on 3/25/02 11:03 AM, Scott Allen at scottinarl@hotmail.com wrote:
> No need to speculate on this. Go to the inflation calculator at:
>
> http://www.westegg.com/inflation/
>
> My Gram'pa purchased his TD with options in 1951 for the princely sum of
> $1,772. In today's dollars this tracks to $12,540 and change.
>
> I could reasonably expect to get in the $16k-$20k range for '52 for a net
> gain of $3k-$7k.
>
> Not very good on a 50 year investment.
Especially if you factor in the amount of money you had to spend on the TD
in the interim, so that it was salable for that price. Either maintenance
over the years, or a lump sum restoration. Of course, you got a lot of value
from use, that is if it wasn't in storage the whole time, but you paid that
back with more maintenance.
>
> As for future classics everything I see says to follow the money
> demographic. I.e., since folks enter their peak earning years around 45ish,
> whatever car they thought was hot when they were teenagers will be hot.
>
> Hence Hemi Cudas going for $50k+ on today's collectors market.
>
You're right about the key issue -- desirability. It has to be something
people wanted (preferable drooled over) when it was new, and still find
desirable. Pretty much all Ferraris fit the bill -- pretty much no American
Motors vehicles qualify, by the same token (well, perhaps the AMX). Rarity
isn't the issue, or Sunbeam Alpines would be much more valuable than MGBs
(to compare similar vehicles).
Someone mentioned a Peugeot 405 Mi16 (for the sake of argument) -- I would
say this (and many of the other vehicles mentioned) is an example of what
R&T used to call a Used Car Classic -- an affordable and enjoyable older
performance car -- in particular an under-appreciated and undervalued one.
But as very few people were going around lusting after this model when new,
fewer yet will be willing to spend serious money on it 30 years down the
road.
Essentially, collector cars are the ones that are still worth ANYTHING after
30 years. The others, like 1971 Ford Maverick 4-doors, are basically
worthless. A rare few, such as the HemiCuda (only a few hundred produced),
have significant value. I can't really think of any mass production cars in
the last decade with that kind of potential.
> Anyway, my 2p.
>
> Scott Allen
> 52 TD
> 74 1/2 BGT
>
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
///
/// mgs@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
///
|