This post in the “most interesting car you saw today" thread got me thinking. I didn’t want to derail that thread too much, so here I am.
echoreply notes his 25 year old Suburban has more than doubled in value in the past 8 years. I find this fascinating. I also once owned a Chevy Suburban: a 1986 1500 4x4. It had the 3 rows of bench seats (making it a rare 9 passenger) and the barn-door style rear doors (also rare). It had an aftermarket Edelbrock 4-barrel carb on it and a custom brush guard that a previous owner had made for it. It guzzled gas so bad you could almost hear it trying to suck the dead dinosaurs right out of the ground.
It was a great people hauler and we used it to take our little family everywhere – it was a road tripper’s dream. Well, ok, it was loud and rode hard, but it was better than a minivan any day of the week. I even took my elderly grandmother across 4 states in it and she didn’t have anything negative to say about it of course, she was the living embodiment of the Golden Rule, but I prefer to believe it was the awesomeness of the Suburban that kept her positive. It had the 700R auto transmission and that’s the only thing I didn’t like about it. I wish it had a manual.
Alas, the engine blew on it one day when I was driving to work. Being poor and not having the money to fix it, I sold it to a guy who bought junk for scrap. $600 in 2011. I wish I would’ve kept one of the license plates – SNW365. I used the money to buy a 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix with almost 300k miles. It was reliable, and that’s what mattered.
In good running condition that Suburban would be worth between 5k and 10k today. With the insane popularity that the old box body Chevys have of late, I could probably get more than that for it.
My first vehicle was a 1975 VW bus. It was in excellent shape inside and out: all the sheetmetal was straight and clean, the interior was clean and unmolested, and the heater even worked! It had curtains in the side and back windows – I still remember the design, they had little corn cobs on them, like Marge Simpson’s kitchen curtains – and a Deadhead sticker on the back.
This one also blew the engine. Coming into Portland on I-84, Friday night rush-hour traffic during a torrential rainstorm, and BANG! then some black smoke coming through the dashboard vents and no more running engine. A kind OSP offer stopped and told me I had to get it towed off the freeway shoulder ASAP. Since this was the pre-cell phone era he called the tow truck for me. $107 in folding green to the tow truck driver before he’d load it. He took it the nearest tiny town and left it in the parking lot of some abandoned store. I had to arrange the tow back home, some 4 hours south in I-5. My dad helped with that. Turns out the oil filter had unscrewed itself and the crankcase had immediately gone dry. Not having the money (or time or place or ability) to swap out the engine, I sold it to an old hippie for $300. $300 c. 1998. In running condition that old VW would be worth north of $30k today. Fully restored, and it didn’t need a whole lot to return it back to “new" condition, it would be worth around $50k. To this day my dad maintains that oil filter coming off was my fault, saying that I didn’t tighten it down when I did the previous oil change. Horseshit. It had 2500 miles on that oil change; if I hadn’t tightened it down it would’ve rattled off long before then.
Somewhere in there I had a 1989 Toyota van. Those vans didn’t even have a name – they were just called the van. It had rear bench seats, rear a/c, and a 5 speed manual transmission. All rare factory options. I have no idea what it would be worth today because that was a rare vehicle when it was new and I cannot find one for sale anywhere to even start guessing as to what it would go for now. It looks like the only ones that were saved were the 4x4 variants which of course have a cult following today. Those variants sell today for more than their original MSRP.
On the other end of the spectrum I had a 1986 Buick LeSabre. That car was by far the absolute biggest piece of garbage I have ever had the displeasure of driving. I gave it to my brother when the transmission began going out on it because even in 2005 it probably wasn’t even worth the scrap value it was such a POS. Knowing my brother, he traded it to someone for $5 worth of free-market pharmaceuticals. I also can’t find one for sale, probably because it wasn’t worth it to literally anyone on earth to save these totally worthless “cars.”
We recently gave away a 2007 Chevy HHR. It had low miles and was in great shape. On a good day, when Kelley was feeling generous, the blue book value was about $2500. It was a great little car, very comfortable while also being quite utilitarian for its size. Heated leather seats, multiple CD changer with both Bluetooth and wired aux input, auto electric windows, multi position electric seats, lumbar control… things that were rare on cars in 2007. The rear seats folded down completely flat and there were a pair of built-in storage compartments, like foot lockers, in the floor between the rear seat and the spare tire well. It had tie-down points around the perimeter of the back cargo area. It was just a damn useful car while being comfortable to drive. Ugly as sin, but I didn’t care about that. My wife drove it for several years then my son drove it for several more years. Both upgraded to bigger vehicles and we simply didn’t need it anymore. We decided giving it away to a young man who needed reliable transportation to and from work was better than selling it for a pittance. I have no idea why the KBB value is so low.
All of this nostalgic rambling is to say that, I find it fascinating how car values ebb and flow over time and that certain vintage vehicles that suddenly become popular, like the box-body Chevy pickups, don’t seem to follow any rational rules. I admit I’d love to have a 70’s era Chevy pickup but that’s because I’d like to have a work truck that I can 1) find parts for and 2) do a lot of the work on myself. Many other, much cheaper vehicles also fit that criteria, so I’m not wedded to that pickup. So… more pondering… last summer my son bought a 2003 F-150. It has the 5.7 V8 with automatic 4x4 and the rear bench seat with rear suicide doors, 6.5 foot bed. He paid $8k for it, much less than if he’d bought a Chevy 4x4 pickup from the 70’s. That F-150, while not exactly a paragon of comfort and luxury, is damn more useful, reliable, and comfortable to drive than an old Chevy. But worth less.
It makes me wonder what I’d do if I was shopping for a vintage/classic/project car and had a budget of, say, $5k. Would I get something useful like an older pickup? Something that I would’ve drooled over as a 17 year old but are mostly jokes today (3rd gen Camaro)? Some quirky deathtrap that nobody else would care about (I’ve always wanted a Yugo)? What doors would doubling the budget open?
Of course, we all know I’d be shopping for a Lancia… something. Anything. But with a $5k budget… not happening. With $10k? Still not happening.