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

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I seriously doubt I would ever sell mine, but I might get forced into switching to alcohol and building a still and then we can come full circle and start running alcohol in hotrods again, but for fuel deliveries instead of drink.:D

Actually that could make a pretty good movie, where all these quiet electric cars are running around in a futuristic society and a big old nasty noisy, stinky 68 Charger comes blasting out of some old garage scaring the **** out of people and making kids cry.:D
 
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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.

IMHO, if you are worried about the money, the time to sell is now. The target market for a car like that is getting older by the minute. Cash is king, invest the money somewhere else. Cars are a bad investment.

Well said Frnknsteen,I also agree with most all of the posts. The old car market will always be a peak and valley roll-a-coaster.What's hot and what's not.Case in point= My brother owned a 1970 LS-6 Chevelle that when new was about $4000.He had the car for 40+ years,never did anything with it but let it sit in the garage.He would say he just like knowing that he has one.Over the years he was offered much,and even "name you price."When he died it still sat in the garage.Yes I put it up for sale to get as much as I could for my sister-in law.About 2 years ago the car sold for $90k and after sitting for the 40+ years needed completely restored.
Just last week LS-6 Chevelles crossed the auction block completely restored for $55-$75K.Perfect example of the peaks and valleys of the old car market.The guy that bought it had hopes of flipping it to make money.He may or may not have to wait a long time to see that come about..Just another story of right place right time ? Or not.View attachment 1715282772

Glad you got a good price for car so it could help your brother's wife. I had to do the same with my oldest brother's stuff too. His cars weren't worth much at the time.

Just to show that collector cars aren't a good investment, I used this as an example and ran the numbers... Let's take that $4000 from 40 years ago and invest it. Let's also figure that it costs $500 or so that it costs to insure, register, and store the car. Add that $500 annually to the investment. With a 7% annual rate of return, you would have over $120K.
 
Oldest son wants The 47 and youngest the 65. Both cars are well older than they are!

LOL! Same here, my daughter's were 11 years old when we brought home the Duster....They just turned 18, still young pups compared to the Duster. Dang, it hurts to type that they're 18 now :(
 
Hagerty gives their input on who is inquiring about collector car insurance. They stated a week ago, the Baby Boomer gen is now NOT the largest, but is just started to be taken over by the Gen X and Milleniums. This begins to somewhat change the market. The younger gen likes older iron but they also do not in general have the disposal income of some older people. Hagerty not the increase in $ and demand for 60-70 Chevy pickups with this yonger generations. These trucks are cool, cheap, easy to fix.
The "modern" muscle car has helped keep the torch alive for performance, it also will be a source in years to come for project cars!!!
The high end collector car market where the RICH paly their game is sorta like Wall St., Prices need to fluctuate so people can make and loss money!!!!!! Ever notice also how one year Chevy is King and next year it is Mopar!?
My cars are my toys, they give me something to do and my wife likes it all to. So we play with our toys, ( cheap toys!!)....
 
The 60s 70s chevy pickups are all over the place, lots of em, aftermarket is alive for em. Yes minimum investment, cool ride.
 
IMHO, if you are worried about the money, the time to sell is now. The target market for a car like that is getting older by the minute. Cash is king, invest the money somewhere else. Cars are a bad investment.



Glad you got a good price for car so it could help your brother's wife. I had to do the same with my oldest brother's stuff too. His cars weren't worth much at the time.

Just to show that collector cars aren't a good investment, I used this as an example and ran the numbers... Let's take that $4000 from 40 years ago and invest it. Let's also figure that it costs $500 or so that it costs to insure, register, and store the car. Add that $500 annually to the investment. With a 7% annual rate of return, you would have over $120K.

A much better investment is land (real estate) if the money is what matters most.
My Dad asked me what he should do with 50k he got out of a house sale and I pointed to a piece of undeveloped property on the other side of a barbed wire fence with a plywood sign that said $1,500 per acre.
He argued that there wasn't even any utilities over there, and I said "Yet"
He didn't do it and ten years later that same section of property was worth over 2.5 million, as the city subdivided it into commercial property at the front and housing developments behind that.
 
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-- _ __ __ _ _ 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 _ _ _ _ _ _ . Cars are a better return for my money. --
-- I agree. -- How many new cars have We had, and lost several $K in just a few days, out of the show room ???
 
