I met Joni Gray, Sr. Auto Editor for the LA Times, at NYIAS and she's cool. And I liked this article she just wrote, Ten Still-Attainable 1970s Muscle Cars, though I hesitate to call many of these cars "muscle cars." The list was selected by Phil Skinner, editor of Kelley Blue Book's Early Model Values Guide. Obviously, I've heard of KBB (value guide basically created to support dealerships) but had never heard of this classic car value guide--maybe cause it's $60!!!??? Hey, the NADA guide is free and, after comparing the prices listed for a few of these cars, it seems to be pretty close. Anyway, I still thought it was a pretty good list, so here goes:
1973-76 Chevrolet Nova SS
1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 fastback
1977-78 Pontiac Trans Am coupe
1970-71 Plymouth Duster 340 coupe
1971-73 De Tomaso Pantera coupe
1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442/W30 coupe
1975-76 Chevrolet Vega Cosworth ed
1973 Mercury Cougar XR7 convertible
1971-73 Datsun 240Z coupe
1977-79 Chevrolet Corvette T-top coupe
Sign me up for a Duster, a Pantera and maybe even the '79 442. Click through to Joni's article to read more about each car and see the pics, and then let us know what you link of the list.
NADA recently published a study showing that collector car values have surged in recent years, increasing in value by an average of 36% between February 2004 and February 2008 (go here for a summary of the study). However, from what I've seen and heard over the past twelve to eighteen months, collector car values have started to fall. The values of the more desirable Mopar muscle cars, for example, have fallen off quite a bit since their market high roughly two years ago. I'll be publishing an interview with Dan Kruse of Dan Kruse Classics next week, and Dan said that he had noticed the same thing in his auctions held around the country. And I'm sure the current mortgage crisis and economic slowdown isn't helping.
Still, I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. Some of the prices were getting kind of silly, and a lot of the real car enthusiasts were getting priced out by people who all of a sudden started seeing our old cars as "good investments." Now, there is nothing wrong with getting most or even all of your money back when you sell a car, but going into it expecting major appreciation just seems wrong somehow. What do you think?
NADA just released a list of the top ten depreciating three-year-old vehicles. Here's the list:
1. Jaguar XJ8 - 25%
2. Mercedes-Benz CL-Class - 22%
3. Kia Rio - 22%
4. Audi A8 - 21%
5. Lexus LS - 21%
6. Suzuki Verona - 21%
7. Volvo C70 - 20%
8. Hyundai Accent - 20%
9. Audi A4 - 20%
10. Audi A6 - 20%
Hmm, seems that Jaguar is usually on the top of these lists. I'm surprised that Land Rover didn't make the cut. But that is a lot of Audis. The Kia is pretty cheap to begin with, so even a 22% drop isn't much money... Full press release after the jump.
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