Art & Inspiration What's the Market Doing to Your Car?

You can’t put a price on the jollies I get from this hobby.

 

Paid 20 cents a day for mine... But yours looks better shape for sure...

 

The analytical side of me doesn't understand the why. The energy required for all the processes involved in the extraction of metals needed, the energy required for the manufacture of the plastics from whatever sources, virgin or recycled, the manufacture of the batteries and the all important disposal of them, whether the battery components are recycled or worse yet, dumped in some landfill creating another toxic mess. These electric cars aren't going to be a simple solution to some tree hugging, bunny loving " go green " individual's wet dream. If my comments aren't in line with the way this forum is supposed to work, delete them if you must and I'll apologize now.

 

Nobody can doubt my addiction to our gas-drinking, piston-clanking, air-polluting, smoke-belching four wheeled buggies so I'll say this, at risk of being called a hippie... I hope there's always room on the road for cool classic cars, enough respect from our governments to allow them, and a cost effective way to cruise them, but there's no real reason for newer cars to be gas powered once EV tech gets good enough to replace the ICE market share. I care a lot about the environment and the future of this planet, it's gotta happen. Not only for environmental reasons either... oil reserves are getting harder and harder to access and yielding less and less each year. At the current rate of consumption we'll have exhausted known reserves before too long.

Battery recycling tech is getting there and lithium mining is an ecological disaster because the main producers are third world countries where they don't give a fuck about that... everything in those countries is an ecological disaster, including gasoline production, so that's a moot point... it can be done cleanly and the environmental footprint left by EVs is still overall less than gas powered cars per capita.

But for my money I'd rather have a nuclear/steam car. That tech already exists and it's pretty damn sweet. Steam has been viable for automobiles for over a century, even 1920s designs give modern cars a run for their money on the road. A nuclear fission heat source and a closed circuit steam engine means practically infinite range and no fuel concerns... ever.

As for my hot rod?... if I have to bolt an electric motor into it to be able to drive it in 15 years then I guess that's what I'll do... once I have to do it. I've already scooted it around a little with the starter... I think that makes it a hybrid.

 

You better get a hell of a long extension cord

 

In the early 90s I had to learn how to fix the new plastic bodied GM cars. Ford even had an all plastic prototype Taurus. The space frame with plastic panels was the future.
Yep cars have plastic but not how predicted then.
All those gm lines and names are gone. The all plastic Taurus didn’t happen.
Very few predictions come to fruition as thought. I’ve seen futuristic cities from the 20s with zeppelins carrying people from skyscraper to skyscrapers. I’ve seen gm films with push button cars that drive on slots like toys.
Yep, some technology happens.
Predictions are shots in the dark based on current technology and thinking.
Giant crops was going to end hunger. Electricity was supposed to cure ailments. Heavy water and asbestos clothing would be household items.
Fuel injection and computers didn’t kill “hot rodding”. Emission devices didn’t either.

just drive your rides. They’re ALL bound for destruction eventually.

 

Nope. A battery.
Been around for over a century for cars.

 

While "cruising the internet" a couple of days ago, I saw that Ford is now offering an electric "crate motor".

 

Sold out

 

Here's my take. Its not got much to do with the pandemic. Prices for cars that are rapidly escalating are those cars that the guys who are now 50 to 60 lusted over or had when they were young. These guys often have a bit more dispoable income as kids have left home, built some savings and/or home equity and want to feel young again. The same applies for bikes. This has been happening for a LONG time.

Inversely look at 32 prices. In the last 10 or so years they have been dropping, particularly in real dollar terms. You can buy REALLY nice cars for $50K often less, not so long ago you were needing well more than that. 33 and 34 not so much. Prices for Model A's have gone no where in that same time period so effectively backwards. The main reason being that the number of guys who want one is dininishing as we get past that 50-60 age bracket.

Well thats my take on it

 

I am just a car guy. I don't like to think about the end of fossil fuels and I don't really think about selling. I buy high and disassemble, then fix everything the PO did to the car. So, I am usually upside down, so I have to love my cars because they dang sure ain't cost effective.

 

After holding out for almost 2 1/2 years I got my price out of my deuce pickup. Also did the same with my deuce delivery. Didn't make any money but held my investment together fairly well. Still nothing like in the early 2000's when I was building and selling steel deuce roadsters for big prices. Those were the days when I sent several overseas to buyers who just paid the price and never dickered.

 

Absolutely, it's only a matter of time. Certainly no later than 1980, or 1990 for sure, like they taught us in school.

