No one's commenting on the barn find Mustang?

Cotton wrote: A lot of people don't get why someone drives a car sparingly, so I can give a few of my thoughts....

I think the hard to believe part is more for the the ones that are pretty much not driven at all apparently for collectors reasons.

One of the reasons that can be silly was highlighted by an auction I saw a while back. There was an absolutely pristine, almost no miles first year C4 Corvette (82?). Obviously put away for investment purposes. As I remember, the car sold for about $15,000-$20,000. I believe that car, new, was about $25,000....30 years earlier... ouch...

So, you never know. This guy really just got lucky (if this is what he was going for). It can be really hard to tell what will be valuable in the future.

aircooled wrote: I think the hard to believe part is more for the the ones that are pretty much not driven at all apparently for collectors reasons. One of the reasons that can be silly was highlighted by an auction I saw a while back. There was an absolutely pristine, almost no miles first year C4 Corvette (82?). Obviously put away for investment purposes. As I remember, the car sold for about $15,000-$20,000. I believe that car, new, was about $25,000....30 years earlier... ouch... So, you never know. This guy really just got lucky (if this is what he was going for). It can be really hard to tell what will be valuable in the future.

Yup. If someone took that same $25K in 1982, and put it in a fairly boring balanced portfolio mutual fund that earned a reasonable 5%/year on average.... 30 years later by 2012 that $25K would be worth over $108K.

Not exactly an exciting option, but far better than speculating on cars 99% of the time.

xflowgolf wrote:

aircooled wrote: I think the hard to believe part is more for the the ones that are pretty much not driven at all apparently for collectors reasons. One of the reasons that can be silly was highlighted by an auction I saw a while back. There was an absolutely pristine, almost no miles first year C4 Corvette (82?). Obviously put away for investment purposes. As I remember, the car sold for about $15,000-$20,000. I believe that car, new, was about $25,000....30 years earlier... ouch... So, you never know. This guy really just got lucky (if this is what he was going for). It can be really hard to tell what will be valuable in the future.

Yup. If someone took that same $25K in 1982, and put it in a fairly boring balanced portfolio mutual fund that earned a reasonable 5%/year on average.... 30 years later by 2012 that $25K would be worth over $108K. Not exactly an exciting option, but far better than speculating on cars 99% of the time.

Mutual funds are boring, cars are fun, even if I'm just looking at them. Obviously I'm no good at investing!!

As someone who actually has to move these types of collector cars around every year, its amazing how E36 M3ty some can be. Bad batteries, no gas, other random failures, interior E36 M3 falling apart/broken.....yet they sell for money because "They look good from the outside" I can always spot an enthusiest owned car though, they always have a strong battery, full tank of fuel, and almost everything works. They also aren't perfect "lookers" either. I greatly enjoy chatting with those owners.

I also in the don't understand camp.

All that comes to mind is the Top Gear USA episode with the Le Mans winning GT40. The host drove it 7 feet then stopped saying every mile devalues the car by 10k or something absurd. Let's be clear here there is one GT40 that won Le Mans that year. It isn't like Ford made another one and went back in time to have it win to devalue that car. There's one and there will only ever be one. Who's seriously going to come out and say it doesn't have the same milage that it won the race with so the seller should knock 10k off the price? If you want the car that won Le Mans, well you pay what is being asked.

The market is highly speculative and relies on people with money now that couldn't afford the car then. Eventually the bottom is going to fall out and modified civics and FDs are going to be fetching rhat money with no one wanting a huge heavy American car or so I tell myself.

The0retical wrote: ...The market is highly speculative and relies on people with money now that couldn't afford the car then. Eventually the bottom is going to fall out and modified civics and FDs are going to be fetching rhat money with no one wanting a huge heavy American car or so I tell myself.

I would tend to agree with you, but it does not appear to be the case. The fancy 30-40's cars still demand big bucks yet there is almost no one left who remembers the cars when they were new.

In reply to aircooled:

Exactly. I'm 36 and would love to have a sweet 48 Chevy or 55 Speedster, since the bottom should have fallen out on those years ago, right? While I'm at it sign me up for a 289 or 427 Cobra, 300sl gullwing, lets throw a nice supercharged Cord and some Duesenbergs in there while we're at it. I mean a Duesenberg is just a big old heavy American car anyway....

In my mind, this all boils down to what you value. Unless you're stupid rich, its either things or experiences. Most people aren't wealthy enough to actually use really expensive things. Personally, I value experiences. I would a whole lot rather experience, talk about and think about things I've done than things I've owned. I'd rather race/drive/hoon a $2500 Miata than own a $200,000 "Number 242 of 1000" collector car that never goes anywhere or does anything. Some people aren't that way. They would rather have things than do things. Personally, I find those types to be boring and unhappy, but what do I know. . .

kazoospec wrote: In my mind, this all boils down to what you value. Unless you're stupid rich, its either things or experiences. Most people aren't wealthy enough to actually use really expensive things. Personally, I value experiences. I would a whole lot rather experience, talk about and think about things I've done than things I've owned. I'd rather race/drive/hoon a $2500 Miata than own a $200,000 "Number 242 of 1000" collector car that never goes anywhere or does anything. Some people aren't that way. They would rather have things than do things. Personally, I find those types to be boring and unhappy, but what do I know. . .

That's a pretty good way to sum it up. I'm in that camp too I love driving anything unique and interesting. Like many of us I'm fickle and quickly lose interest in anything that begins to seem pedestrian.

Cotton: I understand completely where you're coming from, and admire your list of cars. I have nothing against old iron, just ask my wife every time we pass a dilapidated wreck, and especially admire things that say cobra and 300SL but I'm the type that wouldn't be worried about their value decreasing from milage put on them. I'd want them for the experience of driving them. Not just to say I own one for the hootus measuring contest over drinks or to get my own TV show flipping cars.

I am interested to see where prices go on the future. I wonder if speculating on cars is the new gold speculation and I should be buying every Grand National and Typhoon I run across or if it's a passing fad that really took a hit when the bottom fell out of the economy.

I suppose time will tell and to each their own.

In reply to The0retical:

My wife is used to me slobbering over junkers too....funny story: When my wife and I were dating we were on our way to her parents house and passed a rough looking MR2 for sale at a gas station. I immediately turned around to check it out and saw the asking price was $400. The clutch was slipping bad and 4th gear was gone, but I still wanted it and got the guy down to $350. Anyway we made the deal and I arranged to pay and pick it up the next day. When we left my wife said, "you just bought a beat up car off the side of the road, I didn't know normal people did that!" Of course she found out soon enough when it came to vehicles I was far from normal!

Funny thing is a few years later I traded the MR2 for a wrecked and very rough 65 Riviera in a junkyard...I drove the MR2 there and of course the Riviera came home on a trailer. Years later I saw the same MR2 in the junkyard where they put it after it stopped running and bought it back. I paid $350 for it then too! I still have that MR2 and the Riviera, but that particular Riviera is a parts car for a nicer one I picked up to restore.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

z31maniac wrote:

Sine_Qua_Non wrote: Want but I would make it a DD. that should fetch 7 digits

IIRC my dad told me it brought ~$160,000 at auction.

Does that seem low in these days of mega auction prices?

Musclecars have taken a dump recently. $160k is a great buy for that car. I'll bet it would have fetched double/triple 8-10 years ago.

Regarding the internet skeptics, Matt Farah (on the Smoking Tire podcast) has such distain toward "the internet". "The internet" will naysay absolutely everything you do or say. It's pretty funny.

The car is a survivor to the nth degree. I wonder how much will have to be put into it to get it running reliably.