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Classic Car market

45acp said:
One things for sure... the time to sell it was 8-10 years ago. Nobody wants old street rods anymore. Those guys are all dying off. The "new old guys" are building 70's-80's trucks.
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You are 100% correct. The hotrods have no interest to the younger generation. They are way over done. We like our 70’s and 80’spickups and 60’s -70’s land yachts. I’m also a big fan of ugly rare mini cars. I like chevelles novas Camero’s but would never own one. I would rather be cruising around in a ford prefect.

I need to finish up some projects before I start my prefect build!
 
You need to look at the cars that were around during the Gen-X youth and what was on gran turismo 1. Seriously, the boomers are retrieng and passing away (thank god) and as such the affinity for cars for the 60s and 70s is waining. Dont get me wrong they are cool, but the gen xers and old millenials are getting close to their peak earning years and they will buy what they were looking at in their youth.
 
Slander said:
but the gen xers and old millenials are getting close to their peak earning years and they will buy what they were looking at in their youth.
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And what they were riding around in in their youth. Give it 15yr and my fleet of early/mid 80s shitboxes is gonna be all "classic cars" to them.
 
30-50 years old is the sweet spot....it's the age where people can afford to buy back their youth. The best example of this in the last 10 years is watching the late 70s Trans ams go from $7-8k to $50k for nice examples. Late 70s 4x4s are picking up steam and so are a few of the classic imports like early Supras, Toyota pickups, etc. Funny the Z cars haven't really spiked (I'm partial to those and have owned a bunch of them). There are, of course, exceptions like some of the premier muscle cars from the late 60s that are still climbing, or at least holding.

The thing with late 70s / early 80s cars is that they weren't built very well and they didn't last, and hence, there's not that many nice examples of many of them left. It's all about supply and demand.

That '82 Camaro (piece of shit) might have been your dream car in high school, and now you have the money to buy your youth.....The collector car market is built entirely on emotion and nostalgia. Now Gen Xers are getting to that age where they have money and want to buy their youth, just like the boomers started doing 20-30 years ago with the muscle cars.
 
Slander said:
You need to look at the cars that were around during the Gen-X youth and what was on gran turismo 1. Seriously, the boomers are retrieng and passing away (thank god) and as such the affinity for cars for the 60s and 70s is waining. Dont get me wrong they are cool, but the gen xers and old millenials are getting close to their peak earning years and they will buy what they were looking at in their youth.
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I'm genX (1974) and my "retired old guy" build is gonna be gmt400 regular cab stepside. 2wd, lowered a bit 17's-18's on front 20's on back and mild daily driver 500hp w/6spd. Dream is 5.0 coyote or hemi powered because I'm a troll at heart and I get off on bothering brand name loyalists but budget will probably call for an LS.
 
45acp said:
Thanks, I've stayed out of it. I've never felt like it was mine, in spite of wife's efforts. I also wanted no input of the sale, and don't want to profit off of it in any way. Hard to explain.

One things for sure... the time to sell it was 8-10 years ago. Nobody wants old street rods anymore. Those guys are all dying off. The "new old guys" are building 70's-80's trucks.
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Same thing with Harleys, it's all gray beards and those guys are timing out and trying to sell their $40k CVO, but who's going to buy it, some millennial with a job at Google? Not likely.
 
At some point though, the "restore a car like I had in high school" mentality is going to pass also. When I was in high school it was '75-85 vintage cars that everyone was driving. Monte, Regal, Cutlass, Malibu, and square body Chevy's and same vintage Fords. Guys my age are now looking for those cars to relive their youth. When I was talking about this with my sons a few weeks ago (ages 27 and 19), my 19 year old said "yeah, I don't see myself ever getting excited about restoring a shitbox '04 cavalier". :laughing:
 
Roc Doc said:
Same thing with Harleys, it's all gray beards and those guys are timing out and trying to sell their $40k CVO, but who's going to buy it, some millennial with a job at Google? Not likely.
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I actually think the death of the motorcyclist in general has a lot to do with your point. I know several handfuls of people who just don't ride anymore be the roads have gotten too dangerous. Between heavy traffic and cell phones and distracted drivers. They just feel it's not worth the risk. I find myself in that boat as well.
 
Tin Roof said:
At some point though, the "restore a car like I had in high school" mentality is going to pass also. When I was in high school it was '75-85 vintage cars that everyone was driving. Monte, Regal, Cutlass, Malibu, and square body Chevy's and same vintage Fords. Guys my age are now looking for those cars to relive their youth. When I was talking about this with my sons a few weeks ago (ages 27 and 19), my 19 year old said "yeah, I don't see myself ever getting excited about restoring a shitbox '04 cavalier". :laughing:
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Funny. I drive the same kind of truck I drove in highschool. But honestly, it has nothing to do with nostalgia.
 
