Your predictions. What is the next car destined to skyrocket in price?

A lot of good choices here, and its hard to keep personal favorites out of the mix of reasonable bets. I'd watch:

80-82 Corvette, the most modern and "flashy" of the later C3.

83-85 Hurst Olds 442, lightning rods and t-Tops are a must!

91-92 Trans Am GTA

Clean stock 80's turbo Dodges

I'm leaning on 80's stuff because gen Xer's like me remember them as "cool new cars"

mazdeuce wrote: What made you excited when you saw it when you were 10?

Not sure it will ever become really valuable tho.

Tyler H wrote: NSX

Are you kidding me? The question was "will sky rocket" not "already left the launch pad."

SAABs is my guess.

Slippery wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: What made you excited when you saw it when you were 10?

Not sure it will ever become really valuable tho.

A 79 Anniversary T/A just sold for $80k at the winter auctions. There was a 'new' 1LE that sold for close to $100k within the past year.

Turbo sprints/fireflys and suzuki swift gtis.

Go ahead, laugh. Now try and find me a turbo firefly/sprint. Cheapest rust free one I've seen lately has been $3500. Swifts are approaching $5k territory if they are clean.

Harvey wrote:

RossD wrote: BMW 2002 jumped big time in price in the last couple of years. Could they be the 3.0 CSI?

I'd say anything that rusts into oblivion at the slightest touch of water or salt and has a good sized following is probably a good candidate. In that regard the 2002 definitely qualifies.

I have three rust bucket 2002s sitting around that I was considering selling. Maybe I better wait......

I think 928s are gonna go up a bunch, not everyone who wants an 80s supercar has $150k, so people who want the experience without the 911/ ferrari tax will pay for a decent one.

sesto elemento wrote: I think 928s are gonna go up a bunch, not everyone who wants an 80s supercar has $150k, so people who want the experience without the 911/ ferrari tax will pay for a decent one.

There is a shocking gap between various years of the 928. This isn't that uncommon for fast depreciating cars that have long runs, but are currently in, or recently left production. For example, the Bentley Continental GT and Maserati GranTourismo. It seems stranger for cars that have been out of production for twenty-ish years.

An early 928, well sorted, could cost $40,000-$60,000 less than a late GTS.

How about the second-generation "Bangle butt" 6 series? I never really disliked them, and they're aging quite well. They're also a lot of car for the money, and seem to be around the bottom right now.

OTOH, GT cars often bottom out and stay there. The 456 and early Lexus SC seem like they should cost more right now, for example.

Oh, and the Mondial seems to be finally moving up. The negative association of the name "Mondial" seems to have been overwhelmed by the positive association with the name "Ferrari." Time heals all wounds, I suppose.

+1 to z32 and 90s MR2s

Both can be found pretty cheap, most of them are beat/modified/destroyed. Clean ones are just starting to pull good money. Especially slick-tops. I don't think they will get crazypants priced like some cars, but in the next 10 years I wouldn't be surprised to see sub-100k mile cars going in the high teens if they are well taken care of. Possibly see some turbo models going for low-mid 20s.

Flight Service wrote:

Tyler H wrote: NSX

Are you kidding me? The question was "will sky rocket" not "already left the launch pad."

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Unlike many collector cars they will last literally forever. With little potential for trust-fund cratering, spontaneous disassembly. They were the supercar that actually worked new, and the nostalgic car that you'll be able to actually use decades later.

They may have gone from $25-30 to 40k minimum buy in. 5 years from now, double that.

In reply to Tyler H:A really nice 1994 NSX coupe sold for $80k on Bring a Trailer last week. I think that $100k for a quality car is obviously on the horizon.

Tyler H wrote:

Flight Service wrote:

Tyler H wrote: NSX

Are you kidding me? The question was "will sky rocket" not "already left the launch pad."

You ain't seen nothing yet. Unlike many collector cars they will last literally forever. With little potential for trust-fund cratering, spontaneous disassembly. They were the supercar that actually worked new, and the nostalgic car that you'll be able to actually use decades later. They may have gone from $25-30 to 40k minimum buy in. 5 years from now, double that.

Im with Flight Service, the days of good 40k NSXs are past ... You need high 50s-60s for a good example.

These have all gone up in price but aren't at stupid levels, yet...

E28 M5 E24 M6 Audi UrQuattro

GRM Museum Idea: 100 subscribers agree to invest $100 a month for ten years. This buys a portfolio of around a dozen $50k cars deemed to have the best appreciation potential. Someone offers up their pole building for storage and gets two free shares. Once a year, there is a four-day camp where subscribers meet to maintain the collection and do a track day. Subscribers are required to do one camp every other year. At the end of ten years the collection is liquidated and proceeds are returned to subscribers.

