[Veloist]

This is something I think about but don't worry about. The production numbers are pretty high for it to be considered a collector's car, but it would certainly be rare to find a low-mileage example in 15-20 years. The question is, would it be desirable?

For instance, let's look at a Honda S2000...it would be pretty cool & rare to find a bone stock 2000 S2000 with less than 30,000 miles. But how many people would actually consider buying it?

But let's say a bone stock AE86 or Corolla GT-S pops up in an estate auction. The car only had one owner, has about 36,540 miles on it, and was never driven in the rain and is manual. Well this is going to get some decent attention from well-off JDM lovers, and if the right buyer buys it, they'll probably keep it in a garage and not drive it, AKA collect it.

Basically, the probability of the 2nd scenario is almost unheard of compared to the first one. Sure it may not go for a 1,000,000 bucks, but I'd bet an AE86 like that would go for 30,000-40,000 optimistically. We wouldn't know for sure, because it just doesn't happen--and that's what makes it a collector's car...being able to have this car, that other people WANT, and by having it, you reduce other people's chances of also having one, significantly.

So, I think that will determine if the 86/FR-S/BRZ will have collector car status. If the world is deprived of a low-mileage bone stock FR-S in the same way the AE86 is, then it will be a collector's car. Right now, it doesn't seem like it. And it might take a long time.

Clean 2nd-gen MR2's, turbo or N/A for example, are pretty rare, but I'd argue they do not have "collector's cars" status, and their production numbers were less than even just the FR-S alone. (However, an MR2 Turbo hardtop may be a different story because they were produced in such little numbers.)