Interesting comment from Hagerty

[padgett]

Weekly article.

"With the huge collector movement toward cars of the 1980s and ’90s,"

 

Has my cars' time come at last ?

 

https://www.hagerty.com/media/magazine-features/bull-market-2021/

 

 

[Walt G]

Interesting to see this list , but many of the comments state that it is not relevant to most people looking at it due to cost and I have to agree. It is not realistic to assume many will look at this and even digest it but most likely will shrug and think it is another 'dreamers list' of what they think is "the " ultimate modern ride.

[TAKerry]

I have never seen a hard top Honda 600 like that. I thought they were all roadsters, sharp looking car. I know a fellow that has a soft spot for those Westfalias, last time i counted he had at least 6 of them! Was buying them up about 10 years and putting them in storage containers. Guess he was ahead of the curve. 

[padgett]

Agree about their pick but there are a lot of interesting 80s and 90s cars that have nice examples available for under $10k.

 

ps had a Westphalia but prefer the Vixen RV (also a pop top but a bit faster).

[joe_padavano]

Not a surprise. It's been shown time and again that as people get older, they tend to collect the cars that were popular when they were in high school. That, plus the 80s started to see some relief from the malaise era.

[1912Staver]

1 hour ago, TAKerry said:

I have never seen a hard top Honda 600 like that. I thought they were all roadsters, sharp looking car. I know a fellow that has a soft spot for those Westfalias, last time i counted he had at least 6 of them! Was buying them up about 10 years and putting them in storage containers. Guess he was ahead of the curve. 

 

They sold the coupe's in Canada. Not as popular as the roadsters , but I have seen a handful of the coupe's  over the years.

Small and troublesome is how I remember them but I have never owned one.

 

Greg

[John_S_in_Penna]

To those customers on their e-mail list,

Hagerty is always coming out with similar

articles and lists.  I guess their employees

have writing assignments.

 

Most of the newer cars on their list are

foreign "super" cars.  Those are typically saved

and little used, right from the showroom.  

 

To me, their list is just a writing assignment

and doesn't show anything we didn't already know.

Padgett, your Reattas and Allantes, though not

in Hagerty's article, already have some appreciation!

[1950panhead]

Quote

I guess their employees have writing assignments.

Someone had to write it, it didn't come out of thin air

 

Quote

To me, their list is just a writing assignment and doesn't show anything we didn't already know.

The article is pretty good.  Like you I am aware of everything they wrote, for many others this will be news.

 

In 2019 I bought a 69 CB750 sandcast for $5000, the guy had two of them, what the heck one will do.
In 2020  a project sandcast sold for $16k on ebay (just like mine).
Well you know what they say about hind sight.

Edited December 12, 2020 by 1950panhead (see edit history)

[Walt G]

This is a modern car dreamers list, are they "collectible" ? well to some people they are, depends upon how much $ you have, room to store them, perhaps even drive them/ride in them?  There are some of us here ( most of us???) that perhaps take pleasure in owning/using,and working on the "used cars" we choose to have. Those cars we like may also not have a computer of any sort , nor a gauge on the dashboard to tell us what tire is low on air, or that a flashing light will tell us a door is not fully closed. We all have our own preference  - some of us think that older is better, simpler , gives us some exercise ( hand cranking windows, manual steering, putting an aerial up and down by hand,cleaning 5 inch whitewall tires etc.) and it is nice to have a car with running boards that blend and flow into the front and rear fenders .

[60FlatTop]

Hagerty's marketing plan for insurance appears to be a constant communication with the potential and current clientele. I have always viewed their articles as advertising assignments. Substance and the "spark" of the hobby are never there. Remember those annual collections of Old Cars Weekly that sold for %9.95? Hargerty couldn't sell one.

 

Makes me think of a book of the unpublished articles of Hagerty, never found. The dog ate them (like homework). Just another part of the job.

[60FlatTop]

1 minute ago, Walt G said:

the "used cars" we choose to have.

 

Pebble Beach is a bunch of used car owners.

[Ed Luddy]

I do believe 80's cars are starting to be seen as "collectible" I have a few and am looking for a nice 88 or so Trans Am GTA while they are still cheap.

My current fav is this.

[60FlatTop]

Not on their list but I bought this 1986 in 2011 with a bad engine. It may be the first one of its type to have been mechanically rebuilt restoration style.

