Is it normal?

Is it normal to find that your taste in cars (ownership at least) tends to gravitate towards a certain ~10 years or so?

I've come to the conclusion that I could be pretty happy for quite a long time if I only owned cars made between about 1999 and 2007.

There's a big list of cars that would be great to own or at least drive:
4th Gen F-Body
C5/C6 Z06
350Z - done!
RX-8 - done!
Sentra SE-R - wouldn't mind having another for a dd
996/997 911s
Boxster
E46 M3
MR2 Spyder
NB/NC Miatas
GTO
R34 GT-R
Honda S2000
etc.

Anyway, do you find that you gravitate to an era?

No. I want a 30's "hot rod", a 50's to 60's boat, a late 60's LBC, 60's American Iron, 80's BMW, 90's Mercedes Benz, 90's Porsche, and 00's Corvette. I'm sure I'll think of something to want from the 40's and 70's by the end of the day.

95 to 00. New enough there is no chance of having a carburetor, also almost no chance of a CAN network, traction control or electronic throttle, and you could pull the ABS fuse without having anything pitch a fit.

Still kinda stuck in the 90's myself...

70's !!! Datsun 510 and 240Z.

I don't see an MS6 on that list......

My car wishes seem to be all over the map. There's a 31 year span in the cars I currently own.

About 1950 to 2013. That's nothing in a geological time scale.

mtn wrote: No. I want a 30's "hot rod", a 50's to 60's boat, a late 60's LBC, 60's American Iron, 80's BMW, 90's Mercedes Benz, 90's Porsche, and 00's Corvette. I'm sure I'll think of something to want from the 40's and 70's by the end of the day.

I'm like this. If you handed me infinity dollars and said I had to spend it all on cars, I'd have (just as a first go-round, eventually I'd own one of everything):

Duesy
Model T
Some Mercuries from the glory days
tri 5 chevy
Cadillac from the biggest baddest era
A few Mercedes from the 50's and 60's
A Datsun 2000 and 240Z
A first gen Camaro
A hemi something (Cuda maybe)
Volvo 123GT
Ford GT40
Ford 289 Cobra
a 72 Nova
A Vega Cosworth
Original Civics (a few of them)
A GNX
A 81 Firebird BMW M3
Integra R
A C4 ZR1
A C5 Z06
A C6 ZR1
Ferrari 430

There are tons more, but you get the idea. No particular era, nationality, purpose, look... nothing. Just a smattering.

Not really. I like cars based on specs and looks, not age. Mid 80s-late 90s Japanese cars just happen to have good specs and looks. They also have the easy moddability Streetwiseguy pointed out.

I guess I tend to be all over the place too.

But I certainly have a group or era that has stayed with me from my teens- German and British from about 70 to 79. VW and MG down, Triumph, BMW, Porsche and Daimler to go.

But wait, there are the Japanese cars from that era too.

Yeah, I'm all over the place...

There are a lot of cars from different eras I would like to have.

Top few on my mind right now:

60 Cadillac 4 window("flat top")

Hot rod made out of a 90s jeep wrangler

Locost

Cross the US in a car from somewhere between post brass and pre WW2.

Turbo a 90s Kia Sportage until things start breaking

While I notice that I like cars from lots of eras, I find that I'd only realistically own something from that range. Sure if you have buckets of money, you'd wind up with a huge range of cars. Who wouldn't want to be like Jay Leno in that respect?

scardeal wrote: Is it normal to find that your taste in cars (ownership at least) tends to gravitate towards a certain ~10 years or so? I've come to the conclusion that I could be pretty happy for quite a long time if I only owned cars made between about 1999 and 2007.

That's not abnormal around here. For those of use with even stranger tastes, the three catagories tend to be cheap, old, obscure. The more of those you can get in a single car, the more we want it.

(case in point: As Wally has pointed out, I'm engaged in a rather deranged efforts to replicate a car that most people don't even know existed.)

Nope. I can think of examples from every decade I'd like to have - just in station wagons alone... If I had the money and room, I'd be like Leno. Brass era, classics, stock, customs, sports cars to boulevard cruisers... I want them ALL!!

^^^^ I'd like to have a couple warehouses, but I'd like them to be full of things that cause, "what is that!?!?" instead of "Oh! I've always wanted one of those..."

JoeyM wrote: ^^^^ I'd like to have a couple warehouses, but I'd like them to be full of things that cause, "what is that!?!?" instead of "Oh! I've always wanted one of those..."

Now ya see, son... you keep thinkin' small... 'cause the answer is: BOTH!

If you're gonna dream, dream BIG - it doesn't cost any more.

JoeyM wrote: <cheap, old, obscure. The more of those you can get in a single car, the more we want it.

Joey, what have you done?! I am now fruitlessly investigating Ladas. I'm not sure why, but I must have one!!

The US sucks give me my communist car!!

I have a 1947, (2) 1978, 1984, 1993, 2007 and a 2012 so that's all over the place but I naturally gravitate to 80's cars. They seem to be a good mixture of looks, durability and ease of maintenance. This would include 70's cars that ran over into the 80's and 90's cars that are left over from the 80's.

JoeyM wrote: That's not abnormal around here. For those of use with even stranger tastes, the three catagories tend to be cheap, old, obscure. The more of those you can get in a single car, the more we want it.

My current vehicles cover a 26 year spread. The widest range of everything ive ever owned is 31 years iirc.

But, i definitely tend toward a certain time period, mid 80s to mid 90s. The reason is that stuff tended to be unibody (not hideously overweight like average 70s fare), fuel injected, and relatively simple and DIY friendly.

My k-cars are a great example of this. The simplicity of their construction methods harkens back to the late 70s. But, they tend to be simultaneously larger and lighter than newer compact cars. My Aries is actually substantially bigger than an Integra, but weighs less, for example. But along with their simplicity and lightness, they also came with decently advanced and reliable engine control systems hooked to old-school, overbuilt engines.

My interest in ownership tapers down on either side of that range, but there are other kinds of interested besides interested in owning, and i still have a lot of fun interacting with cars from either side of that time range.

Brokeback wrote:

JoeyM wrote: <cheap, old, obscure. The more of those you can get in a single car, the more we want it.

Joey, what have you done?! I am now fruitlessly investigating Ladas. I'm not sure why, but I must have one!! The US sucks give me my communist car!!

let me help you with that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy0Yq-Bj9zA

I have stuff from the 40s to current, but for some reason I gravitate towards the 70s and 80s.

My experience is that, as with music, your tastes tend to get set based upon the period in your life when you first started paying attention to that kind of thing.

With me and cars it's, say, 92 to 2005. If I had the money and parking space for a dozen cars, there'd be an FD and a Viper GTS on that list, along with a B6 RS4 Avant.

Of course, there's the occasional outlier too. I saw a new SL63 AMG on the road the other day -- it's definitely a head turner, and I'm not really a fan of anything else MB makes.

In reply to JoeyM:

Yes!

That nails it right there- cheap, old, obscure!