Anyone else noticed the lack of modified cars on the road, i'm talking about modified cars in general and not just the 'nice' ones.

It's not just about vw's either but other widely modified cars, corsas, saxos, fiestas ect are disappearing. Now in my area there are virtually none compared to when i first started driving or even a couple of years ago.

Has it just entered a phase where modified cars are just not as popular (can't see that tbh) or is something else causing it?

I've added a poll to see what everyone thinks.

Cheers.

Edited 28 January, 201313 yr by polo45

The roads have many new cars on, nearly new, and very modern. Seems everyone's up to their eyeballs in debt on finance due to the desperate tactics of the car manufacturing industry to buy new cars - from incentives to law and even emotional blackmail, just about every conceivable method to get us to scrap good cars and buy new ones has been used.

This has clearly had an effect on cars other than new ones. Tens of thousands of beautiful motors, classics, especially modern classics, and modified all binned in favour of debt for brownie points.

The manufacturers are currently repossessing record amounts of cars off 'owners' who were stupid enough to take on the biggest chunk of depreciation, the cars then making someone somewhere a lot of money (I have bullet proof source for this I can't share). Such is the stance we don't own our cars anymore, the cars and systems are adapting to it.

And the manufacturers continue to blackmail governments to squeeze used cars into the recyclers so they don't take our jobs away, and the likes of Ken Gibson and such journalist types continuing to tell us how important new car sales are..

So all those interesting cars are gone, in exchange for scandal - welcome to the EU.

Ken Gibson is a first class bellend.

I voted yes but that maybe more to do with me generally spending less time out and about driving these days

I haven't noticed any decline. It's all chavmobiles and some Vectra with a hideous body kit though. Someone I was in school with had a slammed to bugger Metro that was pretty neat but only saw it once, he also had a 2F GT that got scrapped.

i've noticed less people driving modified cars... proper ones though, not just chavs in mk4 golfs with A8 replica rims or a clio with a set of wolfrace's.

people seem to be saving the money they have to throw it into a golf/bora, for example, rather than sticking with what they've got.

I recently got a new job and I'm now getting a fair whack more money. People are trying to tell me to get something bigger, faster etc but I'm sticking with the polo because i love it... and i'm not done with it yet!

plus I'm still only 20 so insurance manages touches me in places only Savile could.

I have noticed a decrease in the ones i see

however because i have recently passed my test etc I am drving with people in the same mind set as me and so I actully know of alot more modded cars than i did previously... if that makes sense ...

before i didnt hang around with people with modded cars but now i kev with alot of them i have got to know alot more

and where I'm from the people are partial to 'fatty body kits' i think their called (safe to say i dont like these people :L)

Sam

I've noticed the decline, but more importantly there are less young people driving nowadays, which means less young ladies sat next to me at the lights!

Think that's about it really, people in their late teens/early 20's can't afford to get a licence and run a car, let alone to modify it.

where i live thier is no decline at all! well it all depends on what side of wolverhampton you live..my side there is quite a few..the other side its nothing of the sort!

PVW made a good point the other day when they said a lot of new cars don't need modifying. Many new cars are both pretty rapid and have ok styling. Face it, a standard mk2 polo looks awful, it needs som modification to get it looking good. But the new one looks fine straight off the forecourt. The same can be said for a lot of newer cars. Plus it seems every manufaturer also has a 'special edition' now with trendy styling et al.

But I'm sure it's a mixture of reasons. There still seems to be a fair few modified cars around my area (few well done I'm sad to say) and I don't think it's dying out, just evolving - OEM+ seems to be the new 90's bodykit. It'll all make a comeback soon enough

Huge decline round here.

I remember the days of one local car park being practically rammed on some nights with everyone talking/having a laugh (car park was overlooked by the Police station). now its 3 or 4 of the old lot in normal cars. one of the boys commented before xmas saying mine was really the one modded car they would see around a lot.

Even the Chav exhausts are gone gone are the days of hearing a Corsa bouncing off the limiter with a 4" exhaust.

I think everyone's moving on to economical cars ect, maybe neglecting there cars to "show" cars, I do see a lot nicer cars on the road than I used to but I can honestly name about 10 modified cars around my area and 8/10 of them are my mates! Wether or not they're hidden is another question but as far as what I see its basically nothing! Driving through other towns around my areas every corner you turn there's one, just not in my town!

I've lived in East Grinstead for nearly 9 years and strangely there's loads of modified cars about considering it's a bit of a dead town. Not only that, but a fair few can be seen which are done well, but that's because right next to East Grinstead is Felbridge and Furnace Wood, which hold more than a fair share of multi million pound houses...

I havn't see a massive rise or fall in numbers really. And now you have mentioned it i'll only end up seeing more because it's at the forefront of my mind now! haha.

I think its poss young people have different priorities to those a few years back some of the young people i know are not that bothered in passing their test due to the expense of keeping a car on the road now days and the ones that were driving around in modded cars have grown up and moved on. I probably agree with Prankstar as well with manufactures designing cars which are more appealing to the young , but living in an area where the modded look was abound i must admit it does not seem as prevalent as it was in the 90s and early 00s .