Action Fab said:
I actually think the death of the motorcyclist in general has a lot to do with your point. I know several handfuls of people who just don't ride anymore be the roads have gotten too dangerous. Between heavy traffic and cell phones and distracted drivers. They just feel it's not worth the risk. I find myself in that boat as well.
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Not only that, but it seems like people under 30 like to do things in groups and socialize rather than sit on a motorcycle by themselves all day. I think that's part of the reason why sxs's became so popular so fast. That's their substitute to the motorcycle.
 
45acp said:
I'm genX (1974) and my "retired old guy" build is gonna be gmt400 regular cab stepside. 2wd, lowered a bit 17's-18's on front 20's on back and mild daily driver 500hp w/6spd. Dream is 5.0 coyote or hemi powered because I'm a troll at heart and I get off on bothering brand name loyalists but budget will probably call for an LS.
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People will always build cool shit! I'm right there with you on the troll, I was going to build a willys MB with a 100% toyota driveline as a troll before I sold the jeep.
 
I wouldn't be surprised to see old minitrucks make a run. Rangers, S10s, B2600s, D50s, obviously old toyotas have been a thing already for a different reason. A lot of kids got those because they didn't need a real truck and had all their youth experiences to remember in them. They were shitty to start with so most are long gone. Having a nice one. Have you tried to find a restored or survivor luv?
 
45acp said:
One things for sure... the time to sell it was 8-10 years ago. Nobody wants old street rods anymore. Those guys are all dying off. The "new old guys" are building 70's-80's trucks.
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This, sort of. I'm the first of the "millenial's" 1980 but should have been a gen-X'r. All the youngn's I know want old SUV's and 4x4 trucks as everyone is an "overlander" these days. I know people putting LS's in FSJ Grand Wagoneer's and driving them completely stock looking. My brothers and I have had our fun with the land yacht's like AF is thinking but that was only because they were sub $1,000 dollar cars. We wasted tons of them as demo derby cars and hobby stock cars. My BIL has his grandads 500 CID 2 door Cadilac but that's more of a can't let it go thing. I can't imagine paying more than $1500 for a smog era boat that still got shit for fuel mileage and was maintained with duralast autozone parts.
 
junkytj said:
I wouldn't be surprised to see old minitrucks make a run. Rangers, S10s, B2600s, D50s, obviously old toyotas have been a thing already for a different reason. A lot of kids got those because they didn't need a real truck and had all their youth experiences to remember in them. They were shitty to start with so most are long gone. Having a nice one. Have you tried to find a restored or survivor luv?
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They already have started. But they have to be show room condition.
 
What 80’s car is even worth buying a case of oil for? Maybe a grand national, maybe some trucks. I don’t see people buying them to relive glory days because they are almost all shit. To me anyway...
 
Classic cars follow the economy, a lot of stupid stuff is getting expensive though. Late 60’s to mid 70’s seems to be a hot spot. I ended up fixing up a 77 vette, because the earlier model are 3x-4x more $$. 77 vette is close to the same car as a 68 vette but less hp. Engines are cheap, adding HP is cheap.
 
Roc Doc said:
Same thing with Harleys, it's all gray beards and those guys are timing out and trying to sell their $40k CVO, but who's going to buy it, some millennial with a job at Google? Not likely.
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there's actually a good amount of folks (in their 20s-40s) in the tech industry into old vehicles.
 
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blay127 said:
What 80’s car is even worth buying a case of oil for? Maybe a grand national, maybe some trucks. I don’t see people buying them to relive glory days because they are almost all shit. To me anyway...
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I hate to say this, but I pretty much agree with this. I can pick few dream cars form every decade except the 80's. (Ok, the 40's ain't to hot either, but there was a war on then)
 
WaterH said:
I hate to say this, but I pretty much agree with this. I can pick few dream cars form every decade except the 80's. (Ok, the 40's ain't to hot either, but there was a war on then)
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Very true, Late 70’s through mid 90’s was not a great time for cool cars. Later in the 90’s there were some decent cars showing up again. You can blame the shit car decade on the .gov and OPEC.
 
dnsfailure said:
there's actually a good amount of folks (in their 20s-40s) in the tech industry into old vehicles.
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Sure, but what percentage of the previous generation are they replacing? 20%?

