When I bought my 1st car, '56 ford custom .The '63 that my brother had in '65 ,was a late mdl. to me. When I bought the '63, the 70s' were late mdl. to me..... ..now I have a '70 Javelin (owned 40yrs). It's a late mdl. ! ...........I voted '65............. I still like my '29(1yr.)..'40(25yrs)..'63(6yrs.)..'65(10yrs.)..'70(40yrs.)LM & my Late Mdl. ,78 1/2 HD E'Glide I wish I had all of the early vehicles. I've had..
.......Cut off date for me is 1964 or before......maybe because I'am just a old fart and cannot change to the new times..
to me its a term relative to the car we are talking about, I late model Model A and a Late model Firebird refers to the last models of each...but when someone says "late model" used as a general term I tell them I have no idea what they are talking about...alot of people are talking about cars made after 2008
This question reminds me of the old joke about the defintion of "middle age", which is always at least five years older than you are today.
I'm real new around here and will probably put my foot in my mouth, but to me late model is a vehicle that's new or fairly new. Like:,' Officer, it was a late model Suburban that ran over my cat." Meaning a year or two old.To me 'old' is 20-30-40's, 50-60's are getting old , but I grew up with them around so they don't 'seem' old, maybe it's denial. 60-72 some really cool vehicles in there, mid 70 up mostly suck. I've got an '83 dodge p.u. that qualifies for Antique plates!!!! WTF.
I voted 65 for no particular reason other than that's kinda where I am right now. The old rodder (closet) in me still holds to that 48 thought where stylin and drivetrains began to transform. I love the HAMB and it's open discussion of such things and also the narrow minded traditional mindset that has converted me (again) to the gospel of hotrodding.
This is kind of a vague classification, I think in general this term applies to junk yards and parts outfits. Many of them consider late as 90 and newer, they rotate the stock of these faster as they are more abundant and you don't mind scrapping a car you see twenty of a week that may still have a decent door on it. I think the term early would be pre 75 ish, right up til the world went square and ugly. Vintage or antique would be pre 75 with certain yards going into specialty types and preferences.
IMO cars - 1965 or older trucks - 1972 or older the trucks looked better than most cars in that period i voted 1965 tho.
Good analogy. And...a "late model" Packard, Hudson, Essex, Pontiac, etc. would certainly be relative.
Although ! like all kinds of cars, I really only pay close attention to pre-'48 stuff at the car shows. I have owned a lot of cars from classic '50s cars to '20s stuff to musclecars. It depends on what I am building/driving at the time as to what I am interested in! I guess to me a late model would be post-72. (Not a category!)
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