[J.H.Boland]

It seems that some of my cars have become "collectable" simply because I never traded them in !  I never dreamed when I bought my '78 GMC Caballero new that I would still be enjoying it 42 years later. Likewise my '72 Chevy C20 bought in 1984 for a tow vehicle or my '92 Buick Park Avenue bought in 2000 and now only two years away from qualifying for historic plates. Even my '99 Jeep TJ (Wrangler) Sahara that spent it's life between BC and Arizona and has never suffered the ravages of salty Ontario winters will soon be considered collectable in these parts. As to the exotics listed by Hagerty, well, to each his own.

[JV Puleo]

2 hours ago, joe_padavano said:

Not a surprise. It's been shown time and again that as people get older, they tend to collect the cars that were popular when they were in high school. That, plus the 80s started to see some relief from the malaise era.

 

I wonder about this. It's one of those "trueisms" that has been repeated so often that it widely accepted as a fact. I have my doubts about it and would go so far as to say that, while of some temporary significance, it is only part of the story. While it is likely true that a portion of the "collecting" world is drawn to the cars they remember from HS it simply can't be true across the board or why then do the big classics and brass cars continue to generate interest and high prices? Yes, the market can go soft for certain things – that is simply to be expected. Anyone who thinks prices will never go flat or decline is woefully ignorant of economic history. It may be that the interest is there but that high prices have kept people out...that is certainly my case. I graduated from HS in 1971 – at the height of the muscle car craze. They were of no interest to me then and still aren't. In fact, I regard just about everything made after about 1935 as a used car. The low prices of unfinished projects is the only door left open for anyone who is uninterested in this late stuff and to take advantage of that opening you need time and technical skills, both things that are going to be rare among new potential enthusiasts.

[1937hd45]

14 minutes ago, JV Puleo said:

 

I wonder about this. It's one of those "trueisms" that has been repeated so often that it widely accepted as a fact. I have my doubts about it and would go so far as to say that, while of some temporary significance, it is only part of the story. While it is likely true that a portion of the "collecting" world is drawn to the cars they remember from HS it simply can't be true across the board or why then do the big classics and brass cars continue to generate interest and high prices? Yes, the market can go soft for certain things – that is simply to be expected. Anyone who thinks prices will never go flat or decline is woefully ignorant of economic history. It may be that the interest is there but that high prices have kept people out...that is certainly my case. I graduated from HS in 1971 – at the height of the muscle car craze. They were of no interest to me then and still aren't. In fact, I regard just about everything made after about 1935 as a used car. The low prices of unfinished projects is the only door left open for anyone who is uninterested in this late stuff and to take advantage of that opening you need time and technical skills, both things that are going to be rare among new potential enthusiasts.

 

 

Wow! Great minds think alike! I totally agree the only car in my High School  parking lot I'd love to own today is the 1925 Dodge Brothers Screenside Delivery the business and typing teacher drove one mile a day to and from school. Bob Class of 1968

[JV Puleo]

When I was in HS and first got interested in old cars – via a British book Veteran & Vintage Cars, I was introduced to Bills Auto Parts in Valley Falls, RI - easily the most fantastic junk yard I've ever been in. My friends and classmates, John Zangari and his brother Paul, had a '34 Chevy their father bought for them. John wanted me to buy a "37 Chrysler that was so good that Bill kept it indoors...the price was, I think, $750 but I declined it because I thought it was too new. What I really liked was a '25 Hudson that was outside...still in original paint with a good interior and the tool kit still intact under the front seat. I could have had that for much less – like $300 – but my late father would have shot me if I brought something like that home. He certainly wouldn't have let me put it in the garage. Sadly, it deteriorated badly over the next four or five years...but I eventually became friends with Bill who, until he died, gave me free run of the inside storage areas.

[TerryB]

1955 Chevys were the must have cars in my HS days (class of 1970).  The hot new cars were great too look at but we poor kids growing up in anthracite coal country had no dreams of being able to afford them.  A few young people had some early 1960s cars but most of us lusted for the 1955-57 Chevy cars, except for those poor souls who thought Fords were better, and we won’t even talk about the misguided few who thought MoPars were great.  So if we fast forward to 2020, my ideal cars would be like a Chinese food menu, a 1930s car, an early 1950s car, a later 1950s car, a select car from the mid to late 1960s and possibly one from the 1970s.  I am not a Model T guy, a corvette guy or a muscle car guy unless it’s a small block type.

 

Seeing reports of people finding 1980s and 1990s cars as worthy of interest is fine, that means more people actually wanting to do more than just put the key in the slot and turning the steering wheel.  It’s a big world, there’s room for all of us, even those misguided MoPar folks who still today haven’t seen the light😀.

