The FFVE unveils its new survey on the collector car market in France, which weighs more than 4 billion euros.
Today, combustion-powered cars are increasingly criticized, and everything is done to encourage owners of old vehicles to scrap them. However, if the conversion bonus has been very successful in recent years, the collector car market does not seem to be experiencing the crisis. This is in any case what reveals thestudy published by the FFVE (French Federation of Vintage Cars), focusing on the French market. More than 8,228 responses were collected from collectors, thus making it possible to draw up a precise picture of the situation in the territory. And the least we can say is that the old cars remain a safe bet, while France has no less than 400,000 collectors. Concretely, this means that 400,000 cars with a collector’s registration certificate are currently in circulation on our roads. An impressive figure for a market which is just as impressive, which then represents no less than 4 billion euros in turnover.
If a car has to meet several criteria to be considered a collector’s vehicle, there are also many old cars in circulation at the moment. There are indeed no less than a million on our roads, 84% of which are in the original configuration. According to the FFVE study, 71% of vintage vehicles are cars, while only 16% are motorcycles, most of which were manufactured between 1966 and 1969. Rather surprisingly, only 16% of older vehicles were modified, while 12% still need to be restored. In its report, the association also underlines the attraction of collectors for youngtimers, since 39% of them have such a vehicle in their garage. A market that is therefore beginning to weigh heavily, while vintage cars currently represent 2.5% of the fleet in France. If we tend to believe that buying a vintage vehicle is reserved for the wealthy, the survey reveals that 58% of purchases are less than € 10,000.
A passion first
In the collective belief, collectors buy vintage cars to keep them in their garage. In fact, this is far from the case, since 65% of owners participate in demonstrations of vintage vehicles and 59% join a club. In total, owners of vintage cars spend an average of € 3,938 per year to satisfy their passion, whether it is participation in events, overnight stays away from home to get there or even visits to museums related to the automobile. According to the FFVE, car owners travel around 1,071 kilometers per year with their old vehicle, while bikers drive 617 kilometers per year. Not surprisingly, most collectors are men (97%), whose average age is 58 and half of whom are active.
You will obviously not be surprised to learn that French brands are the most popular with collectors, since Citroën and Renault represent one in three classic cars. Among bikers, Honda, BMW and Motobécane are the most popular.
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