Will muscle car prices crash?

[BJM]

I have been wondering if the current wave of high prices is going to crash. I have been trying to understand what might happen over the next few years.

In the late 80's prices were rising rapidly. I recall that there was a lot of Japanese interest and cars were leaving North America, especially 50's cars. The Japanese economy tanked (and seemingly never recovered), there was an overall recession and people obviously decided that they had better buy food and cover the mortgage rather than buy an old muscle car. So prices fell.

Currently the economy is pretty stable, interest rates are low. Baby boomers are at the peak of their wealth and they are buying up cars and the prices are rising. As far as I can tell these same buyers are going to keep these cars for maybe 10 years at most. Do you really want a 30-40 year old hobby car when you are 75-80 years old? Even then, you cannot relive your youth very easily if you spent $100k-$500k on a car and you don't dare actually drive it. So now the key players are investors who are into money, not cars. To me this spells the end. Over the long term, cars are a crappy investment, the window for making money is small and you won't make money on the million dollar cars, its a crap shoot to make money on those. Normal cars, the ones needing restoring, how high could they possibly go? My guess is the prices are basically at their peak now.

That's my theory, feel free to poke holes in it. Ultimately in the next couple of years I want a muscle car restoration project and do not want to have to pay $20,000 for a rust bucket before I actually get to fix anything.

[Gnat352]

IMO they will just rise in value, unless Gas becomes obsolete, which I think wont happen in our life time , But, some people pay to much for cars now a days, my dad said back in the 70's he would pay $300 for a camaro, and just use the good parts from it , back in the day $hit was cheap, just ask some of these old guys ., I see poeple paying 14K for a '69 camaro that needs some majot work, that seems stupid to me, but to people who got 14K to piss away it does not , To me car value means JACK $hit, if you planning to keep it your whole life, which I plan to do, then make the best of it

[BJM]

Originally Posted by Gnat352

IMO they will just rise in value..........

A market requires some underlying value for prices to rise. These are old cars that are falling apart progressively, not improving with age like a fine wine.

We have one vote up and one down, I should have made this a poll.

[Gnat352]

Like I said before, if you have MONEY, and are willing to spend it on a car that needs much work, or you have a real nice car that needs maintence then need be so. But if you don't then your gonna struggle, I see what you are saying and I agree, I bought my car for $3500, and put about 2K into it withing the last year, and it still needs WAY more upgrades, Im talking about buying a blower kit for my Buick 355 motor, the blower and intercooler kit is $3400 , also I need new suspension, trans,rear end,paint,and the list goes on and on but I am willing to sacrifice for it

[87natty]

Eventually, I'm not at all saying any time soon, gasoline cars will go the way of the steam engine. Most will be in museums or rotting away in garages and such. Now anytime soon, but I think the whole collector muscle car thing is blown way out of whack. Kind of like the housing thing, what happens when only those who can afford it are the only ones keeping prices up? It's kind of like fine art, why worry about tryin got score a real Monet when you can get a print? You can say it's not the same, but it gets the point across. In that same vein, you can now get a 69 Camaro body sent to your house in a crate, so what does that do to value? It will probably be the same as those fiberglass '32 kits you can get. Who knows really though?

[NJBuickRacer]

The market can crash all it wants....AFTER I sell the '63 Vette in my garage. I'm dreading putting it on ebay, with all the dreamers and picture collectors out there, but I should be able to recoup the $39k me and my father are into the car for so far(frame-off resto).

[87GN@Tahoe]

Originally Posted by 87natty

Eventually, I'm not at all saying any time soon, gasoline cars will go the way of the steam engine. Most will be in museums or rotting away in garages and such.

someone say steam engine?????

[87GN5litrebeater]

I hope it does crash, That way muscle cars can be had for cheap like they used to be Its crazy when you see Dart's and 60's MOPAR in general in the 30K + range when years ago these cars could be purchased for next to nothing. All you need to do is take a trip to Carlisle and let your eyes bug out at the prices. It is just down right sick, Its not a fun affordable hobby anymore it seems like its just a big business

[CT87GN]

I just thank god I was old enough to remember actually seeing Hemis, 440-6's, LS-6's, etc on the streets and NOT in just magazines or some "collecters" garage. What a friggin shame!! I myself owned a 68 Charger R/T (restored by me), 74 Challenger(mint), 70 Nova 396, 79 T/A(damn those backseats were small , etc. Hell, I couldn't even afford to buy the Charger back today. KTB

[Grumpy]

my personal opinion on market crashes (stock market) .... when stocks crash that brings out the heavy hitters for the rare cars.

[Sinical]

To simplify it, prices will come down when supply is more than demand. If there is someone willing to pay "X" amount for "Y" car then that will be what it's worth. I don't think prices are going to drop significantly on "60's muscle cars". The fact is that they will just be out of reach for your average car enthusiast. Prices may level off a little and not rise at the rate that they have the past 10 years but I wouldn't hold out for a "market crash" on the older muscle. What ends happening is once a certain generation of automobile is out of reach the true enthusiasts simply seek out an alternative.

I bought my GN b/c I knew that soon I would no longer be able to pick one up for the price range I had budgeted. I'm not too worried about it's "value/worth/collectability" as I don't ever plan on selling and was never bought under the pretense of "investment". That's my .02

[GN Mistress]

Doesn't look like prices ae falling off anytime soon....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1971-...09240774QQrdZ1

[Gnat352]

Today I went pumpkin picking with my dad and brother, and at the WaWa parkin lot, there was a '69 RS Camaro. Car was yellow, with black stripes. Had bubble rust in the usual place, car was 4 speed stick, interior looked $hitty, and the paint was like a 6 out of a 10, guy wanted $18K, My dad almost dies, I said who the F*ck would pay that kindamoney for a RS camaro, they only made 300 million of em , people just think they can get tons of money for em , same with our cars, I will not pay over $8500, why pay that much for a car thats not even that old, My car is as old as me, 1987 all the way

[Grumpy]

Rare parts will allways be crazy

[BJM]

Originally Posted by Sinical

To simplify it, prices will come down when supply is more than demand.

This is what I want to figure out. Why would muscle cars stay valuable. The generations are aleady moving onto other cars (younger kids and imports for example) so they will never pay big bucks for a muscle car, muscle cars mean nothing to them. If cars disappear faster than the market for them, prices obviously will stay high. If the interest wanes before the supply of fixable cars does then prices will fall. So which will it be. To my mind the latter will occur. With restoration parts coming on line faster all the time, these companies want low prices to increase their volumes. Its in their interests to see prices fall. The more I think about it, the more my guess is that prices will fall.