I'm not talking about Carlisle, Nationals, or Woodward Dream Cruise. I mean the local or regional Mopar shows. I've been going to them off and on for more than 30 years. But the last 2 years especially, my own personal observations have been that the regulars are almost all in their 60s, 70s, or older. I'm 49, and one of the younger ones. Very few participants or spectators under the age of 40. The cars are almost always the same year after year (I'm guilty of this as well) so there's little variety.

I know we've all speculated what will happen when the baby boomers age out of the hobby. And the decline of the "regular" car shows in favor of Cars and Coffee, etc. I'm NOT trying to reignite that debate- just curious if y'all are seeing the same thing. And if you are seeing stagnation, what are shows doing to fight it?

There are a lot of younger people into Mopars...they have newer chargers and challengers.
I'm 41 and probably one of the younger ones w/ an old mopar around here. The older stuff is slowly going away, unfortunately.

Glad that's been your experience. Around here, it's mostly older guys driving new Chargers and Challengers- at least to the local shows.

With exception to one show I hit this past march in Phoenix. It had a GREAT selection of classic iron. ... 4 or 5 hemi cars, 3 wing cars etc etc .

BUT its 2 plus hours away from me so its not exactly cheap to attend at almost $6 per gal and less than 10mpg. And I drive my car , anywhere and everywhere . But $100 plus in fuel each way makes me think about how far or how often it goes out these days. Doubt its going to go on any 200-300 mile jaunts much this year



The local Mopar shows near me are mostly later model chargers, challengers , neons and ram trucks . Last one had maybe 75 cars. with less than 2 dozen were mid 70s and older

And in all honesty, I actually prefer a couple local cars and coffee events here once a month. Always something Ive not seen before and crowd is a decent mix with both younger and old farts like myself ( In 62 )
Plus its a mixed bag of makes and models . From high end Exotics to low budget rat rods with a lot of neat stuff mixed in .
My Satellite almost always generates a conversation from both the older and younger crowd . Especially if my Daughter drives it in ( she is 22 )
And there is a green 1969 Coronet RT hemi auto that shows up once in a while

No local Mopar shows near me, but I've done enough of that anyway.
Here it's 1 big "everything/anything" show a year, and Cars & Coffee once a month.
I do the C&C as I like to see variety, and the crowd is aged 20-80 or wider.
Just sent some parts off to a 24-year-old with a '69 Road Runner.
Obviously darn few 20-somethings can afford $40-$80K cars, but some are getting there the old-fashioned way.
I'd hate to be a youngster trying to buy a home and/or a 1st-gen musclecar.
FWIW the calendar says I'm 70. I think that has to be incorrect

There's a couple Mopar only shows in the area....I never go to them. WAY to many VIN/paint mark checkers at those shows.. My car is no matching/correct anything so those guys walk up to it and walk away. That's OK....we have a local cruise in at the bowling alley every Weds nights. Free to get in, all makes/models, live band, cheap food and beer. It draws 200+ cars every week(many different from week to week)....Gee, wonder why??

I'd rather go to a cruise where people bring whatever they have built or late model.
To me it's more about hanging with car guys and socializing.
I'll look at everything but prefer to look at the Mopars both old and newer.

We've got old and new, but these days I'd rather go to the cruises in my late model Challenger SRT.
I'm comfortable, it handles amazing and on a hot summer day it's for more enjoyable driving with the A/C on.

Just had the park show I started 21 years ago last weekend. Perfect weather made a great turnout! Half the cars are modern ones now, we added a brand-x area that usually has around 10 cars, our Mopar turnout is usually around 150. No swap, just a nice shaded park with great people! Quite a few younger people but most have newer Mopars, pays the bills...

Mopar club here folded years ago and then the number of cars you'd see at the shows has been weaker than normal ever since. Once the cable TV car auctions showed up and the prices on the desirable cars went up the nicer stuff started staying home, or if it does show up it is now trailered to the nearest big parking lot and driven from there down a few blocks into the show.

Also a number of older people bought a newer mopar to drive and no longer use the old one. Car shows attendees here will pretty much ignore the contemporary muscle cars so those people don't really put their Challenger/Chargers in the cars shows. As a result you can go to a multi-make car show here with a couple hundred cars and count all the Mopars there with one hand.

They are good.

Swap meets are more fun for me, most car shows have stopped having swap meets.

