It's not just classic Ferraris and rare Jaguars raking in the bucks when the auction hammer drops -- extraordinary specimens surviving (or recreated) from the muscle car era continue to bring six and seven-figure bids, the New York Times reports. Why would cars that went for a few grand -- brand new -- be going for over a million dollars forty years later? Because rich boys (and girls) like their toys, and they're wiling to pay for them, the paper says.
Check out the article for a more in-depth look at changing tastes in high-priced collectible cars.
[Source: New York Times]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
330i @ Jun 5th 2006 7:01PM
Bubble in the classic car market? I think so. There was a massive bubble in the late 80s for classic euro cars - then the market totally crashed in the early 90s.
Some show on TLC was showing a guy that takes cars from the junk yard (a dodge dart!), fixes them up and rakes in the bucks at auction.
It would be one thing to do a super nice resto job, but they were using bondo!
Lithous @ Jun 5th 2006 7:10PM
You know the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry of today will bring in the big bucks too. NOTTTTT.
Mike from Scarborough @ Jun 5th 2006 7:31PM
The ones fetching huge$$$$$$$ are not full of bondo.I sold my '69 cuda for 20K last year.I have been looking for a 70 to 74 e-body,NO LUCK...You have to be an Idiot or like the article said people with money to burn to pay 100G's for a big block non hemi cuda.I %$#&ing hate Berret Jackson.He and all his rich clients hace escalated prices beyond reason.I gave up looking.I can't wait to buy the new challenger for 40K.Wishfull thinking maybe....
You can buy a 100 old supras for the price of one hemi clone even...But then again who wants a Supra..
laserwizard @ Jun 5th 2006 7:33PM
I can understand why those V-8 powered musclecars (redundant?) are so popular now. Look at the wimpy, cheesey, metrosexual rice burners that Honda, Toyoduh, and Nissan are offering - little flaccid boy cars fit only for Michael Jackson.
I also wonder which of today's limp cars will be tomorrow's big dollar fetching ones? It is simply laughable for anyone to think that someone would pay $100K for a Camcord because of its nostalga value or its performance (!) value.
Give me a GM, Ford, or Mopar anyday with a V-8 engine. And then let me spin the tires on an owner of a rice burner.
Can you smell that rice burning..........
JC Whitless @ Jun 5th 2006 8:12PM
I don't mind Barret J so much. It raised the value of my 300 a grand in the last year, only because some fool paid 80K for a perfect one....
/parked outside at work right now
//going to be a great ride home after work
///top down 75 degrees
It's middle aged men! @ Jun 5th 2006 9:20PM
Collector cars have long followed a life cycle price curve:
1. The car sells new for more than most kids and teenage buyers can afford (think WRX STI today).
2. Those young buyers get on with life and buy practical sedans.
3. The people who lusted after the car as a kid earn $$$ and decide to fulfill a childhood wish. The cars become more desireable.
4. There's an economic boom and the prices skyrocket.
5. The buyers get old/die and the cars enter the museum market (think about how many teenagers like "oldies" music or 60s and 70s rock).
Model T -> 55-57 Chevy -> Muscle Cars -> next up...the 308 Ferrari from Magnum P.I., the Lambo Countach...then Rice Rockets...
Edsel @ Jun 5th 2006 9:31PM
I own a 1968 GTO. It steers & rattles like a dump truck carrying gravel. It's driving ergonomics suck, the 4 x drum brakes lock with little warning, it swills hi-octane stuff like Ted Kennedy @ an open bar, and a Subaru WRX will beat the pants off the old goat in every category except for burning copious amounts of tread off bias ply tires.
But you know what... I've gotten more high-fives from septuagenarians to youngsters driving my 1968 antique than I ever did driving my old British "classics". Mine's a daily driver - lot's of them out there and selling for a lot less than a new Honda Civic. Parts availability for old muscle cars are vast and they're easier to work on than an old ox cart.
JC Whitless @ Jun 5th 2006 9:45PM
"Parts availability for old muscle cars are vast they're easier to work on than an old ox cart"
Depends on the car...
I know for a fact that if I fold up some chrome bits I'm SOL.
63' Chrysler 300
ODB @ Jun 5th 2006 11:31PM
Well someone has to love those ancient rolling rust bucket dinosaurs death traps with v-8's. So why not make a profit off those idots that are willing to buy them.
David @ Jun 6th 2006 1:04AM
Hey Mike and laserwizard,
I just got home having run my favorite two lane sweepers and several of my favorite freeway ramps in a Mazda6i at 2-3 times the recommended speeds. Could you, in a a sixties American V8 out accelerate me? No doubt. But I'd destroy you in any situation that requires you to brake, steer, hit an apex, hold a line and exit a corner at anything like the speed you entered it. Real cars turn, corner and stop. That's why real men drive them. And that's why I'd prefer the last generation Supra Turbo over any drum braked, solid axle, numb steering piece of Deee-Troit iron that becomes useless the moment you ask it to do anything but run in a straight line.
PJ @ Jun 6th 2006 1:23AM
The comments comparing matching-numbers Hemi 'Cudas and, oh, I dunno, ZL-1 Camaros to Camrys and Accords are at best exaggerating, and at worst incredibly ignorant.
Have you guys checked the market value on a 318-cid Polara lately? Or a slant-Six Dart? Because those were the '60s equivalents of today's family cars. They're worth pocket change nowadays, just as Camrys and Accords will be in twenty years.
