Will the Honda CR-Z models appreciate in price/value due to production stopped. I’m hoping it would be like the S2000 or Toyota Supra hopefully
Don’t count on the CR-Z appreciating in value. Didn’t sell that well, weren’t considered that special of a car by any group of customers. It very likely won’t make you any money as an investment.
As for the S2000, they currently command high prices but they aren’t selling for more than they coast new when inflation is considered. I bout one used, enjoyed the heck out of it, sold it for less than I paid but still lost less than many other types of cars.
My S2000 story is the best you can hope for the CR-Z.
As for the Supra, the big money is on very low mile un-modified examples. Considering what they sold for new and inflation and the what that kind of money could have earned in good mutual fund you would have been better off investing the money and not buying a Supra to make money on the appreciation.
It might… eventually… years from now… if they hadn’t made millions of them.
In other words, don’t bet your paycheck on it.
I see just about no chance of that. Nothing about it makes it a ‘classic’. Don’t confuse poor sales with desirability.
I completely agree with the other posters and I’d point to other “low production classics” such as the Fiat X1/9, Triumph TR7, Bricklin Safety Car, AMC LeCar and the Yugo, which are collectively worth less than a set of classic retred tires. But I’d go further and state that virtually no car can be expected to appreciate.
People are being seriously misled by TV auctions and the like, into believing that in 20 years their “Family Truckster” will bring in Big Buck when the reality is very different.
When you consider the cost of 20 years of storage, insurance, maintenance (good luck finding a fender for a Fiat X 1/9) and lost income if your money had been in the bank instead, your profit starts quickly disappearing. Additionally, what’s not being emphasized at these auctions is that the cars actually bringing the Big Bucks were very expensive, aspirational, rare and/or have undergone a very expensive “better than new from the factory” restoration.
So if you like the CR-Z buy one and have fun but if you’re looking for an investment, talk to a banker or broker.
The high dollar Supras are anomalies. Don’t get me wrong, they were great cars, with ridiculously tough engines, but for the price they’re commanding today you can get something much better, newer, more reliable, and faster. It’s one of those cars that is absurdly valuable mainly because some rich idiots have decided they’re willing to pay that much.
The CRZ was a sad attempt at tricking customers into thinking they were buying the next CRX, only it wasn’t fast, overly nimble, or fun so that fell flat. I doubt you’ll see much interest in them in the future.
I think you’re being a little harsh, putting the TR7 and X1/9 in the same category as the Yugo
And I think a TR7 or X1/9 in good shape will fetch considerably more “than a set of classic retred tires”
LOL, you may be right about the harshness, I wouldn’t categorize these together either, but neither the TR7 or the X1/9 was a market success. Neither has done other than depreciate in value since the day they were introduced.
I test drove an X1/9 many years ago. It was fun, like a gocart, but extremely cheaply built. As a matter of fact when I went to get out, the cheap “potmetal” door handle broke off. It was, however, fun. I went revving through each gear, the car feeling and sounding like I was going 100mph… but the speedo told a different story… I was only doing 40mph or so.
I agree they weren’t a financial success
But these cars do have a following, and I’ll bet you lunch nobody with a TR7 or X1/9 in good shape will let it go for $500, for example. They would probably laugh at such an offer and tell you to get lost
One of the magazines I read regularly just had a profile on the TR7
Now as for the Yugo, I agree with beancounter. You couldn’t pay me to accept one
Could be … after all I’m reaching that point where “Old Fartitis” could be a terminal condition.
db - While it’s hard to say which of these “low production” cars were the worse, I think we can agree that there were good reasons why they were all low production, that had nothing to do with future appreciation.
But my larger point is while I love my old cars, not one of them is an “investment” except in my time, money, tools and the busted knuckles I put into them and when I eventually sell them, I’d be lucky to get back half of it
But on a sunny Spring day, an open back road, a roaring exhaust and a grin from ear to ear … well realistically that’s the only kind of “appreciation” but it’s all worth it.
Perhaps not. $1,000 would probably be more reasonable.