I don't feel like it nowadays but I've always been one of the younger guys involved with these cars!
KID

I enjoy the small, local shows. Some more than others. My favorite is the Mopar Alley (San Jose area) due to having so many friends in the area. Plus they've got a decent swap meet. Spring Fling is probably small compared to the Nats or Carlisle, but it's the biggest within easy driving of here. We have a small show that our club puts on here in the Fresno area, but it is not well attended by those from outside the area. Still a good time, though.

My family, me and my wife with either the 48 Plymouth coupe, or the 49 Dodge pickup, my son and his family with a 5.7 Hemi in a 57 Dodge wagon, my daughter in her 2016 Grand Cherokee, and up until last year, her son with a 64 Chrysler New Port (he sold the car), all attend one Mopar show every year. It is a family event for us.

About 1/2 the cars are modern, there is a swap meet that is usually decent, and its at a fair grounds with sun and some shade. Attendance is usually pretty strong, lots of Mopars and Mopar decedents, and generally a lot of people (both young and old) wandering around.

There are 2 or 3 other Mopar shows about the same distance from home, but we do not attend them. The people at the show we do attend seem to be more pleasant and easy going. The other shows, not so much. One is the numbers and paint spot crowd and they are not friendly with people that bring in non-matching cars or trucks (which all of our stuff is). The other Mopar show in the area is at a drag strip, if you car or truck is not drag racing related, they pretty much ignore you.

I can tell you that I don't believe that if I wasn't an old Mopar guy, and had many years of good times with Mopars (at shows or not) that was shared with my children, probably none of us would be attending the one Mopar show we do. Frankly, you need to be a pretty hard core Mopar person to attend a Mopar show where 1/2 or more of the show is new cars that are no longer produced by the Old Chrysler Corporation.

Other then a few "car night" events at local drive ins, we don't attend many shows. Before the price of gas went nuts, we would have all rather go on a cruise in the country then spend a day sitting at some fairgrounds or a parking lot waiting for the plastic trophy presentation. After the 2nd or 3rd round of looking at the cars or walking through the swap meet (that your not looking for any parts from), car shows get pretty boring. Gene

Its been my experience the weakness about car shows is that often @ these local shows there are NO Mopar classes...
Many for Chevy, Camaro, Corvette, Mustang so often the only option is the Special Interests... In SoCal the local Chrysler Performance West club does put on a couple of Mopar/AMC shows, 1 in the Spring and 1 in the Fall. But still my favorite events instead of the shows are the local cruises, typically they cam last for a couple of hours @ an eating place for lunch or dinner and the car guys exchange their tales..

Just my $0.02...

I have been taking my D150 to a few shows and cruise nights when I am not racing there are a few old Mopars that show up at weekly cruise nights some really nice! There was a Mopar only show a week or so ago , I attended on a rain date a few years ago and thought attendance was good. With this years show being on a Saturday I couldn't attend because it was a points day and I was racing. I attended a big show Memorial Day weekend and there was a few nice old Mopars I had never seen before. The last few years I have really been getting into old pick ups at shows and cruise nights around here old Dodge trucks are practically non existent.

Our cars are dinosaurs and we are quickly turning into dinosaurs ourselves. And while we all may not completely go away, we are becoming a mere shadow of our former selves.

The Du Quoin Street Machine Nationals are held about 20 minutes from us and as such, we have always attended. One thing we have noticed is that it used to be populated primarily with muscle cars. The newer stuff and oddball stuff were very much the minority. That balance has certainly changed. This year, for instance, I counted only 4 E body Cudas at the show. I may have missed one or two, but still that is an abysmally small number and reflects the fact that muscle cars are now in the minority.

Another thing that is very noticeable is the fact that the number of guys that actually build their cars is shrinking just as fast. The majority just buy their car vs those that build their car.

And I am part of the problem myself. I don't put even half the miles on my Cuda each year that I used to. Part of the reason is that I don't have that many muscle car buddies to run around with like I used to. Heck, my most frequent car show buddy is a Pontiac guy. That is how far I have fallen. And I haven't raced the last few years at all. And the reason is, to be perfectly honest, that I just don't want to work on the car if I hurt something. Just old and lazy, I guess.

The most painful part for me is that this is a trend that is likely to continue which begs the question; when to sunset my lifelong Mopar passion/hobby? Well, it's been over 50 years, so it's been a good run.

