Long Term Value of Gen II's....

[ZYellow01RT]

I read a lot that people feel that the Gen 1's have bottomed out in price, but was curious as to peoples' opinions about Gen 2's. Do you think that the prices are stable now?

Am purchasing a yellow 2002 RT/10 with 28K miles, and am paying $32K for it. Will this drop to the low $20K's, similar to the Gen 1's that I've been seeing lately?

I know that, in general, cars should never (or not usually) be purchased as "investments"...but just want to see what everyone thinks about long-term depreciation with Gen 2's....

Thanks for any comments on this...

 

[Dom426h]

Yes. I think that Gen1&2 prices are bottomed out and stable.

Once the kids that grew up loving these cars mature you will see the prices climb. How high? We wont know untill it comes...
It will be a similar situation to the baby boomers and their musclecars. As soon as they hit midlifecrisis, had enough $$$, burden of kids moved out, ect...(any # of reasons) They began to fulfill there childhood dreams. Supply&Demand took over at this point and prices climbed accordingly.

There are plenty of Viperholics out there. Many of which are 20-35years old with debt ranging from college loans to excessive creditcard spending or simply dont have Disposable income at the moment. In 15-20 years when they get their **** together it will be Viper Time.

Mark my word. The Viper Boom will come and Generation Y will be responsible for it.

 

[vancouver-gts]

Yes.There are plenty of Viperholics out there. Many of which are 20-35years old with debt ranging from college loans to excessive creditcard spending or simply dont have Disposable income at the moment. In 15-20 years when they get their **** together it will be Viper Time.

Mark my word. The Viper Boom will come and Generation Y will be responsible for it.

My son is 21 , and all his friends swear they'll be Viper owners in the future. My son takes them for short rides occasionally , dangling the carrots for them
My son still likes M5 Bimmers he drove before. He may buy one of those since they came down in price considerably .

 

[Martin]

At that price point, I wouldn't be worried about the depreciation - even in worst-case scenarios. Think about it this way - say you drive the car for three years and it drops in value by $10k. You've had three years of fun - at about the same price as dinner and a movie twice a month. If you look at it in relative terms, someone who drives a new car off the lot is probably going to see a $10k drop in value within the first month - so spreading that depreciation over three years isn't painful at all.

Best case is that the car value stabilizes, but if you focus on the value of the car, you're not going to enjoy it the way it is supposed to be enjoyed - as a depreciable entertainment asset.

 

[Toby]

Buying today an excellent example of a Gen 2 for typical use is a smokin deal. 5 years from now what you paid will still be a smokin deal.

Today or tomorrow the worn out/abused ones will not be a deal at any price.

Today and tomorrow the "collectible/rare" versions will go up in value.

Simple supply and demand.

 

[gb66gth]

Yes. I think that Gen1&2 prices are bottomed out and stable.

Once the kids that grew up loving these cars mature you will see the prices climb. How high? We wont know untill it comes...
It will be a similar situation to the baby boomers and their musclecars. As soon as they hit midlifecrisis, had enough $$$, burden of kids moved out, ect...(any # of reasons) They began to fulfill there childhood dreams. Supply&Demand took over at this point and prices climbed accordingly.

There are plenty of Viperholics out there. Many of which are 20-35years old with debt ranging from college loans to excessive creditcard spending or simply dont have Disposable income at the moment. In 15-20 years when they get their **** together it will be Viper Time.

Mark my word. The Viper Boom will come and Generation Y will be responsible for it.

I have to agree with you.

 

[blackandblue01]

Toys cost money, they eat your money, go see a broker if your worried about investments. Anyone else here lost your tail on a boat? I have . but who cares it was fun. My viper is loads and loads of fun. I may lose money on it if I ever decide to sell it. but I dont care its a toy. just my opinion

 

[SquadX]

...and im praying for this boom as my viper is going nowhere unless I have to sell for a kidney transplant from all my drinking....and even then I'll leave it to my kid to sell as i m driving it to the grave.

 

[plumcrazy]

they have another 2-3 months of dropping and then will hold or go up slightly from there out, but not nearly as high as some of ya'll think for quite a while if ever.

 

[georgethedog]

The Gen 2's will continue to drop IMO (so will the Gen 1's). What's to stop them? Nothing. There is a supply of them out there and not much demand for the near future. Maybe it will pick up someday. Buy if you want one--don't buy for an investment.

