future value of classic performance cars,when to bail out, before the crash?

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rustytoolss

rustytoolss

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We all love muscle cars/streetrods/ mopars, fords, chevys and all the rest. But the world is changing...and starting to leave us in the dust. When will it happen...who knows ? But chevy has made an electric camaro, dodge is working to electrifty the challenger. Like it or not , i's coming.
I'm not preaching doom and gloom. But just wondering how long before our 60's-70's performance cars loose there value ?
Who will want to buy the average muscle car when affordable gas is had to find or buy ?
I'm not talking about rare perfect mopars...but the cars that most of us own right now.
I have a 1933 DeSoto 3 window coupe with a 426 hemi. And have not driven it for some time. I think about selling it all the time...But I built everything. Frame/engine.trans.I built the complete car. I do not sell it because I still like the car. But I do not have plans to do the things it needs to make it a better car.
I look at it like cash in the bank...someday, when and if I sell it. Sell it to soon..for less money. Wait to long (hopefully a long time from now) and you may not be able to give an old internal combustion engine away.
At what point do you sell ? How long before the electric car crash...I'm sure a lot of you think that I'm crazy...But the day will come, when nobody would even call about the mopar that's in your garage...unless you've converted over to electric power.
Trust me I hope I'm long gone before things get that bad. But the world is changing. And it's not going to wait for us. There's an old saying "adapt - or die "
Does anyone else wonder how long before the bottom falls out for the values of our muscle cars ?
OK let me have all the smack talk. But if your honest with yourself, you know that the day will come when you think to yourself...damn, I should have sold my car about 5 years ago, when the prices were the highest that they ever were.
 
It is not about monetary value.

The true value is getting in them & driving them as much as possible. :)
 
If we wait long enough, we will give everything away...
 
Ya it's all speculation. Watching Barret Jackson a week ago I saw a lot of resto mods go for big dollars. Now the disclaimer is that the market shouldn't be gauged by BJ auctions but the auctions do have an effect on values. The restored cars were going for reasonable prices. 6 pack and Hemi cars for a bit more than a hundred large? 10 years ago the same cars were 1/4 to 1/2 million. Those resto mods can be driven and abused where the restored cars are more or less trailer queens. It's good that our "lower dollar end of the market" cars are still catching on and affordable to buy and fun to build. I'm staying in till they take my licence away. If I watch what I buy and don't get upside down in the car I should be able to at least break even after a few years of enjoyment. If not, so what. If I loose some money at least I had fun. How many $5-10,000 vacations have I been on that all I have to show for the investment is some nice memories, some photos and some corny souvenirs. Cars are a better return for my money.
 
But remember the muscle car era is definitely different so you never know it may never completely crash.
 
the making of electricity is more polluting and costly than just putting gas in a car. nobody gets it though.

the song red barchetta comes to mind. the story may be real someday
 
At the risk of totally derailing your thread, my real concern is that we have the best bad money in the world. After all, it’s only pieces of cotton fabric mixed with paper that has dead men printed on it. James Garfield, said it best. "Paper money is the printed lies of politicians” . Look at the the cost of items from just 20 years ago. Economically, we are on the verge of hyper inflation. Look at the national debt in hundred dollar bills on pallets. US Debt Visualized: Stacked in $100 dollar bills We have been in free fall for a while now, we just haven’t made it to where we are going to, yet...
 
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Barret Jackson, you really cannot go by what these cars sell for. You need to see them in person. My friend certified inspector (not sure what you call it), Big name collectors hire him, fly him out there (and back) pay for his whole weekend and his time to inspect and bid on cars. He said there was not a lot nice cars (original ones), thats why we did not see high bids. So its hard to judge value from watching it on TV when you cannot see the car for real.
 
All those drunk clowns at BJ auction etc who paid millions for old cars will be jumping off bridges. Going to be a lot of insurance fraud happening soon.
 
The end of times is coming. Revelation. I'm not concerned about any of the car stuff. I will enjoy it all, and help others out wanting to enjoy it, until i pass away. I will try to pass the torch on. Hopfully my boy will enjoy em, and live a long life too. Cant change history, this stuff is either gonna survive or not.
 
I hope that the market bubble bursts and Mopars become nearly-worthless again. That's the only way that I will be able to buy all of the cars that I am enthusiastic about owning. Folks that are holding enthusiast's cars as investments deserve to lose their shirts...

The only upside that I see regarding the inflated prices of old cars is that it is currently financially possible to restore a car for profit, meaning that a lot of old iron that would otherwise have been scrapped have had a new lease on life. I love seeing all of the restored Mopars around, now I just need the prices to tank so I can buy some of them.
 
Yep agreed, for me its not about the money, its about something i want to have to enjoy. Money and value of it to sell it doesnt even enter into the equation.
 
I built my duster because i love cars period. I will never sell i as long as i can drive it, my son will do whatever he deems fit with it when the time comes. The money is irrelevant, i do it for the love of the hobby. That's the way hot rodding started out for the passion of it. Then the greedy flippers got involved.
 
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If you have driver quality muscle car you drive a fair amount and enjoy, my guess is you can drive it for 5-10 years and probably get your money back or more. Try that with any new car. Most new cars sell for $20-50k, not that much different than a decent muscle car. Maybe our cars are not the best long term investment, but I doubt that they are big long term losses, unless you are way at the top of the market.

The above assumes, of course that your labor is a hobby and done for the love of the sport, or just plain old obsessive compulsive, or in some cases a cover for beer drinking.....
 
See this is why you just build a race car. If my car makes it long enough to get passed down I'd be amazed.
Most likely it will end its life on a tow truck.

I fly high end model air planes and rotor wing. I'm talking three grand plus machines that end their life in fantastic ways. When things go wrong they come home in a trash bag.

Yes it's a HUGE waist of money but the thrill of keeping a machine like that in the air and bringing it home safely is worth it.

Lots of guys wont fly close to the ground or push the envelope. They just fly around in circles high above the ground. Even those guys take there stuff home in a garbage bag when something goes wrong.

Me, I'd rather that thing ends its life in high alpha flight, wide open inches off the ground.

Enjoy every day because you never know when a random mechanical failure or some *** hat will end it all.

To me the car and all the rest are just expensive toys and I play with em like it's an old tonka truck.
 
during the nineties people tried using high dollar cars as investments...that bubble burst big time after a couple years.
Ive noticed over the last few years a steady decline in what were big dollar cars, hemis and 6pks actually selling for a fraction of what they were - toolmanmike is 100% correct. The other thing is the resto mods showing a big rise in prices , gen3 hemi swaps, LS swaps, etc.
The performance car hobby is just changing like it always does, because we couldn't afford 250000 mopars s few years ago now we build 69 satellite hellcat hemi swap, modern running gear, and for less money a retro looking car with gobs of power, fuel economy and one hell of a good ride......hell just buy a hellcat instead.
Its just the nature of the hobby folks - personally I will always keep my old iron but I will have a new challenger next to it in the garage soon.
 
If you want to invest in something buy water rights for the next 100 years.

If you wanna have fun buy what ever makes you happy and dont look at it as an investment. Enjoy it and beat the hell out of it like it has zero value.

Beer makes me happy but it's a shity investment.
 
Beer makes me happy but it's a shity investment.[/QUOTE]
But I'm having a fun time brewing it at home.
 
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