04-15-2009, 02:58 PM
Jake Wrote:fiveoh2go Wrote:Ryan T Wrote:I think the big key to cars from the last 20 years becoming collectible will be ones that haven't saturated the market. Is the miata awesome and will be admired? Yes. Will it be a 'collectible'? No. Because there are 10 trillion of them. Same with the C5 corvette and to a lesser extent the S2000 and the Civic Si. They are neat cars but there are so many of them around that I don't see them being collectibles.
I agree with you on the examples given but I don't agree that just because a billion of one certain car is built that it can't be collectible. Look at the '64 1/2 - '66 Mustangs. Ford sold over 1,000,000 units in the first 18 months of production and these cars are one of the most collectible cars built in the last 50 years.
Given enough time, cars like the S2K, Civic, Miata, etc. will slowly disappear. This could take a while - the original 1964-1966 Mustangs are popular NOW, after 40+ years of being commonplace.
Eh, I don't know about that.
I wouldn't restore a car that is so common that I could just go buy a nice example off a used car lot. Guys started restoring the original Mustangs and Shelbys back in the early to mid 70's when left over service parts (NOS) were still available from the dealerships, only 10 years out from when these cars were first built. The '74 Mustang II was the death of any performance Mustang for a while, so many turned their focus toward the 64-73 cars at that time.
Take a look at the Fox body 5.0 Mustangs. These cars have been around for roughly 20 years (SFI version) and have a complete aftermarket devoted to restoring them back to factory stock. Check out latemodelrestoration.com. All you need is a shell, you can buy everything else new from them.
I don't know if the Mustang is unique in that it bucks a lot of the trends other cars follow, but I wouldn't say that it takes X amount of years before something can become collectible. I think the car just has to have a broad appeal with the general public.