Vintage classic car bubble.

$400 million in sales at Pebble beach http://www.cnbc.com/id/101927168

New record prices. The countach is definitely caught up in this craziness when a non running car in need of resto sales for over $900k and anniversary cars are listed at $400

Yep - it's all good news !

$400 million in sales at Pebble beach http://www.cnbc.com/id/101927168

New record prices. The countach is definitely caught up in this craziness when a non running car in need of resto sales for over $900k and anniversary cars are listed at $400

 

and only 2 diablos listed on ebay...sign of times...

 

 

Miura SV went over 2mil

 

http://rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1067938

I scoped out Ford GTs yesterday just out of curiousity since other things seem to have gone up and even those seem to have jumped (AGAIN).

 

EDIT: I also don't know if I believe that lone bid for $127k on that 94 Diablo on Ebay. But I hope it's true.

$400 million in sales at Pebble beach http://www.cnbc.com/id/101927168

New record prices. The countach is definitely caught up in this craziness when a non running car in need of resto sales for over $900k and anniversary cars are listed at $400

 

 

Here is my take on this so called bubble..... Using the Anniversary as an example... They called 1990 a bubble as well. I watched a white Anniversary sell in Boca Raton for $450K... Now, almost 25 years later the Anniversarty has not reached that point.. People are also acting as though the Countach just went nuts as of late... Its been a climb over many years for the Lp400.... I remember seeing restored examples in FL at Motorcar Gallery for $350k many years ago.... then years ago they were in the 600's, like Roys car that he sold and restored... Then 800k... Its been a steady and slow climb...

 

If you want to talk bubble, then you look at a car like an Enzo... a relatively new model car, that went from 800-1 mill.... to 3 mill... Miura SV's as another example have been million dollar cars for years.... they are not selling for 3x that now.. Sure, some cars will see a correction, but one thing is forsure.. gone forever are the days of 100-200K Countachs.. The other problem as well, is that many, like the 920K non running copper Countach are leaving the country.. With a worldwide production of 2k cars, and many leaving the country for many many years, how many do you think we have left? As an example, I saw a Tan colored QV in Boca Raton back in the mid 80's.. Its the only tan Countach I have ever seen. It resides in Japan, and has been there for over 20 years..

I am still surprised by the recent upswing, and like everyone else... I am on the edge of my seat to see what happens in the next 12 months!

The copper car that just sold was an exception. It was literally a new car that had been sitting since it was built, as close to what it was when it rolled off the assembly line, perhaps without a wrench every having touched the car. You will literally never find another one like that again.

 

While some of the cars that are skyrocketing in value are cars that were previously undervalued and have now experienced somewhat of a market correction, I believe the general trend indicates a serious bubble. If there's any doubt, take a look at porsche prices right now, there is no rhyme or reason to how some of the non impact bumper 911's are selling right now.

The polarity between Super riches and rest of us is beyond our comprehension. People and trust funds with that kind of money world wide need to find "hard assets" to invest at least to "park" their money to avoid/minize negative impact from world financial uncertainty. Inevitable US default and currency crisis is the best example. Collection cars are one good bet for them!

Here is my take on this so called bubble..... Using the Anniversary as an example... They called 1990 a bubble as well. I watched a white Anniversary sell in Boca Raton for $450K... Now, almost 25 years later the Anniversarty has not reached that point.. People are also acting as though the Countach just went nuts as of late... Its been a climb over many years for the Lp400.... I remember seeing restored examples in FL at Motorcar Gallery for $350k many years ago.... then years ago they were in the 600's, like Roys car that he sold and restored... Then 800k... Its been a steady and slow climb...

 

If you want to talk bubble, then you look at a car like an Enzo... a relatively new model car, that went from 800-1 mill.... to 3 mill... Miura SV's as another example have been million dollar cars for years.... they are not selling for 3x that now.. Sure, some cars will see a correction, but one thing is forsure.. gone forever are the days of 100-200K Countachs.. The other problem as well, is that many, like the 920K non running copper Countach are leaving the country.. With a worldwide production of 2k cars, and many leaving the country for many many years, how many do you think we have left? As an example, I saw a Tan colored QV in Boca Raton back in the mid 80's.. Its the only tan Countach I have ever seen. It resides in Japan, and has been there for over 20 years..

