Series 1.0

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by NWFRS

I'm always amazed at the '90's Japanese car prices on https://bringatrailer.com

Besides the fact that the prices on BAT tend to be inflated, the cars still have not appreciated in value. For example, here is a 240SX that went for $14K. But the base model of that car was $18K brand new. So still a loser.

You might say, "Yeah, but what about this Supra that went for $77,000?" Besides the fact that Supra prices are driven up unnaturally by fanboys, that was a $50K car. After inflation, that's $79K. So it's a loser even before you add in all the expense of maintaining and storing it over the past 20 years.

Our cars are not even as "special" as a twin turbo '90s Supra, not even the special trims. In order to make money by putting an RS 1.0 in storage, you'll have to wait until the car appreciates in value above the cost of inflation plus the cost of storing it all those years, plus the cost of maintaining insurance and registration on it, plus the maintenance you still have to do even when you put a car in storage. That typically takes about 50 to 60 years before an "investment" of that sort breaks even.

Have you seen any on BAT that didn't?

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by NWFRS

I'm always amazed at the '90's Japanese car prices on https://bringatrailer.com

so assume the best case, that someone stashed a car direct from the dealer. so insurance, license and registration costs are minimal. any collector interested in protecting their investment is going to do some sort of climate control.

even just heating a garage, you're looking at a yearly cost around $600-1200.

assuming no other costs for that entire time, that means that over 22 years(for a 1997), it cost the collector $13,200-26,400 to keep that car. though typically, a wise choice for any collector is to have an insurance policy on the item they're collecting for that duration.

and none of this addresses how a car that sits for 22 years is going to need a ton of replacement parts due to plastics and rubbers aging out and becoming brittle. any collector worth their salt that would be buying would only accept seeing the work performed by a OEM-certified repair shop, which limits everything to dealer rates and dealer-supplied parts. none of which are very cheap.

by the time one add's up all these costs, even that $120k supra barely broke even over the course of time it was 'collected'.

[finch1750]

Cuz they aren't rare



Neither are these

[Adam_L]

Nobody (not me) ever said buying a car, any car (even used) is a good investment.

Yet if you really want to go out of county, say a 150+ mile journey, a car is usually the best alternative in most states/counties ( trains can be expensive to travel on, and slower…. which is a nice change of pace, but their cost needs an adjustment)

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Adam_L

Nobody (not me) ever said buying a car, any car (even used) is a good investment.

I have. A vehicle can be a good investment if you treat it the way a company would treat a capital investment, AKA property/plant/equipment, where you invest money in an asset expecting to get a return from the use of it. If buying a new widget machine will make you millions of dollars in profit from producing widgets in the coming years, that machine is a good investment.

I bought my car for work, and it paid for a good chunk of itself through mileage reimbursement. I financed it and used expense reimbursement to pay my car payment. Since I paid it off, it costs me less to run it than the reimbursement, so I actually make money on it as long as I keep driving it for work. It's profitable in the accounting sense of the word.

And that's not even including the value of the utility of it. I need the car for my job. I would make significantly less money if I didn't have a vehicle, tens of thousands of dollars per year less, and I would miss out on other experiences that require a vehicle. Life would be a lot harder if I had to walk everywhere or rely on the unreliable public transportation system. So it's a profitable investment in the economic sense as well.

People would make much better decisions and feel better about the decisions they make if they would think about their large purchases this way.

What's not a good investment is storing a vehicle in expectation of a capital gain, like real estate, a painting or a rare bottle of wine. For vehicles, that only works with very special editions or very limited run cars (not just special trim packages on a cheap sports car), and even then it's subject to the whim of the market.

[RToyo86]

The only other instances I can think of where buying cars can make you money is at the upper echelon of the market.

Limited run Ferrari, Porsches etc which the dealer sells knowing the market value will go up immediately. Even then it isn't cut and dry, some cars hold value/go up. Others drop like a stone.

It's often why you see people with supercars switching cars often. They "buy" the car, via financing. Make payments on it, while investing the rest of their money.

Then sell without much of a loss at all, or make some money and move on to the next thing. It's quite a interesting market if you are smart, or lucky enough to buy the right cars at the right time.
You are also at the risk of losing a bunch of money. tens of thousands, even hundreds

[yurikaze]

You can make money on cars by buying cars that are about to explode in value when they’re at the bottom of their depreciation. I’ve done this with Plymouth musclecars and BMW E30’s and E24’s. I also have used it to pick up cars for my own collection that I knew would be much harder to get in the coming years. I picked up my AE86 GTS, Nissan S13, Nissan S30Z, and Toyota Supra for a total investment of under $8k. They are worth much more than that now.
However, buying a car new to hope to get a profit on down the road doesn’t work all that well

[XPLSV]

Originally Posted by Jones12012

Hello all,

I was just quite surprised to see no topics about the Series 1.0. I don't see this car ANYWHERE where I live except for the one owned by myself (obvi). Curious to hear your comments on the situation. Thanks!

There were only 1500 built and I think a good chunk have been wrecked. One of the guys keeps a registry on a 1.0 Facebook page and, while he doesn't have all of them listed, he does have a section on there for those reported by members and those that have been reported as wrecked. Those numbers could be used to extrapolate a rough estimate of how many are left on the road. I'll have to check next time I have a computer with access to Facebook and I remember to look...but I'll bet about 25% of them have been wrecked.