Ok ... now for the good news.. There are 1.5 billion cars in the world today running on internal combustion engines, and , emerging economies in China , India, and even Russia haven't even begun to equal the spending on Autos that we do in the west. Anybody here remember the doom and gloom in the auto industry in the late 70's, early eighties?? No performance at all, everything was supposed to be replaced by fuel efficient and cheap econoboxes like the K-car, Pinto, Chevette, etc.. Dusters,Cudas, Roadrunners,Mustangs, Camaros were supposed to be relegated to the scrap heap as worthless junk.. You could buy a Hemi Powered Daytona for 3500.00. I know. I missed out on it and it was purchased by a friend of mine who still has it. Today's price?? North of 300,000 US. Don't lose the faith! These cars are timeless, that's why we restore and care for them. They will always be worth good money. Restomods (of which my car is) are also a great alternative and are now coming into their own value wise. Old car looks, latest technology performance.
My bet? the next step in old car mods will be to add Hybrid and clean emissions Technology the same way turbo's, superchargers and fuel injection is added today. That will definitely change the way these old cars are perceived and will increase the selling prices the same way Restomod pricing is increasing today.

Remember....Its all Hotrodding !! Been around for 100 years and hasn't died yet!!
 
Correct in what you have stated. In his case the car was never driven after 1975 and only had 1692 miles,stored at his home.Insurance,Registration costs were less that $200 a year if that.Nothing was spent on it after 1975.Anyway the story was about market trends and long term investments. To me there wasn't any fun factor letting it sit.Fun cost money. I do know I don't have much time left waiting for a car's value to increase at my age.
Just to show that collector cars aren't a good investment, I used this as an example and ran the numbers... Let's take that $4000 from 40 years ago and invest it. Let's also figure that it costs $500 or so that it costs to insure, register, and store the car. Add that $500 annually to the investment. With a 7% annual rate of return, you would have over $120K.
 
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.

Go Bag and AR ready for the "DAY":elmer:
 
I think we will find that electric cars will go the way of the e85 debacle. Shoved down our throats with no possible support from infrastructure, because money grubbing politicians are only interested in lining their own pockets in the short term, than investing in the long term.

The grid infrastructure, dramatically increased power generation requirements, and the massive investment in same to support countless millions of hybrid/electric vehicles plugging in every night is a pipe dream. A "dark" and dangerous one at that.

Let's see an analysis that would provide the real world wide investment cost (staggering to be sure) and also include the petroleum (emissions?) needed to build an electric vehicle. Most governments are already technically bankrupt. Fossil fuels will reign and combustion engines will be the norm for generations to come pending a nuclear solution. Whatever the future solution is it won't be a storage battery!
 
The grid infrastructure, dramatically increased power generation requirements, and the massive investment in same to support countless millions of hybrid/electric vehicles plugging in every night is a pipe dream. A "dark" and dangerous one at that.

Let's see an analysis that would provide the real world wide investment cost (staggering to be sure) and also include the petroleum (emissions?) needed to build an electric vehicle. Most governments are already technically bankrupt. Fossil fuels will reign and combustion engines will be the norm for generations to come pending a nuclear solution. Whatever the future solution is it won't be a storage battery!

In typical govt/Big bizness fashion, they are hoping that the grass roots will spend their billions developing the infrastructure, then they can sweep in and claim the profits and just mandate laws that increase those profits.

There is an article somewhere that chronicles the manufacture of the batteries needed to power electric vehicles. Not available on any map, and certainly not touted by the greenies, because it details the strip mining of lithium, the transport and manufacture of the batteries by diesel generating functions, and the transport of the cars from factories not in the US. Not something the left would like you to see, just get in line and drink the Kool-Aid!
 
Who will want to buy the average muscle car when affordable gas is had to find or buy ?
What makes you think that will happen? Anyone with half a brain will not be buying an electric car. Economics and energy efficiency are not in their favor. The grid will not support a huge fleet of electric cars. As long as we keep drilling for oil (and we can't really not drill) there will be plenty of gasoline!
 
