Ask anyone what their favorite car from a television show or a movie is, and chances are they'll name something like a DeLorean DMC-12, a Toyota AE86 or a 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am Special Edition–cars that are exponentially more recognizable by the non-enthusiast public than most cars popular in our scene.
While we like that these vehicles can act as …
Mk4 Supra. I mean I get that they are pretty good cars, but I'm not convinced they would be nearly as valuable if it weren't for a certain movie series hyping them up. These days they have far surpassed the actual value and are over-priced garage queens IMO.
I saw a Mk4 Supra the other day, it looked to be completely stock. I think it was a Supra, it looked awfully small. But all the 90s cars do today and it's hard to mistake that wing.
AE86. They were a great Locost donor until the drift tax.
I always liked the 240SX, specifically the S14. Good looking little RWD coupe. And then the drifters discovered them and beat them all up.
Even though they were merely featured in the films and were not the hero cars, S13s and DSMs.
The reason being that on the scale of performance capability versus price they were in the attainable range of the audience of the films while being more capable then the B15 Sentra and MK3 Jetta, which were also featured in the films. It's not so much that they were initially priced out of the market it's that clean unmolested ones disappeared.
911T from The Big Chill. Damn I wanted to be a drug dealer with one nut.
EDIT: I read the question wrong and went with one that I love more due to a movie.
I can't really think of any that I do not like due to pop icon status...
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Both my son and I were looking for a 240Sx; we thought it could be a fun car to lightly modify. Finding one that hadn't been plagued with the craptastifiction / drift tax was a real uphill battle. For the same 8K budget he found a nicely modded Lexus LS400. He's spent another $1500 rectifying a few things (exhaust was beat to hell from it being to low).
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I remember someone pulling out the 4AGE from an AE86 to drop it in an MR2. They're probably kicking themselves by now.
68-70 Dodge Chargers. A good looking car made more desirable thanks to a certain TV series as well as more than a few movie roles. I could have bought one in the early 90's, but it would have stretched me a bit. Now prices are so far out of reach it's not likely I'll ever own one.
JAdams said:Mk4 Supra. I mean I get that they are pretty good cars, but I'm not convinced they would be nearly as valuable if it weren't for a certain movie series hyping them up. These days they have far surpassed the actual value and are over-priced garage queens IMO.
To a degree, yes, but the turbo ones have always been expensive. As is usually the case with car values, it's about rarity -- they only brought about 7000 turbo mk4 Supras to the US over the whole production run. That's the lowest numbers of any of the 90s "Japanese supercars", even the 1st gen NSX has more than that.
Vista Cruiser
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:68-70 Dodge Chargers. A good looking car made more desirable thanks to a certain TV series as well as more than a few movie roles. I could have bought one in the early 90's, but it would have stretched me a bit. Now prices are so far out of reach it's not likely I'll ever own one.
This particular problem was made worse by all the Chargers destroyed by the show itself.
MrFancypants said:Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:68-70 Dodge Chargers. A good looking car made more desirable thanks to a certain TV series as well as more than a few movie roles. I could have bought one in the early 90's, but it would have stretched me a bit. Now prices are so far out of reach it's not likely I'll ever own one.
This particular problem was made worse by all the Chargers destroyed by the show itself.
Not really. Production of the 1969 Charger was about 19,000 cars. The show destroyed roughly 300 of them, or 1.5%.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I worked in an office on the 2nd floor and overlooked a repair garage. The owner had a Charger all "Duked" out. Occasionally he wasn't able to put it inside overnight and would leave it out front, it was a busy street. One morning I arrived to see the car destroyed. It had been stolen and someone apparently thought they could play stunt driver. Not a panel on the car that wasn't damaged and looked like it had been rolled more than once.
When I was in high school mid 70's I'd see a girl driving one at the local burger spots we used to cruise occasionally. Twenty years later I was driving home a bunch of my stepdaughters friends after some kind of event and when we pulled up to one girls house there was the same Charger still sportin Crager SS wheels, along with two others! Turned out mom was the girl I knew many years earlier and they were ALL her moms cars! ahahaha
Every time I take the Aston out people always ask about the ejector seat and machine guns.
never mind, that was a dream
In reply to NOT A TA :
Perhaps I should have said that the show directly destroyed about 300 :) I'm sure there was some collateral damage like the one you saw!
BoxheadTim said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
I remember someone pulling out the 4AGE from an AE86 to drop it in an MR2. They're probably kicking themselves by now.
