Collector Cars

"BJohnson11" (brettjohnson01) 05/21/2015 at 02:03 • Filed to: None

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Do you think 50 years from now, anyone will be like, “duuudee I saw a mint condition 2015 Mustang GT!!!” the way people get excited about seeing a 1965 Mustang GT? I’m sure there will certainly be some cars that are still considered “collector cars” (Mustangs probably are in that realm), but I feel like as a whole, the idea of the collector car isn’t what it used to be. Maybe it’s because cars built today aren’t built to last like the American iron of the 60’s and 70’s, and maybe it has to do with a dying car culture, but it just doesn’t seem like the cars of today will be sought after 50 years from now.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 02:06

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I think there will be a day when Rangers are collectible, that being said I doubt they’d ever be valuable. I mean, look at early F-150s, they are getting there.

BJohnson11 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 05/21/2015 at 02:09

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Yea I mean, I’m sure when the original owners of my ‘74 C10 bought it as a work truck, they didn’t envision it becoming someone’s hot rod/muscle truck/”collectible” one day and yet, here we are. It’s just tough to see someone doing the same with a 2015 Silverado. I think it has a lot to do with how easy the vehicles are to restore/rebuild as well as just sheer quantity of vehicles produced makes them all less collectible.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 02:19

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I agree, trucks of the last 20 years are more akin to cars of the last 60 years. Body on Frame, Longitudinal layout... AKA, easy to work on and upgrade

promoted by the color red > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 02:37

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Of course! For the first decade or two, people will treat them like disposable objects until the kids who could only buy them second/third-hand start making money and feel the strong pull of nostalgia. And, y’know, “investment potential” and all that bullshit. The Ferrari 250 GTO was merely a shitty - albeit rare - old car up until the advent of vintage racing and people speculating the hell out of it in the ‘80s.

Ironically, cars today are built much better. Cars were “overbuilt” only because we didn’t understand materials science as well back then and just threw on extra bulk so it would blow past the bare minimum needed on a good day. It didn’t necessarily mean that they were really built to last - not many could make it to the distances seen on today’s cars without a full rebuild or a whole bunch more oil change/coolant flushes/various services along the way.

BJohnson11 > promoted by the color red 05/21/2015 at 02:46

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I agree, they are built better, but I still think that for whatever reason, I can’t see them being as “collectible”. Maybe its how I see car culture changing with the way the generations are changing, but I don’t know if the desire for cars to be collectible will still be there. That and cars just aren’t rare like they used to be.

Plus, with the new materials cars are being made out of, it’ll be a lot harder to patch up and fix derelict cars. Can’t just weld in some carbon fiber patch panels!

Flavien Vidal > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 02:51

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When everyone will only deal with fully automated cars, anything that will be “manually driven” will be collectible lol

Sad, but the way it’s going right now with fucking google and tesla, that’s where we’re headed :(

MrDakka > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 02:58

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BMW E31 8 series. Only one generation for the 8 series

BJohnson11 > Flavien Vidal 05/21/2015 at 03:04

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Right, but will it be collected? I’m sure there will be people clinging to the past (myself definitely included), but I feel like the trend is moving away from cars as a novelty to cars as a pure utility.

promoted by the color red > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 03:20

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To put it into perspective, the Beetle and the Model T were made in numbers that took the Corolla decades to surpass, yet we still collect/modify them. Hell, even the early Japanese econoboxes are developing a cult following of their own today. To butcher Jurassic Park, “[car culture] finds a way”.

Flavien Vidal > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 03:28

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I’m pretty sure everything will be collected... But just like people can collect ‘79 Lincoln Towncars, it doesn’t mean it’s ever going to be worth money.

But yeah, a 2015 Toyota Corolla could very well be a collectible car in 50 years. It won’t be worth shit, but it’s most likely going to be collectible.

webmonkees > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 04:24

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Crown Vic/ Marquis. I saw one last month that still had the dealer sticker on it. One each of civilian, taxi, detective/cop and Marauder. Enough NOS and junkyards to refurb the interior(s) to get the funk out, make it fairly inexpensive to get a set together.

yamahog > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 06:23

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I’m still waiting for the final numbers, but my 1LE is probably one of only 1000 or so for 2015, and one of 100 or so in Bright Yellow. Though I doubt anyone will care about that besides me, I’ll be keeping it in damn good shape.

Wobbles the Mind > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 06:58

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Honestly I think 2010s to mid 2020s is looking identical to 1960s to mid 1970s in terms of American Cars. Japan has the late 80s and 90s. Germans have the 2000s. Italian and British are always collectible.

The real question is if Korean cars will be sought after. Obviously not this decade but I think 2020s will be the start of collectors potential from Korea for Americans. Everything so far is just great used car choices.

Berang > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 07:04

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I think a good indicator is to see if a particular car holds its value. Cars like many things hit their lowest value about 10-15 years after they were new. After that, nostalgia + rarity = desirability and value. If a car is still worth a lot when it is ten years old, it is more than likely going to be desirable even when it is 25 years old.

