Tens of thousands of vintage cars have been added to the Netherlands in just 5 years

Most of us think of a vintage car as a car that is 25 years or older. That was the case for a long time, but since then a car that is 40 years or older only falls into that category. Perhaps this is emotionally more justified. A Citroën DS from 1975 really seemed like a classic in 2000. A Peugeot 607 from 1999, a classic car denominator, is perhaps less appropriate. In five years, the number of vintage cars in the Netherlands has increased enormously. The Dutch fleet currently has 217,000 vintage cars. That is 28 percent (about 47,000 units) more than five years ago.

Of those 217,000 classics, the majority are 40 to 50 years old: about 98,000 cars. A significant portion falls into the 50 to 60 age category, approximately 84,000. About 22,000 cars are 60 to 70 years old, and 5,600 are 70 to 80 years old. Of course, there are also cars that are 80 years or older. In fact, that is more than the vehicles in the 70-80 group. This concerns a total of almost 7,000 pieces. Over the past five years, more vintage cars aged 50 to 60 have been added. The number of classics in that age category has almost doubled in five years. Antique cars of 100 years or older are present in fewer numbers. The Dutch classic car fleet has 661 cars that are 100 years or older (0.3 percent).

More facts and figures about vintage cars in the Netherlands? Do we have. A classic car in the Netherlands is on average 53 years old and blue is the most common color. 16.9 percent of all classics are blue, followed by red (16.5 percent) and green (16.2 percent). So you can see how the Dutch fleet has literally lost its color over the years. The majority of new cars in the Netherlands have been black, gray or white for years.

Most common brands among vintage cars in the Netherlands

Volkswagen is the most registered brand among vintage cars registered in the Netherlands. Almost 15 percent of the classic cars in our country bear a VW logo. Chevrolet is the only non-European brand in the top 10 brands.

1,800

Vintage cars that were insured and allowed to hit the road in 2023 – around 75 percent of the total – drove an average of just under 1,800 kilometers in 2022. In total, vintage cars in the Netherlands drove approximately 274 million kilometers. That is a whopping 713 times the distance from the Earth to the moon. Yet vintage cars account for only 0.2 percent of the kilometers driven by all passenger cars in the Netherlands. That’s 114.3 billion.

Classic car ownership is relatively highest in the municipalities of Alphen-Chaam in North Brabant and in Opmeer in North Holland. There are 41.2 and 40.6 vintage cars per 1,000 inhabitants. In Diemen (3.8 vintage cars per 1,000 inhabitants) and Almere (4 vintage cars), classic car ownership per 1,000 inhabitants is the lowest.