It can be a Seat 600, a Citroën 2CV or a Mehari. The point is that thousands of people continue to keep their old vehicles, despite the regrets. Almost all of them have been losing the band of utility vehicles to become a member of the family.
Dressed for the occasion, many of these vehicles from their forties and fifties (not their forties and fifties...) shine as if they had just left the factory, thanks to the great care of their owners. "They are leisure cars," says Javi Martin, a writer specializing in motorsports and author of the book The 600. A dream on wheels (Larousse), in relation to the fact that car boomers usually circulate on holidays.
When the arrival of a new generation of autonomous cars begins to appear on the horizon, a handful of cars and motorcycles from the stone age of the locomotion industry, completely dependent on their owners, continue to circulate around the peninsula and islands, oblivious to the passage of time. Martín calls them in his book “dreams on wheels”.
"When you're behind the wheel of a classic car you notice absolutely everything, the wind, the heat, the vibrations, the noise... They are cars to have fun driving, rather than to go buy bread", emphasizes this expert who has among his topics of interest the history of the automotive industry in Spain.
The same is the opinion of Jaime Sánchez, owner of 38 historic vehicles under the umbrella of Seat en Rodaje (in the sixties some cars had this sticker on the back to alert them that they should drive smoothly after leaving the factory), the second largest collection of Spain, only surpassed by Seat itself. Until a while ago, Sánchez kept these classic vehicles in Barcelona, but now he has taken them to a place in La Mancha whose name he remembers every time he opens his eyes in the morning, where he is building a garage.
"You just have to see -he says- the way in which my visitors react inside each car... caressing the pasta steering wheel, slightly moving the gear shift knob or opening and closing the glove box", he details about the private exhibition that he created in the La Mancha town of Milmarcos (Guadalajara). “In those moments this fan – he continues saying – he is no longer with a server…. He is in July 1968, in Torremolinos, with the children in the back seat playing with buckets and spades, and with his wife in the seat next to him reminding him: Manolo, I have told you a thousand times that you have to get up early, that we never found a place in the sand.”
And it is that, as Manuel Vázquez Montalbán wrote, “the day the Spaniards got on the 600 they began to move away from their past and began a weekend excursion from which they have not yet returned”.
The excursion began on June 27, 1957 when the first Seat 600 of the around 800,000 that ended up being manufactured rolled off the production line. A Seat 600 put on the street, that is, ready to drive –taxes included–, cost 71,400 pesetas (the equivalent of “more than 15,000 euros today”, reports Martín), which had to be paid outright, since then there was no the possibility of paying in installments. To put everything in perspective, we must bear in mind that at the end of the 1960s a loaf of bread cost 3 pesetas (0.01 euros) and the trolleybus cost 2.50.
Compared with its direct rivals, such as the Renault 4CV, the Biscuter, the German Goggomobil or the Italian Isetta, the Seat 600 was a real revolution, generating a feeling of freedom never seen before among the Spanish lower-middle class. The result is well known: the roof rack full of belongings and up to six people inside singing in chorus “Let's go to the beach o-o-o-oh”.
The “Pelotilla” –one of the nicknames with which the Seat 600 was baptized due to its rounded shape, although it was also called “the navel”, because, “after all, everyone had one”, recalls Martín – It was the first car that many Spaniards had, after the motorcycle with or without a sidecar.
The 600 was the second model that Seat produced in Spain, after starting with the Seat 1,400, a car that, given its high price, was not mass-produced, as there was no demand. Instead, the 600 managed to stand up to the Seat 850 and managed to have even two in many homes. For this reason, some users wanted to differentiate themselves from the rest and make their vehicle more "theirs", not just with a license plate, normally held with a magnet, in which the photos of the wife and children appeared with the classic "Don't run dad ”, but also with hand-crocheted mats and covers sewn by hand at home. According to Martín, the dolls attached to the windows by suction cups were another common denominator.
Over half a century later, seeing a historic vehicle pass by (to receive this consideration, the car must be at least 30 years old, must be out of production, and must be in original condition) is still a catalyst for memories. nice. This is the case, for example, of the off-white Seat 600 that Pío Vernis drives through Llofriu (Girona) since the day he gave it to him (including a bow) as a surprise to Bea, his current wife, shortly before contracting nuptials.
For 15 years this audiovisual producer has driven the “little car” – as his son Pío and daughter Mia nickname him – to go to dinner in Pals in the company of his wife or to hang out around Palafrugell. “You know you'll go, but you don't know if you'll be able to come back,” Vernis jokes. However, sooner or later, the car manages to return to the garage. Of course, the days that he spends the night outdoors, the 600 has a hard time starting and more than once it has been necessary to ask the neighbors to pitch in and push really hard, so that Vernis could start the 600, putting the second gear .
Having a place where you can store the vehicle and having a nearby workshop, "as it happens to me", where they look at the car with affection and "do not charge excessive bills is important for anyone who has an old vehicle", emphasizes Vernis .
Experts estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 Seat Six Hundreds still circulate on the peninsula and islands and that there may be at least another 5,000 hidden in unknown whereabouts. Today, the market value of a Six hundred ranges between 3,000 and 9,000 euros, with the usual payment being between 4,000 and 6,000 euros.
Other mythical cars that fans sigh for are the Citroën 2CV, the Renault 4CV, the Renault 4L, the Renault 5, the Simca 1000, the 1965 Ford Mustang, the Dodge-Dart that Barreiros manufactured in 1967, the Mini Cooper 970S , the Land Rover Santana, the Mehari or the Volkswagen 1300 Beetle.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the car that the head of the family drove was a reliable indicator of the socio-economic level of the vehicle's occupants. At that time, the main brands were competing for the “people's car” award, as there were other models, such as the Seat 124 Sport (the car driven by the singer Karina or the boxer José Manuel Urtain), the Renault 8 or the Chrysler 180. , which suggested that the owner had moved up several rungs on the social ladder.
Something similar happens with motorcycles. Despite the growing limitations suffered by classic motorcycles to be able to circulate, some owners still do not part with such iconic models as the Montesa Impala, the Vespa 160, the Bultaco Metralla or the BMW K-75, whose engine is justly reputed to be immortal. However, in cities like Barcelona they can only travel on weekends and weekdays after eight in the evening, which has led some owners to claim that the administration enforce scientific criteria when prohibiting or allowing the circulation of a vehicle (prompting, for example, that the ITV stations audit what levels of polluting gases cannot be exceeded, regardless of whether the vehicle is new or old).
“An old vehicle is one for which the owner does not feel any kind of appreciation”, points out Javier Romagosa, insurance broker and director of the digital magazine La Escudería. On the other hand, "an old vehicle is usually very well cared for, it usually symbolizes an era and arouses nostalgia in its owner, who considers that it is worth preserving it", distinguishes this expert for whom current cars are gradually losing their ability to excite as They have been filled with technology, which is why the new generations tend to perceive them more as a household appliance than as a small piece of engineering art.
As Manuel Vicent has written, each car or motorbike that has accompanied a person throughout a lifetime has incorporated trips, countries, cities, love affairs, companies, pleasures and shocks into the imagination of its owner. For the mere fact of choosing a certain model, taking care of it, putting gasoline in it, changing the oil, washing it, etc. a psychological relationship not unlike that of the rider with the horse is established.
“The true charm of classic vehicles is the memories. They are much more than cars or motorcycles, they are an extension of your personality, something that represents you to others”, indicates Romagosa to describe what his duende consists of.
Perhaps this is the reason why many owners still do not want to turn the wheel on machines that, even today, allow almost anyone to travel to the true homeland: youth and its wonderful memories.
