QOTD: Which Newer Vehicles Will End up as Overpriced "Collectibles"?

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

There are a lot of charlatans on the internet, and some members of this special category of people want you to purchase their car as an investment. Anyone who’s browsed the sale ads knows the type of person I’m referring to here:

“No joyrides!”

“Very rare, collectible car!”

“Special opportunity!”

“No lowballers, I know what I got.”

Of course, what they’ve usually “got” is a vehicle priced firmly in loony bin territory. Today we want to know: In the near future, which newer vehicles will be worth far less than what these opportunistic sellers are asking?

This question is the inverse of one asked back in February, where we picked out more recent vehicles that will actually be collectible in the future. I’m going to impose the same two rules as last time, as they seemed to work pretty well.

  1. Your predicted overpriced vehicle must be 15 years old or less, which leaves it 10 or more years to age into classic status at 25. That means all vehicles are 2004 or newer.
  2. There should be some real reason your selection(s) might become fodder for bad investment types.

I think there are two categories of sellers who end up with these vehicles. The first is the one who had a “great idea” back in 2005 and purchased so and so vehicle. He stored it in a heated garage wrapped in Saran wrap, waiting. Waiting for some date in the future, when his ride of choice would be unveiled on Bring A Trailer with 5 miles on the odometer (thus funding his retirement). This type of seller is found in the Midwest.

The second category of seller is found, more often, under a rock. They crawl out and buy a car at considerable discount (for whatever reason) and then sell it as a quick flip for profit, with or without some sort of mechanical/restoration work. This seller is also found on eBay at times. Probably in Florida.

“But what car,” I hear you thinking, “might fall prey to either of these, and not be worth much?”

Here’s one — it’s the Cadillac XLR. As the spiritual successor to the Allanté, the folding hardtop coupe rode on the same platform as the contemporary Corvette. Manufactured from 2004 through 2009, the pricey luxury convertible was the halo for the Cadillac brand. Because of Corvette and brand management reasons, the XLR had either a standard 4.6-liter Northstar V8 or a supercharged 4.4-liter Northstar in the super hot V variant.

The standard version XLR in particular seems like prime no lowballers fodder in a few years. It was expensive as new, it was kneecapped by GM to protect the Corvette, and the luxury interior was trash.

What’s your pick for overpriced (not) collectible cars of the future?

[Images: Bigstock, GM]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • Erikstrawn Erikstrawn on Apr 12, 2018

    Trailblazer SS / Saab 9-7x Aero There was a point in time when the Trailblazer SS had a lot of performance cachet, but everyone I know who's had a Trailblazer had nothing nice to say about it when it comes to reliability.

  • M100 M100 on Apr 14, 2018

    2005-2008 Dodge Magnum. Unique and still turns heads.

  • Jeff JMII--If I did not get my Maverick my next choice was a Santa Cruz. They are different but then they are both compact pickups the only real compact pickups on the market. I am glad to hear that the Santa Cruz will have knobs and buttons on it for 2025 it would be good if they offered a hybrid as well. When I looked at both trucks it was less about brand loyalty and more about price, size, and features. I have owned 2 gm made trucks in the past and liked both but gm does not make a true compact truck and neither does Ram, Toyota, or Nissan. The Maverick was the only Ford product that I wanted. If I wanted a larger truck I would have kept either my 99 S-10 extended cab with a 2.2 I-4 5 speed or my 08 Isuzu I-370 4 x 4 with the 3.7 I-5, tow package, heated leather seats, and other niceties and it road like a luxury vehicle. I believe the demand is there for other manufacturers to make compact pickups. The proposed hybrid Toyota Stout would be a great truck. Subaru has experience making small trucks and they could make a very competitive compact truck and Subaru has a great all wheel drive system. Chevy has a great compact pickup offered in South America called the Montana which gm could be made in North America and offered in the US and Canada. Ram has a great little compact truck offered in South America as well.
  • Groza George I don’t care about GM’s anything. They have not had anything of interest or of reasonable quality in a generation and now solely stay on business to provide UAW retirement while they slowly move production to Mexico.
  • Arthur Dailey We have a lease coming due in October and no intention of buying the vehicle when the lease is up.Trying to decide on a replacement vehicle our preferences are the Maverick, Subaru Forester and Mazda CX-5 or CX-30.Unfortunately both the Maverick and Subaru are thin on the ground. Would prefer a Maverick with the hybrid, but the wife has 2 'must haves' those being heated seats and blind spot monitoring. That requires a factory order on the Maverick bringing Canadian price in the mid $40k range, and a delivery time of TBD. For the Subaru it looks like we would have to go up 2 trim levels to get those and that also puts it into the mid $40k range.Therefore are contemplating take another 2 or 3 year lease. Hoping that vehicle supply and prices stabilize and purchasing a hybrid or electric when that lease expires. By then we will both be retired, so that vehicle could be a 'forever car'. And an increased 'carbon tax' just kicked in this week in most of Canada. Prices are currently $1.72 per litre. Which according to my rough calculations is approximately $5.00 per gallon in US currency.Any recommendations would be welcomed.
  • Eric Wait! They're moving? Mexico??!!
  • GrumpyOldMan All modern road vehicles have tachometers in RPM X 1000. I've often wondered if that is a nanny-state regulation to prevent drivers from confusing it with the speedometer. If so, the Ford retro gauges would appear to be illegal.
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