Are prices way down on classic muscle right now?

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diymirage said:
Yes...please do
Im looking for an EL5 71 demon 340 4-speed with a bench and twister package and A/C in good condition for about 5 grand
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No such thing a a Demon with a twister package. There was a Demon Sizzler package. Was not available originally with 340.

Of course, you can modify and make whatever car you want.

There were Duster Twister Package cars. Not avaibable with 340 originally.
 
thanks for pointing that out Steve, I did mean the sizzler striping package
(its really the hood treatment I like best)

but to be fair, at 5K im not asking for a numbers matching car ;)

and to show you im not too picky here is one I would shell out 5K for...and im pretty sure it isn't number matching ;)

http://home.comcast.net/~jlbc11/sizzler.htm
 
Prices are definitely down from highs of a few years ago. My reasoning would belong in political forum so will leave it at that. Regardless, a correction was needed and bound to happen. It is a great time to be a buyer. The classic car market cycles thru what vehicles are in demand with every change of the generation of enthusiast that are driving the market. Believe the next big boom as we are already starting to see will be with unmolested 5.0 fox body mustangs and same era cameros, firebirds, mopar 2.2 turbo cars,non domestic( BMW ,Mercedes, Honda, Nissan) factory performance cars and factory performance trucks of any manufacturer.

Oldschoolcuda
 
And my 2 cents. I bought whole cars for 50 to 100 in the late 80s and early 90s with my brother. Most of them running but needing something. An absolute heap of rust and nastiness that I will have to disinfect myself after touching and folks are asking $3500. Yeah inflation, but also a really misguided public on what has value. I have driven every car I have ever owned like I stole it and I will continue to do that...that is where it is fun. Politicians just took part of my military retirement, economy is beyond bad. Just be real careful about buying a polished turd as was mentioned above. A lot of places trying to slap a $2k paint job on a car and turning it. I saw a car a kid bought from someone in NC that he owned less than 1 year and was bubbling at every corner and every window. He paid over $6k and the car might have been worth $2500. Not running and he had no money to fix, a baby on the way, I just could not give him what he needed. The car will rot in place. I am a buyer, but being real choosy after working on my 74. There is a pile of cash in that car that I will never see back....but blowing past a car going fast enough to make me nervous and doing smokey burnouts til I choke is why I do it!
 
I got offered 40K for my 68 383 GTS numbers matching car this summer and my wife said no due to time spent on her part grabbing parts from Summit and time away. She calls it a "family car" and not forsale. Market is there, only a matter of time before the A bodies become the next "hot car". Where else can you find more fun than a 340 4 speed or a BB in a tiny car for a decent price? Andrew
 
autoxcuda said:
No such thing a a Demon with a twister package. There was a Demon Sizzler package. Was not available originally with 340.

Of course, you can modify and make whatever car you want.

There were Duster Twister Package cars. Not avaibable with 340 originally.
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Chrysler did in fact build 340 Twister's in 72..there were very few & they were for export only...I know of two up in the land of the Maple leaf....
 
To be honest, I think its virtually all over. If people are hanging out for their muscle car to be an investment, well, I now think its too late. The main market, the Baby Boomer, is getting too old, and already has his "Collection".
Im "Middle Aged" now, but even I was too young to buy into the Muscle era at the time it was on. When I could, in the late 70s early 80s, I never even considered a hot car as an investment....it was a toy, maybe drive to work with. Sleepers were the thing, restos were for old dudes with 20s and 30s cars. Then, because of TV of the early 80s and Nostalgia of BBs, with muscle car took off. By the late 80s Cuda Hemis were $1 mill. That all stopped in the 90s, then took off again in the 2000s. Now it has stopped, this time for good im afraid.
ALL the BBs now have their toys, and Young people, mostly 99%, are NOT interested in crappy 30-40 year old cars that drive like 40 year old cars.
A bucket of bolts that ran low 13s/high 12s in the 70s and 80s was a very qwick car!!!
NOW you can buy Brand New Modern muscle cars that run mid 12s stock and with a tweak 11s easily, AND can stop and turn corners, with the a/c and stereo on.
There are Toooo many good cars nowdays (not to mention the Japanese and Eruo rockets) to sink 50-100K in an "Old Mans car".
I love my Dart, but NO Way will I participate in inflated old muscle car prices, because people think they are worth 1 mill.....they are not. Those days are Gone!!!!
So enjoy what you got, collect if you wish, just be prepared that your family will sell them off faster than you can spin in your grave.
 
