The "What makes you feel old?" thread
Discussion
My launch date was 1968, so chronologically I’m a Jaguar XJ6, Ginetta G15, Morgan Plus 8 or Lamborghini Espada. among others. Increasingly nowadays, I find myself thinking “that makes me feel old”. Obviously I’m getting on a bit, but I wondered what automotive things make others feel old.
I say “automotive things” because clearly I don’t want to start a conversation about teenage pregnancy, social media or one’s inability to find anything to watch on the telly. So let’s keep it to the world of wheeled transport.
I’ll start.
Leaving the work car park today I found myself following a 2004 Mini Cooper S. It occurred to me that this was now 21 years old. I can remember the original Mini celebrating its 20th anniversary with a 1098cc limited edition:
And indeed its 25th and 30th.
October 25th 2025 marked the 40th anniversary of my passing the driving test, which in itself makes me feel old. However on Friday I was travelling by train back from visiting my dad (who taught me to drive) and I passed under the very bridge in Rhyl where I performed the hill start in my test. The notorious H Bridge has since been improved, following calls from motorists saying it was too dangerous, but it was commonly used for the test years ago as it was the only real gradient for miles around.
Finally for now: the first new car I sold was in 1992. It was one of the last of the Peugeot 205 GTIs, a 1.6 in Miami Blue. Since then (33 years ago!!) the GTI has been a desirable new hot hatch, an uninsurable liability, a cheap-as-chips performance car, an appreciating asset and is now a fully-fledged classic with values to match:
205 GTI in PH Classifieds
Funny old world, eh?
Over to you – what makes you feel old?
I say “automotive things” because clearly I don’t want to start a conversation about teenage pregnancy, social media or one’s inability to find anything to watch on the telly. So let’s keep it to the world of wheeled transport.
I’ll start.
Leaving the work car park today I found myself following a 2004 Mini Cooper S. It occurred to me that this was now 21 years old. I can remember the original Mini celebrating its 20th anniversary with a 1098cc limited edition:
And indeed its 25th and 30th.
October 25th 2025 marked the 40th anniversary of my passing the driving test, which in itself makes me feel old. However on Friday I was travelling by train back from visiting my dad (who taught me to drive) and I passed under the very bridge in Rhyl where I performed the hill start in my test. The notorious H Bridge has since been improved, following calls from motorists saying it was too dangerous, but it was commonly used for the test years ago as it was the only real gradient for miles around.
Finally for now: the first new car I sold was in 1992. It was one of the last of the Peugeot 205 GTIs, a 1.6 in Miami Blue. Since then (33 years ago!!) the GTI has been a desirable new hot hatch, an uninsurable liability, a cheap-as-chips performance car, an appreciating asset and is now a fully-fledged classic with values to match:
205 GTI in PH Classifieds
Funny old world, eh?
Over to you – what makes you feel old?
Owning a Mk1 MR2 for the past decade, and remembering them as being regarded as quick back when they were still new enough to come in for servicing when I worked at a Toyota main dealer. How times have changed with regards to performance.
Owning a 2003 Mitubishi Evo now. It was 8 months old when I got it.
Remembering how I used to drive through Europe on my way to Crete from Southampton in the mid 2000s with seemingly carefree impunity.
Seeing a Yamaha YPVS 350 from the 90s now, my favourite bike of the ones I owned, and how it felt riding it.
Thinking about a forgotten time when people actually knew how to drive, and it was easier to have fun.
Owning a 2003 Mitubishi Evo now. It was 8 months old when I got it.
Remembering how I used to drive through Europe on my way to Crete from Southampton in the mid 2000s with seemingly carefree impunity.
Seeing a Yamaha YPVS 350 from the 90s now, my favourite bike of the ones I owned, and how it felt riding it.
Thinking about a forgotten time when people actually knew how to drive, and it was easier to have fun.
Heaveho said:
Seeing a Yamaha YPVS 350 from the 90s now, my favourite bike of the ones I owned, and how it felt riding it.
I had a Stan Stephens stage 3 tuned one back in the day. Modded Streetfighter style with twin Bates headlights, smaller back light, stupid small numberplate, Stan Stephens pipes and a rather expensive JMC braced swingarm. It had a Kenny Roberts paintwork too, and looked the b
ks. Hard work to ride though, as the main powerband was 9-11k 
As for feeling old, I saw my old Mini that I bought in 1993 when it was 3 years old on Facebook the other day. It had a bit of a life with me travelling between London and Cornwall every weekend for a good few years. I modded and rebuilt it before selling it in 2006 to a chap who ran it for a few years before SORN`ing it. The chap that has it now did a mild refurb on it to get it on the road again, but is about to do a full on resto on it. Just seeing the pictures of it sparked so many memories, as between the YPVS and the Mini, that was my life before marriage and normal life took over.
Having cars that pass MOT s.
No longer do I gaze at a failure list, nervously study my bank balance and then visit the local scrappie / search for car welding in Yellow Pages.
To add insult to injury I’ve also just noticed that our local petrol station is not giving out Green Shield stamps any longer…
No longer do I gaze at a failure list, nervously study my bank balance and then visit the local scrappie / search for car welding in Yellow Pages.
To add insult to injury I’ve also just noticed that our local petrol station is not giving out Green Shield stamps any longer…
Edited by moffspeed on Tuesday 25th November 11:34
NDA said:
Turbobanana said:
Over to you what makes you feel old?
Not really knowing any of the run of the mill modern cars. I was (and still am) interested in all cars - but these days I find it hard to distinguish particular models. They all look the same.
Red9zero said:
Heaveho said:
Seeing a Yamaha YPVS 350 from the 90s now, my favourite bike of the ones I owned, and how it felt riding it.