We might see a revival as like all things but who knows? all I'm concerned about is that I'm in a large group of people who appreciate a brand that is so adaptable :biggrin:

There is a lot less modifying in my area. Unfortunately my neighbor has a hideous 206 I have to look at on a daily basis.

When I first started driving back in 2004 everyone around my age at the time had a car worth sub £1000 and usually within a month or so of owning it started modding it in some way.

Those cars and people with that mind set are very few and far between now.

I think it's down to the fact that most of the younger people of with their corsa's etc are spending a good 3rd of their monthly wage on it's repayment and running costs etc.

And with everything else being so much more expensive aswell there is no money left over to modify the car.

We are still to this day being haunted by that stupid scrappage scheme which in my eyes signed the beginning of the end for all those 80-90s classics some of which will never be seen again.

And there still gutted when they see a 20year old polo pass them whats payed off lol

We are still to this day being haunted by that stupid scrappage scheme which in my eyes signed the beginning of the end for all those 80-90s classics some of which will never be seen again.

Bad Times.

Scrap your perfectly good Car for £2k off some crappy Korean piece of crap.

:( so many decent cars went the wrong way.

I remember wondering around the scrappy seeing perfectly good Saab 9000 with loads of tax and test left (handy for us as it kept ours on the road).

Definately less around my area. But i still see a good number. But i've talked to mates who were in the cruise scene, even as little as 5 years ago, and it was massive, filling car parks every week. Now its practically dead, despite the efforts of some mates trying to kick start it again.

Th scrappage scheme was an absolute travesty. The things i saw in my local yard made me feel sick. The 1 owner '71 beetle for example. It still had all its original panels and possibly original paint. Still had tax and test, and would have sold for about £1k more than the owner was given. Next to that, even worse. A '72 Bay window camper, A bit scruffy, but had a load of tax and test left, and was easily worth £5k. Or up to £10k with a bit of tidying and a respray. There was also a citroen diane in there, again perfectly usuable. I also know for a fact that an early MK1 polo was sent to the crusher in a kidderminster yard,chrome bumpers and all, as my dad went looking for bits for my MK1, and the guy told him.

Mikey has hit the nail on the head with his comment though. Most people are buying a car on finance now, and still paying for it when its lost half its value. One thing i have noticed at bigger cruises, is the increasing amount of brand new, standard, corsa D's. They are all bought on finance by the young owners, taking advantage of the free insurance etc. that Vauxhall have been offering.

Buying a new car is a farce, and a false economy. They start losing money as soon as they leave the forecourt. One of my grannies carers buys a new car every 3 years, to make sure she never has to MOT them! (or bother maintaining them for that matter). She loses huge chunks of money every time. I could have bought several decent, usable cars with 12 months T&T for the money she LOSES very 3 years when she trades her cars in!

Buying a new car is a farce, and a false economy. They start losing money as soon as they leave the forecourt.

Exactly my thoughts on new cars and for that reason I'll never buy one.

My family apart from me swear by buying new cars though.

The amount of money they have thrown away over the years is increadible.

My Dad is the worst offender, buys a new BMW every 2 years or so. He does lots of miles so it's always a diesel engined one he buys.

Constantly going on about how he happily keeps up with traffic cruising to work yet manages 50+ mpg....but seems to look over the fact everytime he trades the car in for a newer model BMW give him back just half of what he paid 2 years previously.

Back to the scrappage scheme thing though, I noticed when no one else seemed to, that during the time the scheme was on, the type of cars getting bought in the scheme like the Corsas or Korean things were up in price by around £2k! From just months before the scheme started. So to me it just seemed like you were giving your car away for nothing no matter if it was a minted 71 Beetle or a shed of a K reg Clio!

It was basically a scam to get people buying cars on finance again.

I was talking about this the other day when i was in my local motorist place taking the piss about the awefull stereo equipment they have for sale( and this is place that used to sell directed earthquake mb quart and so on) His words were people just dont buy it any more as new car stereos are far better quality and said the same goes for all the wheels ect he sells the cars come with alloy wheels thats all the kids want.A perfect example is my cousin bought a bright yellow corsa sport fully loaded with nav ect coz it had alloy wheels and leather seats and would rather be in debt for 5 years for like 16k than drive an old fiesta his dad bought him,his excuse was the insurance was 1000£ less on the new corsa

The scrappage scheme was a massive con because most companies were offering 0% finance if you bought a new car but if you got the 2k from the scheme you had to pay interest so it worked out that you got nothing for your car coz me and mrs looked at buying a new car at the time coz we had a battered mk3 which wasnt worth a carrot

Luke

over the last few years they have been slowly disappering in my area i have only been passed 1 year I'm 23 now but going back i was always out with friends in there cars and you couldnt turn a corner without seeing someone with a mod or 2 now I'm on the road i never see any hardly !! kinda takes the fun out of going for a drive when your on you billy tod lol i blame insurance beeing so bloody exspensive last year the police round here went through a faze of pulling every young driver and checking if everything had been declared basicly grassing everyone up to the insurance companys . realistically most of us cant afford standard never mind adding modds

Answer to the OP is as simple as this:

Think that's about it really, people in their late teens/early 20's can't afford to get a licence and run a car, let alone to modify it.

The days of filling your tank cheaply and taxing your car for pennies are long gone.

Edited 30 January, 201313 yr by Alex