[J.H.Boland]

24 minutes ago, TerryB said:

1955 Chevys were the must have cars in my HS days (class of 1970).😀.

I learned to drive in dad's '55 and grandad's '53 Chevies, so they bring back memories, but both had their headlights fall out before they were eight years old. I'd still like a '53-'54  but a southern US import would be the only way to go.

I've always been a pre-WW2 car fan, even though I'm a boomer.

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by J.H.Boland (see edit history)

[Bryan G]

I grew up in the 80's but, aside from maybe some of the trucks or an AMC Eagle, I really have no interest in owning something from that era. I'd never really thought about it but my first car, a '67 Impala, was nearly the oldest in the parking lot at just over 20yo. Very, very strange to think that's the equivalent to a kid today driving a '99. 

 

I have a hard time thinking of a fellow Gen-X'er among my circle of friends who owns a car (not truck) from the 80's but I do know of a few younger folks. I wonder if they, like myself, were turned on to models that their dad admired when he was younger? Mine had a '66 Impala. If your dad had a IROC-Z or a Fox-body Mustang or a Daytona K perhaps he will steer you in that direction & relive those days vicariously? 

[Frank DuVal]

12 hours ago, joe_padavano said:

It's been shown time and again that as people get older, they tend to collect the cars that were popular when they were in high school.

 

I think it is better said:  They collect what they liked in high school. Not what was popular for everybody else. 😉  If you liked brass era cars when you were a teenager in the 80s, you probably still like them!😄

[1935Packard]

The XK120 prediction is interesting (based, I gather, on an uptick in quotes among Gen-Xers for those cars in recent months).  Prices have been falling, for that and many other similar 50s two-seaters, so a predicted turn-around is worth watching for.

[Tom99]

I always thought 80's cars, were only worth what their value  is as scrap metal.

 

[60FlatTop]

2 hours ago, Tom99 said:

only worth what their value  is as scrap metal.

 

One man's scrap is another man's treasure.

[1950panhead]

The XK120 prediction is interesting (based, I gather, on an uptick in quotes among Gen-Xers for those cars in recent months).  Prices have been falling, for that and many other similar 50s two-seaters, so a predicted turn-around is worth watching for.

I like XK120's, a friend has one and a small fleet of xke's

Are XK120's going up or down in value ?

Gen X likes XK120's ?  How did this happen ?

 

[ia-k]

With the comment about the Hagerty's writers, wonder if they have access to a database of what collector cars are recently being insured? If they notice within the last year a large increase in the number of Pontiacs T1000s being insured it would show an increase in the collectivity (for some reason) of that car.

[1937hd45]

Just now, ia-k said:

With the comment about the Hagerty's writers, wonder if they have access to a database of what collector cars are recently being insured? If they notice within the last year a large increase in the number of Pontiacs T1000s being insured it would show an increase in the collectivity (for some reason) of that car.

 

I'm driving a 1999 Lincoln, $200.00 daily driver, when it dies it gets scrapped, maybe the above mentioned people think the same. Bob 

[padgett]

Personally of the XKs I'd rather have another XK-150s. Disk brakes, triple carbs, roll up windows. Looks like an S is about 1/3 higher value than a base 120 for a #2 but think a much better car.

 

Could see a rise in Geo Metro sales before a T-1000 (Chevette). Geo has FWD and makes a better TOAD.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by padgett (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

Anybody remember when AACA members used those crappy 1934 Packards as tow vehicles for their brass cars?

 

Or the guys who scoffed at those idiots who started collecting those "used car lot" 1959 Cadillacs?

 

Remember, the guy who built this existed in the real world:

 

What connection do young people have to a 1957 Chevy, never mind a 1931 Chevy? None, zero, zilch. They do, however, have a connection to a 1984 Toyota Supra or a 19887 Mustang GT. I'm one of them, I get it, even though I'm an anomaly who loves pre-war cars. If I didn't have a father who collected pre-war cars and exposed me to Full Classics from an early age, but I was still into cars, where would I have ended up? Probably with a love for the cars from high school and early adulthood in the late '80s and early '90s. That's exactly how it works and it's why many of us collect what we do. This should not be surprising or unhappy news for any of us.

[60FlatTop]

"Hello, Dad, I just bought a 25 year old hobby car. My job is going well and I always wanted an old car. It's a nice one."

 

"Son, you spend you time on those old junkers. Don't you have the sense to get something worthwhile?"

 

What year was that conversation? 2020? 1980? 1958?

 

Nuthin' changes but the date.

