While there are many shows, exhibits and festivals dedicated to the rare, exotic, very fast and/or excitingly expensive cars of this world, there is one that chooses to celebrate the mundane and it is coming back for another year.
The "world renowned" Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional (FOTU) is back for 2025, with the announcement that it will be returning to Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire, UK, on Saturday 26th July 2025.
Billed as the only event to "celebrate the brilliance of basic and find majesty in the mundane", the Festival of the Unexceptional has grown drastically in its 11 years of existence and the display cars have become "even more exceptionally unexceptional."
But as expectations for levels of standard equipment has risen over the years, what does this mean for the future of unexceptional cars? John Mayhead, editor of the Hagerty Price Guide took a look at the world of the base model car, and how it has evolved, to find out.
Ask your local Toyota dealer for the entry model today and you will be shown a Yaris GX, a hybrid with cruise control, active lane assist, power steering, electric windows, air conditioning, a reversing camera and a big touchscreen that includes Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, Bluetooth connection and even voice recognition.
Back In 1990, the Starlet GL was Toyota’s base car. It listed an interior fuel flap release and stereo radio cassette as its noteworthy features.
Go back even further to 1970, and the specification was even more sparse. Then, luxuries were defined as carpets, glove box lids and even passenger door mirrors. In 1970 the new Vauxhall HC 1100 proudly stated that it came complete with door armrests at no additional cost.
Mayhead used Hagerty’s market data to find out when base models became more luxurious in the UK market, tracking the entry models of Citroën, Ford, Toyota and Vauxhall over 55 years. 20 factors were reviewed, from the inclusion of headrests to the switch from plastic wheel trims to alloy wheels, charting their prevalence over the period.
The results showed that until the early 1990s, extremely sparse spec was quite normal and sold in volume in the British market. In 1990, only one of the 20 specification markers was fitted to all four cars – front brake discs.
One marker - a sunroof - failed to factor in any of the models at all, but by the turn of the Millennium, specification was markedly better and by 2010 it almost matched what we see in base models today. It seems the truly unexceptional cars were left behind in the mid-1990s.
Of course, the influx of used Japanese imports into New Zealand in the 1990s saw our expectations rise a bit higher than in the UK, but a base model brand new car was still very much a stripped-out economy special until later in the decade as well.
In the last 15 years, pressure has mounted on manufacturers to provide clean, green and comfortable cars and the general economic downturn means that buyers have been much more selective with their money. But what does all this mean for the future of FOTU?
“Every year we add another year to the cars that are eligible for the Festival of the Unexceptional, and the 2025 event will accept cars up to the year 2000,” said Mayhead.
“As that marker moves, eligible cars will become more luxurious and that could make the peak FOTU era cars of the 1990s even more coveted and collectible. Many sectors within the classic and enthusiast car market have a period most desired by collectors, and it seems unexceptional cars are no different."
If you happen to be in the UK on the 26th of July and have an interest in entirely uninteresting cars, tickets for the 2025 Festival of the Unexceptional are available now, giving visitors full access to what could be the peak era of unexceptional cars.