99% of muscle cars are not and never have been investments. the fake money bubble that drove prices up was just that; fake.
 
dartndodge said:
To be honest, I think its virtually all over. If people are hanging out for their muscle car to be an investment, well, I now think its too late. The main market, the Baby Boomer, is getting too old, and already has his "Collection".
Im "Middle Aged" now, but even I was too young to buy into the Muscle era at the time it was on. When I could, in the late 70s early 80s, I never even considered a hot car as an investment....it was a toy, maybe drive to work with. Sleepers were the thing, restos were for old dudes with 20s and 30s cars. Then, because of TV of the early 80s and Nostalgia of BBs, with muscle car took off. By the late 80s Cuda Hemis were $1 mill. That all stopped in the 90s, then took off again in the 2000s. Now it has stopped, this time for good im afraid.
ALL the BBs now have their toys, and Young people, mostly 99%, are NOT interested in crappy 30-40 year old cars that drive like 40 year old cars.
A bucket of bolts that ran low 13s/high 12s in the 70s and 80s was a very qwick car!!!


NOW you can buy Brand New Modern muscle cars that run mid 12s stock and with a tweak 11s easily, AND can stop and turn corners, with the a/c and stereo on.
There are Toooo many good cars nowdays (not to mention the Japanese and Eruo rockets) to sink 50-100K in an "Old Mans car".
I love my Dart, but NO Way will I participate in inflated old muscle car prices, because people think they are worth 1 mill.....they are not. Those days are Gone!!!!
So enjoy what you got, collect if you wish, just be prepared that your family will sell them off faster than you can spin in your grave.
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You may be right as my 25 year old won't give my Duster a second glance!
 
340duster340 said:
99% of muscle cars are not and never have been investments. the fake money bubble that drove prices up was just that; fake.
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I agree.

People just got caught in the middle of a raising wave. When the music stopped, whomever owned a car had the value go down.
 
The prices just like any other collectors market, whether it be baseball memorabilia or comic books to toys etc...... They all have ups and downs and will fluctuate due to economic and market trends. They will always adjust to supply and demand. The market has dropped across the board due to economy and availability of modern muscle off the showroom floors. As the Cafe standards rise and the government pushes performance down again and cars shrink, engine wise and size wise, the interest will again turn to the classic muscle cars.
There will always be a demand for performance cars and the ability to customize and soupe them up. As officials get in the way of that with the newer cars and the performance drops like it did when smog regulations were choking the engines down with all the new emissions equipment, the market will shift once again..... There is a trend of guys buying classic bodies and dropping in new LS chevy motors or the new Hemi motors. They want all the technology and tune-ability with mileage benefits but don't want the smog regulations. They drop it into a classic smog exempt body and dump the smog equipment etc. some even pull the Intake system and go with the tunable EFI system with the classic carb look to add the old air cleaner to give it the appropriate old school look. And these are the young guns doing this not just the old to middle aged guys. As the regulations stiffen and choke out performance more young guys will eventually follow. Just be sure to never count on it as an investment because trends and styles change. The wild paint schemes of the late 70's and eighties aren't that appealing now....... Even some of the early nineties stuff now looks funny. Do it for the love and passion of the hobby not for the money and it will always be a win-win that way.
 
From everything I've witnessed over the last 15 years, unless you're a mechanic or body guy or both, you won't get your money back on the car....sadly I'm neither.
There are a few cars where those rules don't apply...Corvettes up to 1972, E Bodies 70 to 72 and I guess Mustangs but I'm not familiar with that market. I'm sure I'm leaving out a few niche models but for the most part there are only a few. Now is a good time to, as they say, "buy as much car as you can afford" the deals are out there.
 
I was a buyer in the 90's, and made a decent amount of $$ on the side doing it. But I held out too long on some and lost my butt. It took me quite a few years to pay off the debt I racked up. Now I only buy what I want to keep.
I think the younger generation's interest in modern technology will kill the classic car market. I'm 46, and the kids I see now have absolutely no interest in restoring cars. They'd rather drive their Toyota's to a museum and look at them there.
 
What Drg racr said,

Thats more or less what i said earlier, and I see it in my own three sons. They can spend 10k on a late model (10 years old) car, and with some mild add ons have a car that stops, turns, and in most cases faster than my 65 Plymouth, and thats without overheating and with the AC on. With the 10-15 year old cars theres no rust to deal with and suspension upgrades galore at a reasonable cost.

But with that said, there is only one Plymouth at the local cruise-in that looks like mine, and about twenty Challenger's and Mustang's that all pretty much look the same.
 