[Paul Dobbin]

Back in the 80's I wrote an article about shopping  center parking lot cars.  I wish I could find it now, but I saw lots of old stuff still in use.  Like a 55 Buick owned by the county that had survived as a county vehicle because

they used some system of getting rid of vehicles based on repair cost totals.  Another daily drive was an old woman in a blue 1941 Nash Coupe.  Never got her story.  I lived on St. Petersburg Florida, home of the newly wed and the

nearly dead, where people came for the duration and had cars they hoped would last that long.  Lots of early 4 door cars, but a few fancy models too from the 40's & 50's.    They still have 60's and 70's cars in shopping center

lots.   I knew a guy who died recently and left me his 1971 Plymouth Duster.  For years I had arranged repairs for it from various signs and cars that jumped out in front of him.  Then he lost his drivers license when he drove down

the grass between the sidewalk and the street because the sun was in his eyes.   After a lot of coaching and crying during the drivers test, he was back

to being the grocery store target of a lot of car guys like us.   This was his social life and he loved it.   When he had moved to Florida in 1972, he put it in the garage and drove his beater (1962 Dodge Dart) to work at Sears until he retired in 1990.  Then the Duster was the main ride again.  These old people love to be asked about their cars.  Me too.   I sold the 46 year old Duster and named my new lift, "Joe's Duster".

Edited December 15, 2020 by Paul Dobbin
Spilling airor (see edit history)

[AL1630]

I'm currently in high school, and my car is the oldest in the parking lot by probably 35-40 years. Anyone at school I know that's into cars is more interested in JDM/tuning imports from the 1990s and newer - stuff that can be seen on the streets or bought used for relatively low prices. I see it as modern day hot rodding, people find whatever old cars they can get and fix them up. However, from hearing stories on here from others, it seems that people are just  less interested in cars in general. People here talk about the guys they knew in school with the fastest cars, or the car that everyone was jealous of, and so on. Almost everyone I know just drives older used cars (early-mid 2000s) or their parents' old car. There's nothing really 'cool' in the parking lot, just transportation. Of course I can't speak for every high school in the country but that's what I've seen where I live.

 

As Matt Harwood said, younger people like me don't have a first hand connection to these cars. I grew up going to antique car shows with my parents and finding all the books I could with photos of pretty much any cars from the 1900s to the 60s. That's where my interest comes from. A lot of the biggest car social media pages are about 'tuning', mostly Japanese cars. I think part of it is the loss of auto shop programs. My school district has a 'tech center' that you can go to, but you have to give up other classes to go to it and it causes scheduling problems. And that program focuses mostly on newer cars so if you want to work on older stuff you kind of have to figure it out yourself.

[60FlatTop]

Ever read any of those owner satisfaction surveys or see the awards they give? They don't have as much to do with the car as they do with the question: how smart do you think you were in your choice of buying that car? In general, the older the collector car owner, the more pleased he is with how smart he is. They couldn't see a young person doing anything as smart as they.

Been that way a long time. The old guys of their day never thought they'd amount to much.

 

I had a chuckle out of the Duesenberg truck. I imagined the old guy with some Model A Ford radiator caps or horns discussing the subtleties of fine vs. coarse threads or horn cover stampings, oblivious to any value of that half a sedan body he threw away.

[padgett]

Remember a Phantom pickup from my yout. Didn't think anything of it at the time but also was used to 300SLs (several) driving around with the doors open trying to get cool. South Florida in the 60s was a strange place.

[edinmass]

Joe......talk to AJ’s dad......Big Al. EVERY closed car is a parts car. The reality of collecting in the 50’s. 

[edinmass]

Just one more comment......there are more horses in the US today, than there was during the civil war. Cars won’t die out..........things change. The hobby will be different, but it wall still be here, and active. 

[60FlatTop]

19 minutes ago, JV Puleo said:

Their attitude left me with a permanent dislike of clubs...

 

I have enjoyed some of the clubs.

[JV Puleo]

I remember a newspaper article from about 1910 reporting that the advent of automobiles and motorized street cars was creating a big problem for the army - because the breeders that supplied Cavalry horses were closing down from the increasing lack of demand...

 

Another article from the same period was titled the "The Automobile - Savior of the Modern City" – why? because it was replacing the horses. One need only read any period description of how filthy big cities were with thousands of pounds of horse buns and gallons of urine on the streets to get the point.

[padgett]

Think of the DSC jobs lost.

[60FlatTop]

16 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

thousands of pounds of horse buns and gallons of urine on the streets to get the point

 

In the early hours of a misty morning the ancient Troy a street sweeper died of a heart attack. Two others were institutionalized.