Which is the better investment: 308 or 328?

Which car would be the best investment 308 or 328?

It's the one you own.

 

Exactly, I own an '83 308QV, so it is absolutly the best, if I owned any year 328 that would be it. Who frigin cares.

 

Yep...

have two nieces - one 23, the other 25. The younger one thinks my 328 is "cool," but has no interest in owning a car at all. Her older sister also has no interest in cars. Further, she thinks cars like the 328 are gross polluters and should be outlawed/scrapped! Both of them borrow a car or rent one when they need one. Normally they walk/ride a bicycle. Young one's in DC, older one's in NYC. Admittedly, having lived in both towns, I agree they ARE towns that can be managed easily without a car. It might not be so workable in other parts of the US.

I don't have any regular interaction with males of that age but the girls tell me that any of the boyfriends they have had also had no interest in cars. ODDLY enough, they DO have interest in record albums and tube (valve) amplifiers. Oh...and old pocket watches. Go figure!

 

If you live in cities where kids have been sissified, those kids don't care. Get out a bit and young people love the 308.

 

But do non-sissified kids have the money to buy one of these cars?

 

The 328.

Why? Because I am selling mine now. Look for a significant increase in value in a short period of time. Don't even want to tell you what I sold my Daytona for is 2005 and my 550 for a few years ago.

If I sell my 328 the market has only one way to go.

 

I would personally like to thank you for your sacrifice.

.. oh, by the way, what are you planning on replacing it with?

 

Though I do bemone the loss of car culture's influence in men's life and see this phenomenon as a negative for future values, I more or less see it as a call to get out there and enjoy driving the cars you have instead of worrying about their value. 308 or 328 will hover around at current levels so get your money's worth of ownership in smiles per miles.

Or so says my crystal ball..

 

Yes, well I'm just saying there aren't that many people under the age of 50 who already know how to operate a manual transmission and I find it potentially somewhat rare that someone would go out and learn how to drive a manual so they could go out and buy a car.
Anyway, if your looking at a car for an investment, IMO your much better off holding off buying for a while, it is a better time to sell than to buy due to an 8 year Long extended bull stock market. One thing we do have going for us is oil shale has lowered the price of crude for the next 30 years, depressing the advent of electric cars. The time is coming in the future to where buying gasoline will be like trying to buy racing fuel now. Thank God most of us will be either gone by then or too old to care.

 

It's amazing how true this is. I have two Ferraris. An '83 308QV and a 458 Italia. My 16 year old son walked right by my 458 the day I picked it up and didn't say a thing. Until I asked him if he wanted to sit in it, he did and only then. Never asks me to go for a ride or anything. It breaks my heart actually. And his iPhone is always in his hand

 

Too true... my oldest (7) doesn't care about cars much and has no time for Ferraris.

My youngest (3) might be but too early to tell. She likes going fast which is maybe a good sign and she'll hand out with me in the garage.

My middle child (5) though said to me the other day on the way home from school, "When are you going to finish your Ferrari Dad?" Why, I asked. "Because I really like riding in it and we have not ridden in it for a while" was his answer. I found that most heartening. Of course it helps that he gets to ride up front alongside me if we go for a drive.

I do think that the value of old manual cars, including most Ferraris will soon start to trend down, much as brass era cars have fallen with the previous generation. No-one wants the thrill of timing that manual advance to perfection do they? We may be in the last hurrah of the manual transmission with late model manuals such as 430s and so on rising but I think they too will fall when our generation ceases to drive.

 

However... I was at a car show on Sunday with a lot of cars 360 onwards and there were a lot of teenagers there so maybe there is hope... however... they were all photographing them for the instagrams hehehehehehehehehe

 

The best investment is always what you like: A stamp, a 208 turbo, a 308, a 328, a portrait, an house. It doesn't matter: If you are happy with it, that's the best investment in the world.



In my opinion, the 308 series are so nice that there will always be someone that will pay to have one, so money won't be lost

Ciao

 

Cars are consumer products. The brass era car owners never bought for investment purposes; it was their hobby, a catalyst for friendships, tinkering and adventures. My 308 has provided exactly the same for me. Its a different era and different car but the same experience.

