I think the are classics because of our love of them. For many of us,
they were the first truly affordable sportscars of our youth that our
fathers' wouldn't let us have for whatever reasons. Sure, the Corvette
turned heads, but we knew that we could never afford them when we were
young. The 60's muscle cars were great for street dragging and burning
up a set of rear tires every few months pulling hole shots. But they
were only fun on the straight road. Then gas jumped from .30 to .60 a
gallon 1973, and I could no longer afford to feed my 8 mpg '69 Plymouth
Roadrunner on my 1.85 per hour minimum wage part-time job.
Styling and engineering; yes, those are points that draw us to the MG
badge. That 2 seat open roadster is what did it for me. A car that was
fun to drive down a twisting country road in late September with the
destination being the next tight curve. A car that I could pull into the
garage, and with a set of metric wrenches, pliers, a couple of
screwdrivers, and that quickly acquired multi-meter, I could most fix
almost anything that went wrong with it.
The limited number produced? Hardly, MG had a pretty good run in the 18
or so years that they were imported into this country.
As for purchasing cars as an investment, that is a rich mans venue.
Storage and insurance alone can eat you up. Investors collect rare cars,
and, based on sheer numbers produced, the MGB hardly qualifies as rare.
I'd venture that a great condition, original "B" doesn't sell today for
much more that the original price.(Despite what some of the people on
E-Bay think) Hardly a great investment. Buy cars because you love them,
and if they appreciate in value, so much the better for you. But if you
look at the serious collectors, they are buying cars that are already
recognized as classics, have them stored away, and haul them around in
enclosed trailers. They are just waiting for someone to come along and
make them an offer.
Sure, there is some lucky fart who still has his purchased new 1965
Corvette 327, and is looking to fund his retirement condo in Florida
with it, but somewhere out there, in a garage out in the country,
someone has a 1968 Dodge Coronet, or a 1974 Ford Pinto, or a 1982
Cadillac with the revolutionary V8-6-4 engine that thinks they are
sitting on goldmine. The 70's Volkswagon Thing would certainly qualify
as a rare car, but I doubt that they bring much at the annual Concours
d' Elegance in Pebble Beach every year.
Just my humble (and far from learned) opinion,
Chris Rogers
1964 MGB
Dave Ciaccio wrote:
>
> This is a question off our usual MG discussions. Has anyone ever thought of
> what makes our LBCs classics? Is it the styling, the engineering, the limited
> number of production, the era in which they were produced, etc? I am thinking
> of purchasing cars now (as bucks allow) that will be classics in the future.
> The key here is buying a car at the bottom end of its valuation, but when
> restored and over time, will increase in value....similar to what our MGs (or
> other classics of that time) did in the late 70's. So, the question becomes,
> what are those features that make up a future classic and what might some of
> those cars be...mazda miata, pontiac fiero, etc, etc.?
///
/// mgs@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
///
|