Did you have one?
These are the new classic cars of 2025
Already classic cars too! In 2025, many cars can be decorated with a historic sticker that don't even look that old. Perhaps it's because quite a few of the 80 or so new models from 1995 - from unreasonable sports cars to classic family station wagons - have survived all scrappage schemes as cult cars.
"Get into the new Range Rover, a classic that leaves time and space behind", advertised the 1995 BMW Group brand Land Rover for the new edition of its bestseller - and unintentionally explained en passant what makes a classic car so appealing. It is the supposedly carefree lifestyle of earlier decades and the carefree youth of the past that revitalize classic cars.
Time capsules that enjoy certain privileges as technical cultural assets, for example in environmental zones - as long as an expert opinion certifies that the classic car is largely original and in good condition. If you want to buy a classic car in 2025, you will be spoiled for choice between around 80 new arrivals that are as colorful as the year 1995 that produced them.
From exciting premieres at the cab rank such as the Mercedes E-Class (W210) with a four-eyed face to conservative notchbacks in the form of the Mitsubishi Carisma, Volvo S40 or VW Polo Classic to the VW Sharan, Ford Galaxy and Seat Alhambra van family and estate announcements from the Audi A4 Avant to the Renault Laguna or Volvo V40, everything was there. Above all, however, it was the cheerful sun racers from the Fiat Barchetta to the Aston Martin DB7 Volante that provided a ray of hope in a year of bad economic news.
A Bond car as a neo-classic
With an unemployment rate of eleven percent, job losses in the eastern federal states and excessively high wage costs in the west, Germany needed a new lease of life in the mid-1990s. Just like James Bond, who, after an unusually long six-year break, was back on the hunt for villains in a movie adventure, for the first time with Pierce Brosnan in the role of secret agent 007. For BMW, this was an unprecedented opportunity for a coup: the new BMW Z3 roadster celebrated its world premiere in the blockbuster "GoldenEye", naturally enhanced with weapons systems from the Q workshop, although Bond did not need to fire the Stinger missiles.
The Z3 became a bestseller for BMW, but whether 007 fueled the career of this four-cylinder vertical starter (six-cylinders followed later) is hard to say. In any case, the roadster delivered exactly what the zeitgeist had loved since the Mazda MX-5 was launched in 1989: affordable fun cars, preferably in retro design or technical tradition - the Z3 quoted details of the BMW 507 from the early years of the economic miracle, the Elise from Lotus the light purism of the 1950s, and the Fiat Barchetta the Italian Spider heritage, all combined with a summer feeling and sporting spirit.
In contrast, the open-top Ferrari F50 celebrated half a century of road racing under the banner of the Cavallino Rampante, the Plymouth Prowler paid tribute to the hot rods of the 1930s, and the MGF transferred the agility of the MGB from the Britain of the Swinging Sixties to the mid-engine-loving era of the turn of the millennium, the Porsche 911 Turbo (993) celebrated a new performance zenith with two turbochargers (408 hp) plus all-wheel drive since the first Porsche Turbo had ushered in the era of turbocharged supercars 20 years earlier, and the Lamborghini Diablo VT proved with V12 power that Sant'Agata Bolognese also builds open-top cars that race with the wind.
At the IAA, Korean newcomer Kia surprised visitors with a roadster concept based on a Lotus, which went into series production shortly afterwards, while Ferrari F355 Spider, Honda NSX with T-bar roof, Pontiac Firebird V6, Renault Mégane Coach (the French interpretation of a compact family coupé) and the revolutionary open-top Renault Sport Spider without windshield, but with helmet recommendation to protect against insects and stones completed the sports show.
The lightness of the athletes distracted attention from the crises of that year. These included the horrors of the Bosnian war in the middle of Europe, the earthquake that devastated the Japanese cities of Kobe and Osaka, and the war between the Caucasus republic of Chechnya and Russia. The survival of the planet was also a topic in Berlin, at the very first UN climate conference after the Framework Convention on Climate Change came into force and opened by the then Federal Environment Minister Angela Merkel. Was the fear of climate collapse compatible with the slogan "Car, really good!"? This slogan greeted around one million visitors to the 1995 IAA, which featured the first efficient direct-injection petrol engine (Mitsubishi Carisma), the close-to-production Smart fortwo, hybrid and electric cars - and representatives of the organic trend.
"Egg - egg - egg: the new Sharan", advertised Volkswagen, for example, and showed the van in egg shape, because rounded organic design was the order of the day. Chrysler's large Voyager (advertising slogan: "Even better than the original from 1984") also followed the trend, as did the rounded city runabouts Ford Fiesta, Mazda 121 and Lancia Y (advertising slogan: "The antipodes of the norm"), while the compact Nissan Almera and the Ford Scorpio explored the limits of the egg shape. Alongside vans(Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4 five-door) and early SUVs and estate cars, the new family cars were still classic five- and four-door models, as demonstrated by a series of novelties ranging from the Alfa 146 to the BMW 5 Series (E39), Fiat Bravo and Brava, Nissan Maxima, Opel Vectra, Peugeot 406 and Rover 400.
Not forgetting the small, well-behaved everyday cars Honda Civic, Peugeot 306 notchback, Kia Sephia, Subaru Justy or Suzuki Swift, which to this day show their age just as little as the sound of some of the mega hits of 1995: Vangelis and "Conquest of Paradise" and "Wish You Were Here" by Rednex, for example, and of course Elton John's "Circle of Life", a well-known song from "The Lion King", the most successful animated film of all time and seemingly eternally popular musical.
And another chapter of cultural history: from 1995, smoking was banned on Lufthansa domestic flights, and the Scandinavian airline SAS also fought the blue haze (Austrian Airlines did not follow suit until 2000). At the same time, the Swedish car manufacturer Saab removed the ashtray from its new 900 model for the first markets - and was promptly awarded a prize for the protection of public health in Sweden. Saab was unable to ensure the survival of its car division in this way, but the turbos and convertibles from Trollhättan will still find fans as classics in 2025, as will almost all new classic cars from a total of over 40 brands.
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