oldtimer statistics

[Cees Klumper]

Spent some time browsing through the Dutch Bureau for Statistics yearbook this morning (I am an accountant, so there's no cause for concern   ) and found the following info on car ownership:

- 3.2% of all cars in the Netherlands are Mercedes-Benz. It's the 12th most popular make. However, in the oldtimer category (cars older than 25 years), it's the no. 2 make, with 10.4% market share.

- the top-5 oldtimer makes are, in order of market share:
1. Volkswagen (no doubt due to the VW Beetle)
2. Mercedes (I reckon with many different models, including our W113)
3. Volvo (most likely primarily with the Amazon model, which is a more-than daily appearance in our streets)
4. Citroen (most likely with the DS, for which the same applies as for the Amazon)
5. Opel (the European GM make)
Together, these account for 44% of all oldtimers.

- oldtimers from before 1970 account for less than 1% of all cars.

- oldtimer ownership is actually highest in the 25-39 year age bracket: of all cars older than 25 years, 34% is owned by people in that age group. For Mercedes oldtimers, the percentage is just a bit lower: 31%

- the older the car is, the older its owner is likely to be. Which makes sense, as we tend to like the cars we saw when we were young.

Cees Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[Richard Madison]

Cees:
It looks like the Netherlands (and other EC countries) are a lot more open and public with auto registration statistics. On this side of the pond, registrations are by each state (and Province?) and there is no national databank of car registrations as far as I know. And the states do not publish or make the registration data available so we can't get an answer to "How many 230 SL's are registered in Ohio?" (even though the Ohio Motor Vehicle Department has the data in its computers.)

Perhaps someone could attempt to collect data from each EC country about W113 cars registered by model by year to give us an idea of the number of surviving Pagodas. Is this possible?

Richard M

[Cees Klumper]

Gerard Wuisman was working on this Richard. This level of detail has been pursued with the authorities before, but not succesfully yet. However, maybe through the Mercedes-Benz importer organization we can get information on how many 230, 250 and 280 SL's there are, because they send a notice for the annual safety/emissions etc. testing to each individual owner, based upon the official records that they receive annually from the authorities. So they know exactly. I will get around to this eventually. My current guesstimate is that there are between 500 and 1,000 Pagoda's in the Netherlands (a country with 16 million inhabitants).

Cees Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic