“Modern classic” is a funny term. An oxymoron, arguably. To most people walking by, a Porsche Cayman looks like a toy. Just another piece of street furniture waiting to be towed.
But Penguin Books used it first. If a publishing house can slap “Modern Classic” on a paperback of 1984, we can apply it to metal machines.
Used to be, the word “classic” meant an MGB and a flask of tea. Enthusiasts headed to carjumbles with tweed jackets and bad knees. Mainstream magazines kept their distance. They didn’t want to scare off the normal people, you know, the ones who park at McDonald’s. Classic car press, meanwhile, pretended those fast new cars didn’t exist. Afraid of alienating the grandpa crowd.
Things changed.
Electric cars. Clean Air Zones. Speed cameras everywhere. They are battering us into a corner. The enthusiasts from the old end and the new end? We’re meeting in the middle now.
That middle is the modern classic.
What is the threshold?
Like the definition of “literature,” it is vague. Purposefully so.
Ed Callow, from Collecting Cars, puts it bluntly: “I think at their core, modern Classics are the ‘democratised’ part of the collector car Market. It is not easy to pinpoint specific start-and end-years for the modern Classic-era, but what we tend to-mean is vehicles-produced-in-the 1980- 90-,and very-early-2000 – -from-the- modern-period-Of-car design and-construction”
We are narrowing the net here. Post-2000 only.
Mercedes-Benz CLS (2003-20 mechanic 010) £250-10
This thing was an argument with physics. Four doors. A coupé roofline. A Mercedes body shape that made other Germans sweat. It sat on E-Class bones, yes, but looked at nothing else on the road. Prestige, sure. But also confusion.
You get rear-wheel drive. Seven-speed auto. Air suspension if you were brave. Inside? Part-leather, climate control, adaptive cruising. Parking sensors so you wouldn’t scratch the flanks. It had everything.
Now, it’s cheap. Too cheap.
Old money evaporated. Mk1 models sit in lots. But wait before you click. Look out for the pitfalls. The early petrol models? The balancer shafts hate you. One owner swore off them entirely. Diesel? Watch the inlet port shut-off motor. The gearbox speed sensor. It breaks. Often.
“The main issue are the Balancer Shafts” – A dedicated owner, shaking head.
Porsche Cayman (2005- 102) £7-50 -3-0 0-0
The 987 Cayman. The rational choice for the irrational.
Put the flat-six in the back middle, suddenly you have a car that drives. In a 911 from this era? You can’t take corners quite the same way. Physics works differently.
The six-speed manual is joy. Analogue. Real pedals, real weights. Yes, the PDK automatic exists. Lightning shifts. But do you want to fight tiny steering-wheel buttons? Or do you want to shift with your right foot and soul?
Some people say it matters less. Does it?