I had a Stan Stephens stage 3 tuned one back in the day. Modded Streetfighter style with twin Bates headlights, smaller back light, stupid small numberplate, Stan Stephens pipes and a rather expensive JMC braced swingarm. It had a Kenny Roberts paintwork too, and looked the bks. Hard work to ride though, as the main powerband was 9-11k As for feeling old, I saw my old Mini that I bought in 1993 when it was 3 years old on Facebook the other day. It had a bit of a life with me travelling between London and Cornwall every weekend for a good few years. I modded and rebuilt it before selling it in 2006 to a chap who ran it for a few years before SORN`ing it. The chap that has it now did a mild refurb on it to get it on the road again, but is about to do a full on resto on it. Just seeing the pictures of it sparked so many memories, as between the YPVS and the Mini, that was my life before marriage and normal life took over.
This was the one I really loved, the first YPVS I owned after my previous 350LC. Just loved the look of the thing, and it was quick for a relatively standard bike. I kept that longer than any of my other bikes. I was about 22 when I had that. Yeah, now I feel old!
Terminator X said:
Seeing MK1 GTis for sale for £20k or whatever when I sold mine for £1200 in 1995.
TX.
I had two. First was a really early RHD. 1979 V reg in black. Paid £400 in about 1995 and eventually gave it away after trying to strip it out into some pseudo-track car or something. Replaced by an E21 323i.TX.
Second was an X reg in silver. Bought for £650 in 2008. Took it for an MoT and the fail list was as long as an Oscar acceptance speech, so I bailed and got my money back. Replaced by a SAAB 9000.
NDA said:
Turbobanana said:
Over to you what makes you feel old?
Not really knowing any of the run of the mill modern cars. I was (and still am) interested in all cars - but these days I find it hard to distinguish particular models. They all look the same.Also not being able to mentally compute that dates that in my head were quite recent, are indeed a long time ago! "Oh, that lovely BMW over there is a 1997...that's 10 years old....hang on....make that 28. Oh f*@k"
Oh and articles in Pistonheads that celebrate say "50 years of the Golf GTI" or "Ford Sierra is 40" and think, I remember quite clearly when those were launched and it doesnt seem that long ago....
Thanks for this topic. I'm a lot younger than a lot on here - I'd be on an old Y reg if I was a car - but still old enough to have a few triggers. 
- The "new" Mini being about 25 years old now!
- "How f*%$king much?????" for anything from my youth with even the vaguest whiff of sportiness about it.
- 100bhp being perfectly adequate, and 150bhp being hot stuff.
- Most cars not rusting away by the time they're 10 years old.
- OBD diagnosis has almost killed off the old school mechanic & their fault finding. The modern equivalent seems to be to plug it into the computer and then blindly change whatever bit the computer says is wrong.
- The value arc of different cars. 20-ish years ago I was driving an £800 Capri while dreaming about driving a - completely out of my reach - new Porsche Boxster. Then 5 years ago I was driving a Porsche Boxster because all the Capris are now out of my reach!
- The "new" Mini being about 25 years old now!
- "How f*%$king much?????" for anything from my youth with even the vaguest whiff of sportiness about it.
- 100bhp being perfectly adequate, and 150bhp being hot stuff.
- Most cars not rusting away by the time they're 10 years old.
- OBD diagnosis has almost killed off the old school mechanic & their fault finding. The modern equivalent seems to be to plug it into the computer and then blindly change whatever bit the computer says is wrong.
- The value arc of different cars. 20-ish years ago I was driving an £800 Capri while dreaming about driving a - completely out of my reach - new Porsche Boxster. Then 5 years ago I was driving a Porsche Boxster because all the Capris are now out of my reach!
The Jaguar X300 and X100. I started working for Jaguar the year they launched. The last of the Series 3 XJ12 were still just about under warranty, the XJS 6.0 V12 was in the showroom still, and people still talked about the victories at Le Mans. To put it into perspective, the most recent win was closer to the time than Covid is to the present day.
Now, I see those car I saw fresh and exciting, wowing the public with the technology and increased refinement and comfort, classed as old fashioned, often neglected and basically a classic.
Now, I see those car I saw fresh and exciting, wowing the public with the technology and increased refinement and comfort, classed as old fashioned, often neglected and basically a classic.
Bought a '74 Escort Sport Mk 1 back in the day for £1150, one year old, low miles. Had to finance a new apartment and sold it for £1050 a year later. A decent drive, though the gearbox was not as nice as I expected. What's it worth now?? Just the shell would fetch £10k surely ?
Like others, time has left me behind. I drive behind a car, work out how old it is, and think, that's 18 years old (or whatever), used to be when I was a young man it would have been scrapped by now. Mind you, when I was a kid lots of folk still drove a pre-war car.
Ten of us lived in a rolled-up newspaper etc..
Like others, time has left me behind. I drive behind a car, work out how old it is, and think, that's 18 years old (or whatever), used to be when I was a young man it would have been scrapped by now. Mind you, when I was a kid lots of folk still drove a pre-war car.
Ten of us lived in a rolled-up newspaper etc..
The 30th or 40th anniversaries of the launch of cars I remember being new. I expect 50ths will pop up soon too.
Where I live anything over 25 years old can go on historic reg aka “club plates” (limited use, much cheaper). I saw a Merc C class on club plates the other day and realised that the one I bought at 3 years old in 2000 would have been eligible for 3 years.
People talking about things like the Mk1 Ford Focus as “classics”. They aren’t, they’re just crappy old cars.
Where I live anything over 25 years old can go on historic reg aka “club plates” (limited use, much cheaper). I saw a Merc C class on club plates the other day and realised that the one I bought at 3 years old in 2000 would have been eligible for 3 years.
People talking about things like the Mk1 Ford Focus as “classics”. They aren’t, they’re just crappy old cars.
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