20th Aug 2010, 10:08
That is a straw argument. It has nothing to do with the quality and everything to do with quantity and demand. Let's face it - if you were to go to just about any car show across the country, whether it be in Alabama, North Carolina, or even California, what are the typical types of people you happen to see at those shows? Why - the very types of people who for the most part are in the exact same mindset, that they simply MUST drive American cars and would NEVER buy or own one of those foreign cars. So the reason such utterly mundane cars like the Nova or Chevelle go for big bucks is because there is a demand, and also because the people buying them are now in their 50's and 60's, and "Always wanted one of those when they were a teenager", and now that they have the money, they'll blow the big bucks to get one.
Those muscle cars were pumped out, slapped together, and never made to do anything except drink gas and go fast. The Chevy Nova had one of the worst quality ratings of its day, and many of the other cars like it were not far behind.
On the other hand if you go to the UK, Japan, France, or any other country that produces cars, you would find the exact same thing: The classic domestic cars would be getting the most attention, because just like in the US - the typical car collector wants to collect their home-grown branded cars.
20th Aug 2010, 14:21
Why on Earth are we comparing old classic muscle cars to modern every day drivers? Is this the length a domestic lover has to go to to make domestic cars seem so good?
Go ahead, use 40 year old cars that have had many many thousands of dollars put into them for restoration, as 95% of them needed to look like they do now, if they are mint. If you put 1/10th the money into a late model Toyota to keep it running for 40 years, it would make it and probably do 5 times the miles while doing it. Until you see people with brand new Camry's on trailers going to shows so they can run duster cloths over them and prop mirrors up underneath them so everyone can look at them, you are not making a valid argument.
On top of that, a mint 69 Camaro for $45K is really not all that much, since a brand new one costs not much less than that, and factoring in inflation, it would be about the same or less than it was new!
Like others have already stated. Import cars were 1. Economy cars with no real collectible significance and 2. Weren't really around nearly as much as domestic cars were in the 70's. Also, every country values their own automotive history the most. Go to any other country and you'll see many old cars from their own manufacturers, and probably little or no American cars, as they didn't really mean much to them.
Can we please compare apples to apples??
20th Aug 2010, 14:28
Yeah, muscle cars are ridiculously overpriced, because every rich guy wants to have 3 of them in his garage. Barrett Jackson type auctions drove the prices so far out of reality it is crazy. With the latest economic trend, it is nice to see some of these old cars start to come back to reality. If cars were needed like houses are, we'd have had a second economic meltdown, as the profits and prices made were very unrealistic.
I still see some cars like the Hemi Cuda's and Boss 429's way into the 6 figures. I love cars, and if I had millions of dollars, I would never pay that for an old car. People have money to burn, and have driven the market way out of proportion to what it should be.
19th Aug 2010, 17:51
Yeah, comparing a Vette to anything else GM makes is like comparing apples and oranges. They are built with much stricter guidelines and quality control than ANY GM car ever is. This is why they are about three times the price of any other normal GM car, except maybe a Caddy or something.
Also, who drives a Vette around as a daily commuter, when you're running kids all over, and need to pick up groceries and stuff? Vettes are weekend warriors, and generally see about a tenth of the miles of the average car.
Average GM vehicles like Trailblazers and Malibu's are horrendously poor in the quality dept!