When are our cars gonna decrease in value?

[A12 Superbee]

I agree with Mike on that. Look at the cars from the 20 and 30s. The youth of that era are passing quickly. That means run of the mill cars are dropping in value to a basic bottom end which may be around $30-45k. The true collectibles of the era, Duesenbergs, Auburns, Cords, etc are also dropping in value, but are still million dollar cars.

This is true but I don't think its comparing apples with apples. The prices for cars of the 20-30's are tanking as their current owners and people with an attachment to them die off. The reason they are not grabbing the imagination of the younger folk today is because they are generally sh/t to drive, uncomfortable and have little to no mod cons. People don't mind sacrificing a little comfort to drive something cool but when you have to surrender pretty much every luxury and have no radio/air-con, crappy heater, really bad brakes, seats that smell of horse hair and speeds that will cause endless road rage attacks on you on the highway, it's easy to see why that generation of cars time is running out. The cars of the 50-60's have the mod-cons, the performance and the cool factor to always be desirable....until they put us all in electric wagons on automated highways that self-drive everywhere, and that's a hundred years away or more at least!

[Aero426]

As I have said before, no one has a crystal ball.   We can only make our best guesses.   I do think that most collectible items whether it is cars, Hummel figures,  Hot Wheels, whatever, operate on a cycle that can rise and fall.   I think we are sort of going over the top of the hill when it comes to boomer era stuff.     If I was sitting on a big pile of high dollar Redline Hot Wheels, I probably wouldn't hold them forever.    

One thing that works in favor of the 60's muscle car is the ability to use the car and repair it.   I do believe there is a segment of younger collectors that will mature and want the "experience" of these cars.     There probably won't be enough to absorb all the rolling stock that may be hitting the market in another ten to fifteen years.    But I don't really see these cars like Model A Fords (which for the good ones aren't as dirt cheap as you might think!)   Price adjustment?   Yes.  

[RECHRGD]

When all of us old baby boomers pass the demand will drop.  There are young guns out there to carry on the hobby, but not enough to keep things at the level they are today.  We were driving these cars when they were new.  We bought them, raced them, cruised them, wrecked them, waxed them and made sweet love in them.  No other generation will ever have that kind of connection to them.....

I disagree, I'm 45 and have an A12 Superbee. I was born in 1968 which is not a factor in why I love these cars, plus I live in Australia so it's not like I saw US Muscle everywhere and 'just had to have one!', I love these cars because they are cool, they go hard, they are still pretty comfortable and safe. Sure, I love them a little more too because my dad had old mopars and the seed was sown in me years ago and it's like a connection to my dad now that he's gone, so why won't my kids look at them the same way?
Young people still get drawn to these cars, just stand back and observe what happens at a car show. One day they are going to grow up and remember that Charger their dad/grandfather had and think to themselves "wouldn't it be cool to have one like dad did...."
Owning one of these cars today or in 50 years will still make you the coolest kid on the street!

Although I appreciate your perspective, you and others like you will never have enough numbers or ability to continue the demand for these cars as has been the norm for the last couple of decades.  Just my  .....

[HPP]

I don't know about that. The Millenial generation is growing in numbers and economic power that is more like the Boomers than Gen X.  Those that have the means will pick up the collectibles because the can and there will be enough of them to keep the prices up there for some time to come. 

[RECHRGD]

I don't know about that. The Millenial generation is growing in numbers and economic power that is more like the Boomers than Gen X.  Those that have the means will pick up the collectibles because the can and there will be enough of them to keep the prices up there for some time to come. 

Whether the millennial generation has the economic power or not to continue the trend is not the point.  If they consider our 60's cars as a preferred collectible era cars is the point......

[ACUDANUT]

I agree with Mike on that. Look at the cars from the 20 and 30s. The youth of that era are passing quickly. That means run of the mill cars are dropping in value to a basic bottom end which may be around $30-45k. The true collectibles of the era, Duesenbergs, Auburns, Cords, etc are also dropping in value, but are still million dollar cars.

