GM Works to Ensure the Future of Restoration

It’s no secret that the future of this hobby/sport/profession/obsession can be viewed as a bit uncertain. Times change, products change, but most of all people change, and when the current auto enthusiast community looks ahead, many enthusiasts are becoming a bit concerned about keeping the current passion for classic automobiles alive. Many of those concerns seem to center on building the next generation of vintage auto collectors and restorers as younger generations of drivers come of age.

What is certain is that the future enthusiasts and the cars they are attracted to will be a bit different from today’s enthusiasts and today’s classic cars. What we consider traditional classics today will still be around, but they probably won’t be as affordable to purchase or restore as they are now, and they aren’t exactly cheap today. The entry level enthusiasts of tomorrow will have had different lifestyles and experiences growing up, and they will also likely have different favorite cars. That is to be expected. However, the challenge for the current generation of enthusiasts is to make sure that there are enough young people interested in cars in the future to make sure that the passion for car collecting and restoration stays alive and well going forward.

That’s why groups like The Hagerty Education Program (from Hagerty Insurance), formerly the Collectors Foundation, is a nonprofit supporting organization designed to help ensure critical skills necessary to preserve and restore collector vehicles are not lost. The folks at Hagerty recognize that it is the people who will be involved in auto restoration and collecting in the future, that need to be cultivated today. Hagerty’s program awards scholarships and educational grants to organizations committed to “hands-on education and making a difference in the lives of young people through the appeal of historic vehicles and vessels – building the next generation of collectors.” It’s Hagerty’s stand that it is “crucial to the hobby and to society as a whole that we promote interest in collectible vehicles by developing the next generation of enthusiasts and restorers to protect and cherish this important part of America’s industrial history and culture.”

General Motors (GM) also recognizes the need to cultivate the next generation of enthusiasts and toward this goal, has introduced two new educational programs for the high school and college students of today that will comprise the auto enthusiast community of tomorrow. The first GM program is sponsored through Buick’s celebration of academics and achievement with the “Drive For Your Students” initiative that partners Buick dealerships with public high schools. Through “Drive For Your Students”, dealers and schools across the country will work together to hold test-drive events, through which Buick will donate money for each test drive taken at the event, up to $10,000 per event to be shared among participating schools. In addition to gaining funds for their schools, students who help host the drive events will gain valuable real-world experience in helping dealers plan, coordinate and execute events, and they will learn more about cars in the process. Buick’s “Drive For Your Students” program is part of the Buick Achievers Scholarship Program, and to date, Buick Achievers, funded by the General Motors Foundation, has provided nearly $28 million in scholarships to students across the U.S.

The second new GM sponsored program is a “Challenge” aimed at college students attending Pennsylvania State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The premise behind the four-college innovation challenge is tasking the students to develop new uses for technologies that have a practical application in automotive manufacturing and could eventually lead to improvements in GM’s production systems.

Kurt Wiese, vice president of GM’s Global Manufacturing Engineering, said “This challenge is one of multiple things GM is doing around the world to change the perception that manufacturing employs old-world techniques to build vehicles, in fact, many new and emerging technologies that are often viewed as fads have practical applications in a factory.” The idea is that by challenging college students to look at unconventional tools, technologies and processes to learn how they can be applied in automobile production, the students will learn more about the possibilities that await them if they decide to choose a career in automotive manufacturing. Both programs demonstrate GM’s commitment to community and education, and in the process, help make strides toward cultivating the next group of people who will be directly involved in the future of auto restoration.