Modern Era V8 Collectiability? Will it be the 355? The 430? over the 348 360 458?

Man this thread has generated a LOT of talk. Most of it idle - 1000 rpm.

In the end - it all comes down to whether or not post 1974 cars will ever become collectible - any of them. Because as of now virtually nothing made after 1974 is collectible - or going up.

1974 seems to be the line in the sand. Virtually all pre-1974 cars (providing they are in good condition) are going up in value...no matter how many they made (like 500K early series Camaros or tens of thousands of Jag XKEs and Porsche 911s) or how pedestrian they are (like a 1959 Chevy or Ford). Some are going up faster than others, but virtually all of them are moving up to some degree.

For all you kids, the late 60s early 70s marked a pivotal point for cars. Governemtn legislation and draconian insurance rates virtually eliminated performance cars. They also made cars more problematic and complex. They ran worse, cost more, and were impossible to fix...who wanted such crap? By 1979 ALL cars were nothing but s**t. By the early 1980s I was using a mid-60s Pontiac Bonneville as my daily driver and I had a 330 GTC stashed in the gargar as a memory of the 'good old days.' I remember once (in about 1982) stating that "I will never buy a new car again."

Cars made after 1974 have a stigma attached to them.

So, will cars made after 1974 ever get past this stigma and will they will ever go up in value - the magic question...because if they do all of these 8 cylinder Ferraris will be the first beneficiaries and they will begin to go up en mass. If post 1974 cars never change their status in the eyes of collectors - they will never go up and neither will ANT of the 8 cylinder Ferraris (except maybe the GTOs and F40s).

How will you know? What will be the sign?

The Ferrari Boxer is the canary in the mine. If and when Boxers finally make a strong move (I have been waiting for this for 10 years now) - then you will know that post 1974 cars have finally shaken their stigma and have made it to collector car status.

amen

 

Not to change the subject but you brought it up. Given that the Dept of Energy predicts that the US will be a net exporter of oil by 2020, I don;t think there will be any shortage of gasoline around here. Peak oil is so yesterday . . .

 

The problem is, all of those earlier cars (including the mass produced ones) were just used cars and thrown away once they hit a certain age, vastly reducing the supply. Since the collector boom in the '80's, anything that had potential to increase in value has had a few examples stashed with zero miles and most of the rest have lived on with the knowledge that they could be worth big bucks some day, so the attrition rate, at least on anything performance oriented, has slowed massively. Cars post '74 were not old enough to have been thrown away when the boom in the mid-late '80's happened, so they have survived largely in their original numbers where the cars pre '74 were neglected and trashed. That's why there's such a muscle car boom, they made hundreds of thousands of mustangs in the '60's but by the time the '80'***** and people realized that those cars might be collectible, a huge percentage were already in the junkyard and those that were still around were neglected and abused leaving precious few pristine, original cars left.

You can find a low to zero mileage version of any reasonably high performance, limited production car made from '88 up as when the boom hit, people would buy one and stash it. The rarity isn't there and won't ever be because people think that someday (even if it's not in their lifetime) they'll be worth something, so they don't get parted or junked unless they're completely trashed. Prior to the late '80's, that mentality didn't exist and cars were regularly 'put to pasture' after a hard life. Now Ferraris don't get driven over 30k miles for fear of resale. There are still barn finds of '60's cars that the owners forgot about as they were nothing special for 20 solid years, but you won't see that with Testarossas, 3x8's, Grand Nationals, Turbo Trans Ams, ZR1 'vettes, Countach's, Diablos or the like because people's mindset shifted and the cars were kept up, babied and some just put directly into storage from new.

Heck, I know of a 700 mile '95 mustang GT (last year of the old 5.0). There were a bunch of ZR1's collected up and stashed when rumours of the vette being halted were going on, there are some zero mile GNX's etc. You don't see that with anything prior to about '87 or '88.

I think some of them will one day become valuable, but it will take until they are at least 30 years old. Heck, it took the Dino 40 years from end of production. It's another 12 years until the Boxer will have been out of production for 40 years....

 

1986 Mustang GT and 2003 Mustang Cobra seem to have a bit of "collectability" to them.

of the v8 Ferrari's, i'd have to say the 360. Slight improvement over 355, and ditching the pop up headlights is what does it.

Acura NSX and Mazda RX-7 are other cars of the '90's that have value retention now.

 

Yes, a 348 can be had for $45k +/- $10K and a 355 is $55K+/-$10K
Engine out would be far more than $3K in the US.

We should be selling our 348's to you when they need service and using the profit to buy a newer already serviced model. lol

 

Good post, sums it up well.

The Dino 246-to-Ferrari 308 comparison is also one to watch -- the gap between these cars is getting massive. You can almost measure the strength of that 1974 dividing line by 1973 versus 1974 Porsche 911s, and Dino 246s versus 308s, as well as the Daytona-Boxer transition you mention.

I agree, and posted earlier, that unfortunately none of the cars listed in the thread title are likely to be anything more than used cars in our lifetime, if ever. They're all aging computers, glue and plastic at this point.