Some friends of ours have just bought a small second-hand 5 door Audi hatchback.
The first time I saw the car it had “L” plates on it and was being driven by their son who is learning to drive. On closer inspection I noticed that it was an automatic. After querying this it turns out their son is having lessons in an automatic car and he will be taking his test in an automatic car as well.
“Automatics are easier to drive and all electric cars are also automatic”.
In 2025 it was reported that one in four driving tests in Great Britain are being taken in automatic cars. This is partly due to the increase in sales of electric vehicles that don’t need a gearbox. Also automatic cars are easier to drive as well.
So what does this have to do with the classic car market and driverless cars?
On television there is the Bangers & Cash series that follows a family auction business in the lovely village of Thornton Le Dale, and their passion for classic cars. They have said that each car has a unique story to tell. It was the dad’s car, the car you first bought as a teenager or the car you always wanted, but never had the cash to buy – until now.
Also classic cars are bought not only for their looks but the way drive and handle. You should get a thrill from owning and driving one.
The current generation though are being brought up with an array of similar shaped and universally designed electric cars. You can put 10 of the current selection of electric cars together and people would struggle to work out who made each of them. The influx of low cost Chinese electric cars is also making differentiation more difficult.
They are also all automatics and the majority are hardly like to set your heart racing when either looking or driving them.
As such in a few years’ time Bangers and Cash customers are likely to dwindle as no one is going to want to buy anything remotely classic from this period of time.
Driverless cars are coming though. There are videos of driverless Tesla’s driving around cities in America.
Driverless cars will also likely mean that driving tests may no longer be needed. People will not have to sit in the driving area. They will be expecting the passenger areas to be more luxurious and be the main determinate in their car purchase.
As such in a few years’ time Bangers and Cash customers are likely to dwindle as no one is going to want to buy anything remotely classic from this period of time when driverless cars do finally take over.
So people may currently have collections including Ferrari’s, Bugatti’s and Porsche super cars but they may find suddenly that when they want to sell them there is no market for them any more.
The customers who would previously been in the market for these super cars may have passed away.
They have been replaced by people who grew up in the electric and driverless car time periods. Exotic V8 or V12 engine super cars are alien to them.
These people are likely to have no interest in buying these super cars. Even if there were interested the majority couldn’t drive them anyway. Also the majority of them wouldn’t have a clue what an engine looks like or how to maintain it.
So if you are currently the owner of a classic car collection you might need to keep an eye on the driverless car market and you may need to sell whilst you still have customers who are alive and willing to buy an exotic super car to love owning and driving it.
Driverless Cars will never take off 