[z28jeff]

I was doing an autotrader search for 3rd gen Camaros in the 89-92 year range and was surprised with the prices I was seeing. I only did a 200 mile search and got about a full page of Camaros in the 7k-10k price range. And a few of them were near 15k. Granted, they were the super low mileage garage queens. But come on, you can get a really nice low mileage LS1 car for that kind of coin. Most of the cars in the 7-10k range had between 25k and 50k miles on them. This is what struck me as odd. I bought my 94 Z28 6-speed hardtop last summer with only 28k in absolutely mint (and I mean M-I-N-T) condition for 7k. And as far as LT1 4th gens go, that seems to be the top of the pricerange.
Is this a sign of things to come? Is my car going to increase in value once the 5th gens come out? This doesn't make any sence to me.

This post has been edited by z28jeff: Dec 12 2006, 12:59 PM

[trackbird]

I think the deal is that once a car bottoms out at $1k or less in the Kelly Blue Book values (or the book of your choice), it becomes "worthless". At that point, it becomes worth more to a particular buyer than the book might suggest. For some reason, Corvettes never seem to bottom out like other cars do. However, other desirable cars seem to follow the Corvette pricing trend. It might also be a case of a car that you couldn't afford in high school/college but always swore you'd own one some day. Now, you have a job and the cars are "cheap" at $7k, even if it's an '89 IROC (and book says $850), you can afford it, so you buy it.

[marka]

Howdy,

I think the deal is that once a car bottoms out at $1k or less in the Kelly Blue Book values (or the book of your choice), it becomes "worthless". At that point, it becomes worth more to a particular buyer than the book might suggest. For some reason, Corvettes never seem to bottom out like other cars do. However, other desirable cars seem to follow the Corvette pricing trend. It might also be a case of a car that you couldn't afford in high school/college but always swore you'd own one some day. Now, you have a job and the cars are "cheap" at $7k, even if it's an '89 IROC (and book says $850), you can afford it, so you buy it.

I also think that for a smart buyer, a very well maintained car is worth significantly more than a "normal" car... For instance, our '93 MR2 books for something insane (Just did it... $2195 private, $3281 retail). There's no freaking way I'd sell the car for that, since our car is in excellent condition and has stuff like a new motor, new motor mounts, struts, etc. etc. etc. I.e. anything worn out has been replaced and a car that old has a _lot_ of stuff that has worn out. And any other MR2 that someone has maintained very well is going to be similar.

So, if someone wants a nice 2nd gen MR2, their options are to:
1) Find an average one and semi-restore it.
2) Find a car like mine and pay me for it.
3) Find a car like mine where someone doesn't know what its really worth.

#3 doesn't happen enough to depend on. #1 is what you do the first time. #2 is what you do when you wise up.

Edmunds is totally out to lunch with this... They don't understand the enthusiast market in any way. Realistically, they shouldn't even put a value on cars that are 10+ years old.

Perhaps the same thing is happening with 3rd gens.

Mark