QOTD: Are These Bucks Too Deluxe?
This weekend, someone raised their bidder’s number at Barrett-Jackson in Las Vegas when the auctioneer asked for $58,000. It wasn’t on a Hemi ‘Cuda convertible. Nor was it on a tasty ’70 Chevelle SS. It was on the 1997 Acura Integra Type R you see above.
After buyer’s fees, the new owner shelled out $63,800 for what may very well be the lowest-mileage ITR in existence. Do you think collector’s tastes have shifted? Maybe permanently?
It wasn’t too long ago we were watching ’70s muscle trade for inflated six (and seven!) figure price tags. Most reasonable people saw this as unsustainable, correctly assuming cooler heads would prevail and the market would come back down to earth. The crash of ’08/’09 took care of some of the problem, while more attractive investments took care of the rest.
I’m not here to argue whether cars should be purchased as an investment. If someone has the pockets to drop several cubic acres of coin on a fleet of classic cars, then turn around and sell them a few years later for a tidy profit (*ahem* Ron Pratte *ahem*), more power to them. It might drive up the price of certain models, but that happens in just about any form of collecting — art, pop culture, or cars.
For comparison’s sake, this very clean and all-original 1991 NSX sold for $40,000 before buyer’s fees. In the right color with the right transmission, I think I’d select this 21,000-mile rocket instead of that ITR and pocket the $18k difference.
Regardless, today’s question asks what you think will be the next car — or genre of cars — to tip the scales of fortune at places like Barrett-Jackson. We’ve asked a similar question in the past, but enough time has elapsed that perhaps you’ve formed new opinions since then. Or not.
One thing’s for sure: the sale of an 1,200-mile ITR for $60k+ makes the conversation relevant again.
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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Uggh. This is the kind of car you're stuck around in traffic. You can't see it in traffic but you can certainly hear it, even though you're driving right next to a fully loaded Peterbilt.
I see the market not slowing down, I can think of certain areas, SoCal especially, where there is absolutely a prestige to owning the lowest mile ITR available. One of my buddies from grad school who is from Ontario, CA. His FD Rx7 (given as a college grad present ) has probably 40-50k miles, and rarely leaves the garage, and he just went through an extensive pseudo restoration on blue Bugeye WRX, with fresh rally blue paint, 2.5l engine swap. I've always liked the Lebaron turbos, especially white over black leather interior. Have you considered a Miata? at least there are clubs/events to take your kids to. At one point I was looking for a 1st Gen Supra (not Celica Supra) for a little while, at one point there was only 1 running example on autotrader. I'm sure lots of people are just sitting on theirs until they increase in value, kind of like 240z's did.