Good point about buying vs building on a few occasions recently we see a really nice car at a show and we start asking the owner questions about the car and they know very little about it. Recently a beautiful 56 Chevy came into the local cruise the owner knew practically nothing about the car just that he liked it and bought it.

I miss the old Hudson Hornets. Haven't seen one in ages.

the last friday of the month from april to september, the local harley shop has a cruise for all makes.
it usually brings out 100 or so cars and 200+ bikes.
lots of socializing with a band and refreshments. the usual suspects attend, but there are a surprising amount of youngsters there as well, and they are not looking at the new stuff.

The last local one I attended was a total fustercluck, horribly mismanaged, same cars year-after-year and too many LX's. I won't be back.

Seems like here in Northwestern Ohio, you have two cars shows to pick from every weekday. And a bunch on the weekend. As far as Mopar only shows. Wooster Ohio was last weekend, Not sure how good the turnout was compared to prior years but I think there was close to 75 mopars. Maybe a 1/4 were newer. Toledo has a mopar only show in the fall that seems to bring a lot of newer mopars. I'm into the forward look mopars now since I own one and I'm one of the younger ones at 54. So you can imagine how happy I am to see another one. I'm usually the only one at the show. There were 6 at the wooster show.

As I usually reply to these types of posts, the cars are still cool, and younger people are into them. It's the old crowd associated with classic cars that sucks. The problem isn't the cars, it's you guys. It's like your favorite pastime is bi***ing and moaning, who would want to be around that?

Local shows here are a usual mix of old and new. That's fine, whatever people want to bring is their choice and preference. I will say observing the spectators walking around, they tend to walk by the new stuff and look at the old cars in detail and ask questions. So there may be a flock of new cars there, but they are not what the average public is interested in. At least at this time, I am sure it will change.
As long as we are all enjoying displaying what you have, that's all that matters.

Can't argue with that.

You have to remember most of the small/medium sized local shows are put together by a group of car guys who just want to have some fun.
Shows are a ton of work to put on, and all of these guys have day jobs (or are retired) and families as well.
They volunteer their time, usually don't make a dime (and often lose money), and don't even get to enjoy the show itself as they are working all day.
Am I really going to gripe and complain because the parking is a little disorganized or the porta-potties smell a little? Nope, not me.

You guys have to remember that our old junk used to be "new" junk, too.

The first Mopar Nats was in 1981 I believe. So you figure most of the cars there were only 10-12 years old at the time or less. Equivalent to a 2012 car today.

Feel old yet?

Compared to what they were selling new in '81, our muscle cars were already dinosaurs by then.

I believe the difference between the 10-12 year old cars back in 81 and the 10-12 year old cars today are that back in 81, the new cars were completely different cars then the 10 year old cars were. Today, many of the 10-12 year old cars look just like the brand new cars. Unless you are really into them and know the small changes, its pretty hard the tell the difference between a 2009 Challenger, and a 2022 Challenger. Its also pretty hard to make one look different then another, also something that wasn't a problem in 81. Not that it really bothers me that a guy wants to take his "new" Challenger to a show rather then take an old car to a show, the old cars are a lot less occupant friendly then the new stuff, and then we add on the possibility of getting the old car destroyed by some idiot.

I started feeling old 10 years ago, when my youngest child hit 30.

The loss of having you at any show must be unbearable to the staff and everyone else that attends the show.

Uhh, really only 1 or 2 local "Mopar" only shows out this way . . . lots of the "grey hairs" (at 59, guess I resemble that remark) that own the cars, but still see young guys out ! Gotta remember, it's also about the price of entry - who can afford a $30-40k "collector car" that sits for 8 or 9 months of the year (up here anyways due to weather) . . . so the daily driver "newer" machines that you can get financing on, are out at shows too . . . can certainly appreciate that there is still a bunch of car nuts out there ! As to the "new cars" with subtle changes - isn't that what guys were doing in the 70's with the cars then ?!?!?! . . .

Also got to observe you in your native environment and compare what I saw to your version of events.

Attended a local show here about a month ago at a Dodge Dealership about an hour from me. They are a "power broker" for the new Direct Connection stuff so they were trying to get people in to generate some interest / business. I'd say close to 30 cars showed up, 4-5 were classics including my challenger, the rest were all new challengers and chargers. I'm under 40 and am definitely one of the few with a classic at any show I go to, I'm probably in the minority (in my age group) but I'd rather look at the old stuff. I have new stuff, and it is fun, but I don't feel like it is "show worthy" when you can basically go to a dealership and buy the same thing still...