At my local car shows, 2/3 of people have gray hair.
 
blay127 said:
What 80’s car is even worth buying a case of oil for? Maybe a grand national, maybe some trucks. I don’t see people buying them to relive glory days because they are almost all shit. To me anyway...
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A lot of cool 4x4's in that era, but the 80's seems like the time when imports really shined.
 
dnsfailure said:
there's actually a good amount of folks (in their 20s-40s) in the tech industry into old vehicles.
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They may be "into old vehicles" but they dont know their asshole from a hole in the ground when it comes to working on them. They dwindle in numbers compared to the past generations who would be interested. I highly doubt there will be a resurgence in ~70s+ domestic sedans. They're too old to be cleaned up and most need a full resto. We've already come and gone on the folks who would reminiscence on 70s who have money. That's why clean waggys are $20k instead of $2k, stupid hipsters. Same goes for FJ60s.

Honestly, cars themselves are kind of a moot point. SUV/4x4 vehicles are the vehicles that are gaining in value. Even the pile of shit garbage XJs seem to be on the rebound.
 
TRINDU said:
They may be "into old vehicles" but they dont know their asshole from a hole in the ground when it comes to working on them. They dwindle in numbers compared to the past generations who would be interested. I highly doubt there will be a resurgence in ~70s+ domestic sedans. They're too old to be cleaned up and most need a full resto. We've already come and gone on the folks who would reminiscence on 70s who have money. That's why clean waggys are $20k instead of $2k, stupid hipsters. Same goes for FJ60s.

Honestly, cars themselves are kind of a moot point. SUV/4x4 vehicles are the vehicles that are gaining in value. Even the pile of shit garbage XJs seem to be on the rebound.
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I'm 37, I've worked in the computer and tech industry since I was 20. I do all the work on my vehicles, cutting, bending, welding, wiring, engine work, lathe work, whatever. And I only want to do more of it. My latest vehicle is a 1933. Not saying we are all in to old cars, but probably more of us than you might think.

The big roadblock with folks that work in the tech industry who want vehicle hobbies, is that you basically have to live in a VERY expensive area, with little space to work on a vehicle, and tighter and tighter restrictions on "project cars" (I hear in parts of San Diego, you can't even work on your car in your own driveway??). A lot of folks don't even have a garage, or a drive way. I'll bet you when the tech industry folks start to retire and move away from the cities, they will pick up the hobbies that they've always wanted. I'll bet the resurgence happens eventually. The Interest in vehicles is definitely there.
 
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Ebs said:
A lot of cool 4x4's in that era, but the 80's seems like the time when imports really shined.
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Clearly you've never ridden in many 80s imports. They weren't called tin cans because they had less rattles, squeaks and QC issues than the domestic barges.
 
I have been looking for a 60's Chevy truck...What used to be 4 grand is now 8 grand for a somewhat stock solid but aged 2wd.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Clearly you've never ridden in many 80s imports. They weren't called tin cans because they had less rattles, squeaks and QC issues than the domestic barges.
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I don't know, if today I had to choose between jumping in a '87 Chevy Celebrity (boring domestic sedan) or a '87 BMW 5-series (boring euro sedan) to drive everyday that's not a very tough choice.

If you come up with a list of memorable/desirable cars from the 80's that people are going to pay any money for now, I think it'd be mostly imports.
 
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Ebs said:
I don't know, if today I had to choose between jumping in a '87 Chevy Celebrity (boring domestic sedan) or a '87 BMW 5-series (boring euro sedan) to drive everyday that's not a very tough choice.

If you come up with a list of memorable/desirable cars from the 80's that people are going to pay any money for now, I think it'd be mostly imports.
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I should have been more specific. The 80s were a good time for ze Germans. The Japanese not so much.
 
Action Fab said:
My worry with those cars is in how poorly they are aging. Especially the obd1 vacuum spaghetti EFI cars.

The late 60's through mid 70's land yacht with massive amounts of architecture are currently catching my attention.

But I'm curious to hear the opinions.
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Those models have been catching everyone's attention for over 10 years. Hit & Run, featuring Dax Sheperd's '67 Continental was in 2012. Jay Leno featured a '66 convertible Continental and the key restoration of the vehicle features a guy that specialized in Continental drop-tops. Watch the video and you'll see why.

So somewhere in America, there is a man who has as his sole occupation the restoration of Continental drop-tops and power windows.

That video is two years old and Jay's restoration was years before that.

So the Land Yacht market is very, very mature IMO. GenXrs like me loved the bigger cars, like the big Buicks and Olds's.
 
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