 

[Dom426h]

Today or tomorrow the worn out/abused ones will not be a deal at any price.

disagree. Look at all the bodyoff restorations, rotisserie restorations, repaints, worn out all originals, ect... going through auctions these days still going for big bucks as well as the ones being sold in classifieds or through word of mouth at local cruise nights.
A charger with a hemi in it sitting in a field rusting away that was previously in an accident still has the potential to be restored and will still bring $$$ because of the demand.

The average babyboomer dosnt give a crap about the past history of the car as long as it looks&drives nice for what he personaly feals is a "decent" price. This decent price is still more than Double of what the car originaly sold for... Double... Double. Jeese that sounds like a big profit. That means a Viper with a sticker of $65K could be worth $130,000 some day. Wow!!! Guess again; simply put for an investment to double in 30yrs takes less than a 3% anual growth which is pathetic. Adjust that for inflation there is no profit at all. Sure the mint condition cars will sell much higher to the collectors and people who are preserving them in museums but that is the minority.(contrary to what barretjackson will have you believe)

+1 on people saying:
Buy it, Drive it, Enjoy it

 

[DrumrBoy]

I agree with Dom. Unless the frame is pretzeled up or the wiring has burned up or something annoying to fix, folks will fix them and they'll end up driving as well as an unmolested example.

In response to the original question, my opinion is that buying a Gen 2 at today's "market" prices is a good deal for a car you really like. You might lose a couple of thousand if you have to sell it quickly in the short run, you might make $5K if prices rebound and the right buyer wants yours.

In the grand scheme of things, +/- $2-3,000 is kinda like the "noise level" investment-wise.....since a set of new tires and a sound system will cost about that much.....

 

[Matt M PA]

Most modern cars will never be worth "crazy" money. The reason the older cars, like musclecars went up...was because...shock of shocks....they were used as....cars! Imagine that. Ridden hard and put away wet. So many got used up and scrapped that what was left gained value. Supply and demand.

Too many of today's collectible cars are only used on nice days and for cruise nights that it will take long after I'm dead for these modern cars to bring what used to be hemi 'cuda money.

 

[Dom426h]

Matt. You dont get it. It is not "what was left" gained value. Everything gained value from the extreme restorations all the way up to the mint garagequeen. The babyboomer/musclecar situation has much more to do with demand than supply. There is so many boomers that love musclecars that you could not begin to quantify.
Also, you are underestimating the amount of musclecars in circulation. Were talking about standard corvettes, mustangs, camaros, firebirds that were all produced in the hundreds of thousands. For many boomers it dosnt have to be a 426 or an ss. A standard model will do, they eat that **** up.

Also Matt, it has nothing to do with when your dead or when the cars are beat. It has everything to do with when the generation that grew up loving the particular car grows up and is a position to buy. If you purchase nice cars new then you wouldnt understand this. The General population Loves nice cars but cant buy them. ......Yet

 

[Matt M PA]

Dom...we don't necessarily disagree. Supply and demand is indeed what drives prices.

Perhaps you missed the point that ""when I'm dead" simply implies that we won't see Vipers in "huge money" territory in the next 40 years. Unlike musclecars and their meteoric rise in prices. When I say "huge money", I'm referring to the ridiculous million dollar hemi 'cudas and such.

Of course all of the musclecars gained value. I restored many myself that went to national award winning levels. (I've been at this over 20 years.) However, there were many totalled, junked, used up, etc. I remember the days of parting Superbirds if they only had 440-4 engines in them. I remember friends parting AARs because of rust....that today would be restored. Add to this the sheer number of baby boomers that wanted to buy. I simply meant that so many were crushed or junked that not as many are remaining as were built. I didn't mean "beat"....I meant...gone. As an example, (going from memory) Plymouth built 1935 Superbirds...there are now around 1200 remaining. What's that...700 gone? These were limited production new. (We won't even get into how popular or not thye were in the day. I restored two of them and helped write the judging manual)

My point was (perhaps missed) that so many of today's cars are considered "collectible" that there will be plenty of perfect examples in the future. (My Vipers are fair weather only, so I too am guilty of treating them more like collectibles than cars.) I know lots of folks that bought new Challengers for just cruise nights and such.

I do beleive that Vipers will hold or gain value if for no other reason than the limited production.

All that being said, there's also the thinking that many of the next generation simply aren't into these cars. They're into imports. Whether or not they switch over to our cars (which will help future values) is a guess.

Hey look...in the end....who cares what they're worth 5, 10, 20 years from now? I'd like mine just as well no matter what it's worth.

No matter what your thoughts are..or mine for that matter....it's all a guess.