Different kids have different interests. A few months ago, I scored the primo parking spot right at the front of the door of a famous restaurant (McDonalds). As I stepped out to leave, I saw my car was surrounded by high school boys. I immediately felt alarmed worrying about vandalism. Instead, they were incredibly respectful. They were excited. A couple of them new exactly what it was. They peppered me with questions. One of them said he had bought a virtual 308 to race in a video game.

As manual clutch cars go the way of the Dodo bird, there is a fear factor emerging about learning how to use them. It's pretty easy learning to drive a stick shift; I have taught my 16 year old kids and others. It used to be that, if you didn't know, the salesperson who sold you the car would give you a quick lesson before you lurched off the lot homeward bound.

 

But as I mentioned earlier this only applies to the USA. If US buyers go off buying manual cars for whatever reason it will merely increase the already significant flow of classic cars across the Atlantic into Europe where pretty much everyone learns to drive manual.

 

If you're from Montana and can't drive a stick, your considered retarded..

 

LOL

 

My 2cents. I became a grandfather a couple months ago and it prompted me to make a few observations and predictions about his future.
1. I doubt someone born today will ever learn to drive. Self driving cars are closer than any of us like to believe.
2. I doubt someone born today will ever own a car. Why buy a car with all the associated costs of ownership when you can use your smartphone to have an automated vehicle give you a lift( Uber).
3. No one will love cars if they are just taxi's, electric cars will just be a commodity. Do you love the airplane that flew you to your last vacation?
4. Soon machines will replace humans at all levels in virtually every occupation. How will anyone afford a car or anything else without a job?
5. I hope I am wrong. I am now at the age when I love how things used too be!

So no, I don't see much of a future in stick shift transmissions

On the positive side we have Facebook and smartphones

 

There is something timeless and magical in cars such as the 308 as I, like others have seen, young boys to lust after and become enamored with it's beauty. I had my garage door open just the other day. 4 other cars in the garage blocking it's view. A young boy walking by with his mother yelled out I love that car. What little he could see from the street was enough. He was convinced. The mom and I had seen each other several times in passing but had hardly spoken. I thought her emotionless and probably snobby. Who knows, she probably thought the same of me. Thing is though her face lit up when her son said that as if he'd been talking about it all day. His enthusiasm brought her out of her shell.

 

I suspect you're right.

 

There are- and always will be- individuals who appreciate older technology, techniques, tools, etc. for what they are and were. Ask film camera enthusiasts, automatic watch fans, fountain pen users, glass blowers...
Model T's are sometimes still driven, just spend more and more time on display.

 

Record players and vinyl records have made a come back.
People love nostalgia.
The further away from it we get, the more people will dig it.

 

In Europe there are a lot of young guys that are very much into cars and also classic cars. Just go to any Italian car meeting and you will see lots of young guys.
And we also still learn to drive with sticks and clutches.
So I don't think the market will collapse because of the next generation not being interested in analog things.
I even think they will be more and more interested. They want to really live and do things themselves. A car that drives you everywhere automatically is boring. A roadtrip in a cool car is pure adventure. That cool car can be a VW Beetle (or bus), a BMW '02 or something else.

 

Many people would claim that one reason behind the interest in record players/tube amplifiers is because they sound better than modern equipment. IOW, records/tube amps do their job better. I suspect there aren't any claims that a 3x8 does anything better than a current car.


I agree that in general, "old" is the new "new." But I don't really see that applying in a big way to cars.

It may be that taking a trip in an old car - like a 3x8 - is fun for a limited period of time per day but, having done nearly 3000 miles in 2 1/2 days in my (then new) 328, it wasn't much fun at all to me, just a slog in an uncomfortable car. Admittedly, if I did the trip in, say, 5 days, it probably would have been fun but 15-16 hours per day in a 3x8 for several days isn't high on my list of fun things! But in a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe, it's fine.

As they say, horses for courses.

 

I've done a couple 3000 mile trips in our newer suburban, like sitting in your living room for 14 hours and didn't find that enjoyable either.. We'll probably be having the same discussion 15 years from now. Personally, not too worried about it enthusiasm for the 3X8 market going away anytime soon.