The sky isn't falling, just Musclecar prices....

As prices drop I believe more "vanilla" cars will be used.

Their demand will drop more. Meanwhile, like the high dollar paint jobs, it will make less financial sense to re-panel a rusty desirable car as their end value drops.

 

Its just like the stock market, buy low and sell high! I think its a great time to watch for a nice deal on something. I certainly dont need another car (my wife can attest to that), but if the right one comes along at the right price:Brow: , who can say no!

 

You're right as usual Brian. What I meant was all cars will drop, so fewer nice vanilla cars will be used up to build the big buck blue chip cars as there will be much fewer big buck cars done as the quick profits aren't there. There will be some demand for the affordable cars, especially amongst the loyal enthusiasts. Cars like Tom Miller's silver W30 that he sold a few years back will be more in demand than the $100k plus cars that are around today and dropping like Clinton's zipper.

The trend may be to add the emblems and other trim items to standard Cutlasses, Camaros, etc. rather than chopping them up to build glued up rust buckets for "originality".

Take away the money incentive and the investors will go somewhere else. The few really blue chip cars will still hold their values but like someone said here, will be sold in private sales and not be hurt. That'll be amongst real enthusiasts. Lots others will go back to museums and warehouses to be "rediscovered as "barn finds" 10 or 20 years from now...if cars are still allowable and there's any economy and freedom to pursue these things. Scary outlook there.

Well I'll wrap my part of this up with the customary Olds highjack:



:beer :bla: :beer

 

Guys as most of you know I do this as a money making hobby. I like the cars but they are all for sell except my father's conv. I saw a 65 Malibu Z 16 car bring 238k at Mecum in Kissimee a couple weeks ago. 67 W-30 70 K . 72 Stg 1 conv 75k. It is adjusting but it ain't falling enough to scare the heavy hitters. They are buying. The Minn collector killed alot of confidence in the Mopars but they are about right on the money now. 70 Challenger Sublime conv with 383 brought 98k and was no saled at Mecum. Don't run for cover just yet. Get out your damn checkbook. There are going to be some reasonable buys out there but you are not going to steal them yet.

 

I dont ever see Muscle Cars not being popular. Model Ts and As are real popular with the rat rod guys, most of them were born in the 1980s. The stock Ts and As are pretty boring and only the hardcore dudes bother with them. Muscle Cars werent and never will be boring.

The thing that will hamper the young guys is valuation. Most of these cars are now so far out of budget for young guys that it will be hard for them to get a car now. But as they age they will get into them.

Take a look at the owners at the next show or cruise you go to. Guys that bought them new in the mid 1960s are now in their mid 60s. I dont see a lot of those guys anymore at shows.

 

Young guys still like them, they just cant afford them.....

 

Lots of us middle aged guys can't afford the nice ones either.

 

I'm not scared. Buicks were already lagging before any drop.

As time goes on, the younger crowd may start to look at what was a better car. If that starts driving prices versus what people used to drive in high school, then maybe the Buicks will catch up.

 

That's because a lot of us in our 60's who did buy them new, and never stopped buying them, are racing them now. Nostalgia racing has never been bigger and the Pure Stock/FAST series is just plain awesome. I can't stand shows and cruises anymore. Nothing personal, just a whole lot more fun doing what they were made to do. They're hard to break.

:3gears:

 

Take a look at the owners at the next show or cruise you go to. Guys that bought them new in the mid 1960s are now in their mid 60s. I dont see a lot of those guys anymore at shows.[/QUOTE]

I AM :rant: in my mid 60's and I go to at least one car show per year, Have to, my local Hot Rod Club, of which I'm a member, sponsers it. Like watching paint dry!:laugh: I would never have restored this car except for the pure stock races.

 

There is a nostalgic and emotional attachment to cars of your era.:3gears:

That is why all the financial companys blast '60s music on their commercials: to make a connection to you and your past.

As time goes on, there will be fewer folks interested in old cars, especially if they are older than their era...........o No:

 

"Musclecars" have been around for about 70-80 years now, with the first affordable or "working man's musclecar" being the 1932 ford V8. Cords, Packards, Dusenbergs (sp?) Caddys, Chryslers, Lincolns, and too many others to list. The one thing they all had in common, was ever bigger and more powerful engines. Point being this;

Chart their individual values on a graph, from day 1 (new), to today's actual inflation adjusted dollar cost (time vs. value). The resulting line would look something like throwing an un-opened beer can into the lake. At the beginning, the values are more than other vehicles because they are new (above the water). Shortly thereafter, they are worth less than other cars because they are considered used (below the water). Then the values begin to rise back to, and above, their original values (floats back to the surface). How far up they go at that point is determined by several constant factors, but the vast majority attain a level above where they were at when new, where they then tend to float along with inflation. Some do go crazy with the prices, but only a fraction of a percentage, do not drop back after a spike in value. Just look at V8 fords, Mopars, TRI-five Chevys, and 67 Vettes, if you can't think of examples.
First, all of the scarce cars and parts are bought up or hoarded.
Next, reproduction parts become economically viable.
At some point afterward, your favorite car settles into a nice little equalibrium.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that when we die off, our toys will be crushed. The older and more sophisticated any generation's gearheads' become, the more they will treasure nice examples of unique cars from all time periods. And if you think clones will be worth zip, you are wrong. I have seen a couple of high dollar 30's era cars with non matching engines and equipment, go for big dollars, granted they were probably 50% or less, than an original car's value, but 150K is nothing to sniff at.