I’d take it. My lawnmower needs a new motor…
I think the CRZ has been the only hybrid that came with a manual transmission. Maybe if you have one, it would be worth something someday, but as others said, it would not be an investment as the costs associated with keeping a car is an issue.
That can be said for any older car. A stock C7 will run rings around any stock 1960s or early 1970s Corvette. The same goes for Chrysler hemi or 440 six pack cars.
TSM - I agree, the X 1/9 was a beautiful Bertone design, The last of those delightful little “tossable”, affordable sports cars like the MG Midget, Triumph Spitfire and FIAT 850 Spyder.
Unfortunately by the time the first one rolled off the line it was obsolete because the public wanted a car with decent build quality, enough power to run an AC, available parts and the possibility of actually surviving a fender bender. Compared to the Datsun 240Z introduced a few years earlier, the X 1/9 was such a nonstarter (pun intended), they eventually had to auction off the cars pileing up at the port, just to get rid of them.
(My then 20 something self was actually planning on bidding on one with the logic that “It can’t kill you if it’s sitting broken down waiting for parts” until common sense made it’s rare appearance.
db - I also agree with you that every car has it’s following but that doesn’t mean that it’s an investment or has appreciation potential or even a value.
Just for the sake of discussion let’s say I bought a brand new TR7 or Jensen Healy (the last of the classic British sports cars) for $3,000 back in the day when gas was 30 cents a gallon. In good running condition I could probably get $5,000 today, a $2,000 “profit” but because of inflation, that’s only the equivalent of $500 in 1970’s dollars. Add the cost of 40 years of maintenance, insurance, storage etc.and in real dollars I’m deep in the red, assuming that I could even find a buyer.
My message for the original poster is that if you own a classic car as an investment you’re almost certainly going to be sadly disappointed but if your idea of “appreciation” is the roar of the engine, the smell of the oil, the satisfaction of getting some grease under your nails or just having something unique, that Yugo will be worth every cent.
You’re getting way ahead of yourself . . . and possibly trying to put words in my mouth
I never said or even implied that the TR7, X1/9 . . . or any other car, for that matter . . . is “an investment or has appreciation potential or even a value.”
There are certain cars that YOU wouldn’t pay squat for, but because they do have a following, car clubs, they’re profiled in magazines, etc., the owners will not let them go for $500 or even $1000. In many cases, they won’t let them go for less than a few, or several thousand, dollars, and possibly only to somebody that knows and appreciates them.
Just because you wouldn’t pay squat for them doesn’t mean that somebody that does/did is a sucker. It means they appreciate it more than you or I could.
Value is also subjective, same as beauty.
Please stop bringing up the Yugo
That was a piece of junk new, it’s still a piece of junk now, and never even had any kind of sporty aspirations, as far as I know.
That’s definitely true, but Supras are particularly insane. 60-80k for a 90’s Japanese car that wasn’t particularly rare is absolute lunacy territory.
LOL, I too have had that experience.
In '74 (maybe '75) I came within a hair’s width of buying a Triumph Spitfire until common sense overwhelmed me… I live in NH. Years later I seriously considered a Jaguar… again, common sense overwhelmed me. My ladyfriend and my mom thought I’d lost my mind. They may have been right.
There’ve been a few MGBs and others that I’ve seriously considered… with the same result. But I often wonder about the fun I could have had. I really loved that Spitfire.
You need less common sense. You’re missing out on some fun cars.
Yeah, you’re right. It’s been a lifelong affliction. I’ve often wondered what might have been.
I second shadowfax.
If we’re responsible, practical and just plain sane we spend the vast majority of our time using our “common sense” but even “common sense” needs an occasional break.
Drugs will rot your brain, alcohol your liver, sailboats cost a fortune and I can’t dance but an hour spent in a little Brit car, where 50 MPH feels like 150, is just the ticket.
As I explained to my very patient wife of 30+ years, “It’s cheaper than seeing a Shrink, you’ll always know where I am…either under it fixing something or broken down somewhere on highway 9 and I’ve got a great life insurance policy”.
I suspect it’s the life insurance that sold her