It’s crunch decision time for lovers of ageing cars

livemint.com:

Some answers take long to show up. Half a century ago, the 1789 French Revolution made news for its impact being judged “too early to tell" by a Chinese leader. It takes the same audacity of far-out thinking to make long-horizon bets, even though the longest pay-off frames usually span only a lifetime or two at most.

In the form of property, gold and other heirlooms to be passed along safely, such bets are always being taken all around us. But in the national capital region of Delhi, a riskier game has been afoot. On anecdotal evidence, ageing cars marked for expiry are being hidden away in the hope of value retention, perhaps even accretion (if they survive as tale-bearers on wheels).

In some cases, it’s the emotional value invested in old vehicles that explains the pains taken to disguise them as furniture under sheets of tarpaulin in out-of-the-way sheds, for example. After all, it’s not just British royals, many of us have a weakness for our faithful old wheeled carriers. The fear of a dear buggy being crushed to scrap in the jaws of a car-cruncher, a common scene in cinema villainy, may well be among the drivers of this evasion.

Vintage lovers looking to leave their prized cars for posterity to marvel at would surely empathize. Hiding cars is sneaky, no doubt, but it could prove value additive. A few might even be sought after someday as museum items, who knows.

But, emotions apart, to the extent real returns must justify the trouble taken, do these efforts make sense? A risk reminder surfaced a little over a week ago. Local authorities in Delhi were nudged to ask resident welfare associations to act in favour of the city’s ambient air quality by revealing end-of-life vehicles for these to be scrapped. Earlier this