"Unicorn" cars in 10 years, what will GRMers be looking for?

Fiesta ecoboost

Stickshifts...

ATS manual

CTS manual

Saturn Sky / poontiac solstus

Maybe not unicorns, but...

Clean Subaru WRX's and STI's (rust free)

Unmolested FRS-BRZ

anything TDI?

NC miata, natch

I'm thinking the new Chevy SS would be a nice DD. Too bad it's auto only though. Regardless it'll be the oddball forgotten car blending in given it's lack of equivalent base model in the US. Time will tell if it experiences GTO like depreciation.

This will be one of them.....less than 6000 total for 4 years of production.

xflowgolf wrote: I'm thinking the new Chevy SS would be a nice DD. Too bad it's auto only though. Regardless it'll be the oddball forgotten car blending in given it's lack of equivalent base model in the US. Time will tell if it experiences GTO like depreciation.

Does it share body panels with the Caprice? If not, I'd think it'll depreciate like a rock as they get totaled out due to expensive/hard-to-find collision repair parts.

JohnRW1621 wrote: For a company the size of Toyota, I predict that the FR-S is considered a slow seller and has a product run of no more than 4 years. It will be rare in the similar fashion to how the MR-S is rare (an holding its value well.)

As a Toyota, you might be right...But as a Scion, I'll bet it's their second or third best seller.

Another vote for S2000. '02 and '03 AP1 unmolested and under 75k miles are hard to find listed for under 15k and that's winter prices. Under 30k miles are listing for $20k+. Consider when I got my '02 with 15k miles in '05 I paid either $22k or $24k, can't remember.

mndsm wrote: CTSV wagon, with the suede especially. And a manual.

The CTS-V wagon was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread title. Perhaps the ultimate unicorn car from the past few years.

Hmm, this one might be a bit more of a porker than some of us here would prefer, but one of the other cars on my list is a Hyundai Genesis 2.0T R-spec. Thing is, I have no idea how the production breakdown on those is, but I bet the other trim lines are far more popular.

Whether we'll be searching for them or not is another question. I have my doubts. Maybe it'll depend on how much power can eventually be reliably wrung out of the direct-injected engine.

Oh, and my Verano manual idea may be about the ultimate "unicorn" that is still in production. Autotrader lists 10 of them in the entire US (cars dot com only shows 5), while they have a total of 13153 new Veranos of any configuration available. A whopping 0.08% of Veranos available for sale are 6 speed manual trans turbos.

MadScientistMatt wrote:

mndsm wrote: CTSV wagon, with the suede especially. And a manual.

The CTS-V wagon was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread title. Perhaps the ultimate unicorn car from the past few years.

My buddy's got a '13 CTS-V wagon with the manual transmission. I've never, ever seen another one.

In reply to Sky_Render:

I just did a search on Autotrader. There are currently 6 CTS-V Wagons with manuals listed in the country. All for about $60K, give or take depending on mileage.

The ex- and I came >< this close to buying a GXP Coupe when Pontiac was shut down. There were still a few for sale in our area at the time for ~MSRP.

Somebody in a shopping center near work has a BMW 1-M in orange that I see all the time. It is a decent looking car.

I'll offer up a cople of more:

Mazda 6 wagon, manual trans (already a bit of a unicorn)

MINI's without sun roofs... (a pet peeve of mine).

Someday I'll be bent that I didn't buy a manual CTSV Wagon when my wife told me I could. I don't think FR-S's will be super rare, but I do think they'll be desirable and the manual cars will carry a large drift tax. Very lightly optioned ST Fords will be hard to find.

Apexcarver wrote: Clean Subaru WRX's and STI's (rust free)

Evos as well. It's pretty hard to find unmolested Evo VIIIs and IXs already and people asking premium prices for them.

I am going to go with the Toyobaru option.

My thoughts are based on it not being a very long lived product. The twins are a "built down to a price design" and it shows. It also has had too many teething issues that killed its launch momentum. Note that the old fogey Consumer Reports has tagged it with "Unreliable" status. Hard to overcome that stigma; as oxymoronic as it may be, people do read that rag when shopping for sportcars. Looking at mine after two winters, I doubt very much that these cars are going to hold together much past my ten year expectations.

The Miata by comparison has been a success because as impractical as a sports car is perceived to be, it is a bombproof piece of cheap transportation that is hard to argue with.

That all said, the Twins are nice to drive when the dealer lets you have custody.

HappyAndy wrote: any manual gearbox RWD car.

This.

The G8 may be rare, but in 10 years there will be lots of decommissioned cop Caprices out there in civilian hands. I predict it may be the new P71 by then.

In reply to mazdeuce:

You can console yourself by driving your C7 Aerowagon.

Jeep Patriot 4x4 with a manual transmission.

Then somebody will turbo it and autocross it.

Cobalt SS Turbo's with a manual trans.

Forester and Outback XT's with manuals (already unicorns)

Oh, the S2000. I've wanted to drive one of those since they came out and I was in, gosh, middle school? Are they like the Miata with the engine that it always deserved? I sure hope they don't end up like the Supra; blinged up, beat up, and super-pricey.

How about the BMW Z4 rag top? The last of the real convertible roadsters before they jumped on the "has to pretend to be a coupe" bandwagon.

Sky_Render wrote:

MadScientistMatt wrote:

mndsm wrote: CTSV wagon, with the suede especially. And a manual.

The CTS-V wagon was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread title. Perhaps the ultimate unicorn car from the past few years.

My buddy's got a '13 CTS-V wagon with the manual transmission. I've never, ever seen another one.

I know of two in the State of MN, and one is a fleet/demo for a Cadillac dealer- the other belongs to some wealthy sob who clearly has excellent taste.

V50 AWD Manual was listed earlier, still today a S/V70 with a turbo and a manual is considered a unicorn. Any of the later manual + turbo cars will be sought after, add AWD to the mix, and you get a "unicorn" see the '05+ AWD, manual, T5 S40 for example.

Add the later Polestar tuned cars, especially the C30 to the list too.

• Lee

The list goes on and on. Some of them are already unicorns and just getting harder to get.

1G and 2G AWD DSMs of course
4th gen Supras
Sy/Tys
3rd gen RX-7
Late 4th gen Camaro and Trans Am
5.9 Cummins and 7.3 Powerstroke 4x4 trucks
Anything SRT
Trailblazer SS
Cobalt SS
STI
EVO VIII and IV
350Z and 370Z

White_and_Nerdy wrote: The G8 may be rare, but in 10 years there will be lots of decommissioned cop Caprices out there in civilian hands. I predict it may be the new P71 by then.

I think the Pontiac G8 GXP with a manual transmission will always be sought after. Besides being the last performance Pontiac, they only sold about 1800 of them.

confuZion3 wrote: Oh, the S2000. I've wanted to drive one of those since they came out and I was in, gosh, middle school? Are they like the Miata with the engine that it always deserved? I sure hope they don't end up like the Supra; blinged up, beat up, and super-pricey.

Yes. Problem is being a roadster there tends to be a lot of turn around and by 100k+ miles there is quite a bit of differed maintance. At that point they are $10-$12k and you have young new drivers picking them up and not being able to afford to keep decent tires on them. Car is already bad with ANY lift off going into an oversteer. Tons put the back end into guard rails getting totaled, then there are the slashed soft tops and stolen seats which totals the car. Mechanical over rev seems to be a problem with that car as well. Drop from 5th and miss fourth and go into second instead. Eek, cars don't like having engines turned at 14k rpm. That leaves the overpriced garage queens stashed away by middle aged men and women.