Despite its English ring, Youngtimer is a concept that was coined in Germany, the country in Europe - and perhaps the world - that takes the matter of classic cars the most seriously.
Here, classic isn't just a hobby, but an entire industry that turns over a lot of money in the form of spare parts, insurance, fairs, museums, auctions, valuations, financing, renovations - the list can be made very long.
And with German precision, a working group in the Bundestag - the German parliament - has now determined what a Youngtimer is: a car of historical interest that is between 20 and 29 years old.
However, certain conditions must be met, here are the most important:
- used as enthusiast cars in spare time
- consciously extra well-maintained and serviced by the current owner
- lower annual mileage than normal
- suitable to preserve for future generations as a technical cultural heritage
when they reach 30 years of age, they transition from Youngtimer to Oldtimer
So if we translate these rules to concrete cars, where do we end up? Well, this is where subjective perceptions come into play… An example from the - at the time of writing - ongoing April auction 3 here at Bilweb Auctions is a 2002 BMW Alpina B3 Touring. A 22-year-old performance estate built in a low number of units - 147 to be precise. Quite an obvious Youngtimer even though many might see it as a bit too new to be a classic.
But if we take another example from the same year, 2002: a first generation Volvo S40, low mileage and in a very fine original condition. There might not be many of those left, but is it a Youngtimer? It might fail on "suitable to preserve… as a technical cultural heritage..."? There is definitely room for discussion here.
When a Youngtimer turns 30 years old, it becomes an Oldtimer. The 30-year limit for classic cars is common in Europe, but can mean different things in different countries. In Sweden, as is well known, we have tax exemption and biennial inspections, as well as the possibility for favorable insurance through, among others, the Motor Historical Federation of Sweden.
But MHRF also has two insurance classes for Youngtimers - even if they don't use that expression. Instead, they are described as "cars of collector vehicle character, interesting to save for the future". Here there are two age classes, 1995-2004 and 2004-2015. Thus, a car that is only 9 years old can get a favorable historical insurance - if MHRF deems it interesting enough for the future.
Oldtimer, Youngtimer, modern classic, future classic, veteran - there are plenty of expressions to interpret and discuss. And new ones keep popping up.
At the big Retro Classics fair in Stuttgart at the end of April, there is now a section for "Neo Classics". Here we are talking about cars that are a maximum of 20 years old and that were basically considered classics as soon as they rolled out of the factory. Retro Classics exemplifies with Porsche 996, BMW Z3 M coupe, and Mercedes SL 55 AMG."
