Mikesan

Why does every hot new car have to be RARE? Why is everyone so hot to get a 1 of 1 combo? Barrett Jackson pricing, that's why. What today's generation of muscle car buyers need to understand is that their cars will still be quite common 35 years from now. The reason the 60's muscle cars are rare is that they weren't well built to begin with and got trashed and crashed. Back then, the cars were parked outside and driven hard year round. Shade tree mechanics modded all the time. Some better than others. No one thought to save it. Just make it faster, put a CB radio in it, upgrade the 8 track to cassette, install Jensen speakers, and try to hold off the rocker panel rust. Not the case now. We have our summer daily driver, our winter daily driver and our garage queen that sits under a cover in a climate controlled garage with Sta-Bil in the tank, Mobil 1 in the engine, and a battery charger hooked up to it. Only trained dealer mechanics working on it. I'm seeing the same mentality in the GT500 forums. Most owners think they have a $150,000 car in 2047. My guess is that half of those cars will have less than 50,000 miles on them and will have never been in the rain. They won't be rare, they'll still drive like new, and they will be affordable.

And those who have the hot cars want all production to cease immediately and those who don't have one want to buy it at invoice. There, I feel better now. Time for my warm milk and cookies.

hemicuda

You are absolutely correct. Nobody thought to save the 60s and 70s musclecars back in the day. They were just cars and people drove them hard like they were meant to be driven. That’s what made them legends on the streets. Additionally, the highly collectible Mopar musclecars that we know today were not big sellers, which made them rare.
My hope is that people will drive the new Challenger and create a new legend. Please don’t let them sit in garages in climate controlled plastic bubbles waiting for the day that it will become a collectible. Drive them and enjoy them!

bluestang50

The 08 that we are first in line to get will be driven a good bit but it won't be a daily driver. It will be more of a car that me and my dad will take out and have fun with (go on cruises in the north georgia mountains, go to car shows, ride around town). We won't be trying to keep it to sell it for a large amount 30 years from now but we won't be racing it every weekend either. I plan on buying a black 09 SRT-8 with the 6-speed for myself and put a procharger d1sc on it when i have the money. That will be the car that i drive all the time and beat on.

Plum70Rag

That's probably when I'll start thinking about looking to buy.

I'm glad you guys are out there who have the money to buy these things new. I've never paid more than two grand for a car in my life; I can't fathom spending the equivalent of two thirds of the value of my house on one! Forty grand plus for a car... better you guys than me.

Of course that's easy for me to say, I have my '70 to enjoy... which sits comfy cozy under its blankie in my garage 350 days or so a year.

It does seem, though that the things sold as "collectibles" end up being not (you should see how many Beanie Babies are piled on my kids' beds); it's the normal, everyday things that get used, abused and chucked that end up rare.

Rich Knapp

The way you word it is harsh. But it is very true. In all reality now days cars would have to be handed down threw 2-3 generations before it MAY be worth any more than what we pay. Partly because more and more people are taking care of them as if they are collectable now. I am just as bad. I ordered the 04 GTO I had before production started and it was 1 of 366 made in the color and trany combo. It never seen snow, rain or bad weather. This time ya I may spend same money but IT WILL BE A DAILY DRIVER. I spend that kind of money I will be enjoying it and get my moneys worth. And now that I live in AZ instead of WI we can drive it every day. The hard part will be getting the keys from the wife so I can have my turn. lol With her leaving for work before I wake up I think I may get stuck doing my driving on weekends. Run to store for milk be back in a hour or two. We don't have a lot of money but we don't do a lot of stuff other people do like movies, going out to eat (not even fast food), hunting, fishing, sports, bars or drinking so all the money other people spend there we put into our cars. For me it is a good trade off, but thats our choise we don't have anything agenst the other stuff just just not our cup of tea.

RLSH700

I think the reason why that it is this way is that mainstream people have moved away from wanting performance cars that look good and look for other cars instead. The Civic sadly has taken over the position as the youth's dream car (and I'll never understand why partly because I don't want to understand why[:'(]). The Camaro and Firebird were dropped due to lack of popularity at the end of their run. Mid-sized coupes are now becoming an endangered speice (pardon my spelling) with the G6 being the last domestic one. Many people have left cars in favor of SUVs, "Crossovers," trucks, and other more expensive, fuel thirsty segments over cars because of reasons of safety, preference of the ride of these vehicles over cars, and so forth.

I think that the top of the line versions will be the ones that are valuable down the road. I also think a few flops will become valuable down the road. I expect that the Magnum will become worth a lot down the road, Neon SRT-4s as they didn't have a very long run, possibly the Crossfire SRT-6s as they did not have a long run, 2nd gen AWD Eagle Talons, Stealths, Vipers naturally, Shelby models, etc.

Jeremiah 29:11

Growing up, the cars I wanted was either Javelin, Challenger, and Barracuda. My dream cars were the Delorean, Bricklin, and Lamborghini.

To want a Civic is just bizarre.

RLSH700

To me those make sense. There were excellent cars and they actually had something neat called performance as well as excellent styling. The Civics are just lame. The only ones that have anything noteworth are the Si versions and that isn't even that great either. I think my generation has a serious issue with having very bad taste, especially what they do to them (all that excessive body cladding, weird lights, oversized rims, a dozen i-Vtech stickers, and most of the time nothing was done to the engine other than a coffee can sized exhaust system which makes it sound like an angry weed eater[:'(][:'(][:'(]). It's just wrong I tell you, wrong![:@]

joeyr

Agreed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![sm=admin.gif][sm=exactly.gif][sm=icon_ladiesman.gif][sm=thanx.gif].

But I cant blame them, In my household we never had a performance vehicle. Anything that was considered sporty was equated with high performance. So a sporty civic can be like a muscle car to them. I dont think there is anything wrong with having a civic, its nice, affordable, safe, fuel efficent, etc. And to mod one (with more than a exhaust and a intake), is admirable, but it just seems strange to me. Too many people have them, I want something unique.

pinkpanther54494

Excellent thread, I could not agree more. People that are buying these cars with the intention that they will hold or gain value need to look at recent history. Any recent "collectable" car or limited edition car - Vipers, late model Mustangs, etc seldom are selling for as much or more as the original buyer paid. (Of course there are a few exceptions, but they are the exceptions). Retailers and marketing people are trained to sell collectability and they chuckle as they send you down the road. I think we will be surprised what is actually collectable decades down the road - Magnums, SRT 300C, SRT Jeeps, etc, etc.

As much as I would love a new Challenger, the safer financial bet would be to spend 40K on a nice 70's vintage car. I do hope the new Challengers sell like hotcakes, I hope they make about 50,000 - 100,000 of them in the next 2 - 4 years so that I can buy a used one in 2015 for under 10K and have a new street / strip hot rod car.