I'm new to the classic car thing but I've been a fan for years and have always wanted to own one. I'm looking at Chevelle's and Road Runners. I have about 40,000 cash and looking for a solid investment. I know that's not a lot of money to play with but it's my first classic. Any advice would help. Thanks.
If you're intent on doing what the title of your thread says, then it's a crapshoot, like trying to pick stocks.
Calling Andy Reid, please pick up the forum phone....
Greg Z
I think the basic question that needs to be answered by the OP first is if he wants to buy a car he can enjoy that has upside potential, or if he wants automotive art to be squirreled away, only to be unveiled again at a Barrett-Jackson auction a few years from now.
For the first category, I think the OP has a fair amount of money to play with, for the latter, not so much.
40 gs i would buy 10 mgbs try for chrome bumper cars but don't rule out rubber bumper cars . 
I don't mean to be crass, and I mean this with the best possible intentions; If you don't know, then don't bother.
There are so many subtleties with classic cars, that asking an internet forum for advice is pure folly.
If this isn't your passion, you will get burned. Sure, there are people that can make a decent return on their auto investments, but they put in the leg work and the due diligence.
Do your homework, research and understand what makes a car valuable. Then make sure you buy what you like, because you will need to live with it a while.
Good luck.
Well, you could do worse than those two (unless you get a Volare based Road Runner; they're not going to do nearly as well as the original). I'm not really an expert in either, but here are some general rules.
There are a variety of classic cars that will hold their value well. If you want appreciation.... stay away unless you're a very savy dude. If you love cars, get one that turns you on. But don't buy hastily - bide your time, get well educated and pounce when the opportunity presents itself. As a car lover, your enjoyment will be the return on your investment. If you don't love cars, see your stock broker, not your car broker.
Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't an ac 911 bought at the right price and kept stock be a pretty safe "investment"? Also extremely off topic but the OP's username is the same as a certain adult film series where a guy gets ladies to go for a ride on his boat and ..... just sayin.
dankspeed wrote: Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't an ac 911 bought at the right price and kept stock be a pretty safe "investment"?
That's the trick isn't it? What's the right price? Also, how do you know (if you're not a 911 guy) if the engine needs a rebuild? Do you know what a 911 engine rebuild by a reputable shop will cost? How do you factor that into the price? How do you know if your car came stock with Fuchs or cookie cutters or ?? Air cooled 911s had a amazing array of options available. There are factory steel slant nose cars running around out there. Without doing your homework, how will you know if you have a factory car or something that someone cobbled together?
See my point?
Caveat emptor.
The OP is going to have to do some bit of research. I'm guessing since he mentioned muscle cars he's not going to be wanting a P car anyways.
My advice is get educated. A while back the joke was that there were more pontiac GTOs for sale at the time than pontiac had ever built. If you don't put in the legwork, there's a better than fair chance you will end up with a malibu at an ss price. Putting in the research time is knowing the difference between a 15k chevelle and a 60k chevelle.
If you are looking for an investment then go buy real estate, stocks, gold, something else.
If you are looking for a car to enjoy that may or not be worth what you paid for it, then pick the one that is most appealing to YOU and buy the best example you can afford. If you have a car you really like, then whether it appreciates or depreciates is secondary.
The loss or gain on 40k is probably not going to change your lifestyle or your retirement plans, anyway.
CAPTNSTABN wrote: I'm new to the classic car thing but I've been a fan for years and have always wanted to own one. I'm looking at Chevelle's and Road Runners. I have about 40,000 cash and looking for a solid investment. I know that's not a lot of money to play with but it's my first classic. Any advice would help. Thanks.
If you have $40k cash and a car springs to mind as a sound investment...you might have the world's worst financial advisor. Especially as your first classic! There is already a lot of good advice in this thread, long story short if you aren't already familiar with the nuances of certain brands/cars that make some cars more valuable than others, you are definitely not going to make money on a $40k car. Even the people who do turn good profits on classics usually do most of the work themselves, like the guy building those custom $20k BMW 2002s you see on eBay. He knows 2002s, starts with the cars that are cheapest to buy (square tail cars), and builds them to look the business while doing minimal mechanical work. He has clearly been doing it a while and has probably learned the hard way what sells and what doesn't.
After all, the adage tends to be true: the quickest way to make a small fortune by working on cars is to start with a large one!
Basil Exposition wrote: The loss or gain on 40k is probably not going to change your lifestyle or your retirement plans, anyway.
And if it did, the $40k don't belong in a single asset, be it a car or something else.
Basil Exposition wrote: If you are looking for an investment then go buy real estate, stocks, gold, something else.
Amen. Anyone that buys old cars as investments is a fool. Assuming the normal definition of 'investment' where you buy something and later sell it for more than your investment plus all carrying costs (which in a car = maintenance, storage, restoration etc.)
spend 30k on a nice 68-69 BB corvette convt. either black (rarest) or lemans blue (most desirable). Will double in 5 years as the kids from the 70's start to get to maximum earning age.
I somewhat doubt that you an find an investment-grade BB 68/69 for $30k and I would also doubt that they'll double in value.
The investment side of the American Muscle market has been pretty stagnant lately.
"The investment side of the American Muscle market has been pretty stagnate lately."
which is exactly why you can buy them for around 30k now. Check completed ebay listings for 68-69 corvette convertibles with the 427 BB tri-power (400, 435 hp). Several completed between $26-33k and there are many more with BIN around 30k. You have to do your reseach for numbers matching and no frame rust but they are out there with not a lot of work to find them.
I fully predict that a current $30k 68-69 corvette convertible in black or lemans blue with a 4-speed, 427 tri-power will be 50-60k in 5 years. Mark my words.
Just to clarify - I wasn't really disagreeing with you that you can buy one of them in decent condition for that sort of money, and they'll probably go up in value, too.
My point was that the OP is looking for an investment vehicle, which to me implies that he's looking at a top quality vehicle because that's where you get the biggest upside. I have no doubts that you can get an extremely nice driver quality BB 68/69 for the sort of money that you're mentioning, and depending on which way the economy and investments in general are going, that it has a chance of appreciating substantially.
Has anyone else noticed the post originator has never replied or posted after the initial post?
A Canoe, as he would be called on GRM forum.
Didn't want to say that out right.
Know the term. I'm on both. 
Isn't it called the same here?
I'll give the benefit of the doubt. This, and GRM forum are the only ones of the many I participate in, that don't give an email notification of a reply to a thread to which one is subscribed. Perhaps he's waiting for that email. I know I certainly can't keep track of all the 'conversations' I'm having
gjz30075 wrote: A Canoe, as he would be called on GRM forum.
A canoe would be a spammer; he hasn't put up any links or overt plugs for anything. There was the website reference mentioned above, but it could be a coincidence - or maybe it's the site owner, contemplating how to invest the proceeds.
exactly. No ban hammer until he actually spams
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