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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Youngtimers : a sociology of contemporary relations to oldcars

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If this was not still the case 50 years ago, the automobile is today an essential capital good for a majority of French households. For a majority of individuals, and in a context of increasing urbanization, mobility is in fact essential for individuals who have to move here for their work, there for their leisure, or even to multiple places of consumption or sociability. . Everywhere, in cities as in the countryside, the automobile has established itself as the main mode of daily transport. The generalization of car ownership has thus modified the way of life of individuals as well as all the stages of professional and family life, and to put it simply, contemporary urban society presupposes the generalization of individual mobility based on this up to date on a real automotive system.However, the automotive object is undergoing major changes. So many technological innovations have worked on this object and our way of using it (increase in maximum speed, engine power, safety of its occupants, installation of radio, telephone services and then guidance by geolocation ...), we can affirm that the automobile is today going through a triple revolution of which it is difficult to affirm whether it results more from a demand from users, from the offer of manufacturers or even from a expectation of the public authorities: firstly, the contemporary car must always be more and more comfortable; secondly, there is a major and growing expectation towards the automotive object which concerns its safety nature, understood above all as its ability to protect its occupants; thirdly, the automobile is under unprecedented ecological pressure. More generally, the automobile is today turned upside down in its ontological apprehensions. It is subject to an incredible ambivalence, so much at the same time it annoys but remains at the heart of contemporary society by referring to an imaginary based on concrete possibilities of freedom and individual emancipation.At the same time, there is no doubt for a somewhat shrewd observer that interest in old cars is booming: TV shows about repairing vintage vehicles, Facebook groups around the passion for old cars, Sunday gatherings in car parks of supermarkets and the titles of specialized journals have multiplied over the past ten years. Among these cars, we find in particular those that enthusiasts call the Youngtimers: they are, literally, the “young oldies”. This term designates both the legendary vehicles from the 1970s to the 1990s, which can be considered as part of the pre-collection, and the eponymous magazine distributed since 2010 which intends to give a media voice to collectors of these cars. In view of the interest aroused by old cars, a few questions arise. The triple revolution that concerns the current automobile has become a triple paradox: while everything inclines automobilized individuals to project themselves into a safe, comfortable and ecological future, through electric or hybrid, connected and over-equipped vehicles, how can we explain that more and more drivers acquire particularly uncomfortable, dangerous and polluting vehicles with regard to contemporary standards and injunctions? This thesis aims to understand what the possession of a vehicle over 20 years old is like in contemporary times.