Bruzilla
Well-Known Member
Reps. Mark Mullins (R-Okla.) and Gene Green (D-Texas) have started bill H.R. 2675, the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2015, in the House of Representatives. This bill would allow small automakers to build and sell up to 500 complete and ready to drive vehicles that would be visually identical to any car that's over 25 years old but could have any modern drivetrain, handling, or electronics components underneath and would be exempt from most all new car emission, mileage, and safety regulations. They would also qualify to receive their own VIN. These cars would have to be made under license from their original manufacturer. Past efforts to get a law like this passed have always been scuttled by the automakers because of competition concerns, but now that the 25-year old requirement has been added, the view is this bill is likely going to pass.
I've been reading a lot of reports since the first week of June when this bill got started, and a lot of the commentary has been negative and coming from folks who see this as a travesty to the collector car market that will further dilute the market and drive prices down, but I think this would be a great thing for the market.
First, if the "new" 1964.5 Mustangs being made are an indicator of price points, these cars are going to be selling for $100k up, which seems pretty crazy to me but I suppose there's a niche vanity market that will be willing to pay six figure prices for a trendy car, but these aren't the same buyers who are out looking for a vanilla, plain Jane, "old" car.
Second, these cars are specifically targeted at the resto-mod crowd, and the more of those folks we get out of the original car market the better for those of us who want looks old/drives old cars.
Third, while the outlook right now is for only two or three models to be made each year, the market will ultimately determine this and instead of seeing just a few of these cars we could be seeing tens of thousand of them, with a wide-variety of models and lower prices.
Like any law, this one is based on precedent and conditions. Setting a new precedent is always the hard part, but changing conditions is pretty easy. Right now the conditions are 500 cars a year, but that could easily be increased to meet demand.
So... would making hundreds or thousands of "new" old cars hurt or help the market? Would it add value to "real" cars or take so many buyers out of the market that prices for "real" cars would tank?
I've been reading a lot of reports since the first week of June when this bill got started, and a lot of the commentary has been negative and coming from folks who see this as a travesty to the collector car market that will further dilute the market and drive prices down, but I think this would be a great thing for the market.
First, if the "new" 1964.5 Mustangs being made are an indicator of price points, these cars are going to be selling for $100k up, which seems pretty crazy to me but I suppose there's a niche vanity market that will be willing to pay six figure prices for a trendy car, but these aren't the same buyers who are out looking for a vanilla, plain Jane, "old" car.
Second, these cars are specifically targeted at the resto-mod crowd, and the more of those folks we get out of the original car market the better for those of us who want looks old/drives old cars.
Third, while the outlook right now is for only two or three models to be made each year, the market will ultimately determine this and instead of seeing just a few of these cars we could be seeing tens of thousand of them, with a wide-variety of models and lower prices.
Like any law, this one is based on precedent and conditions. Setting a new precedent is always the hard part, but changing conditions is pretty easy. Right now the conditions are 500 cars a year, but that could easily be increased to meet demand.
So... would making hundreds or thousands of "new" old cars hurt or help the market? Would it add value to "real" cars or take so many buyers out of the market that prices for "real" cars would tank?
