Increasing Values

Discussion in 'General Station Wagon Discussions' started by jschwartz74, May 12, 2021.

  1. jschwartz74

    jschwartz74 Active Member

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    Seems like the listing and selling prices for the 80's wagons are increasing at pretty fast past over the last few years. What is a good resource to go to with the most accurate values? NADA, Kelly, Edmunds, Hagerty? I am not finding much out there that supports current asking prices at all.
     
  2. markfnc

    markfnc Well-Known Member

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    Go to Bring A trailer, look at results and do a search for your wagon/car. see what they have sold for over past 6 mo to a year.
     
  3. kevdupuis

    kevdupuis Membrane

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    Yeah, I saw what the twin to my 85 Mercedes went for a couple years ago ( $44,000 US) which surprised the hell out of me then and now the the prices are even crazier.
     
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  4. WagonTheDog

    WagonTheDog Well-Known Member

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    The price of a lot of 80s vehicles in my area - especially V8 iron of any kind - has been steadily rising over the last 10+ years now, and some cars are going for nutty money. It used to be you could find a nice, clean example of something like a Buick Electra Estate wagon for $2,000-$4,000, and now most cars in that price range are worn out and/or are rusted basket cases.

    But there are several reasons for the rise in values. For the longest time those old wagons were just seen as disposable family-moving appliances and so many of them were scrapped after their perceived life cycle was up. Not to mention most people just began to see them as "old cars" - antiquated V8 relics in comparison to newer, more efficient vehicles of the day - so for awhile they fell out of favour in the general view of the public.

    However, conversely, every car has its day. Those old wagons, as well as many other cars from the 80s, were the childhood cars of people who are now in their 40s and 50s, who now have expendable income and who are beginning to feel sentimental about cars from their youth. Maybe their parents had one and they have memories of being driven around from place to place, or going on camping trips, or riding to and from soccer practice in it. Or maybe their aunt, uncle or grandparent had one and they remember fond memories of that car with them. Any car can formulate a sense of sentimentality, and now that the 80s generation is grown up, they want something from their youth that reminds them of that time and the good memories they had. So now they're slowly getting bought up and values are starting to rise.

    But there's also a younger generation who is interested in older cars too. Even kids in their teens are becoming interested in cars that were made even before they were born. I think a part of the attraction (as well as for many other people) is that cars from the 80s and earlier represent a bygone era where cars were MUCH simpler than the cars of today. Cars from the 80s and earlier were easy to work on yourself and they also make for easy platforms for modification. With so many of today's cars, they are so complex and loaded full of tech that you have to be a NASA engineer to work on the damn thing. Not to mention, diagnosing electronic component issues oftentimes become an endless chase, and working on newer cars now requires so much electrical diagnostic equipment, laptops, etc. It can be a daunting task and people like the simplicity of older cars because they are so easy to fix with just a few hand tools, a little knowhow and simple intuition. So there is an appeal with older cars in that aspect too.

    But there's also the COVID dynamic as well, as the values of used cars of all kinds have skyrocketed over the last 20 months or so, including 80s cars. Also, for people who want something from that era, those cars tend to be much more "accessible", both price and availability-wise compared to more collectible cars from the 70s and earlier, so because of that, 80s iron getting bought up and prices are rising.

    Anyway, I'm not at all surprised to see cars from the 80s going up in value. Cars like fox body Mustangs, IROC Camaros and trucks like Jeep Grand Cherokees, and Toyota pickups have gone up in value quite a bit lately. Everything is cyclical and now 80s and 90s cars are starting to go up in value, now that people from that era are beginning to yearn for something from their youth that they may not have been able to own at the time.

    If anyone likes cars from that era, I'd buy now before the values get even higher.
     
  5. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

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    It's what i did, and if I can keep idiotic drivers from tailgating me when I turn into my neighborhood, I'm going to make an effort to restore 'Roger.'
     

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