CAR NOSTALGIA – YOUNGTIMER CLUB

What is a youngtimer?

This is a vehicle that was generally produced in the period of the 80s and 90s, it is preserved, original, technically interesting and, as we like to say, it has a soul. With the youngtimer, the owner has a long-term vision – to preserve it for future generations.

For example, the youngtimer cannot possibly be an older car with a built-in gas installation, which is intended for daily mileage. Since the youngtimer is driven only occasionally, consumption should not be a problem here, even if it amounts to 20 liters/100 km.

For the same reason, we must e.g. come to terms with the fact that we don’t need to listen to music from a USB stick during those rare two hours of amateur car driving, the spirit of the times dictates the use of a cassette player or later also a regular CD.

Some people wonder if a car that has just turned 30 is an oldtimer or a youngtimer?

If it has obtained the certificate and homologation of an old-timer, it can be an old-timer administratively, but in no way amateurish.
A good example is the Honda NSX, which has already celebrated its 30th anniversary and may have all the conditions to obtain official vintage status. But such a car will forever be unwelcome at vintage gatherings, because to be honest, it really doesn’t belong in the company of cars with chrome light rosettes and chrome wheel covers. So, the appropriate term for the Honda NSX is youngtimer and will forever be youngtimer. As, for example, Ivan Cankar, the eternal modernist, died long ago in 1918. Or, as millennials are representatives of the generation born between 1981 and 1996.

Lovers of youngtimers cultivate the technical culture of a certain period.

What doesn’t belong to us?

Various “chunga-lunga” conversions are the worst enemy of automotive technical culture. If the car is old, it is old. Newly installed novelties are often as tasteless as thongs on a 90-year-old woman.

Good practices from abroad.

Abroad, the youngtimer has long been an established automotive term, and they also have many meetings and clubs for individual brands.

In Germany, for example the condition of old-timers and also young-timers is rated from 1 to 5 (1-like new, 5-terrible), and based on the rating, it is possible to take out comprehensive insurance at the agreed real value without any problems for nicer examples (condition 1 or 2).

Due to the great competition and limited annual kilometers (also a garage is a requirement), helmet prices are very moderate. Most German insurance companies offer such insurance for hobby vehicles aged 20 years and above. Here in Slovenia, in principle, it is not possible to get such a helmet anywhere, unless you are very persistent and under special conditions.

Slovenia is unique in the world in terms of automotive developments in the 80s and 90s.

Yes, it’s true. In this twenty-year period, probably nowhere in the world have they experienced so many interesting car stories, both positive and negative. This was probably helped by the fact that in the SFRY we had a special model of socialism, the likes of which they did not have anywhere in the world – not in the Soviet Union, not in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, not in Cuba, not in China and not in Venezuela. Within the SFRY, Slovenia also had a special status, as we were the only ones bordering two developed capitalist countries – Austria and Italy.

In the transition from the 80s to the 90s, major social changes took place both in Slovenia and in the world. You simply cannot forget these events.

What did we Slovenians experience in the 80s and 90s in terms of motoring?

Chronologically arranged:

• even-odd system,
• petrol vouchers,
• “blue envelopes” for buying a car or 2 years of waiting for him,
• driving on fuel oil,
• consignment sales of cars,
• hyperinflation – the resulting jostling in lines to buy cheap “dinar” cars,
• Markovič dinar – consequently crazy prices in marks,
• the first private import of new cars from abroad,
• the Grubelič affair (Trend Grosuplje),
• “Croatian variant” of duty-free purchase in the year of independence,
• first leases (“three that strong” system in case of non-payment),
• parallel market of official and gray sellers of new vehicles,
• massive import of foreign leasing vehicles into Slovenia,
• the introduction of VAT – as a result artificially created panic on the market and thus record sales of new cars.

The transition from the 1980s to the 1990s was also the time when the majority of Slovenians exchanged their Fičkas, Katrs, Jugots, Stoenkas and Ladas for “capitalist” cars. At that time, the car was really a status symbol in the truest sense of the word.

Young people were much more interested in cars then than they are today. Already 12-year-olds have been buying the magazines Avto magazin, Auto motor und sport, Gente motori and Quattroruote…

The ideal of every such mullet was to get rich quickly in their twenties and then drive across Portorož in style; metallic black BMW 525i with black leather, windows closed, window open, elbow out, loud music, RayBan Aviator sunglasses mandatory…

Why are the 80s and 90s the best years for cars?

The evolution of the car in the 80’s and 90’s was truly fascinating, as the most important acquisitions became the automotive standard precisely during this period;

Chronologically arranged:

• clock,
• right mirror,
• fifth gear,
• catalyst,
• digital car radio,
• autoreverse cassette player,
• RDS system,
• electric windows,
• central locking (always remote for the French),
• power steering,
• ABS,
• rear pillows,
• driver’s airbag,
• passenger airbag,
• 3. brake light,
• CD player
• air conditioning.

It was also a time when, apart from the catalyst, nothing was yet subject to ecology. At that time, we did not use the word mobility yet, the emphasis was primarily on enjoying driving and visual admiration of the car.

With the general boom of the Internet after 2000, the pace of life has changed a lot, and people have started to set new priorities in their lives. Both in our country and in the world, the car as an object of desire began to lose its validity.

The demand for cars these days is huge, but not all products are actually bad at all. However, the general attitude towards today’s cars cannot be compared to the one we knew in the 80s and 90s.

The Car nostalgia 80&90 team