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Lance Lambert |
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“The Vintage Vehicle Show” |
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THE COMMA BEFORE THE STORM |
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Over the past two years screen and monitor viewers have been watching collector car auctions and assumed that many cars over 30 years old are worth six to seven digits of dollars. In 2006 someone paid $4,300,000 for a bus and yes, there were two commas in the number you just read. I will agree that this was, and still is, the coolest bus in the history of the world. This General Motors Futurliner, one of 12 made, was used in the 1940’s and 1950’s to display GM’s latest rolling widgets, but a bus selling for over four really really big ones? Muscle cars, or Godzillas on wheels, have recently sold for over $3,000,000 (yes, again two commas), resulting in every boomer thinking that perhaps he should have kept that previously owned Detroit hot rod with SS, GT, RS, LMNOP or any other combination of Scrabble game pieces in the model name. |
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I’m guilty of currently owning a couple of cars that have solid blocks of testosterone under the hoods and that sound like lions roaring whenever I push the pedal on the right. And, despite what every Prius owner is thinking, they get 20 to 25 MPG and equal the MPG of most of the cars in a new car dealer’s showroom. And the best part; the purchase prices of these cars included only one comma! Recent auction sales in my part of the blue marble include a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro in #2 condition (that’s equal to a nearly new car), featuring a factory original 327 cubic inch V8 and a four speed transmission, selling for $20,000, and a #2 condition 1970 Camaro with a 350 cubic inch V8 selling for $17,000. Real economy minded buyers, or cheapskates like me, could have purchased less desirable but still really fun cars such as a 1977 Chevrolet Nova two door sedan with 7,900 original miles for $6,750, or a #3 condition 1976 Chevrolet Vega, equipped with a 350 cubic inch V8, for $2,700! No, these are not top of the line muscle cars but they are a lot more fun to own and a much better investment than paying the same money for a used and tired SUV. Drive the Camaros and sell them later for a possible profit, break even on the Nova and drive the pudding out of the Vega and throw it away when you are done. |
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The Barrett Jackson auction in Scottsdale seems to be a great place to sell a car and perhaps not so great of a place to buy one. Viewers of past BJ auctions watched a lot of people with more money than grey matter make total twits of themselves on national TV. Two years ago perhaps the silliest person on the planet paid 3.3 million dollars for a Corvette styled prototype manufactured by Oldsmobile. I realize that the “bigger fool” rule applies here and you are only nuts until you sell the car for more money to a larger nut. But where does it stop? Read on. About a decade ago the Ferrari market went totally crazy as investors drove up the purchase price of various models into the two comma neighborhood. Within two years of this peak these very same cars were selling in the $300,000 to $500,000 range. Sorry Mr. and Ms. Investor, your shorts got misplaced. Well kids, it’s that time again. I think 2007 will go down in history as the year that the muscle car market “adjusted” because this year buyers will decide that they do not want to find that their bidding card is the last in the air and that they just became the biggest fool. My advice that you didn’t ask for; if you have money to burn then grab the matches. If not, buy a single comma car, keep your coins, and let the single comma lion roar. |
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