What car has nostalgia made more desirable over the years?

I had a 60 something Chrysler Newport. I would go like a scalded dog. Had deep chrome reversed rims and Mickey T tires. Push button transmission. Great car to drive. New paint job and interior recovered in a nice Naugahyde, 4 barrel carb and long shackles to fit the rear tires and rims. Went into the military, my mom sold it for pennies since I wasn't home. Mileage was crap, but back then, gas was cheap.

MK4 Supra

GMT400s. They've always been great trucks, but in the late 2000s they were literally worthless. I couldnt give my super clean 96 away.

Screaming Chicken Firebird with the 455 for pure American excess. I've also taken a shine to 3-box cars: The early 60s Nova, Volvo Amazon, 60s sedans from most European makers. They're balanced and like the suits in Men in Black, timeless. 

All of 'em.

A model A or T was the pinto/falcon of its time. All droolworthy now, especially in light of our trend towards predator cars.

Ok maybe the Lexus is Battlestar Galactica.

Also, I submit the Rabbit

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

Pinto

Came here to say this

VW Bus

Mk1 Capri, had four of them. Let them stay in the past with my blonde mullet, Oakley sun shades and all the sunny days and youthful optimism....Find your current object of desire at the next show and ask yourself ...do you really want to sit in that seat, change out that heater core, go down the road slowly and with rattles and squeaks? 

I don't know about nostalgia for them, but there's a thread on bimmerforums about people paying low 5 figure amounts for clean low mile E21s.

15 years ago nice clean cars were $1500, and if somebody tarted one up it might be $3500 (though a true Euro car would fetch that easily).  

I love mine, but it's an irrational thing.  They're pathetically slow stock, handling wise the body roll is so much that I used to brush asphalt off of the door handles just from backing it out of the driveway, and they sat higher than Toyota 4x4s of the era. 

And parts are getting harder to come by. 

 Stock for stock the 2002s and E30s are better cars and have lots more parts support. 

It's weird to see the dynamic. 

1st gen Ford Lightning. By today's standards it isn't fast, some parts are absurdly hard to get and it's basically a F150 with slightly lowered suspension, big tires and a massaged 351W. People are inexplicably paying stupid money for them over a regular F150.

Hopefully, someone will pay me stupid money for mine soon.

In reply to ddavidv :

I remember about 7 or 8 years ago, when some people around here were just figuring out about the first gen lightnings. A friend of mine is a big ford guy and always wanted one so he went out and found a cheap one. He cleaned it up real nice drove it for a while and was offered over double what he had paid. So he sold it and did the same thing a couple more times. Buy a decent one from someone still thinking they are 3 or 4K trucks, detail it and sell it to the guys paying 8-10K.

He said it was cool, but if he wanted one he'd buy a base F150 which were worthless at the time and build a better one. I think the last one he sold he kept the seats incase he ever built his own.

Fox chassis mustangs. When I started drag racing them in 2005 a rusty running v8 car was 500 bucks. Those same cars are now 2500+. 

For me on a very personal level, a Sunbeam Imp. My first (of 4) pictured.

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

Screaming Chicken Firebird with the 455 for pure American excess. I've also taken a shine to 3-box cars: The early 60s Nova, Volvo Amazon, 60s sedans from most European makers. They're balanced and like the suits in Men in Black, timeless. 

This ^ Any 2nd Gen Firebird (or Camaro, but mostly Firebird and especially TransAm).  Back when you could find them for peanuts I didn't have anyplace to store one.  Now you can't find them, and when you can they are expensive, even for rust buckets. 

06HHR (Forum Supporter) said:

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

Screaming Chicken Firebird with the 455 for pure American excess. I've also taken a shine to 3-box cars: The early 60s Nova, Volvo Amazon, 60s sedans from most European makers. They're balanced and like the suits in Men in Black, timeless. 

This ^ Any 2nd Gen Firebird (or Camaro, but mostly Firebird and especially TransAm).  Back when you could find them for peanuts I didn't have anyplace to store one.  Now you can't find them, and when you can they are expensive, even for rust buckets. 

Does anything speak to a simpler time more than this?:

Danny Shields (Forum Supporter) said:

VW Bus

 

First thing that came to mind.  I mean, I think they're neat, but not $100k+ neat.  For that price, you could buy a new Macan and a new Miata and have money left over.....

-Rob

Some of the ones I strangely lust over now are ones I know are probably terrible, but that doesn't stop me from wanting them. Many were current vehicles when I was a kid:

1990ish Caavalier Z24:


Chevy Lumina Z34:


1993ish Pontiac Bonneville SSEi:


This Generation of Pontiac Grand Prix GTP:


Also, These Ones:


The Olds Achieva SCX:


Olds Toronado Trofeo:


Oh, and the Chevy Beretta Z26:


As you can tell, I grew up in a GM family. Repeated trips to the dealer while my dad had service done on the family '86 Olds 98 Regency Brougham made me wish he'd trade in that stodgy sedan for one of these. One time, he got a Toronado as a loaner car, and I begged him not to give it back! Again, I know these are all terrible, but I still love them now. 

I'd say that our old Pontiac wagon falls into that class. Back when we were younger, no one wanted to be seen in the family wagon. It was opposite of cool. 

Then we bought this several years ago, and people would just flip out over it--at Publix, at Porsche clubs events, it didn't matter. 

It drove very nicely, too, even on the highway. Steering felt great, amazing visibility. Parked much smaller than you'd think.

But, sadly, you can't keep them all. 

Square body Suburban. Mom went through 2 of them,  both 4x4s. I'd give anything to have the 74 back.

Opti said:

In reply to ddavidv :

I remember about 7 or 8 years ago, when some people around here were just figuring out about the first gen lightnings. A friend of mine is a big ford guy and always wanted one so he went out and found a cheap one. He cleaned it up real nice drove it for a while and was offered over double what he had paid. So he sold it and did the same thing a couple more times. Buy a decent one from someone still thinking they are 3 or 4K trucks, detail it and sell it to the guys paying 8-10K.

He said it was cool, but if he wanted one he'd buy a base F150 which were worthless at the time and build a better one. I think the last one he sold he kept the seats incase he ever built his own.

Bingo. I bought mine to tow my race car as it was the most power I could get in a truck that wasn't a rust bomb or puked spark plugs. $3500. Today it's worth about $10,000. I like it $3500 but don't love it $10,000 and no longer need to tow so will probably fund my retirement a bit soon. A $500 utility trailer hitched to something can haul everything I need to.

In reply to ddavidv :

When the Jaguar XJS replaced the XKE it went over like a lead ballon. A 4 seater sedan to replace a 2 seat sports car.

     Too big too wide, too heavy. No convertible option. Only 576  of the first 7000 were manual transmissions. The rest were stuck with an automatic from the Studebaker.
     On top of that if you drove it gently you might squeak out 14 mpg.  Driven with spirit it would drop to 9 mpg or less.   First few years barely a 1000 a year were made for global sales with America getting more than 1/2 of production.
    In fact Jaguar was supposed to build 30,000 cars ( sedans and XJS ) a year  to be profitable  but seldom reached even that modest goal.  By the early 1980's Jaguar was  losing £50 million pounds a year. First on the chopping block from BLMH.
       Only a carefully negotiated deal between BLMH and the  new Manager John Egan where he agreed to take the troublesome  body works off their hands saved Jaguar from the chopping block. 
     John Egan turned Jaguar around and demand for the XJS started climbing  remaining in production for 21 years  the XKE remained in production 14 years and  only  60,000 were made. While the XJS remained in production 21 years with 121,000 made.   Plus the XJS lead to a total annual production of 60,000 Jaguars per year.