63-67 corvette as an investment
 

I'm thinking about getting an old Corvette as an investment. I see lots between 30-60 grand, lots of choices. It doesn't look like all are selling too terribly fast, but my hunch is in 5 to 10 years, they'll still sell for whatever I paid today or more.

I want my next car to APPRECIATE in value while I own it and drive it occasionally, not depreciate.

Any suggestions? Also considering a Pantera, 55-57 Chevy, 67-69 Camaro. I have a REAL soft spot for Pro Street, crazy, tubbed, blown, race cars, but not sure how well they'll hold their value over an old Vette.

Better yet.

Build a time machine.

Travel back ten years.

And buy all the pre-74 Porsche 911's you can lay your hands on.

No car is an investment, buy a car you can enjoy and is currently on the bottom of it's price curve. 'Collector cars' that cross auction blocks for absurd figures are highly dependent on the economy, especially domestic vehicles with large production figures (they produced roughly as many C2 Corvettes per year as they're currently producing Scion FR-S). Plus you'll have to keep in in near perfect condition, always worry about dents and dings

The 70's cars are starting to hit ridiculous territories and the 60's hit that 5+ years ago imo. You want a driver that will appreciate guaranteed? Buy 80's or early 90's.

Guaranteed to be up five years from today regardless of economy imo: NA Miata, FA/FB/FC RX-7's, Porsche anything S, well kept Trans Am's/Firebird's and Camaro's and Mustang's and C4 Corvettes as that generation hits mid-life crisis and won't hesitate to blow a ton of money on reliving youth or finally getting that childhood dream. The BMW's have already exploded in price but are within your budget, I think they will stagnate as the smart money goes for alternatives.

If I was in your shoes and had your desires and tastes (as called out in the OP) I'd build a hot rod Fox Body or Third Gen Camaro/Trans Am, still mild enough to drive to work but a great hoot at the track or drag strip (more so than a C2 'vette), great performance bang for your buck, truckloads of aftermarket, and I'd bet $20 you'd turn a profit on it 10 years from now (including labor and inflation) if you make good choices.

Also: digital dashboard

http://www.goingfaster.com/1986TA/1986de16.jpg

Notice the dip in Corvette sales? Sure you can say 'that means it'll go higher!' but I see that and say 'the next crash could be worse'. I say buy something at the bottom now, it won't go lower.
http://www.hagerty.com/valuationtool...ort?vc=1125244

That was a pretty bad time for consumer instrumentation in general.

Wish I had just barned many of my old cars!
70 Coronet R/Ts that I bought for $800 in 77 sell from $50 to $70 grand now.
Strat nailed it when he said the 60s cars topped out a few years back though.
Was selling my sister's 64 Mustang convert a few years ago. It was pretty nice but had some frame issues that kept the price down. She wanted to hold out for $15K and really good ones were going for two or three times that.
Long story short she waited to long and the bottom dropped out of the Mustang market and prices plummeted. She ended up selling for about $2K.


The point being that the market for collector cars goes way up and down all the time so it can be a shaky investment.

Lol, cars as an investment.

Buy some gold.
Maybe not now, because it's going up.

Those digital dashes in the c4's are just rubbish. Decent if they work.

Yeah, wait until it peaks.

I think it's awesome.

The guy who owns the Blackhawk museum made hundreds of millions off trading classic cars.

Aren't there a few cars that are immune to this? I thought cars like the old Stingray vettes (62-67) and Pantera, and high optioned muscle and ponycars were always holding their value.

It's different when the car is worth a couple million or hundreds of thousands. That's art, not a car.

I hear ya. Not judging. :cheers:

Depends on how you define "holding value" I guess.
There are of course those rare special cars that may stay steady or climb but collectors cars in general can go up or down substantially. Things such as economic conditions or what is in vague at any time can really affect the value.
Collectors cars took a huge hit in value in 08-09 due to the economy and many have not even come back (and may never) to their value in 07.
As far as popularity impacting cost a great example would be the 64 to 67 Chevy full size 2 or 4 doors. Up until the 90s you could pick one up for a song but when they became popular as lowrider mods the values went through the roof. Now that it isn't such a big deal they are still high but have dropped again.
This fluctuation is why you can see big gaps in prices as some guys just can't believe that their $50K car from 5 years ago in now only worth $20K so they still try to sell it based on the old price.