USA Today

Nice article in USA Today mentioning everyone's favorite classic car magazine: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2009/09/68498782/1

That must be why I put my little Miata in the reader ride section. I think he chose well as ones to watch. Almost any 60's or 70's Japanese car could show very nicely and be a worthy project if not particularly valuable. There is a 74ish Honda Civic Wagon near me that I like a lot.

Cheers Ron

When the Miata came out, I vowed to get one. It took 14 years, but I love it and drive it every day. A neighborhood high school kid has an early Datsun 240Z he's fixing up. I like to see that.

It surprises me that when I talk to older people, they just don't see that the Japanese collectible car thing is happening.

Denial.

It will only get worst from there on

If publisher Tim's prediction is correct maybe my 1st generation Miata will help fund my retirement someday. It's an exceptionally clean '96 with only 50K miles, minor and easily reversible mods, always garaged and doesn't get used from November-April.

I think these Japanese cars will mostly occupy the space that MG, Triumph and Fiat do now. Cars that maintain a healthy following and possibly club support for decades, but won't be selling for big bucks. They will be the attainable vintage sports cars of the future.

The guy, wacky enough to rent or buy a warehouse and stack it full of $1500 Miatas and store them for 20 years will be very happy.

Think I am crazy, what if you had done that with early Mustangs? I Used to buy them for $100-1000. Heck, I bought a 66 GT 350H for $2700 in 1979. Would be nice to find that one at the back of the warehouse today!

the Miata is about as close as a person can get these days to an old British sports car. I love ours and so far its been trouble free which is nice, somthing my dads old Brit cars seem to have from time to time..................

Another neat thing about the Miata is that it helped turn a lot of non-sports car people into sports car people. Plus they're fun. Mine is going to get some attention tonight.

Good thumbnail descriptions of Japanese cars, in the article.

When the Miata came out, I wanted one! But I came across a very nice, low miles '80 MGB for cheap so I got that instead.

I still want an NSX!

Dave

One of the issues that I have with older Japanese cars is that a lot of the fun ones, that would be very collectible, were made after 1975. In California, pre-76 cars are exempt from annual smog testing. So anything 76 and older needs to be tested every other year. This becomes a challenge with older cars as parts availability dries up.

Since the test is not only a tail pipe test, but a visual check, it's not good enough if the car blows clean.

So while I like the early Japanese cars, I can't bring myself to buy one that isn't pre-76.