But will the same fate befall a WRX STi 22B? Or an Evo MR? Or an NSX Zanardi Edition? I think not. In fact, let's go one step further. Ever compared the resale value of a Supra Turbo with that of a same-year C4 Corvette? Asian sports cars from the '90s have held their value incredibly well, and some are already starting to appreciate (AE86 Corollas from the '80s, for example).
Don't get me wrong, I love '60s muscle cars. But unless you're going to compare apples to apples, comments like those above are just a continuation of the domestic fanboys' usual "I-hate-Asians" diatribe.
PJ @ Jun 6th 2006 1:38AM
One other thing... to those who write off Asian cars as effete, try a drive in a Nissan 350Z (this is key... drive before you judge). It'll keep up with most any stock '60s legend in the quarter-mile, but will outstick, outsteer, and outbrake them by several orders of magnitude--and do it with clockwork reliability.
Certainly, a new C6 Z51 will achieve similar results. My point, though, is that to write off a car because of its country of origin is as foolish as writing it off because of the color of its paint. If the point is to have fun behind the wheel (and I think it is), you're doing yourselves a disservice as car enthusiasts.
foxrun @ Jun 6th 2006 5:56AM
Shoulda, coulda, woulda, never did.
How many are saying that now.
Cameron @ Jun 6th 2006 8:43AM
I just don't get it...
Richard Warren @ Jun 6th 2006 9:05AM
Why blame Barrett-Jackson? Ever been to an auction? It's called auction fever, and they don't set the price the folks out there in the seats do.
It's timing more than anything, those kids that grew up and always wanted a late 50's 60-70's are at a point where they can afford it. So let them. Hey why are we hanging on to money for our kids sake, let them make it on their own.
I'm just about ready to buy a 1960 Buick Invicta custom of which only 5200 were built. Why? It was my second car, loved it tons of great memories and here is the twist:
Been looking for years, finally found one and are you ready for this? When I saw it the license plate was (you guessed it) my old one. I called and the owner was the guy I sold it to in 1969! He had kept it all those years. It has had a documented body off and mechanical resto and it looks great! I could have bought a nice one for 8-to 12,000 he wanted 24,500. I eneded paying 21,500. Is it worth it? To me it is.
The market will change, the buyers will change, prices go up and down, folks will get burned.
But what is a memory worth, that's what's being sold here and some are more than willing to pay the price to say "I had one of those"
And some Honda's and Toyota's will bring some good prices as the generation that owned or wanted them has the money to buy them. I just saw an 83 restored Prelude go for 15,000 at a local auction to someone about 30 who said Wow! I always wanted that car.
AR @ Jun 6th 2006 9:12AM
You know the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry of today will bring in the big bucks too. NOTTTTT.
Who cares? Can you afford to buy a "classic" muscle car Lithous? That average person doesn't give a crap about what GM or Ford built in the sixties, let alone today. That's why the Camry and Accord you so despise are at the top of the sales charts.
Mike from Scarborough @ Jun 6th 2006 10:39AM
Hey David No doubt,,you ca out handle a classic rod.But knowone will care if you do,nowone.It's about 1/4 Mile et's ,crome,rummble and rarity.Just remember one thing..."It takes a Mopar to catch a Mopar" I've had 2 cudas and one roadrunner.If you haven't owned one you might not understand....Good luck with the Zoom Zoom....
BK @ Jun 6th 2006 12:54PM
#14, you are correct. Buyers and markets will change. Muscle car values will come down just like cars from other eras have come down to respectable levels.
60's and 70's muscle cars were the some of the Baby Boomers dream cars. They now have the pension, IRA/401K, and home owner equity money built up to pay for their dream cars.
My generation, generation "x" will one day be just like the Boomers and spend our retirement money on 280Z's, Magnum PI's, Lambos, and IROC Z-28s and GTAs, etc, then later Generation "Y" will purchase their funds on Asian dream cars.
This is inevitable. You watch. even though I personally like the 60's and 70's muscle cars...more for their better looks and styling character, 40-50 years from now folks in their late 40's on up to their early 60's will be buying these special factory equipped Asian and European cars at obscene prices and everyone will complain at how expensive these things are.
In fact I figure that the cars from the 80's to present will be even more diffcult and expensive to restore due to the complexities of the engines, electronics, and computer controls, that the Boomer's cars didn't have. Think how hard it is to find a "numbers matching" old 60's era Corvette when that term was confined mainly to matching the engine and transmission, and now think of how hard it will be for "numbers matching" for the computers, various original engine parts, original stereo systems, and VIN decoded body panels and glass that modern cars have whereas the oldies didn't rely on.
Considering the extent to which youngsters today modify every little component of today's cars you can see how hard it will be to find perfect original Preludes, Imprezas, EVO's, etc.....
Christian J @ Jun 6th 2006 1:05PM
"Domestic cars can't turn". "All imports turn awesome". God I am sick of hearing that effing nonsense. Have any of the people who have said that even driven a car other than their mom's Accord? Its so assinine comparing the handling of 1960s US cars to 2000s Japanese cars. Let's see how good handling Japanese family cars were back in 1965.
chet rasberry @ Jun 7th 2006 4:10PM
Muscle cars of the 60's can and are currently being made to handle to todays preformance standards.
It's called yesterdays car todays technology.
My Detroit Iron ss, A former 66 chevelle out handles my 500SL.
Todays rice rockets after mods are grate handling cars. However a lot of people don't like driving something that's wound up like an over wound rubber band and sounds like a Bee farting in a tunnel. Each to his own.
Chet'