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What’s a classic?

It’s an abandoned Cadillac SLS, complete with vinyl roof, space saver tyre, missing trim and a sticker from the police promising imminent seizure.

I remember when this ‘new’ generation of Cadillac was launched in the Nineties, they seemed at the time such a break from the previous Cadillacs. The frame on chassis, rear-wheel drive, V8 powered square-rigger Fleetwoods were still being churned out well into the Nineties and were a direct link to the old school Cadillacs of the Eighties, Seventies and arguably even earlier.

The first generation of the new STS and SLS was launched in 1992, with the second generation coming out in 1998 (also sold in the UK in right-hand drive) and amazingly some of these cars are now approaching 20 years old. Are they classics?

Most people would say ‘definitely not’, however, in 1979 no one would have disputed that a 1959 Cadillac was a classic… so what is it exactly that makes a car a classic? A post-’98 Cadillac SLS like this one here abandoned in the snow awaiting an uncertain future lies in that no-man’s-land of being simply an old banger, not loved or recognised as a classic yet, simply of being an old car. Expensive to fix and worth next to nothing…

However, unlike a ’59 Cadillac which could have all the issues of body corrosion and drive-train woes (not to mention trim and electrical problems), this newer generation of Cadillacs has new and additional problems that previous ‘classics’ never had: highly complex computer engine management systems and all the associated sensors, catalytic converters and… well, I could go on.

Will future generations of American classic enthusiasts rescue cars like this? And in addition to all the usual problems of tracking down rare and missing trim, will they also have to contend with highly complex (yet antiquated) computer problems with obsolete parts and software? I know what I think – what do you reckon?

Ben Klemenzson
Editor

email@classic-american.com