods to make it useful in the modern world. For instance, when I was 21 I had a ropey £500 Saab 9-3 droptop, and I always lusted after an Aero. Now I'm 32 and I've got that Aero, and every time I look at it I think "fuck yes".

I'm too fucking old to be pissing about with something that's fucked on a Sunday night when I've got to leave for work at 7am the next day. Yes I want something interesting and characterful, but most of all reliable. That's why I own a P38.

I realise this place has quite a lot to answer for when it comes to reverence for base model stuff, but some people these days take it too far. I also understand this is a function of 20-year-old bargain basement cars in 2025 being really boring and dependable modern cars, to our aged eyes.

TL;DR: We're all old and tired, and kids these days don't have the vast swathe of old and interesting shit we did to cut their teeth on. So they get all sex nuts over a 1.4 Megane with black bumpers. Times change.

Also I said this on another thread, and it's probably their hosting rather than the mods, but it blocks any browsing via VPN, so that's another death knell after the events of this year.

[delux]

I've been on and off it for years. 

It was the 1st forum I regularly read and made me realise there actually were other people out there who didnt actually mind driving or modifying old cars. I wasnt the only one walking through classic car shows disappointed looking at rows of E types and MGBs only to take 20 pics of the rusty Datsun Violet in the car park!

When I was 1st on, there were people making really cool cars, genuinely helping people. After a while people start to move on. Build cars just to sell or promote their business. A few of my good mates from the forum are no more!

Working hard trying to start on my own, moving away, getting married, suddenly building projects, posting pics scanned from CCC took a back seat!

Things change and move on and so do we. When I returned, the site was full of 'scene' guys, rich guys trying to make a name for themselves, experts and KGF trying to convince me shite cars are worth millions cos they have a fancy photobooth. 

Autoshite was full of the original RR guys and reality! Some of the people I regularly argue with on here prolly dont realise they have been chatting to me years ago on RR! 😄

RR was good in its day. Its not its day anymore. Along with stock car racing with no money and sketchy student night clubs in late 90s Edinburgh they are gone forever. You only remember the good stuff!

[R Lutz]

Moderation and censorship kills forums faster than Facebook.

[DavidB]

I used to go in there and here all of the time, I didn’t know it had heavily declined. Their silly proboards login thing, I lost my password and admin could be arsed recovering it or something. I think the for sale thread just being flooded with the KGF white room £50k+ nonsense killed it though, they are 90% KGF adverts.

The thing that pissed me off the most was going to the RR hill climb thing in about 2012, and all the usual main popular members on there bought all of the tickets, like not a single one of them thought that that was a selfish act. About 200+ attending, I spoke to a few people there and everyone was massively pissed off for the same reason, because a handful of RR clique members bought all of the tickets. Travelling down there 150 miles to watch the same ten members going up the hill climb five times each was typical of RR.

[beko1987]

I used to read it lots, although never posted. I found there and here at about the same time and the community here is much better!

But many happy hours during work time were spent with @gnomeot inn2008-12ish looking at the sub £500 cars section which was always amazing! The halcyon days of things being worth fuck all but still being pretty cool and interesting.

Then I passed my test and realised the expense of owning a sub £500 retro rides car so didn't 😂

[Lankytim]

Ah, the enforced positivity. I’d forgotten about that. The plan was threads would rise to the top of the board via positive reactions and any that were a bit naff would die a death and fall off the bottom as nobody was allowed to criticise them and they wouldn’t get “bumped” due to no interaction. Any comment that was vaguely critical could get you into bother “Great car, not sure I’d roller it with blackboard paint had it been mine but still really cool”. People would do some crazily bad modifications to their cars and nobody was allowed to comment truthfully on them as “their ride their choice” or whatever. 

I remember the fella who ran it gave me a right going over one time and got quite personal, deleting his post after a minute or so, It was all over nothing too.  I remember thinking what a prick he must’ve been.