Please note: this is a dumb, day-dreaming idea. Please let me know how it turns out...

Oh, and when you do the math, the net return appears to be close to nothing. Sounds familiar!

Damn, I had line on a 92 NSX with 189k on it about 6 months ago, $24k might not have been that bad.

HiTempguy wrote: Turbo sprints/fireflys and suzuki swift gtis. Go ahead, laugh. Now try and find me a turbo firefly/sprint. Cheapest rust free one I've seen lately has been $3500. Swifts are approaching $5k territory if they are clean.

They'll never be worth substantially more than that. They're peaking right now because there are still people legitimately interested in them.

For obvious reasons, I'd like to see the NA Miata skyrocket in value, but they made too many of them, and too many of them have been well-preserved by loving owners. I see them ending up like Corvairs and Fieros: interesting cars, welcome at car shows, but not worth more than $10K in today's money.

Hellcat Challenger would be my bet. The '13-'14 (662hp) GT500 would also be a good bet UNLESS Ford unveils a 700hp V8 Mustang to compete with the Hellcats. I don't think an EcoBoost V6 Shelby will have the collector value even if it makes 700hp.

I'm still seeing high 40s for NSXs with 60k miles.

I'll add 1989 Turbo Trans Am into the mix. At some point an unmolested one of these has to bring some sort of dough.

The issue with the Honda NSX is that while you have a supercar body, you have a '90s Honda V6 that doesn't say Ferrari on it. New base model V6 pickup trucks have better hp/tq numbers. Even with this I'm not surprised at the NSX prices going up. I'd happily pay $20-30k for a nice example. 18,000 units in 15 years does mean it'll be somewhat exclusive. $80k for one however, I'd rather have a 355 or 360.

RossD wrote: The issue with the Honda NSX is that while you have a supercar body, you have a '90s Honda V6 that doesn't say Ferrari on it. New base model V6 pickup trucks have better hp/tq numbers. Even with this I'm not surprised at the NSX prices going up. I'd happily pay $20-30k for a nice example. 18,000 units in 15 years does mean it'll be somewhat exclusive. $80k for one however, I'd rather have a 355 or 360.

The only thing is that if you actually wanted to drive the car then the NSX won't break your bank on maintenance whereas the Ferraris kinda will. If you are just gonna do 500 miles a year or less then I suppose it's a wash.

Something to consider. Only the very best examples of these cars will be worth big money. Collectors want perfection, not 150K mile, worn out cars. A rising tide lifts all ships, but don't think that your 100K mile "collectable" will be worth top dollar. Also, only the special editions will bring the truly big increases in value. For instance, a ZL1 Camaro is a six figure car, a regular 69 Camaro is a $15K-$20K car in nice shape. A 65 Mustang is $15-$20K, but a Shelby GT-350 of the same year is $100-$150K.

I don't see an Acura GSR ever being worth much more than it is now. A ITR on the other hand--- has upside.

As happens, this thread has strayed away from "cars that will skyrocket in price" to "cars that will increase slightly in value". It's pretty rare to have the kind of increase early 911's, or Ferrari 308's have had in the last 5 years or so. (Early 911 went from $15K to $150K----- Ferrari 308 went from $25K to $85K) Those are the kind of increases I'd like to take advantage of. But for that...... you'll need to look hard, and get lucky!

One car that hasn't been mentioned that I think is a sure bet----- the 107 Chassis Mercedes SL convertible. Find a very early (small bumper) car in perfect shape, or a 560sl in showroom condition--- or even better the Europe-only 500sl. You can find either (American market car) for under $20K if you look hard enough. These have the potential to be six figure cars someday.

( prestige maker--- iconic car--- totally usable in today's traffic-- perfect for rallies and tours--- welcome at any gathering) If I had cash to burn....I'd be looking for one of these.

Furious_E wrote: Got another one: muscle trucks. Syclone/typhoon, F150 SVT Lightning, and Ram SRT10 specifically.

Don't forget the Shelby Dakota either. What about the FWD Shelby turbo Dodges?

Joe Gearin wrote: Something to consider. Only the very best examples of these cars will be worth big money.

This is true, though at one point in the late 90s I saw a for sale ad in the Kirban newsletter for a GNX with around 180k miles on it and they were looking for $15k. Granted the car had probably been fixed up, but I couldn't help thinking that guy got his money's worth out of the car.