Hope I see you guys after all the perma-frost melts.:laugh:

 

Someone stated it earlier, most of the younger guys that like to turn wrenches would love to have the older iron, just that it is too expensive for them to get hold of. The reason that most of them are going to Honda, Toyota, and Nissan is the same reason the kids of the 50's were going to dueces... Cheap cost!!! When I was growing up, there was some but not a lot of 1st gen Camaros and Mustangs, one of my friends had a '68 Firebird 400, and my brother and I were running around in our '70 Torino (yes, I actually owned an older Ford, made me appreciate the better things when they came around!!:bla: ) The reason... something that is cheap that we could work on. As long as cars are still available to the public, someone is going to hot rod on them. Speed and bling are an obsession that transend generations, just that sometimes the taste changes.:idea2:

 

If you had a huge map of the US that showed where all the significant musclecars' owners are, you'd still see a very heavy concentration in the rust belt, with Michigan at the top of the heap. That may be changing with the demise of the US auto industry (definition of that is getting very fuzzy), and all the retirees that can leave (translate that into not being hostage to an unsalable house) are flocking to states that are more amenable to retirees like Tennessee, North Carolina, etc. Florida and Arizona will always be a favorite place. It's no accident that Pure Stock started in Central Michigan. That's where the heaviest concentration of muscle cars are located.

There's a whole wave of new blood in these cars that are there because their Dad was into it and probably has a few toys that will be passed down eventually. Those cars don't have a price tag on them, as most will never be sold anyway. As long as there's gasoline available, it won't die off.

Many like myself had their careers cut short by the new wave, myopic short term management, and it hurt for a while. But it let us go do what we always wanted to do and never had the time or resources to do it. Now we do. We have our health (mostly), have money to play with (so far), and lots of time on our hands. Most are in their 50's and 60's and that will change.....but not for a long while. :bglasses: Just look at the Studebaker contingent and recall that Studebaker/Packard closed the doors over 40 years ago......

Up here we all grew up with some involvement with the auto industry, either directly or indirectly. That's changing, but still pretty strong. We have it running through our veins.

 

I think the musclecars as well as the other classics will always be around as long as there is gas to run them and breathing people to drive them (as stated above).

You might even draw a parallel with classic aircraft. In particular, probably the most famous light airplane ever, the 65hp Piper J-3 Cub. I found this statement in about 20 seconds of searching the Net and it pretty much says sums it up:


"By 1947, when production ended, 14,125 Piper Cubs had been built.
The J-3 is now finding an ever-increasing popularity among antique
airplane buffs, and brand new Cubs are being constructed by
homebuilders. Both an excellent trainer and a delightful sport
plane, which lends itself to lazy summer afternoons, the Cub might
best be summed up by the words "simple," "economical." and above
all "slow."
The high demand for J3 Cubs is because of three basic facts:they are very nostalgic, they are lots of fun, they are cute as a bug.(But this has caused a high market demand which has driven the cost for a nice J3 out of sight for the average person)."


The NEWEST J-3 is over SIXTY years old and there are at least two or three companies currently marketing (sucessfully) brand-new, experimental-type copies for over $100k a pop. I would have to guess that the average age of a pilot flying an original one today is less than his airplane.

Many of the Cub's same sentimental atributes are shared by "musclecars" and other vehicles of eariler eras.

Now, about that '40 Cub the guy across the field has for sale... :Brow:

 

Well my Nephew will prob be trading the Stage 1 he is set to inherit for a Evo, WRX ect and he was born and bred on Buicks, and muscle cars for that matter. At the Autoshow last year i was listening to the comments by young adult's at the Antique part of the show. Not much interest.

 

I hope prices fall because I would like to start a collection and would like them to be reasonably priced. I don't think Muscle cars will be hurt long term either. I am only 36 and love GS's and GTOs and have friends with 60's Camaros. Things that will start cooking in the next few years will be 280Zs, 78-82 Corvettes, Fiero's, Toyota MR2s and Supras.

I look at Muscle cars like Harley Davidson looks at motorcycle sales. They are not being hurt by the younger buyers. The younger buyers cut there teeth on crotch rockets and then when their backs hurt from riding hunched over they buy a Harley. The same will happen to muscle cars. The kids of today will get into them, but it will start with tuner cars and then Grand Nationals, Camaros, Mustangs and Hurst Olds and work back into the '65-'72 cars.

To Sum it up I think the next few years will be good years to buy muscle cars. There will be plenty of people that need to puke them out to save their house. I know it is a tough view, but it isn't my fault that other people made bad financial desisions. It also ticks me off the the government is willing to try and help them and those of us that didn't over extend ourselves have to pay for those that did.

 

I would say DICE21 hit the nail on the head back at post#3 almost 2 years ago:eek2:

 

What do you mean musclecar prices are falling? With the plunging dollar and sky-rocketing commodities prices, I'm going to melt mine down, and sell all of the copper and aluminum I get from them!:dollar: :dollar: :dollar: :dollar:

 

Bet you wish you had a ZL-1 uzzled: