Midnight Cruiser

My TC on its way this morning to a new owner 1000 miles away. I owned her for 32 years ... Since I now no longer own a TC, you will not be hearing much from me anymore on this board.

Auctions (especially Ebay) are not the right way to sell TC's. This just proves it.

I took this analysis one step further and looked up all of the over-$10K TCs that were listed on ClassicCars.com over the last two years. 23 were listed during that time period of which 17 were marked "Sold" by the sellers. 4 are still for sale, and 2 are no longer listed on the site. The average asking price was $14,149, and the top price was $19,500. Average mileage was 32,993. This is for real.

Actually on Classiccars.com there is a way to determine which cars were sold. When a seller removes the listing, the site asks him whether the car was sold. The answer to that question can accessed by anyone who knows the CC ID and searches the site using that ID. It just so happens that I recorded the CC ID's of all of the over-$10k TCs that were listed on Classiccars.com over the last two years. So I looked up the eight 16V's that I mentioned before, and seven of them were indeed marked as sold. The eighth one is no longer listed on the site, so I do not know whether it sold or not.

They don't expire. The sellers can leave their listings up as long as they like.

Not propaganda! I have no connection with ClassicCars.com. But I have been tracking TC's listed on their site, and just yesterday I realized that they went from nine 16V's with a asking price of more than $10k listed on their site since the beginning of 2020 to zero as of today! I thought that people on this board would be interested in that statistic. My conclusion is that the collector demand for 16V's in good shape is picking up, and the supply at least on ClassicCars.com is now zero.

No. That is private information between the buyer and seller.

All of the 16Vs on Classiccars.com over $10k have sold, a total of 9 in the last two years. The range of asking prices were $12.5K to $19.5K.

By my count the tally is now 28. Still quite rare, if accurate.

I only use Ethenol free gas, due to my boating experience of constantly fighting contaminated gas. Full is better than empty, even if the gas has to live in the tank for years. I don't use any additives, and haven't had any contamination issues with my TC.

I find that what is happening to Fiat Dino Spider prices to be very interesting, and indicative of what might happen with TC prices. The Fiat Dino had a story that is strikingly similar to the story of the TC. The Spider version was produced in about the same numbers as the 16V was. But it is 20 years older. Have a look at the 10 year value chart: https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/values/120144?yearRange=15 If the Fiat Dino Spider can see this kind of appreciation as it ages, I don’t see why the TC 16V cannot.

Silvertree: Good to hear from you and congratulations on your purchase. It's interesting that the two cars have sequential VINs and match. My car just won a trophy at a local car show over the weekend! My car is in Columbia, SC, so I doubt the two will get to meet.

So it looks like the total right now stands at 20 (5 “likes”, 3 more for multi-car owners, 1 for my car, 3 additional reported by Reaper, 8 additional reported by Garnet). That makes the 16V quite rare. As a matter of background, I bought my 1989 16V new. She is still in nearly-new condition after 22,400 miles. The only repairs I have had to make were to replace the radio and one tire. I have used her mostly to joyride on the Blue Ridge Parkway with the top down, and to take her to shows. There were never any recalls. I am sure that I will be able to sell her for more than I paid for her new, and the longer I keep her, the more valuable she will be. This is an amazingly good car – after almost 30 years of ownership: no depreciation, almost no repair costs, still beautiful, still fun as hell to drive, now rare, and the most comfortable and reliable car that Maserati ever made. But of course I am still in love …

So far, we have tallied a total of 9 (including the needed adjustments) operational 16V's. Is that really all there are? If so, our 16V's are much rarer than I thought ...

Go to your local grocery store or car wash and pick up one of those free magazines of local used car dealers. Look through the adds and pick our 5 or so dealers who are selling cars in the same price range you have in mind. Take a half day and drive to each one. Sell it to the first one who agrees to your $5K price. He will turn around and list it for around $15K. But he will do all of the advertising, negotiation, haggling, financing, and patient waiting that will be involved in selling it.

This is not the perfect way of voting, but it may be sufficient with some adjustment at the end for people who own multiple 16V's, etc. I discovered that I can't vote on my own post, so we will have to adjust for that as well. But let's give it a try - the results may be illuminating.

Reaper: I think that is a judgement call for you to make, depending on how close it is to operational. Garnet: Thanks for the insight and for keeping the VIN file up-to-date. I did not realize that there is a very recent update available until your comment made me look for it. By the way, I have one entry to add: 202220 1989 Royal Cabernet Ginger Tan DOHC

I was wondering how many 16V's are still operational. Let's use the "Like" button on this page to do a poll. If you have a 16V, and it is still operational, please click the "Like" button below. It should be interesting to see the result! Thanks in advance!