What car(s)? Retirement Collection Edition

Something I've been thinking about lately is having a small collection of cars, four or five, that would have a place in my retirement. Meaning, not just cars to have and drive occasionally, but would also appreciate a bit in value over the years. None would be a daily driver or get driven a lot each year, so maintenance costs could be kept pretty low. Also, no maintenance-heavy rides like Ferraris.

Criteria are: Are available in something above unicorn quantities, have decent parts availability, are at the bottom of their depreciation curves, are in enough demand to keep prices steady or slowly rising.

Some current candidates: Last-year Prelude, 1988 Fiero, Trans Am GTA (no t-tops), Fiat X1/9, Ford Thunderbird SC, Lancia Beta, Volvo 780, 67-72 Chevy C10, '90s Ford Bronco, Jaguar XJ6C.

What would you add? Or is this a dumb idea?

Its only dumb if you are treating them as an investment.

CTS-V Wagon, manual

Chevy SS sedan, manual

E36 M3. The car, not the excrement.

NA Miata, the GM400 2 door Tahoe/Yukon, Jeep XJ.

Anything Porsche

Clean stock foxbody mustangs. Lx or gt. Bonus points for clean svo.

Think about whether you'll be able to handle a car collection in your retirement years...having a single car may be enough to deal with as you get older.

As with collecting anything, buy what you like and will enjoy, not what you hope will increase in value. Playing with cars as investments is a dangerous game. Yes, it can be done, but it's pretty much a fulltime job.

Otherwise, I have similar plans with my current fleet. A '72 Triumph GT6, a '73 Volvo 1800ES, and a '79 Spitfire. I have no delusions I'll be able to retire off the sale of any of them.

Personally, other than a handful of "blue-chip" cars (classic Ferraris, for example), I see the bottom falling out of the collector car market in a big way in a few years when baby boomers start liquidating their collections and flooding the market. While there are many of us in Generation X who like cars, I'm not sure we have the same average income level to sustain the market like the Baby Boomers have.

There's a "Fully Restored" "Running" BiTurbo on my faceballs feed. That's full blown unicorn.

Ian F said: Personally, other than a handful of "blue-chip" cars (classic Ferraris, for example), I see the bottom falling out of the collector car market in a big way in a few years when baby boomers start liquidating their collections and flooding the market.

I have been feeling/saying the same for a while now. The classic car market is absolutely dominated by the baby boomers (with a few exceptions). Many Boomers have really nice cars, sometimes a small collections. The market is going to have a hard time absorbing all that inventory when they start to age out in large numbers.

4th-gen Camaro SS or Firehawk. 94-96 Impala SS. CTS-V wagon. The aforementioned 3rd-gen GTA. Mercedes 6.9s. Pre-merger AMG Mercedes. Buick Turbo Regals. Pontiac G8 GXP. Stock Lancer Evo or Subie WRX STi. All Cobra Mustangs. Hummer H2. Saturn Sky Redline and Pontiac Solstice GXP.

Having enough cars to call them a collection is weird. Not that you're weird for wanting it, but actually doing it feels weird to me. Cars need attention. They need care and shelter and even if you have collector insurance they still require a fairly constant stream of money. Tires age out even if miles are low. Plastic gets old and fragile no matter what you do. Fluids need to be changed. Unless you have a strong emotional connection to the cars it's a lot of work and frankly a terrible investment. I'd rather have a depreciating car that I adored than an appreciating one that didn't excite me.

WilD wrote:

Ian F said: Personally, other than a handful of "blue-chip" cars (classic Ferraris, for example), I see the bottom falling out of the collector car market in a big way in a few years when baby boomers start liquidating their collections and flooding the market.

I have been feeling/saying the same for a while now. The classic car market is absolutely dominated by the baby boomers (with a few exceptions). Many Boomers have really nice cars, sometimes a small collections. The market is going to have a hard time absorbing all that inventory when they start to age out in large numbers.

This ^^^. I'm one of the one's in the last year of boomers. I've been selling down slowly during the past 10 years but gonna speed up. Next one to go is 67 Camaro RS SS Conv. and I'll still have 6 old cars.

There's going to be too much supply for a shrinking demand as today's youth ages.

