Future classics

From my experience, a twenty year old car will not go up in value. If it isn't a classic already, it won't become one.

//Waits for someone to mentioned an exception.
 
I think that the IROC Camaros of the late 80s are about to become that exception. Ones with more rare options are starting to go up in price quite rapidly if they are in good shape.
 
Early 80s Mercedes in good condition have been going up for the past couple of years. It used to be you couldn't give one away, but now they are appreciating.
 
I know the diesels have, but I think that has more to do with fuel prices.
 
993 Turbos. Already more expensive than their 996 equivalent.
 
From my experience, a twenty year old car will not go up in value. If it isn't a classic already, it won't become one.

//Waits for someone to mentioned an exception.

A lot of mid-'70s "muscle" (the post-'72 anemic gas crisis cars which have historically been very uncool) are starting to get some love now. GM G-bodies are also seeing a bit of a revival.
 
GM G-bodies are also seeing a bit of a revival.

I don't mean to toot my own horn. But 5th gen El Caminos are all of a sudden starting to go up in price. Back when I bought my first one 3 years ago the max they were going for was like $5000 for a nice one, maybe $7000 for a REALLY nice one.

Now I've seen semi-decent ones going for $3000-$5000 where as the nice ones are going for $10k +
 
I don't mean to toot my own horn.

Following promptly...

The prices on 850 T5-R's have been going up a lot. The biggest problem is that with only 2,500 produced a lot of them are now in collectors' hands and will never be put back on sale.

The ones that go on sale are over-priced, abused or tuned to insanity.

The regular 850 T-5's have pretty much the same performance but they were initially bought by non-enthusiasts and have become neglected, and very few of them exist.
 
Ford Thunderbird

Ford Thunderbird

EDIT BY PACKETCOLLISION: Image deleted because it is picked up by google as being hosted on a malware domain.
 
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too retro to be considered a classic when the original is already one.

Well, I think it will become valuable as 50s cars become almost extinct in the near future. It's good for people that like 50s cars, but cannot afford maintaining one. I think it was just underrated, it looks way cooler than the New Beetle imho. :)
 
I can't see retro cars coming classics, the Mini might be exception thanks to it's brilliant handling, but we'll see.. Whole point of a retro car is to bring something from already classic car to work in the current world, thus as a classic car it's always worse than the original. Why would you get '03 Thunderbird in 2050, when you could get 1950s TBird? 50s classic cars aren getting extinct, all the valuable examples are mostly in hands of collectos/car enthusiasts, not rotting away in junk yards.
 
Discontinued modern engines with computers, injectors, and direct ignition will be more expensive to maintain than discontinued classic engines with carburetors and distributors. Besides, that T-bird was just a pale imitation of its predecessor, and unworthy successors are unlikely to become classics, even if they're newer and more modern. See: Jaguar XJS, FWD Lotus Elan.
 
I think that the IROC Camaros of the late 80s are about to become that exception. Ones with more rare options are starting to go up in price quite rapidly if they are in good shape.
If you live somewhere that has a relatively large white trash population (sorry, not feeling too politically correct this morning) then the prices are already going up. Last fall I saw a '90-'92 IROC, with something like 60k original miles, going for $7,000!?! Sure it was pristine, but that's probably half what the car cost new!

The '78-''81 Chevy Malibu has also gotten pretty rare and people want silly amounts of money for even rough examples. Like $1500-$2000 for a barely running 4 door. Fortunately other '70s-'80s fullsize GM cars aren't nearly that bad. Cutlasses, Regals and Monte Carlos are still plentiful and cheap. There used to be a guy in town who restored G-bodies, mostly later Monte Carlo SS'. But I'm pretty sure he went out of business. He just charged too much for the cars.

The prices on 850 T5-R's have been going up a lot. The biggest problem is that with only 2,500 produced a lot of them are now in collectors' hands and will never be put back on sale.
:censored: You've got to be kidding me. I passed up a green wagon for, iirc, a little over $2,000 this winter. It had a ton of miles on it and was a little rough inside and out. I didn't even take it for a test drive. It was the best thing for my wallet, but I had no idea they were rare cars.

Discontinued modern engines with computers, injectors, and direct ignition will be more expensive to maintain than discontinued classic engines with carburetors and distributors.
True. Just yesterday my truck wasn't running quite right. After a few minutes of poking around I popped the distributor cap and found some corrosion on the rotor/contacts. Cleaned them up with a wire brush and the truck runs fine now. A modern car starts running rough ... and it's time to break out the diagnostic computer, work through a list of 20 different sensors that could've quit, etc etc. Not that I don't like new cars, I just dread maintaining them. And that's now, nevermind when they're fifty years old.
 
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some future classics that I predict:

M coupe and M Roadster. nice classic lines, fun high revving powerful N/A I6
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First Gen Viper GTS and RT/10:
http://img716.imageshack.**/img716/3057/dodgevipergts.jpg

the S2k, of course...
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I might be biased, but this already seems like a classic. At least compared to all the newer BMW's, this just seems timeless to me.
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Alright I'm getting lazy. Clearly any exotic is always gonna be a classic though. Also the Supras, RX7s, Skylines and all the cars big with the import scene are sure classics. Any car that the youth of today drools over will be an instant classic when they can all of a sudden afford it in years to come.
 
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