I was under the impression, having lived there through the 1990s, that in Germany cars over a certain age had to be registered as historic, and then were restricted as discussed. But it only applies to cars registered in Germany. Not sure about France.
In France there used to be a lot of constraints about cars registered as "Voiture de collection" - for example you could only drive them in the department of registry and those immediately next door, otherwise prefectoral permission was required to drive them elsewhere for (say) a specific event. One of the big advantages has always been that you can register a model which was never officially imported into France and thus has no certificate de conformité - which is not possible otherwise.
It was all reformed a while ago and is now relatively hassle free. The main constraint now is that you may not use the vehicle for hire (weddings etc). The upside is that a car so registered is exempted from the exclusion of old cars from low pollution zones.
My TVR will celebrate it's 30th birthday next year, so I shall restore it a bit and register it on a Carte Grise de Collection. I ran it on english plates for about 5 years until my insurer started getting angsty about it, so tried to get it registered through the normal process. Unfortunately, the only homologation shield that the TVR factory could come up with for the S2 was for the S2C (which had a catalyser), so the dossier was rejected. I had already paid the department des mines at the Monthlery circuit €2000 to tell me that it had a noisy exhaust.
The value of classic cars? Collectables whether cars or paintings or pottery are driven both by fashion and by economic circumstances. The fashion bit is the most dangerous because rather less exclusive items get carried up with the really rare items until the market changes. So whilst the Mona Lisa will never ever fall much in value, lesser paintings definitely drift in and out of fashion and up and down on price.
Quite so Howard. There are some classics which are absolutely blue chip (WO Bentleys, Invictas, Bugattis & so on), but much of the market is based on tastes and fashion. There is a clear phenomenon when people reach an age where they can afford to buy the car they dreamed of as a kid, which has resulted in astonishing prices being paid for say Escort Mexicos and the like which are not cars that would be of particular interest to the generations who didn't lust after them when they were young.
I agree with Rich. Buy a car to enjoy it without worrying about the re-sale. If you've already mentally processed that money as gone, anything you make on the sale is a bonus. As my wife says when friends suggest I'm lucky that she allows me to indulge my passion for nice cars "It's a much cheaper hobby that keeping a mistress, divorce and so on".