I turned down buying an SR5 notch for $200 because it didn't look like a 302 would fit underhood.
Car was in good shape, needed a clutch.
Somewhere there is a guy kicking himself that he scrapped an SR5 notch that just needed a clutch.
I'm going to say a Skyline R34. I like them from back in the Grand Turismo 2 days well before ever seeing F&F, or know of the existence of a "Tuner" scene. I just love the way they look. However after all of the above its no shock at the masses like them too and I suspect as a huge influx of imports come pouring in they'll be at first oggled over, then everyone and their brother will have one, and then quickly go to stupid money for a pile of trash and even more stupid for a nice one like MK4 Supras
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Oh, I knew you meant just the show. I'd bet more have been wrecked by imitators, ever see how many there are on youtube?
Every single Honda and Acura with vtec because it was going to get stolen?
In reply to asphalt_gundam :
R34 GT-Rs are already going for a lot of money in Japan.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
Probably because they got to the R35 and were all "What the heck is this mess?"
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:JAdams said:Mk4 Supra. I mean I get that they are pretty good cars, but I'm not convinced they would be nearly as valuable if it weren't for a certain movie series hyping them up. These days they have far surpassed the actual value and are over-priced garage queens IMO.
To a degree, yes, but the turbo ones have always been expensive. As is usually the case with car values, it's about rarity -- they only brought about 7000 turbo mk4 Supras to the US over the whole production run. That's the lowest numbers of any of the 90s "Japanese supercars", even the 1st gen NSX has more than that.
I understand that and they probably wouldn't be cheap regardless but I don't believe they would have held value quite as well if it weren't for the movie. I get that they aren't exactly common but holy crap they are expensive. Also, the website below puts the U.S. market at a bit over 11k Supras sold, but only about 4k of those were turbo models. With a MSRP of around ~$40k for a brand new one in 1998 though, that number plugged in the inflation calculator is almost $70k in today's dollars.
https://mkiv.com/specifications/sales_numbers/retail_sales.html
https://www.hotcars.com/heres-how-much-a-1998-toyota-supra-costs-today-/
Pete. (l33t FS) said:In reply to BoxheadTim :
Probably because they got to the R35 and were all "What the heck is this mess?"
Who can blame them?
Keith Tanner said:MrFancypants said:Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:68-70 Dodge Chargers. A good looking car made more desirable thanks to a certain TV series as well as more than a few movie roles. I could have bought one in the early 90's, but it would have stretched me a bit. Now prices are so far out of reach it's not likely I'll ever own one.
This particular problem was made worse by all the Chargers destroyed by the show itself.
Not really. Production of the 1969 Charger was about 19,000 cars. The show destroyed roughly 300 of them, or 1.5%.
True. While a number of cars were wrecked, the vehicle crew also rebuilt a lot of them since they only needed to look presentable from 100+ feet away and on low-res TV for a few seconds of a stunt. And not all of them were '69s. Some were 68's and 70's with front/rear clips replaced. I remember even seeing a '69 Charger 500 in one show - noticeable by the flush rear window. I'm sure collectors squirm when they see it today, but back then nobody really cared.
JAdams said:codrus (Forum Supporter) said:JAdams said:Mk4 Supra. I mean I get that they are pretty good cars, but I'm not convinced they would be nearly as valuable if it weren't for a certain movie series hyping them up. These days they have far surpassed the actual value and are over-priced garage queens IMO.
To a degree, yes, but the turbo ones have always been expensive. As is usually the case with car values, it's about rarity -- they only brought about 7000 turbo mk4 Supras to the US over the whole production run. That's the lowest numbers of any of the 90s "Japanese supercars", even the 1st gen NSX has more than that.
I understand that and they probably wouldn't be cheap regardless but I don't believe they would have held value quite as well if it weren't for the movie. I get that they aren't exactly common but holy crap they are expensive. Also, the website below puts the U.S. market at a bit over 11k Supras sold, but only about 4k of those were turbo models. With a MSRP of around ~$40k for a brand new one in 1998 though, that number plugged in the inflation calculator is almost $70k in today's dollars.
https://mkiv.com/specifications/sales_numbers/retail_sales.html
https://www.hotcars.com/heres-how-much-a-1998-toyota-supra-costs-today-/
4000 manual turbos, 3000 automatics, so a total of 7000 turbos (and another 4000 NA cars of various configs). The autos aren't worth as much as the manuals, but they're still stupidly expensive.
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