Every once in a while, we read a news story about somebody discovering an old high-end car. But those cars generally haven’t been stored well.
I’ve thought that if I were rich, it might be fun to buy a brand new car–a Rolls Royce, perhaps, or possibly a Lamborghini–and then set out to store it in a manner that would be likely to preserve it well.
Here’s how I think I would go about it–build a large air-tight container inside a warehouse, put the car in it, drain all the fluids, pump the container full of nitrogen or argon, and then seal up the container. I would also leave detailed notes on the process in the car, so that whoever opened up the container would know what was done.
I would do this as secretly as possible, so that my descendants hopefully would not be tempted to open the container prematurely (defined as before 50 years have passed). Then after 50 years (or possibly even 75) my family can open it up and reap a windfall.
I think you’d do better by investing the money in a broad stock market index fund.
But if you wanted to do as the OP suggests, rather than a Rolls Royce or a Lamborghini, I’d buy one of those cars sold in limited quantity. Another risk; you guess wrong which old car will be valuable in fifty years.
The price for that vehicle was around $5,500. That amount invested in Ford stock in November of 1969 and the dividends reinvested until today would equal $215,263.89 today, so after paying auction fees and such probably slightly better than buying the stock, but not much. Of course, some stocks would have done better, GE would have been up by $710,000, and some would have done worse, IBM only increasing to $154,564.10. Still, I’d prefer to have money in the market rather than a car in the garage.
This strategy probably works better with rate cats than with, say, Saran Wrap. You still have to know that the car will be worth a lot in the future, which is easier said than done.
Plus one of the problems is that high-value cars depreciate incredibly quickly. Even if you do correctly pick a car that’s going to turn around and start gaining value some day, if you have to divest yourself of it at any point in the 20-30 years before that happens, you’re going to be losing a huge amount of money.
Just because something is useless in everyday life doesn’t automatically make it worthless. For a lot of things, rarity is a much better indicator of value–witness the auction prices of original art, rare stamps, etc.
After 50-75 years, ANY model of car is likely to be rare–especially if it’s in pristine condition.
Now having said that, a high-end brand like Rolls Royce will be valued at considerably more than a common brand.
I think the OP is over thinking this. Store the car in any garage with the battery removed, gas drained, and a car cover. Leave for 50 plus years. It’ll be fine. It’ll need new tires, fresh oil and the radiator flushed. A good detailing to remove the dust.
The big concern is rats. They can shred a car’s wiring and ruin the interior. I don’t know of any way to prevent them. Its just a matter of luck whether they nest in the car.
Didn’t we just have a thread on this (well, on saran wrap) a day ago? Investing in physical objects is not usually a good idea because of the maintenance costs and because of the possibility that the good will no longer be valuable when it comes time to sell it. Investing in commodities (especially gold) makes more sense because the costs of maintenance are lower and the commodity is more likely to still have some value in the future, but it’s still not a particularly good investment.
As for the specifics of your question, I don’t know enough about cars to answer authoritatively, but it was my understanding that cars require regular maintenance to not fall apart. There’s also the fact that today’s cars and qualitatively different than cars from the 30s–they hardly even had plastics back then, for example–and there’s no way of knowing how well a Toyota Camry is going to hold up in 70 years.
What I had in mind was a car that essentially isn’t driven at all–basically going straight from the dealer to storage. I failed to explicitly say that in my OP. Even with ordinary cars, one with significantly less mileage is generally worth more.
A 50-year-old car with say, 170 miles on the odometer is most certainly going to be worth a good chunk of money to some collector. And all of the high-end brands have passionate followings.
Selection bias, because the brands that have failed don’t have followings, and you don’t remember them because they failed.
It’s a bit like how people say that if you invested 100 dollars in the stock market back in the 1900s, you’d have an untold amount of money today. But implicit in this is the assumption that you invested your money in a stock market that existed then and exists now. No one’s computing returns for the Ottoman Stock Exchange, because it’s all zero.
There’s nothing made currently that will be that collectable in fifty years - not an Enzo, Pagani, Morgan 3-wheeler, Carrera GT, Tesla roadster, Veyron, whatever. You need a mix of craftsmanship, rarity, historical significance and broad cultural desirability that can’t be achieved anymore. You want something to collect? Track down an iPhone One, new in box, and tuck that away
I just pointed out that the 2006 Ford GT has increased in value from the $100k it was new (plus whatever dealer markup the dealer got away with) to anywhere from $250k to $500k now, if you can get one. That’s a fair return on your money for 8 years.
If you stored the car in a container or pit and pumped the whole thing full of nitrogen gas, that would certainly take care of the rats and other pests.