In the spirit of your original list, I humbly offer some alternatives to consider:

1988 Fiero: mk2 MR2, AE86/Corolla or Celica GTS, Buick Reatta, Shelby Omni or Charger, mk2 RX7

Trans Am GTA (no t-tops): 5.0 Fox body Mustang, mk2 or mk3 Supra, Conquest/Starion,

Fiat X1/9: 914, mk1 MR2, 124 Spider, 850 Sport, Alfa Graduate/Spider/et al, MG, Spitfire, TR6, Opel GT

Ford Thunderbird SC: Turbocoupe, SVO Mustang, XR4TI, Lincoln Mk8, 1st gen SHO,

Lancia Beta: Scorpion, Europa, Alfa GTV/Alfetta/Milano, Fiat 124/128/131, mk1 RX7, 240/260/280z, TR7, 924, Opel Manta, e21/e30

Volvo 780: 242GT or 240, Saab 900/9000 turbo, XR4TI/Scorpio, Alfa 164, Mercedes w123/w124/190, e28/e34/e38

67-72 Chevy C10, '90s Ford Bronco: Jeep Wagoneer, '70s f100, '80s f150, Lightning, ss454, Typhoon

Jaguar XJ6C: XJS, Volvo Amazon/P1800, 928, Lotus Cortina, '67-'68 Cougar, 635csi/e36m3

darkbuddha wrote: 67-72 Chevy C10, '90s Ford Bronco: Jeep Wagoneer, '70s f100, '80s f150,

Yes to these. Also, anything 10 year old original porsche.

Porsche 914, Porsche Cayman R, Porsche 944 turbo, Alfa GTV, Alfa Milano verde, Lotus elise Jeep CJ 5-7, ferrari - yes ferrari - mondial/mondial T. Pretty reliable, DIYable and less complex than an e36/46 m3.

As I've approached dotage, I've discovered a couple of factors in car choice that I wouldn't have considered 10-15 years ago.

If you want to drive it, can you get into & out of it? Maybe you should strike that Exige or Elise from consideration.

If you left knee starts behaving like it's 90 years old, do you want a manual transmission?

If you get old & fat (not just old) & want to maintain it yourself, some cars might be eliminated from you list.

Considering these comments, Chevy SS still deserves a place on your list. A couple of months ago they were 20% off MSRP. If you can find one at a dealer now, you might do better than that.

No one has 1990 Infiniti Q45 on their list

Any thoughts about a rust free NA Miata? Common/adored/raced--and rust free examples are getting harder and harder to find. Low buy in/low risk/easy maintenance?

Oh, and I'd keep an eye on the R35 GT-R does when the next one comes out.

Air cooled Porsches, muscle cars, and vintage 4x4s have been great for me over the years. The key is to buy the most desirable model with the most documentation you can find. I have an excellent silver 85 911 targa and a very nice 87 guards red 930....you can guess which is worth more, a lot more, which is just an example of picking the more desirable model in the beginning. Also rarity and special editions are important. Numbers matching also.

Also, for some cars color matters A LOT. Example , red on tan Ferrari. A lot of people, usually not real buyers, will say they don't want a red Ferrari because they're so common, but if you want to have a much easier sale if you ever do decide to unload it a popular color is the way to go. Find a former green Ferrari owner and ask him how the sale went.

People always say don't think of them as an investment etc etc, but you can sure as hell hedge your bets if you buy right. Of course, buy stuff you like as well....incase the bottom falls out and you're stuck with it.

One other thing to consider if you really want a "collection" of nice cars that you want to maintain the value, is the space to properly store the cars out of the weather and maintain them. Every so often you see what was obviously someone's "collection" where half the cars are in a filthy old half collapsing barn and the other half are out in a field somewhere. I like the look of rusted metal entwined with trees as much as anyone, but don't be that guy...

That said, and even in light of my previous post: First gen Viper, C4 Corvette ZR-1, Callawy twin turbo Corvette. I think any of those are still a bargain and I would be genuinely surprised if they loose value over time.

Ian F wrote: Personally, other than a handful of "blue-chip" cars (classic Ferraris, for example), I see the bottom falling out of the collector car market in a big way in a few years when baby boomers start liquidating their collections and flooding the market. While there are many of us in Generation X who like cars, I'm not sure we have the same average income level to sustain the market like the Baby Boomers have.

I've thought about this for 20 years, but I think we're still at least 40 years away from this happening, if it ever does. The bottom hasn't fallen out of the previous generation's cars. They're not appreciating as rapidly as muscle cars, but they're stable.