 

I agree that the Countach prices will not ever be back to what it was. However, when this bubble bursts, I'm sure all cars will have some sort of correction and some will just be more drastic than others.

 

All one has to do is read the members posts on this forum regarding exotics and what attracts us to them . The most common and dominant denominator is emotion as opposed to pure speed.

In my opinion, we have entered an entirely new phase of automobile development where the manufactures are offering highly technical machinery that is so capable and advanced that it has taken the art out of driving. Yes , the new cars are very fast and do everything so much better than anything else we have been exposed too to this day. In the process, driving and exotic has become a clinical and sterile experience and personally, I find very few new vehicles that stir any type of emotion or make my jaw drop.

Somewhere along the line, the market will stabilize and drop a little maybe but I believe it will affect the run of the mill cars that were not that special in the first place but enjoyed the ride on the way up as there is a finite supply of real exotics, and given the rapid rise in prices, a lot of the rarer cars have gone beyond the reach of the average enthusiast and that said enthusiast doesn't want to miss the boat completely and feels compelled to buy something, fearing that sitting on the sidelines willtake him out of the game completely.

One of the main factors that could trigger a downturn would be a rise in interest rates but I don't believe it is about to happen any time soon and cheap money is going to be with us for quite a while.

Also, I believe we have to treat older cars as art pieces as we have witnessed the end of an era with the exotics of the 70's, 80's and 90's. We will never see the likes of them again.

Good art tends to retain it's value and will appreciate in time, the same cannot be said about mediocre or average pieces.

One more thing and for practical purposes, I will use 2 easy examples, the countach and the Zonda.

IMO, Pagani, a relative new comer to the automotive world is today where Lamborgini was 50 years ago . Both the countach and the zonda have that awe factor, are super exclusive and sort of define exotics for their time.

1ST year for the countach was 1974, 75 for broader market penetration is it could be called that. That was the same year the pinto and vega went into production. Imagine the reaction of the public when they 1st saw the countach.

40 years later, the countach still draws more attention than just about anything else on the road. The zonda is probably one the most revered newer exotics and it is really hard not to be in awe of the car.

A zonda, even though no longer in production started out at around 600000,00 euros and has gradually increased over the years, so much so that a specially commissioned 760RS is around the 3million dollar mark.

So the question is, does the Zonda warrant it's price tag, and it obviously does as there is no shortage of buyers, does it make sense for a countach that is an icon to be languishing at the 2 to 300000 dollar mark as of last year. I think the market has answered that question and hence the rapid increase in prices over the last few months and I don't believe it is dealers buying the cars to sit on them, most of them are going to end users and/or art collectors. I don't see them going back down in price anyt time soon , or ever.

Now, before some of you jump all over me, I did use 2 specific examples of highly sought after cars and granted, the equation is not identical for all the different cars of the era and some of the recent valuations are/and could be completely off but, again imo, the blue chip cars are not going anywhere any time soon and if anything, they might still go up.

Time will tell

 

I would love to hear all the different opinions.

The polarity between Super riches and rest of us is beyond our comprehension. People and trust funds with that kind of money world wide need to find "hard assets" to invest at least to "park" their money to avoid/minize negative impact from world financial uncertainty. Inevitable US default and currency crisis is the best example. Collection cars are one good bet for them!

If the economy tanks, car values tank. Worst investment on the planet is cars. Too volatile

If the economy tanks, car values tank. Worst investment on the planet is cars. Too volatile

 

 

This. When the shit hits the fan, watch how fast people unload their childhood poster cars. People are acting like this has never happened before.

Investments are things which passively give you a return and show you a beautiful capital gain long term, I don't consider cars a good investment, you might get lucky with the odd one here and there but if I have to cough up $4 mil to buy one I can think of lots of other things which will show more return in a much safer manner.

 

Having said that some get very lucky, IMO that's all there is, luck and business decisions based on luck are a big no, no!