What vehicle would you buy if you had $60K to invest and want a good return on your money in 5-10 years?
A Scion tC. The remaining $45,000 I’d talk with a financial expert about where to put.
A $60,000 car is not an investment. Even I, a simple rural fella, know that.
- mountainbike
Collectible cars make very poor “investments”. Storage and maintenance usually exceed any potential gains. But if you insist, a like new copy of the latest T-bird may or may not appreciate. Allante owners are waiting for their big moment. It hasn’t come yet…
An F-350 Super Duty fitted with a auto towing hoist. Then, I’d start a towing and repossession business. The competition would be fierce, but with some contracts with local govts and some finance companies, I could turn it into a thriving business in 5 to 10 yrs.
Cars are a very poor investment tool. New cars are worth 15% less the instant you drive it off the dealers lot. At that point, they become classified as used cars. Then, the depreciation continues for the next 20 years. The value doesn’t begin to climb back up until it becomes a certified classic. At that point, you’ll need to have some sort of limited edition, in prestine condition with very little wear, to begin seeing the value climb back up. But, in order to get a positive return, usually they need to get past to 35-45 year mark.
The only cars that will make money are “classics” that are well past their depreciation schedules, rare, and highly coveted. These cars, to maintain their value, are typically not or very rarely driven, and kept in climate controlled storage.
$60K doesn’t buy much in this field. Unless you can do the work yourself, restoring a old car is mainly a labor of love with very little to no return. And, buying a restored classic usually means holding on to it until you can find someone who is willing to pay more than you did for it, which can take a while. Plus, you’ll need to store it until it sells.
I’m thinking a 60’s muscle car, something we baby boomers had like a '64/65 hi-po Mustang or a SS396/427 Chevy of some sort. Maybe a Dodge 426 hemi or a Coronet 440 RT. Maybe even a Dart 340? Are cherry versions of them out of the question?
I personally would buy a sound $5000-$15000 car and leave $5000 in as a repair/maintenance fund in a mutual fund.
Invest the balance in mutual funds.
Commodity investments like precious metals, jewelery, and cars are a good investment if inflation is high. A car could be a good investment at any time if it were one of the best examples of the type available and was popular. A matching numbers Roadrunner with a Hemi, 4-speed and low mileage is a good example. The sell for $200,000 and up. $60,000 might buy a hot rod, but not one of the best. And you can’t drive it much if you want it to appreciate well. If you are willing to put it in storage and wau=it to see if you made a good investment, check out auction prices on Barrett.Jackson.com and other auto auction sites. See if anything in the $40,000-$50,000 range (remember the auctioneer’s fee, taxes, and transportation) appeals to you.
I really like cars, but they are not investments they are toys. You might find an undervalued classic that will go up in value, but it is unlikely that it will outperform a decent mutual fund investment. I have a pretty long list of old $60K cars that I would like, your list is probably different. If you want a toy, go for it; but it’s not an investment.
You can’t buy a hack-job clone for $60K…
Agreed that cars are not investments, no matter what the Barrett-Jackson crowd thinks.
On the auction the other night a car sold for 330,000 dollars. The owner had 5 years and 300,000 dollars in the restoration.
Was it really worth it? Not IMHO.
Those guys know these cars are not investments, they almost always lose money on restoration “projects.” It is very difficult to sell a car for enough money to recover the cost of a first class restoration, unless the car is very rare and “in fashion” when you are trying to sell it. This is just a hobby for most of them.
Some of the prices are getting silly, I was at an auction in Phoenix last year and someone was trying to sell an original AC Cobra (decent, not perfect) for $600K, I don’t know if he got it.
What was really tragic to me is the guy on a recent auction (RM I believe) who bid, and won, a ‘66? Cobra for 10.5 million bucks.
All because Carroll Shelby owned it at one time.
I could see explainin’ that one to the old lady that evening… 
, a '66? Cobra for 10.5 million bucks.
WOW!
If you can pick the right car, it can be a good place to park money. An example of what not might be best is a car that was popular when certain people were young such as a Model T or Model A Ford. The people who knew these cars in their youth are going away and now these are just clumsy old cars to others. Now you can get them cheaply and it is anyone’s guess if their value will recover. Current examples are 55 through 57 Chevrolets; nominal cars at best when new but hot currently. Their value may decrease when the current nostalgia crowd goes away as it did for Model
T and A Fords. I’d put my money on good stuff from the 50s such as Cadillac for best value in the future with a reasonable price now. Consider what has value from the past. It’s usually the high price leaders of their day.
You should have seen the look on the guy’s face when the gavel came down. Not smiling and appeared to be in shell-shock. I don’t know if it’s because he won it or it hit him just how deep he was into that car.
BJ Auctions sold a Cobra for 5.5 million and a 54 Olds F88 (one off?) for 3 million.
The ones I can’t believe are those who are paying half a million plus for some of those Boyd Coddington Bondo buggies. Right up there with the American Chopper motorcycle farce; the Dixie Chopper bike is “worth” 1.2 million? I don’t think so.
If I had $60K to “invest” the last thing I’d be thinking of is a vehicle. It’s really hard to MAKE money on a vehicle. It’s really easy to LOSE money on a vehicle. Vehicles are not investments, they are expenses. Rethink your strategy.
Yup, those hot rods are very overpriced, and the value will go down when everyone forgets about the TV shows. At the same auction, someone was also selling what they claimed was one of the original Capt America choppers from easy rider. Apparently the original bikes got chopped up and lots of “originals” have been put together from the parts.
Good point. I have to add that 60s and 70s cars are going to be looked upon as old clunkers by my generation, and in 10-20 years we’ll be the people with money to spend foolishly on collectors cars.
I would suggest finding and storing 90s cars while they aren’t too expensive.
When I’m in my 60s and they roll a perfectly restored Acura NSX, New Beetle, or like a late 80s MB 500SL on the Barrett Jackson stage, my jaw will drop.
When I’m in my 60s and they roll a perfectly restored Acura NSX, New Beetle, or like a late 80s MB 500SL on the Barrett Jackson stage, my jaw will drop.
The problem is that all those cars were manufactured in too high a volume to become extremely valuable. If you want to use that strategy, you need to find a limited production car, something that was manufactured in relatively small numbers. I’m also not convinced that current (electronic gimmick) cars will be that easy to preserve. So far, the asian/domestic manufactures haven’t shown much interest in supporting anything more than about 10 years old. IMHO, the 90s will be remembered as a low point for most manufacturers, maybe the next decade will be better. I do agree that the 60/70s muscle car fad will end when the baby boomers go away.
The NSX is Acura’s $100k, two-seat, mid-engine Ferrari alternative. There are not very many of them. Perhaps you are confusing it with the entry level RSX which was produced in large quantities. The biggest limitation on NSX appreciation will be that it doesn’t have the status of Ferraris, etc.
An MB 500 SL might do OK – high status and low production.