With the rust free winters and general all year round sunshine.... Southern California is a different animal. The hot rod scene started here right after WWII into the early 50's. Still to this day I see classic cars everywhere I go from the market, to the mall to the shop etc... Driving down local streets most of my neighbors own classic cars of varying brands. That's not even counting local shows and cruises going on every weekend around so-cal. Now when I go to northern Virginia to see my sister I rarely see anything. I saw 2 classic cars the whole 2 1/2 months I was there and even those weren't that great. The weren't the greatest condition wise or even real popular models either. So it's also a matter of where you live too.
 
I just watched a 64 dart convertable do 22500 at a sale it was auto 22000 original doc miles but un restored, build sheat and everything. The car was very nice for a unrestored car but thats still heavy for a unrestored car, which makes it basically a very nice driver.
 
My opinions are as such
#1 the economy and the rising costs of everything for everyone.
#2 the younger and some middle aged crowd would rather have a new muscle car
#3 the flippers are out in force buying up anything and everything they can fix up make a buck on, leaving us with the more door unwanted cars and rust buckets.
#4 the shows on TV, auctions, buy em build em sell em shows lead everyone to believe that the Savoy 4 door slanty rust bucket in the field is worth 10k. I love cars always have not for what they are worth but for the history they stand for I have always said they are not an investment but a piece of history we have been given the honor of preserving and sharing with others [some of us are honored with more than one].
 
If in 10 or 20 years I can get more nice 340 or big block cars for super cheap because "no one wants them" anymore and supply greatly exceeds demand, that's great. I have them because I love them, always have, always will. Investments are investments, cars are for fun. It'll just leave me with more money for space to store them. Let the market tank.
 
Just be glad you don't live in Cuba....... They can not own new cars legally, only used and the prices are really high. The Cubans can now buy and sell used cars to each other (previously banned) they are not allowed to buy or import new cars as that's reserved for government officials. Citizens have to either have to get it by illegal means or buy what the officials are done with when they upgrade.

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/31/141858419/in-cuba-a-used-car-is-no-bargain
 
TheMoparMan said:
Just be glad you don't live in Cuba....... They can not own new cars legally, only used and the prices are really high. The Cubans can now buy and sell used cars to each other (previously banned) they are not allowed to buy or import new cars as that's reserved for government officials. Citizens have to either have to get it by illegal means or buy what the officials are done with when they upgrade.

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/31/141858419/in-cuba-a-used-car-is-no-bargain
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and that's why they have so many cool cars in cuba, I've seen a lot I'd love to own, but I don't see that happening in my lifetime.
 
no poseur said:
and that's why they have so many cool cars in cuba, I've seen a lot I'd love to own, but I don't see that happening in my lifetime.
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A lot of the cars you wouldn't want if you saw them up close...... Cut metal pipes for rings, shampoo for brake fluid, they have been cut off so have mixed parts and jury rigged these cars so bad they are unsafe for our roads. Most of them have used Lada parts. Lada is a Russian brand known for unsafe cars and bad parts. Most of them are running buckets with only the shell of the original car. The cars are also not allowed to leave Cuba legally anyway. They are working on putting laws into place to protect the antique vehicles and to keep us from taking them away.
 
TheMoparMan said:
Just be glad you don't live in Cuba....... They can not own new cars legally, only used and the prices are really high. The Cubans can now buy and sell used cars to each other (previously banned) they are not allowed to buy or import new cars as that's reserved for government officials. Citizens have to either have to get it by illegal means or buy what the officials are done with when they upgrade.

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/31/141858419/in-cuba-a-used-car-is-no-bargain
Click to expand...


I'm thinking that's about to change I saw something on the net about lifting the ban on importing autos into Cuba [I didn't read the whole article] and my first thoughts were god help those classics there, once they get newer cars those will [gulp] become scrap.


Never mind I read it I'm wrong my bad they are enforcing a ban on sales of any imported goods!!!
 
TheMoparMan said:
A lot of the cars you wouldn't want if you saw them up close...... Cut metal pipes for rings, shampoo for brake fluid, they have been cut off so have mixed parts and jury rigged these cars so bad they are unsafe for our roads. Most of them have used Lada parts. Lada is a Russian brand known for unsafe cars and bad parts. Most of them are running buckets with only the shell of the original car.
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I know we got the whole anti trade thing going on with them, but you would think they could get parts from other country's , geesh could you think how long it would take to save 65,000 for a used Honda at 20.00 a week or month, whatever it was?
 
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