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I havn't seen any Delahayes cruising around as of late...or come to think about it ever!

Or old 30's Packards, Caddys, Lincolns or Dusenbergs...

Those are not modern cars..and as such are no longer practical transportation. They can't keep up on the freeway.

Old Porsches, Ferraris and MB's were cutting edge in their day and that translates to common place performance today. so in that sense they still can keep up and can be used for transportation rather than being a quaint novelty.

The thing about some collectibles like art or antique spoons for instance is that you can put a 500K painting on your wall and when you croak your beloved child can take it off the wall, take it home to put on their wall and then down the road sell it as their own. Cars have to be registered...

Art ,coins, sterling silver, antique arms, and stamps have always had a cache of being desirable and collectible...and as such has had value. Art looks gud to you on the wall. Cars (spoons etc) during the Great American Prosperity Bubble became desirable as lots of people had disposable income where they bought stuff that had meaning to them...most likely as a kid. Some people bought lots of stuff which they liked and started to be called collectors.

Before the end of WW2 most Americans were living hand to mouth and could not afford to collect anything. The used car market only became viable during WW2 when automobiles were not being mfged. No body wanted used cars before WW2.

Antique Arms and Spoon collecting was always a niche where the person liked what he had and wasn't seeing it as an investment. They enjoyed what they had. In 1998 the Wall Street Journal published an article that basically said that Spoons were as viable as Art to collect. Since then there has been no turning back and prices have risen accordingly. It gave people a justification for putting their money into spoons.

Cars take room to store and have maintenance costs. Not to mention it is a big ticket item.