Somerset has Somernites cruise for all makes with a highlighted Marque each month. May is MoPar month, usually a nice turnout of classics, the total show was about 1000 cars, over 300 of which were MoPars and I would say 70% classics (1978 or earlier and most of those pre 1972). For our local cars and coffee (Lexington), very few classic MoPars, but a lot of other nice classic cars.

Yeah, the amount of newer Challenger, Chargers, 300's, Mustangs everywhere, Camaros, Corvettes and foreign crap is annoying. If I wanted to look at newer cars, I would go to the dealerships. I even own a 12' Challenger R/T, but I don't ever take it to car shows/cruise nights.

Like it or not, but the new Modern Mopars are the only thing keeping car counts up and the shows going. Its half and half around here. As a small club who runs a show once a year we wouldn't make it without them.

It is the same at our show in Sacramento.

i go to cars and coffee once a month.all high end mondern cars.but its at fast lane cars so mostly i go to see what they have for sale.go to some cruises.no mopar people around me so just go by myself.yes we are becoming a dying breed.now with the cost of everything going up.makes it harder

if you honestly think there are no mopar people around here you are not looking very hard.

The local mopar club meets every month in Cottleville--a few miles from Fast Lane. A dozen or two dozen old mopars show up every week just for the normal meeting. And good guys no politics.

And they are putting on the Mopar Blast over at gateway again this weekend. Racing, show, swap, etc.

I prefer to go to cruise-ins instead of "car shows". All-makes events are cool with me, because a variety of stuff to look at and people to talk to is more fun.

One big recommendation from me to all of you is to take a week off of work, and enter into one of the many "drag-n-drive" events that are happening all over the country. My friend and I did Rocky Mountain Race Week a few weeks ago in my '67 Barracuda. I can say that it was the most fun car event that we have done EVER. Even if you don't want to race, most of the events have a class of cars that can just do the road drives - and that is just as much fun. It is the ultimate test of man and machine! Can your hot rod make it on a 1400 or so mile road trip? AND maybe do some drag strip passes?? Thats the challenge and the fun. The culture of the events are great, the people all helping each other, and 400+ cars rolling through small town USA. DO IT, guys!!

There are no Mopar only shows anywhere near me. Just a small handful of local "every make" shows every summer, coinciding with small town "festivals" or "heritage days"...since I'm in a very rural area.
But I have been attending Mopar only shows, and all make shows for over 45 years....one thing I can't stand is participant judging in any show. You all know the reasons why. All the "cliques" get together and vote for themselves, which to me is ridiculous. It's a shame you are gonna vote for your buddy's car...or even your own car, in this scenario, when there might be another vehicle that is well deserved of recognition! The very last Mopar only show I did bring a car to... had this going on the entire day, which is why it was the last one I will attend sadly.

Very true...
Here is SoCal we have multiple shows and a few Mopar only...
But 1 of the bigger, more popular shows open to all makes is put on the local tri-5 chevy boys..
They do a creditable job putting on a good show, but @ award time don't see many going to a Mopar or Ford...
Why bother when the chevies are all lined up with the hoods open, they are all running the same chrome accessories like valve covers, air cleaners, billet hinges all purchased from Danchuck...

Just my $0.02...

I go back to 1976 with Mopars. I was 16 and worked at the local Plymouth dealer after school doing new car prep, clean up and whatever. The late 60’s early 70’s muscle were already wearing out, beat up and flogged and considered “ gas guzzlers “ relegated to the back of the lot. So I picked up a 73 340 Duster that already had rust in the quarters for 750 and my journey began. Keep in mind most of what we consider the “ old muscle “ back then was new stuff. So when we went to car shows the “ geezers “ those guys in their 30’s and 40’s were running lead sleds, tri fives, and t buckets. And they wanted nothing to do with us young punks in our new cars. Sound familiar?

It wasn’t we didn’t like the old stuff it was just most was priced out of our reach and the new stuff like R/T Chargers, Roadrunners and Cudas were plentiful and cheap so that’s what we went with. Fast forward to today. The kids drive the new Challengers, Chargers, Mustangs and Camaros. The now “ classic “ muscle we used to pick up cheap are now far out of their reach and now in many case just as in our day the geezers look down on them and the new stuff.

The more things change the more they stay the same.