QOTD: What's The Future Of Everyday Classics?

Zombie McQuestionbot
by Zombie McQuestionbot

We received an interesting email the other day here in the TTAC underwater battle station. As is frequently the case, this one was about a used car. But not just any used car.


is a touring car that took my mother to and from work as a teacher in the 1920s. It stayed in the barn at my grandparents farm until the 1980s when my mother gave it to me. I had the car fully restored by a specialist in old car restorations in the early 1980s, and spent a little less that $40,000 having this done. It has 68K miles on it. I know I will never get my money back from restoring this vehicle, I am asking $25,000 for it now.

This is a typical used car story: my parents drove it to work, I fixed it up a bit, I’d like to sell it. Were this a 1990 Accord, I think it could be sold in a matter of days at the right price. But this is a 1926 Dodge, which leads to all sorts of questions. It doesn’t have any value as a commuter, obviously. But it would be an inexpensive and fully-sorted entry into the world of classic-car rallies.

Everybody says that Duesenbergs and Auburns and whatnot will never lose value because there will always be a new generation of educated, moneyed collectors who want to own them. Arguably, the same is true for fuelie Vettes and RoadRunners and 454SS Chevrolets of all types. What’s going to happen to the 1926 Dodges? The Chevrolet 210s? The orphans? The Model As? Will the demand meet the supply?





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  • Cabriolet Cabriolet on Jan 29, 2014

    Marcello We shipped a VW Karmann Ghia to Brazil about 2 years ago. Gentleman brought the car for his fathers birthday present. My son-in-laws family came to the USA from Russia via Brazil after the 2nd world war and spoke with the buyer of this car. He asked us to fill out a special form supplied by the local Police dept to show full details of the car. We even had to list the manufacturer of the tires. Just wondering if this could be the same car. I like to buy older cars myself. My best find was a 1991 VW Cabriolet triple white which i found stored in a barn on Long Island. Had this car for about 5 years and put about 25,000 miles on it. I would say it was the most fun filled car i ever owned. Someone offered me twice what i paid for it and sad to say i sold it. Now i have a 24 year old Miata that i enjoy during the summer.

  • Jimbob457 Jimbob457 on Jan 29, 2014

    About 60 years ago at age 14 I had the amazing experience of learning to drive a Model T Ford. I lapped the neighborhood at about 25 or 30 bone shaking miles per hour. Best laps of my life. Keep 'em rolling!

  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Saw this posted on social media; “Just bought a 2023 Tundra with the 14" screen. Let my son borrow it for the afternoon, he connected his phone to listen to his iTunes.The next day my insurance company raised my rates and added my son to my policy. The email said that a private company showed that my son drove the vehicle. He already had his own vehicle that he was insuring.My insurance company demanded he give all his insurance info and some private info for proof. He declined for privacy reasons and my insurance cancelled my policy.These new vehicles with their tech are on condition that we give up our privacy to enter their world. It's not worth it people.”
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