This is true but I don't think its comparing apples with apples. The prices for cars of the 20-30's are tanking as their current owners and people with an attachment to them die off. The reason they are not grabbing the imagination of the younger folk today is because they are generally sh/t to drive, uncomfortable and have little to no mod cons. People don't mind sacrificing a little comfort to drive something cool but when you have to surrender pretty much every luxury and have no radio/air-con, crappy heater, really bad brakes, seats that smell of horse hair and speeds that will cause endless road rage attacks on you on the highway, it's easy to see why that generation of cars time is running out. The cars of the 50-60's have the mod-cons, the performance and the cool factor to always be desirable....until they put us all in electric wagons on automated highways that self-drive everywhere, and that's a hundred years away or more at least!

If you think this is true, your in the wrong forum.

[Mike DC]

    
It's unlikely that any generation will get heavily attached to cars built 20-30 years before they were born.  
 

[1974dodgecharger]

   
It's unlikely that any generation will get heavily attached to cars built 20-30 years before they were born.  
 

no attachment, but I think there will always be a 'auroa' of our cars that even next generation of kids will be mesmerized by.  Kinda like how in Fast and Furious he had his car in the garage just sitting there.  Everyone was mesmerized by the car and didn't even know what it was except it was a classic muscle car.  So there always be a mystique and sense of, 'wow' factor for our old cars no matter what generation. 

Some will get pulled into it and buy them.....

[A12 Superbee]

I agree with Mike on that. Look at the cars from the 20 and 30s. The youth of that era are passing quickly. That means run of the mill cars are dropping in value to a basic bottom end which may be around $30-45k. The true collectibles of the era, Duesenbergs, Auburns, Cords, etc are also dropping in value, but are still million dollar cars.

This is true but I don't think its comparing apples with apples. The prices for cars of the 20-30's are tanking as their current owners and people with an attachment to them die off. The reason they are not grabbing the imagination of the younger folk today is because they are generally sh/t to drive, uncomfortable and have little to no mod cons. People don't mind sacrificing a little comfort to drive something cool but when you have to surrender pretty much every luxury and have no radio/air-con, crappy heater, really bad brakes, seats that smell of horse hair and speeds that will cause endless road rage attacks on you on the highway, it's easy to see why that generation of cars time is running out. The cars of the 50-60's have the mod-cons, the performance and the cool factor to always be desirable....until they put us all in electric wagons on automated highways that self-drive everywhere, and that's a hundred years away or more at least!

If you think this is true, your in the wrong forum.

What do you mean by that?

[Mike DC]

no attachment, but I think there will always be a 'auroa' of our cars that even next generation of kids will be mesmerized by.  Kinda like how in Fast and Furious he had his car in the garage just sitting there.  Everyone was mesmerized by the car and didn't even know what it was except it was a classic muscle car.  So there always be a mystique and sense of, 'wow' factor for our old cars no matter what generation. 

Some will get pulled into it and buy them.....

It won't matter how much younger kids are in awe of Vin Diesel's 1970 Charger if it's not at the very top of their want-list.  They have to not only respect it, but want it more than any other newer car they could be buying instead. 

There are a bunch of 1940s-50s cars that I like & respect.  But I will probably never spend a dime on them because of some other (newer) cars that I want more.

[Lord Warlock]

I don't think you'll ever see "our" cars at the sub 1000 level again in our lifetimes.  You can still find the odd deal out there for a b bodied mopar of the era like a 4 door coronet, in buildable condition, I've found a few over the years of watching, but you'll never see the 68-74 chargers below 1k unless its been wrecked.   These days if you look on Craigslist you can find plenty of cars for 1k or less, but they are usually in the same run down condition ours were considered as when ours were only valued at that much.  I paid 800 for mine in 1978, had all the parts on it when I got it, had 76k on the odometer, interior had one tear in the drivers seat cushion, right door wouldn't open (clip fell off) and the stock thumbwheel radio (AM/FM) was just disconnected.  Other than that it was pretty good condition when I got it.  The big problem is even if you could find a 1k version to start with, you'd easily spend 8-12k buying new parts for it, some of the trim pieces cost 400 to 600 bucks each, hard to pay that when you know you only spent 800 on the car to start with. 