 

Last month, I became hot rod less for the 1st time since 2007. I working on a project but it isn't driveable. Seldom do I break even on a project. I'm a good builder but a lousy seller. A lot of hot rod prices have been stable for years. The muscle cars are were I see the real price spiking. I watch 1st gen Mustang fastbacks. That's breath taking. A lot of what drives the prices is the cost of building. It has continually risen. A minor item was when Kansas and many other states adopted internet sales taxes. That added 8.5% to the cost of this project. I've never looked at this as a money maker. I've been around some people that said they never lost money on a project. Must be nice. 2 years ago, I thought the prices were at a low for a while. I don't feel that way now. Finding the buyer has always been difficult for me. Wrong color, wrong wheels, etc. Our hobby is about personal taste and it should be. Your car should reflect who you are in my humble opinion.

 

I buy scrap. Make it go and stop. Then someone offers me $$$ for it but I wont sell cause I’m a “junkie”

 

I just like to go out to the shop and know that all that junk in it is paid for and I could purchase more if I desired. Don’t worry a great deal. It’s all just worldly goods. Some has escalated greatly in dollar value. Some of it is priceless in the memories and fun times it provided. Some has only scrap value. I enjoy it all and you can’t put a price on a good time.

 

If this is directed at me, then let me clarify, I didn't predict anything, and I never said the market was going to crash, I said there was "the potential". I told Ryan I wouldn't discuss it, so I won't, and you have me at the disadvantage. But any reasonable person who is looking at the information has to agree there is the potential for this, IMO of course. We may disagree on the probability, but the potential exists, and nobody can say with any certainty that it does not. I would put the chances, with the information available, of a market crash in the near future is greater than 50/50. Let me emphasize, that is my OPINION, yours may very well differ. We'll know more in just a few months, and that chance will likely go up or down depending on what happens this winter/spring. You may disagree with those numbers, that's fine. It's your money, if you feel like investing it in a classic car, go for it. Just don't cry to me when the market crashes, or expect a bail out.

And that is not even taking into consideration the things other's have mentioned, like the transition to a low carbon future. I can't really get into that topic risking the thread. Just understand, the common dates being thrown around are net zero by 2050. Some are pushing for sooner than that, like 2030. I don't think it can happen that fast simply because the electrical grid cannot support that kind of transition without a major upgrade, which would run into the trillions of dollars. But that doesn't seem to be stopping those at the controls. And to reach the target by those dates means a great reduction in the availability of fuel for passenger cars quicker than I think some here are expecting. So what is that going to do to the value of classic cars?

 

I was in oil/gas for 8 years, my business was tracking production data. I saw the slump in output myself. The projections can't be perfect because we haven't fully mapped all the reserves, and drilling/refining are always getting a little more efficient, but our picture of the remaining supply gets more accurate every year, and there is nothing to be optimistic about.

Look at it like this... the more piece of shit disposable modern commuter cars run on electricity, the more gas there is to go around for the cool shit. The supply is limited. Do you really care whether Karen's Prius is powered by dinosaur farts or sunshine?

 

Didn’t we have a “cars ain’t selling” thread or two last year?

 

Actually, there are more proven reserves of crude now than ever before, and that amount keeps increasing annually. Not to mention the reserves of natural gas.

 

Yes, but things are changing rapidly. And the rate of change is increasing.

 

I haul all my leaves and trees limbs to the dump to get buried to make sure we will always have oil

 

Even burry our pets in the yard after they die.

 

I seen Mad Max visit a town powered completely from pig poop

 

I wonder if I could power my house from the septic tank now

 

That is true, but it comes with a catch... many of the "new" reserves are currently not cost effective or not even possible (right now) to access. Deep sea/arctic drilling sucks, economically and ecologically.

 

I really don't care which way the collector car or hotrod market goes. I'm pretty happy with the cars I have now, and not sure what I'd want instead if I were to sell them? So not tossing my hat in the ring.

 

Old cars will always be beauty in the eye of the beholder...there is a lot of value in that statement.
The truth is they will become art forms that you can drive and enjoy...kind of what they are right now.
Old car values will continue to climb at a much faster rate than inflation.

 

WAIT!!!!!!!




I GOT IT!!!!!!




I KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!!





Enjoy your damned cars….the day I start playing with old cars to turn a profit is the day I quit playing with old cars.

 

I have been in the car hobby for over 45 years. There have always been highs and lows for different models as it continually changes. I have seen many "investors" lose lots of money by buying on the bubble and then holding on too long. At the same time some people have cleaned up by buying certain ones before they become desirable. Friend of mine bought many 50's and 60's ragged out Vettes in the 70's restoring them himself and have been selling them off the last few years and making killing. It is all about timing. I know they are off topic but look at the first gen Broncos and even IH Scouts now. Not to mention station wagons or VW buses. Who would have imagined it?