So for instance, the 1998 Toyota Supra - even now is still a desirable car. Prices are kind of ridic given its age, it will most likely become a certifiable collectible by the time it is 25 years old.

Then you have cars which gain value from notoriety, the infamous Yugo GV for example. A ten year old Yugo was worth nothing. You had to give it away. Now though with age, rarity, and infamy a really nice one goes for about the same price they cost when brand new - or more. Which is astonishing.

Everything in between though just fades away.

DoYouEvenShift > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 07:12

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I think it will happen. There will come a day where a stock, mint LS1 Trans Am, Terminator Cobra, Z06, SRT8 Challenger, etc will bring in big money.

Berang > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 07:14

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I think another interesting thing is that many very old cars are coming down in value. The people who bought them when they were cheap, or were old enough to want them when they were new are now getting too old to drive or are dead. Since cars from the 1920s and 1930s are also (usually) not very good driving cars - the interest in this era has fallen off drastically in the past ten years. I think we’re going to see the same thing happen with most collectibles from the 1940s and 1950s. Cars from the 1910s and earlier are so rare they will always have value - and at this point are almost more akin to art than to collectible cars. I think from the 1960s on most cars were “normal” enough in terms of driveability and maintenance that they will probably continue to be collectible.

Slant6 > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 07:43

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Prius is the new Beetle. People buy tons of them as cheap economy cars and they’re unanimous and ugly (in their respective times, Beetles now are seen as classic designs).

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 07:54

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I'd say we've been spoiled in projecting an opinion on this, since most vehicles in the last 15 years show no signs of becoming desireable. Therefore we say modern cars are BS and won't ever be considered classics. But... Turn the clock back 15 years, and there are a wealth of interesting cars in the 15 years preceding that, which are now considered classics. We are now into a period (however breif it may be) where manufacturers are trying to make cars interesting again. There will be such a thing as a 2015 collectors item.

facw > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 08:19

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I think there will absolutely be collector interest, though they may not be the cars you’d expect. The 2015 Mustang might be interesting as it adds a lot new, but I think its more retro styled competitors (and the previous gen Mustang) won’t do as well, if you’re a collector, you’d prefer to have the real thing from the ‘60s and ‘70s as opposed to a weird retro-knockoff thing. I think you can see that already with the ‘90s Mustang, which was also thought of as retro at the time, but which commands very little interest today. On the flipside non-enthusiast cars that are genuinely distinctive may become good collectors, even if they were originally produced in huge numbers.

I’d also argue that cars are far more built-to-last today than at any point in the past, and it shows if you look at the numbers. Even despite cash for clunkers, the average car on the road in the US is over 11 years old (compared to around 6 in the 1970s), after a pretty steady climb. There’s a survivor bias at work, you see the gorgeous classics, but not all the cars that went to the crusher early due to terrible rust and unreliable mechanicals.

Wurrwulf > DoYouEvenShift 05/21/2015 at 08:41

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G8 GT will be the big winner, I think. They didn’t sell well, and they only sold them for what, 2 years?

DoYouEvenShift > Wurrwulf 05/21/2015 at 09:01

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Oh yeah, with around 2k made for the GXP. It will be a good one. Same for the SS sedan.

crowmolly > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 09:58

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A big thing that wasn’t mentioned so far:

The popularity of the collector/fun car hobby

Back in the 70’s and part of the 80’s you could still get rare muscle cars for a good price because nobody wanted them. They were just old cars that got poor fuel economy.

Nowadays the hobby is all over the place, and people see a lot of dollars changing hands on Barrett-Jackson and Mecum. So everybody thinks that they have a gem, and a lot of people are babying modern cars thinking they will be worth something someday. There is something to be said for supply and demand. When there are 14 Hemi Cuda ‘verts out there, that’s a very small supply. Make that a few thousand Mustangs and the equation is more equal.

Rare, limited edition, or performance models will be collector cars.

Regular stuff like a Mustang GT will probably stall in value.

BJohnson11 > crowmolly 05/21/2015 at 10:31

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Right, and I think this is what kinda sparked the post. I’m sure stuff will be collectible, but will it have value because of high volume production. The rare cars may hold value well, but the generic stuff not so much.

crowmolly > BJohnson11 05/21/2015 at 10:35

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Yup. There are plenty of examples of older muscle cars that aren’t big collector vehicles.

Berang > promoted by the color red 05/21/2015 at 10:57

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I don’t know if it is true that new cars are built or designed to last better. I would agree that engines at least last a lot longer. 100K was a lot of miles in the 1970s, now you just sort of expect an engine to get to 200K. Obviously materials and lubricants are worlds better now than they were 30-40 years ago.

And cars handle and perform better and are safer. But I also feel like the overall car is becoming something of a “one-time-use” thing. Once it’s dead it’s just trash. It’s too complicated to fix some problems and there are “maintenance proof” items as well, which in old cars were relatively easy to replace, or simply maintained basically indefinitely.