As to the new muscle cars becoming collectible, sure, every decade of vehicles has a few that stood out from the rest, even in 75-85 which were the lean years, there were a few cars that are now collectible.  The 90s has plenty of entrants into the collectability market, some of them Japanese, some American.  The cars you see being sold today, some will become collectable, some won't, some more than others.  I do not believe they will reach the stratosphere like some of the late 60s and early 70s cars did, but they will come close, a few of the top dog cars will likely double in value or triple if held long enough, but you'll still have to hold on to them more than 20 years before valuation starts moving northward.  I can see cars like the hellcat, Shelby, Boss, and SS/Z28 cars doing pretty well in 30 years, too bad I'll likely be dead by then.  I'd rather just drive them now and not worry about their collectability anymore.  Cars like my 2010 challenger RT will likely be collected, but not to the same degree as the Hellcats will be. 

As the older generation dies out, so does the focus on the older cars and prices drop for the average cars, but stays the same on the nice ones, because they stand out from the rest.  There will always be a buyer for the survivors of the 30s-70s cars, you'll never see them drop under 1k again. 

[Mike DC]

  
It's 2014.  $5000 is the new $1000.  


When it comes to classic muscle cars, $15,000 is the new $5000. 

[Ghoste]

The Millenials aren't even that interested in driving.  They are constantly connected to all their friends by smartphone and know everything that is happening at any time within their social circle. If I wanted a social life when I was their age, you either drove or walked and only one of those two things was going to get you laid.  These cars may have an aura about them but most of the kids now will not have the nostalgic attraction to ever lay out the money.  There will be people interested but demand will fall and prices along with them.

[stripedelete]

Yes, the value of our cars are about the baby-boom.  But, it's more their disposable income than generational interest in muscle cars.

An extra car as a toy, is a somewhat a recent phenomena for the middle class..
The middle is going away.  Generation X, Y, and the "millennials" have no where near the earning potential of the baby boomers. They also have they the lowest savings rate of any preceding generation.  They will struggle to know the baby-boomers definition of middle class.  Having an expensive extra car as a toy will return to being a rich man's sport (in fact, it could be argued it is now).

How long? It will depend on inflation and spikes in fuel$.  I'm tail end of the boom.  I hope I'm enjoying my car at 60.
I'd say we see a noticeable slide over the next ten years.  $1000? no.  But, $20000 for a very nice r/t in 20 years. Yep!

[Aero426]

One thing I believe:  if you want something to come true, keep talking about it.    Keep up the doom and gloom.  Spread the word that the hobby will die, and it stands a good chance of doing just that.     

[Aero426]

The Millenials aren't even that interested in driving.  They are constantly connected to all their friends by smartphone and know everything that is happening at any time within their social circle. If I wanted a social life when I was their age, you either drove or walked and only one of those two things was going to get you laid.  

I agree, this is a real problem.     They are a different breed of cat.   

[Ghoste]

You bring up another excellent point Doug and that is how much all of this can be influenced by people in the hobby right now.  If its just a toy and you dont care then it is what it is to you but I think a lot of us on this forum at least have a huge respect for the history.  I think that respect goes deep in the hobby generally too.  Keeping the PUBLIC overall, not just kids, interested in the history of these cars while showing them the fun side of ownership will go a long way to preserving them.

[Nwcharger]

The Millenials aren't even that interested in driving.  They are constantly connected to all their friends by smartphone and know everything that is happening at any time within their social circle. If I wanted a social life when I was their age, you either drove or walked and only one of those two things was going to get you laid.  

I agree, this is a real problem.     They are a different breed of cat.   

Do I fall under that generation? I just turned 30 and all I use the Internet for is craigslist and ebay for parts and cars. and this site for extra knoledge. Now my 15 year old Daughter has no interest in cars at the moment.

[Aero426]

Do I fall under that generation? I just turned 30 and all I use the Internet for is craigslist and ebay for parts and cars. and this site for extra knoledge. Now my 15 year old Daughter has no interest in cars at the moment.

