Antique vs. Classic Cars | What’s the Difference?

Antique and classic seem like synonymous words you can easily interchange for one another, and that’s because the words are. You’ll find in any thesaurus that classic is a synonym for antique and vice versa. When it comes to cars, however, they no longer mean the same thing. When either of those words are used as an adjective to describe a vehicle, they have specific and distinct meanings.

A car will have a different classification depending on who assigns it. The government, insurance companies, and car enthusiasts all have a different idea about what makes a car a classic or an antique. The different classifications are needed by the government, so they know how to license them and then charge for that license. Insurance companies need to classify these cars, so they can approximate the value of the car before they insure it. A 1963 Ferrari GTO will need a different level of insurance than a Ford Focus will.

Generally speaking, a classic car is anything that’s over 20 years old and an antique car is anything that’s over 45 years old. These classifications are applied to collector cars only, which are cars that enthusiasts seek out and collect. You wouldn’t call a 1995 Dodge Dynasty a classic car, even though it’s more than 20 years old, because no one collects this type of car, so the moniker doesn’t apply. As mentioned before, these categories and age ranges differ depending on who applies the classification. The Classic Car Club of America, for example, considers a ‘classic car’ to be one built between 1915 and 1948, while an ‘antique’ is anything that is 25 years older or more. The definition of those two words, according to them, seems to be antithesis of what the words actually mean. When discussing old cars, know your audience when using antique or classic to describe any car.

Antique vs. classic cars are all the same to us here at Intercity Lines. When we transport any kind of vehicle, no matter how old or expensive, we see them all the same way. We give them all the white glove treatment when they’re in our care including when shipping non running classic cars.. If a car is 100 years old or five years old, we will make sure it’s handled with the utmost care, so it arrives to its destination in the same condition as it was picked up in. That’s why we’re among the best classic car transport carriers in the country.