I am not in this hobby for the money. Never have been.
As long as i can remember, i've been a car guy.
The pleasure i get is from working on them, and especially driving them.
I remember back in my youth when these 50's to '80s cars were bought for the sole purpose of having a good time modifying and racing them, cruising, daily driving, and what have you.
Most people weren't concerned about their rarity and originality, just that they were cool or they got them from point A to point B.
I also remember a time when you could buy them cheap (comparatively speaking) and run the crap out of them, blow them up, and then fix them in your driveway.
The mind set back then was the car was a basis for modification to suit your tastes or need for speed.
Now people get all wrapped up in what's it worth and originality............yada yada yada.
I have always said the satisfaction you get out of owning one of these older cars is the ''Smiles per Gallon'' that it gives you when you take it out and drive it.
Sure, prices have gone up a lot since the old days, but i think where a lot of people miss the boat is that they're too worried about harming the value of these ''rare'' cars and not driving and enjoying them.
I am a product of my time when growing up with these cars was the only thing i knew.
Times have changed of course, but have they really?
You can go down to a dealer and buy a new (or used) muscle car for what i think is a reasonable price, modify it or do what you like to make it your own.
Just like in the old days.
It really works out that nothing has really changed, just that it's come full circle.
There will always be a need and a market for performance cars and trucks, and the worry of the internal combustion engine becoming obsolete is in my opinion is hogwash.
Electric and hybrid vehicles will have their place, but so will the gas and diesel powered vehicles as well.
If you look at it sensibly, there are millions of vehicles of all types that run on gas and diesel (fossil fuels) so i don't see them being phased out overnight.
Maybe in a few hundred years, but not anytime soon!
BTW, we can thank the higher prices of the 50's to '80s muscle cars to a great assortment and supply of parts to restore them.
I remember in the early '80s when virtually nothing was available in the after market for old Mopars other than mechanical parts only.
Would there be an availability of these parts now if it wasn't possible for these manufactures to make a profit and supply a demand?
I don't think so.
Some food for thought................
 
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I hope to wear mine out bedore checking out. Heirs can give it away. No concern for $ value, all enjoyment. These are good times. USA is the top exporter of energy. Plenty of gas available, get a Hellcat for the high 50’s brand new! No doom and gloom here. It could be 1982. That was a dark time.
 
Once all the people who grew up around them pass on... the bubble will pop.
No more re living your younger days in your goat,challenger, nova,gtx etc...cause you'll be dead and the current population aka "booger buddies" will have Iphones with wheels they'll roller skate on or sum **** "for the environments sake"... meanwhile wearing shower curtain rings in their ears and noses while sporting a unicorn horn implant and speaking spanish high their own farts.
If the younger retard generation has it their way... the deep state will poison you all through a vaccine to speed that up because apparently everything you worked hard for ...others seem to believe they're entitled to...."except that toxically masculine" muscle car.. "yucky, must destroy, so triggerd!"

What a mess.
 
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The next 3-4 years. Watch the student loan bubble. NEVER use a car as an investment.
BINGO. The Millennials are screaming bloody murder about their student loan debt. They borrowed $20 per year and didn't work at all because they wanted the REAL college experience. Then they graduated with $80K in debt and are upset because the $100K per year job they think is owed to them isn't there. So they don't think they should have to pay back the loans. Mark my words, WHOEVER RUNS AGAAINST TRUMP NEXT TIME WILL HAVE STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS IN THEIR PLATFORM!
Plus, I TOTALLY agree that I am not in it for the money.
 
Those that like to get their hands dirty work to keep the cost /price down.
Those that dont like to get their hands dirty drive the price up.

Peaks and valleys. I agree.
Its more like saturation points.
Those that have and want more, buy.
Then they are done spending.

Next crowd moves in and repeats.

Just like the shops,busy, so busy theres no end. Followed by a dry spell.
 
If i was in it to make money,
I would be better off flogging 10 year old cars. Less work more profit.

Im building a couple cars on a budget. Reason:
I spent my whole life buying tools and learning skills to fix other people’s ****,its about time i got something out of it. Its MY turn!
 
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.
Unfortunately the market has already tanked on your car. A 1933 !!! If you want max money out of it, pull the engine and install it in a 68-70 B body and that is the winning ticket with the money.

Those old painted Easter egg cars are a thing of the past and most people who built and gave big money for them are either dead or on oxygen about to.

My home town hosts the mid west street rod Nationsls every summer and it's been proven that people want to see muscle cars as in 60s and 70s. The old crowd of 30s and 40s cars are washed. Like the ZZ top eliminator, cool yes, but something people want to sink big money into, probably not in 2018/19. Every year the 30s and 40s and even 50s cars disappear one by one and the owners are that much older.

A Hemi super bee/ Hemi road runner, now that is a big money car that you will have people off all ages in line for.

Even A bodies are the "in" thing of this generation.
 
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dont get me wrong. i would love to drop a tesla s setup in an old mopar if it was within reason to do so. one day maybe i could be that guy out in space in the vette in the cartoon heavy metal movie, except in a mopar. if there was such a thing as space
 
I’d say sell whatever you have in mind right now. Because gasoline is CHEAP, the economy is great, and tax returns are coming.
 
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