I would say you are at the very tail end of that generation.    The kids who are in high school and college now are of the generation that all they know is tech.  

[68charger440]

Just wait until everyone gets used to self driving cars.  Then the true Motörhead's will be an even smaller niche hobby.  I think there will always be some new motor heads in each generation...
At least until human controlled vehicles are banned for safety reasons sometime in the not too distant future.  Once you can't even drive them then most people won't even want them.

[Ghoste]

This getting too Orwellian for me. 

[68charger440]

This getting too Orwellian for me. 

I think even Orwell would be shocked at how close we are to his vision right now.

[Todd Wilson]

I think the muscle car era cars will be around for a while commanding the prices they get.  First you got the old guys now who bought these cars when new. The cars were raced, wrecked, daily driven or what have you and as life goes on they disappeared from most of the people who bought them. They are now older and for the most part have the extra income to relive their youth and are buying these cars.

There is also a 2nd generation (me) who are the children of the ones who bought these cars new and now (1980's) they are used 15-18 year old cars. Old Dad kinda relived his youth when his teenage son bought that old Dodge Charger like he used to have as his first car in 1987. And now that we are in our 40's the same situation dad experienced the son has now experienced car got wrecked, sold, traded, daily driven and now we as 2nd generation are reliving our youth some as well.
Those children also probably remember being in and around those old Muscle cars when they were little kids.
At least that's how it is/was for me. Sadly my dad never did get another old Muscle car later in life and has since passed on.

So we may see high prices for the next 20-30 years as us 45 year old guys turn 60 and 70 and eventually pass on.

Now my daughters see the old Chargers in the garage and understand they are cool old cars but they don't "know" the history the cars had and came from known as the Muscle Car Era. And that's probably when things will start to drop the prices. We all laugh and talk bad on the pimple faced kid running his Civic around with fart pipe muffler and hat on backwards. Its the same thing we did as a kid only different cars. The kids of today may want an old muscle car but they simply cant afford one. So they make do with what they have available on the used car lot just like we did. When they are old they will want Civics so you all should start buying up all the Civics you can to sell later for big money! 


Todd

[73rallye440magnum]

I think well maintained restored big block 2nd gen. Chargers will be under $30k (today dollars) in 10-15 years.

Todd- you (as you mentioned) represent the second generation of enthusiasts that were exposed (and influenced) by these cars at a young age. I'm going to speculate that impressions were not maintained by a significant percentage of those your age whose parents had these cars new (10% who knows?) When the boomers reach an age they can no longer maintain and enjoy these cars the market will be flooded. 'Second generation' enthusiasts like yourself and the oddball millennial like myself are the new market. Demand will not exceed supply and the muscle car prices will drop. Not many my age know how or care to turn a wrench or drive an old car. The diesel and tuner crowd are where the money of my generation will go.

[Todd Wilson]

I think well maintained restored big block 2nd gen. Chargers will be under $30k (today dollars) in 10-15 years.

Todd- you (as you mentioned) represent the second generation of enthusiasts that were exposed (and influenced) by these cars at a young age. I'm going to speculate that impressions were not maintained by a significant percentage of those your age whose parents had these cars new (10% who knows?) When the boomers reach an age they can no longer maintain and enjoy these cars the market will be flooded. 'Second generation' enthusiasts like yourself and the oddball millennial like myself are the new market. Demand will not exceed supply and the muscle car prices will drop. Not many my age know how or care to turn a wrench or drive an old car. The diesel and tuner crowd are where the money of my generation will go.

Well it may be longer then 10-15 years as you say. You are right the boomers will pass on and I doubt 75-80 yr old guys for the most part will be thrashing around a big block on the street but the thing is when this happens (the 2nd generation) will be at that 60yrs of age and hopefully will have some disposable income to once again live their youth........ It will eventually lead to the decline in prices though no doubt about it. There will be some rare examples that I think will still bring big money many years away. 

Already starting to see it at car shows.  I am no longer hearing the 50's music and 60's music playing all the time and starting to hear some of my music from my youth! HA!


Todd