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.