Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

"Real car guys" versus "Tourists."

image source: learnedalongthewayblog

There really is no division.

One of my favorite blog sites, "My Jaguar Experience," recently presented a dichotomy of this nature. The story was the experience of trying to Daily Drive a series three XJ6. The never ending series of little problems finally resulted in a major breakdown that brought the ownership experience to an unhappy end.

The author places a lot of blame on himself, which I feel is pretty unfair and unnecessary.  He is not a hands on enthusiast, and is not the kind of person that will diagnose the problem and perform the repair himself. He has never made any claims to the contrary.

He breaks the enthusiast community down into two camps. The "real car guys" and the "tourists."

The real car guys motto is "We can do it!"

That's the attitude!

The real car guys are those that have quite a bit of mechanical knowledge and experience and will perform much of their cars needed maintenance and repairs. They also possess the necessary tools and equipment. The real guys also have the proper attitude which is something like the following: Any older mechanical device will eventually wear and need repair. This is no big thing. Identify the problem, secure the needed part, and just fix it. When there are no apparent problems, just keep your eye on probable avenues of future failure.

When a problem exceeds their skill or ability then they might just perform part of the repair. Remove the transmission and take just that to a repair specialist, for example. This alone will result in a substantial savings.

"If you're going to be a tourist, be a rich one!"
Thurston Howell III

Tourists on the other hand, are just visiting the territory, you might say. They might mingle with the natives, assume some mannerisms in speech and dress. You would never mistake them for the real thing. So in the automotive hobby they might even be described as posers.


They may have an actual interest and even preference for vintage or classic cars. They can be quite knowledgeable and well versed in the enthusiast lingo.

Usually they are not "hands on" guys. They are usually lacking in the skills or aptitude to turn wrenches on their own machines. Often they will say that they are "all thumbs" or "mechanically challenged" or use some other self deprecating phrase.

I propose that what most of them lack is the real need to work on their own stuff. The tourist usually has more resources available than the grass roots gearhead. They can either easily afford to pay for a shop to handle their repair work, or they choose to save and budget money for the inevitable repairs.

If they are not really affluent then they might have to restrict their hobby to a single vintage car. It becomes the focus of their carefully planned expenditures.

On the other hand, If they are really affluent then they just buy the best examples out there. Low mileage, well preserved or restored vehicles. They are the ones that pay top dollar for the best cars.

Compare that to the typical "real car guy," Sometime refereed to as the "gearhead."  He often acquires a stable of worn and broken down cars with the hope of someday fixing them up. He will often pile way too much on his plate. Oftentimes this gearhead is of the bucks down variety. As a consequence of this, many, if not most, of his projects will never see completion. He might keep several vehicles in service as runners or daily drivers. While a rich guy can boast about how much money his project is costing him, the gearhead will often brag about how much work they are putting into their cars.


The low bucks gear head knows that the only way that he can own and enjoy "interesting" cars is to buy them in a "challenged" state. The kind that are advertised as projects that need a lot of TLC. As if love alone could ever fix anything mechanical.

Having a stable of project vehicles reduces the amount of cash available to spend on any specific car. This will make anyone, even someone of average means, behave somewhat like a bucks down guy. This provides plenty of incentive to do it yourself.

The fact that a Tourist occasionally finds himself over his head in a certain car does not mean that he was a "poser."  Unless you are like old Thurston Howell III where cost is never a consideration, everyone runs into their financial limits. People in both camps have run into that situation.

Most "normal" people have no real interest in buying, maintaining, using or preserving a vintage car. They may murmur about some car from their high school days. Or wax nostalgic about their buddy's '57 Chevy or '65 Mustang when they see one on the street. But their reality is about having a vehicle that takes all the risk and pain out of daily transportation. Who can blame them? We all have "lives" to lead. A brand new car, or at least the newest that they can afford, makes the most sense.

Some of these new car owners are passionate about their newly purchased vehicles. If they bought some type of specialty vehicle like a sports car or 4x4 truck. They can be quite the fan boys. They just might just prefer, and have the means, to trade up to a new model every few years.

The old car car enthusiast is an entirely different matter. For some reason, not only does he have an interest in vintage cars, he even wants to own one! Even worse, he actually wants to drive it, sometimes every day! Most older cars are cheaper than a new model. Most of us low buck enthusiasts depend on massive depreciation to bring desirable cars down to our financial  level.

So is there really a conflict (chasm?) between the Tourist and the real car guy? I don't think so. For one thing, there is actually quite a bit of crossover that takes place between the camps. Many car guys cross over into the Tourist camp when conditions change or improve. Old age and more disposable cash combine to limit the car guys direct involvement in the day to day wrench turning.

On the other hand many Tourists become quite familiar with their cars and will start to stick a hand under the hood once in a awhile. Even if they don't start tearing down motors, they can be adept at minor repairs, like tune ups, belts and hoses. Little things like changing bulbs and chasing down minor electrical gremlins can make it much easier to keep an older car on the road.

Besides, many tourists actually provide the pay check for a lot of real car guys. A lot of real car guys are in business providing services to the tourists. Like the artist/ patron relationship, some of the best and most creative builders and restorers rely on that blank check provided by the wealthy patron. It keeps them in business.

So what do I mean when I use the word poser?

Or as they are sometimes referred to, as "Gold Chainers." A much harsher term of judgement.

I don't mean the guy who just recently developed an interest in older cars. Lot's of guys couldn't afford the money or time for a hobby car when they were in the middle of career and family responsibilities. It has been an interest that they have only been able to indulge as they got older.

And it's not just because the owner is affluent, and can afford to have the work done properly by a shop. Or that they can buy those best examples. I think that every enthusiast would choose to buy the best, if they could afford it.

I would only refer to a person as a poser if they claimed that they performed the work done on a car as something that they did, when they didn't. Or if they didn't bother to learn anything about the car that they had built for them.

The other case is when the focus of the car is not on the car itself, but on the amount of money spent on it. And they make a point of constantly mentioning the cost of things in an obvious attempt to impress the onlooker.

Like many things in life it's not an either /or proposition. The tourist and the real car guy, and even the poser, are in the same camp. They are all interested in vintage cars, as opposed to the greater car consuming culture. They are like two ends of a continuum or just different facets of the same gem stone. We have much more in common then the differences that separate us.

I think that wherever we currently fall on the continuum, we all got involved in old cars just to have a little fun. As long the hobby is still primarily fun, we should enjoy it and cut our fellow enthusiasts, as well as ourselves quite a bit of slack.